AGON - The Mysterious Codex (Trilogy)

I came to play this game because I really enjoyed Yoomurjak's Ring. I think this context matters.

This game feels disconnected. It is "episodic" in its nature, as a compilation of 3 separate games, but they are basically incomplete even together. It's a series of small puzzles in 3 sections in which the most interesting part is just reading letters and books. This is not as entertaining and doesn't feel like a culture exposition like Yoomurjak's Ring did.

It feels like a free flash adventure game, maybe just one step above it. That's it.

I am 32 years old.

My ex-wife and I have a daughter together, and we adopted our son together. Both are now 4 years old.

When we were going through our separation, I felt lost and unhappy. I was self-destructive. One day, I was so angry with everything spiraling out of control that I punched a concrete wall in a moment of overwhelming emotion. This resulted in breaking my fifth metacarpal in my right hand—the hand I worked with, played games with, and used to carry my children to bed—the hand I desperately needed to ensure I could continue providing.

Upon learning the severity of the self-inflicted damage, I became almost suicidal. Keep in mind that just a few months before this, I was the happiest man, with no history of depression or anxiety. I had never experienced anger outbursts, nor was I the type to break down and cry, but I was in a tough situation that truly prevented me from seeing the light on the other side.

With nothing better to do, I looked for a game I could play WITH ONE HAND while recovering. Somehow, I stumbled upon this game and read some of the comments. I decided it was worth a try... I must admit I didn't beat the game, nor did I play as much as some of you. In fact, I may have played this game for only a day or two. That being said, after doing so, I had a new joy and hope for life. I managed to leave behind the pain and suffering that had been thrust upon me. I could experience the joy and happiness of other people. I relaxed for 5 ♥♥♥♥ minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay.

After realizing this, I turned off the game and went back to work. My hand hurt a lot, but I was motivated. I stopped feeling so sorry for myself and became the father I needed to be at that moment, not the weak boy I was behaving like.

Today, I am close friends with the mother of my children. We don't fight, argue, or say hurtful things to each other. We are parents and friends.

Now I have 3 children. My third child is, wait, ALSO 4 YEARS OLD. The woman I am with was going through a very similar situation at the time of my separation, and we just unexpectedly stumbled into each other's lives. We have been dating for a year and are very happy together.

Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today. This silly little game helped me realize that.

Thank you.

AGON - The Mysterious Codex (Trilogy)

10/10

You could give it a try if you're into this genre.

WHEN THE WHOLE IS POORER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS

Even though I agree and respect some of the points made by reviewers who recommended this game, unfortunately I can’t bring myself to do the same. This is always unpleasant, since I recognize game developing is almost a calling and a struggle at the same time, especially for smaller studios. In that regard, my passion for gaming makes me biased towards those that provide me with such entertainment, so I’ll just try and describe my experience with AGON – The Mysterious Codex (Trilogy) , so you can decide for yourself, regardless of the ‘Recommended’ vs ‘Not Recommended’ mechanics of Steam.

This game feels like an assembly of amazing pieces put together with passion, with the end result still looking and feeling weird and unpleasant. A game needs to function beyond its particulars, rhythm and continuity are essential, especially to an adventure game.

Technically I’d call this title a first-person point & click adventure on a 3D environment. You move around finding arrow buttons that indicate your possible destinations. You also have free mouse movement while standing still, which is a nice touch. The combination is interesting at times, but in the end, it felt like bad pixel hunting, nonetheless.

From best to worst, I’d say the soundtrack is its best feature, tied with the beautiful art direction of the 3D environments. Even though the graphics are dated (even for the time they were made), they have a charm and a pleasant flavor to it, at least for a gamer of my age; I tend to not mind about older graphics if they’re done with style. The cutscenes have good cinematography applied to them, which makes the whole experience even better.

The voice acting fluctuates between average and good, depending on the character. Dialogues are serviceable at best, falling flat most of the times, since they fail to offer context on why the NPCs react the way they do, among other problems of continuity and plot exposition. The writing in books and letters, however, is very good and abundant, a refreshing trait. They are diverse and go deeper than your usual adventure game, with excellent illustrations faithful to the time period (late 19th – early 20th century). By the way, the books are up there with soundtrack and art direction as the best features of this title.

Having soldiered through all the way to the end (even though the game is very short), I feel comfortable saying the puzzles are hit and miss. Overall, they’re much harder than usually found on games like this, with some of them being very worthwhile and fun while others are irritating in their nonsensical logic and ultra-obscure sequences.

The two board games you must play along the way, on the other hand, are very interesting. You can even play them separately, as stand-alone matches, after beating each one of them. Nothing mind-blowing if you’re into this hobby, but somewhat challenging and rewarding if you never tried board games of this nature before.

If you notice, so far, I described separate elements of the game, and therein lies the problem: they don’t come together to make an enjoyable whole. The story is nice if judged by every scene separately, but the plot evolves poorly (to put it kindly), and the protagonist’s arch feels hollow. Some puzzles are nice, but others have bizarre solutions with not even the slightest indication of how and why you need to solve them.

The character feels lost in its own game, like you must move on for movement’s sake, without feeling involved in the story and even less motivated to delve into the puzzles.

In the end, even though I recognize the developer’s efforts and some amazing work inside this game, I’d say to only buy this one if you identify yourself with being a sort of game historian, where it matters to know the past, even the worst parts of it.

Recommended for game farming

+20 SOCIAL CREDIT ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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+1 WAIFU

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Has good game play for and older game. Most of the puzzles are fun. I wish there was not so much reading because my Dyslexia. But the reading is interesting. Just wish I could have the option to listen.

The game is not terrible but, perhaps due to its age or my particular system, I can't progress past the second chapter due to an inability to move the plate in the train master's office. I have a typed up guide that I'm using and even though I have done everything it said in the exact order it said it, it's impossible for me to manipulate the plate and therefore progress in the game. Still, I picked it up on sale for less than $1, so I'm not really angry with it. I'd just caution against thinking the game will work perfectly.

game is very great. I highly recommend this game.

pros

+ dated but still nice looking pre rendered graphics
+ decent voice acting
+ hard to solve but enjoyable puzzles. you have to read all letters, books and examine some drawings to solve all these puzzles. there are also inventory puzzles you can combine some items
+ nice background musics
+ engaging story
+ game drops cards

cons

- there are frustrating maze sections
- there are some instances of pixel hunting
- game is using Myst style 360° views. this is not so bad thing but little bit clunky and hard to use in this game.
- you have to win two board game to continue to the next level or finish to game and there is no skip option
- there are no steam achievements
- cutscenes looks quite dated

Overall, this is an old and puzzle heavy adventure game and i m only recommend to veteran adventure gamers because regular gamers probably gonna be hate this game. if you don't have too much patience for this game's mostly obtuse puzzle solutions, you should keep a walkthrough one side. otherwise you're gonna be mad.

boring

As a Point´n Click, Agon - The Mysterious Codex is somewhat competent. It features great music, good voice acting and a compelling story that is being slowly built up as you play. The puzzles can be hit or miss, as is customary with those games, but they are generally okay.

However, AGON was originally planned to span 14 different episodes, 3 of which are in this "trilogy", with the fourth one available separately on Steam. The other 10 episodes never came to fruition, so the story of Samuel Hunt and his hunt for the AGON will probably never be finished. This trilogy also ends very abruptly and is very very short - you can probably finish it in 5 hours or less.

It still is worth a look if you get it for very cheap, but it is not much more than a very basic point´n click with good voice acting, some (two) cool historical board games and a story that will sadly never be fully finished as the missing 10 episodes will never come out. As such, I cant recommend it.

Sound: 7
Graphics: 6
Story: 8
Gameplay: 6
Commands: 8
Fun: 8
Time to load / lag: 9
Bugs / Problems: 8
Final (my score, my rules - these is not math, punk) - 8

AGON - The Mysterious Codex is a physically painful slog, but it brings enough board gaming to beat back boredom.

Though a true point & click, AGON attempts to simulate a 3D environment by forcing the player to navigate through 360 degrees of panoramic nausea. Each "step" forward brings another small slice of motion sickness, while artificially ramping up the difficulty... and the frustration. Points of interest are only accessible from one of the faux-3D layers, so examining the top of a desk can take spins from three or four different angles, and... hold on, have to let my stomach settle... and that reveals how sparse most of these environments are. The gameplay loop consists of step forward, twirl in place for a minute or two, panning up and down to discover the lone hotspot, and then brace yourself for your next step.

Meanwhile, Professor Hunt (your player character) may as well be mute, as those rare interactable areas are often met with "Hmmm... interesting". No helpful advice, no character revelations, not even a description of the item that now sits in your inventory, just bland vagueness or total silence... or, even worse, "That's gibberish" when you locate a vital riddle. With no on-screen text and no examine mechanic, you're left to blindly click the cooking pot on the bag of... is that rice? Might be rice... and hope for the best.

Of course, once you have your pot of... could be rice... the time has come for puzzling, and AGON varies wildly in that facet. The game itself is broken up into three distinct chapters. Most of the challenges take the form of standard inventory manipulation, made all the more irritating by the aforementioned interface. That said, there are a handful of logic problems and ciphers to solve, as well as one much more complex endeavor per chapter, requiring researching in-game books and affecting items in multiple locations. Those gems are almost worth the vertigo.

However, the true highlights of this game are the games themselves. AGON is the story of one man's obsession with ancient board games, and once those enter the narrative in the second chapter, my planned thumb's down got flipped around. The board games are just plain fun, with fascinating rules and an actually challenging AI to play against. Once unlocked, the games are accessible from the main menu, further inflating my enjoyment... and my playtime.

In the end, AGON took roughly 15 hours to complete, with another 3 hours (and counting) of bonus board gaming, which (barely) justifies its current, non-sale price of $10. Granted, you may have to be as board game obsessive as Professor Hunt for the paltry pros to outweigh the collection of cons. As for me, I'll dose some Dramamine before I start the sequel.

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Review

Score

I hated this. Mainly because I hate games with puzzles too hard that I have to play the game constantly referring to walkthrough. I gave up in disgust in Lapland after heavily relying on one in London and found the puzzles just as obscure and irritating.

Other than that, the game had a nice and I especially liked the music in Lapland, but the controls annoyed me. You use arrows to move forward and then you have to click and hold to turn in different directions. It was easy to miss inventory items.

Not my cup of tea at all. I have a headache from playing it and no interest in finishing it.

It's a nice game, some puzzles are easy, some are very hard. The story is great and well done implemented with puzzles, It's a lot of readings in game. There are many books or peaces of papers to read in the game, but if you like to know more about story then just read it. They are two board games to play in game. They are not to hard to play. Ambiet music is awsome, voice actors are great. The lenght of the game is good, about 7 hours.

It's a classic first person adventure game with a mysterious storyline and a likeable main character. The puzzles are creative and not frustrating at all. The locations in the game feel authentic and the great sounds and music make it very immersive.
The game also teaches you to play real "ancient" boardgames as a part of the story.