Mallika Arora - Agni - another one bites the dust....

I ‘m a passionate Indian Game Developer and I like keeping myself well informed about the recent happenings in the Indian game industry. One week back, I read FXLabs released its action/adventure game Agni: Queen of darkness, published by Zapak and distributed by Sify. It was priced at Rs. 699/-.

I buy almost all (if not all) games (PC) made and released in India.

I went to their website and was not able to find even a single in-game screenshot, no trailers, or in game videos, or concept art. (Now they have them) There were few Mallika Arora Khan’s hot poses with things in her hands which looked like weapons.

I started getting a bad feelings about my money (700 bucks) not being wisely put to use yet again. (I have a habit of buying bad games) Nonetheless, I went ahead and paid the money (Paypal, no credit card option).

Monday first thing I received was an email that I have received a mail from FXLabs (Microsoft Internal mail room is pretty darn efficient).

I opened the package and found the cover to be pretty cool (nice packaging), the installation took 4-5 minutes and then “boom” comes the FX Labs logo.
I am not always so excited about firing up a new game, but this game was done in my country by many people who I know personally.

The main menu looked like a new concept, I know lot of people would say it is horrible, but I kind of found it to be different and not so bad.

The game starts with a cut-scene, which again I thought was pretty okaylyTM done, though I didn’t like the voice over’s but having been there and done that, I know getting a good voice talent is not easy and that too for games. The cut-scene had Agni and Betal (Snake) chatting with Tara on some shit, some magic happens and Tara and Agni become one character with an ability to transform from one to other - the games starts. I see an enemy run towards and he gets stuck in the air under the bridge, I am like "what???" I just started this game, less than 10 seconds in play and I see PRI1 SEV1 bug (FXLabs is AppLabs venture and Applabs is http://www.applabs.com/ (Software testing services company specializing in Software testing, qa testing company, outsourcing software qa testing, quality assurance testing Services)

You got be f***ing kidding me!!!!!

I struggled hard and tried to move Tara in all her seductive positions (none in the game, figurative speech) but nothing happens, then suddenly the alien just falls off the air (Manjit: Yes he really falls off the air, I have a screenshot to prove it and then he probably dies (:))

I continued playing the game for around 5 more minutes and then I end up in a so called boss monster fight, were a sort-o invisible Skelton sitting (paralyzed) on a wheel chair is shooting bullets at me, there are only two positions where the bullets can hit you, no there are no hiding places it is an open area . Dialog in Hindi suggests that I need to do something that kills the monster with his own weapon.

I am stuck here for last 20 minutes; no clue what to do…….

Gamecheats.net does not have a walkthrough for the gameJ, if anyone from FXLabs is reading this can you please provide with a walkthrough of the game?

Well, I have been developing games for last 8 years, I truly know that making a game is a daunting task and making good games is even crazier.

I am not the “cool graphics” nerd who thinks games are all about looks, but Agni’s graphics are horrible, models look less 10 polys, lighting has no sense, texturing is detail less, whatever little effects once sees is probably the engines job. The recommend PC cong is 2.4Ghz Dual core, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia 7800GTX+ cards.

I am not sure what engine they are using, if they have written their own engine, then hats off to them but if not (it looks like Unreal 2 engine), I want to know “What on earth you are trying to do” or did try to do?”
What can I say “a very disappointing effort by the guys at FXLabs”. I thought with the “might and experience” of Tony Garcia, Agni should have been way better.

Another Indian game hits my collection’s bone-yard.

My rating of the game is 1/10 till the time I cannot figure out how to make any progress in the game.