Sheer Agony

The Kruwehl family is surrounded by mystery, not the least of which is the fact that each member of the clan seems to have died in an unnatural way. Furthermore, whoever has tried to find out the secret of the odd, but influential, family has died in the process. Now, as an investigative reporter who has been a little to investigative, it is your turn to die. Attempting to thwart destiny, you enter the Agony manor while its owner is away for the night, attempting to unravel the Kruwehl family’s mystery.

Sheer Agony is a graphical adventure made up of digitised stills, with limited mouse interaction. There are 15 point-and-click verbs at your disposal: go, open, close, look, probe, read, swallow, smell, press, turn, push, lift, search, take and put. Using search, you can find objects and pick them up, but your inventory is limited to 9 items, after which you must put down held items in the right spot, or relinquish them forever. The number of items per screen is small, but the manor is quite large and you must use the integrated map to find your way through each floor.

Originally released in French, English and German for the Atari Falcon, Sheer Agony was also re-released in a cut-down version for common Atari ST computers.