Simultaneously, something old and something new: Refugium Games has developed and published Agefield High: Rock The School. Dropping on Steam August 12th, it’s reminiscent and possibly inspired by the beloved Canis Canem Edit (or Bully in its American and later releases). Let’s dive in and see if this game will pass or flunk its test.
Time to give it the old college try.
Gameplay
We play as Sam Tatum a new kid on the block and who is attending Agefield High School. Like most first days we don’t get the best start since Sam ends up fighting the head Jock Seth. And so let the school year begin. After the prologue players will get access to the whole map from the get-go, although there isn’t really a lot to it. You will come across the same models over, and over again, and they give the worst uncanny valley effect. Ignoring the main story mission you can do, there are mini-mission available to the player. These are odd jobs that Sam can do to earn some small change to use at a couple different shops. Such as clothing and the BMX store. The BMX itself is given rather early on and serves as your only way around the town of Agefield, however other bikes are available to purchase at the store and offer different stats.
Agefield High: Rock the School, makes you go to class at specific times of the day. By looking at your schedule in the pause menu, you can check out which subjects you will suffer. My worst was both Geography and Mathematics. If you manage to get a good grade you can net yourself a nice crisp 10 dollars. Why you get paid is beyond me. Any attempt to not go to class or causing trouble will set the security/police on Sam. Lastly to mention is combat, you don’t get a lot of moves and the combat is awful with hit boxes. When it comes to later missions you have to fight multiple people, and it just doesn’t really work.
Graphics
Let’s start with the positives; ignoring the quality of the audio, the voice acting was actually pretty solid. It definitely hit that cheesy, all-American 2000s movie vibe, and every character is voiced well. And the rock track that plays during music class is pretty stellar too. However, the rest falls a little flat. While it has very bright and cheerful colours, it still has that very low-resolution, janky, generic simulator look to it. I’m not expecting next level graphics, and they certainly aren’t a priority for me, but the lip-synching for the characters is very off-putting. It looks very uncanny valley sometimes. My least favourite character model is what was allegedly an elderly woman, but they just a gave young woman model an ‘old’ voice and coloured her hair grey. The environments are also pretty empty, with the school feeling particularly hollowed out. My main issue above all with the visuals is the frame rate. No matter how I adjusted my settings the stuttering was unreal, and there was one particular scene that I could barely play through as it was almost moving 5 FPS the entire time.
Audio
It’s also a crying shame there isn’t more music in the game. With what they use in the music class, there’s potential for some kick ass, iconic music. However during cut scenes, missions, and even roaming around on foot or via bicycle, there’s no music. It makes it feel a bit dry and lacklustre, especially with the raunchy, high energy tone they’re trying to put across. I can absolutely see the vision and what they’re going for, but I feel this game would benefit with a little more time in development. Flesh out environments with a bit more positive clutter and detail, work on character animations, and smooth out the frame rates. And some more music in Agefield High: Rock The School wouldn’t hurt either.
Longevity
I really struggle while playing due to having so many crashes, but abruptly my time with Agefield High: Rock The School, game to an end. When it gets a few patches players will have two endings depending on who you take to prom. This comes from the two achievements I read for the game. With the game offering you 11 to earn, with some tied to the collectables, like golden panties and “warm” apple pies.
Final Thoughts
Overall Agefield High: Rock The School comes off as just bad from the missions, combat, all the way to the open-world itself, which is rather empty. My time with it was riddled with crash after crash, and it just made it harder to get through. The story seems as if they took the best parts of any high school movies and gave it a mission with no actual build up. This comes from the lack of development with the characters themselves, with most seeming like they’ve known Sam for years. Another thing that disappointed me was just how little you are actually in the school, as most of what happens is out of school. Classes, excpet for Music are all the same which feels cheap and could have offered some different mini-games.
The idea for the game is genuinely interesting, more so since I wouldn’t mind another game like Rockstar’s Bully. But in the end Agefield High: Rock The School, just isn’t it, so it’s getting the Thumb Culture Bronze Award from me. Maybe if it was held back a few grade for development, it might be better.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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