It has really been a hot minute since we received a game like Agefield High: Rock the School, going back to the mid-2000’s when Rockstar Games released Bully, its rebellious, fresh IP that demonstrated the toils of American high schools in the perspective of one of its naughtiest students. Unfortunately, Agefield High is on the lower end of what I expected from a new “Bully-like”. It combines its deliberately cheesy dialogue with clunky combat, hideous frame-rate drops, mundane quests and a protagonist with very little appealing qualities.
An Unexpected Experience
Waiting for a Bully sequel is nearly as bad as waiting for the inevitable release of Grand Theft Auto VI. Once I saw the news that Agefield High was on the edge of releasing, my excitement eagerly packed its rucksack to start a fresh new school year. Waking up for my first day of school, looking at the bright sunshine with my beautifully detailed new bedroom was…not the case. Playing on the Steam Deck, the graphical fidelity of Agefield High cannot be described, and even on medium settings, it will run more poorly than an elderly person with COPD attempting the 100m sprint. Since the developers stated how well the game runs on the Steam Deck, it’s a shame that i had to play Agefield High on the lower settings. It seemed impossible to appreciate a solid, fixed framerate, and the only saving grace was the fresh 2000s American school environment that my British fellows wouldn’t have experienced.
My First Day at School
Alas, I pushed onto my first day of school, and by then, more problems had occurred. After my pixelated mother drove me five minutes down the road, I finally arrived at a magnificently mesmerising building where all of my newfound friends were waiting to greet me and welcome me to all of my favourite lessons. Once I regained control of my character, I unstably ran towards the front entrance, eager to begin my first virtual lesson, the latter representing a spelling test for an English class.
Here, I was introduced to a colourful cast of characters, including a jock who looked like Wolverine’s little brother, a lady with pink highlights in her hair, and some other forgettable characters who I unfortunately can’t remember the names of. During the spelling test, I found myself struggling to get the answers right, and my real-life A Level in English Language seemed to do no favours. There are only five lessons in the entire game, pretty barebones in content compared to its competition. I wish I had that many lessons when I was at high school.
Don’t Touch Me, Douche!
Agefield High’s prologue attempts to provide an insight into the game’s other mechanics. For instance, one of the first combat encounters is against a jock while surrounded by high school kids cheering on the oncoming storm. Each input is displayed on-screen and must be successfully pressed a certain number of times. Performing these actions with frequent frame-rate drops, heavy input lag, and ugly fidelity was like a baby trying to fit the square in the triangle hole. Eventually, I took down my first enemy just before the first day of school was finished. Agefield High has some of the most immersive combat mechanics I have ever seen, including a punch, a kick, a block, and even a push. All that it is missing is a grab, and hey, presto, the end result will have no difference with some of the sloppiest combat I have ever seen in an indie game.
On Your Bike, Pal
As my mediocre adventure extended out towards the open world, I was given access to my main travel companion: the bicycle. Cruising down the empty streets of Agefield High (low settings, mind you) gave a sense of freedom that only a barren open world could ever accomplish. Like Bully and GTA, riding a bike means you can bunny hop, and in Agefield High, the input lag does no favours. Many times, I found myself getting launched from my bike, which actually was quite amusing, most of the reason consisting of the ragdoll physics. The other reason stems from the fact that either the bike barely responds to the button press or that the character is either too scared to jump over. For such a rebellious game, I would have liked to see more ways to traverse the world like a skateboard or riding in a shopping trolley whilst ramming into teachers. You know, the usual.
Time To Re-sit the Year
Although Agefield High: Rock the School seemed to want to revive the desires for Bully to come back onto modern consoles, it unfortunately fails in almost every aspect. It brings nothing new to the table, and what it does present is a banquet of mundane quests, awful combat, a plain world, minimalistic mechanics, and a forgettable protagonist. If this was a passion project from the devs, I would never have known.
Developer: Refugium Games
Publisher: Refugium Games
Platforms: PC
Release Date: 12th August 2026
Gaming Respawn’s copy of Agefield High: Rock the School was provided by the publisher.
