Agefield High Launches on Steam — New Open-World School Game Inspired by Bully Gets Slammed by Players

Agefield High: Rock the School, an open-world adventure that aims to recreate the experience of being a high school student in the early 2000s, has officially launched on Steam. The developers marked the occasion with an announcement written from the perspective of Principal Carpenter, inviting players to “submit their application” and enroll at the virtual school.

Agefield High follows Sam, who moves with his parents to the small town of Agefield just three months before graduation and transfers to a new school. There, he meets Kale and Axel, two students determined to cause as much chaos as possible and leave their mark on the school’s history.

Players will not only complete story missions and side quests, but also regularly attend classes. Agefield High features a full time and school schedule system, meaning Sam is expected to show up for English, math, geography, German, and music classes on weekdays. Of course, skipping class is also an option — but doing so could attract unwanted attention from teachers and the police.

Beyond the school campus, players can explore a small open world featuring residential neighborhoods, a downtown area, and the countryside. Money can be earned by getting good grades or completing side activities, then spent on clothes, bicycles, hairstyles, tattoos, accessories, and other items.

The developers estimate that the game takes around 8–10 hours to complete, with 32 main missions, 15 side quests, and two different endings. Judging by its premise and the first wave of player reviews, Agefield High is clearly designed to evoke Rockstar Games’ cult classic Bully, though its launch has been far from smooth.

At the time of writing, Agefield High has just 30% positive reviews on Steam. Many players are criticizing the game’s poor optimization, severe FPS drops, crashes, stiff animations and facial expressions, sparse open world, and repetitive combat. Some also describe the story as overly clichéd and call the game a low-budget attempt to recreate what made Bully work.

That said, there are positive impressions as well. Some players have praised the early-2000s American high school atmosphere, soundtrack, humorous quests, freedom of choice, and the ability to play either as a model student or a troublemaker. One player who spent more than ten hours with the game highlighted its punk and metal culture references and said they completed the story, including multiple endings, in a single sitting.

By the way, we previously published a feature rounding up the best life simulation games.

Would you give Agefield High a chance despite the poor reviews, or would you rather just replay Bully?