“While Necrovision try’s new things in the FPS genre it is executed poorly. Even with a $29.99 price tag  it cannot make up for  poor execution.” – BFG

Necrovision is set in 1916 during World War I. The player takes the role of Simon Bukner, a young American soldier recently recruited into the Allied Army. In addition to German soldiers, Simon soon finds himself fighting supernatural forces, including vampires, demons, and zombies found in locations varying from the battlefields of World War I to secret laboratories and underground caverns.

At the beginning of the game you start as a soldier who dies in an ambush set up by the Germans. The supernatural beings that are on the battle field resurrect you to help them in their fight and give you a metal hand for some weird reason. This game reminds me of Wolfenstein 3D and Painkiller. While it doesn’t have Nazis or endless hordes of bad guys it does have evil Germans and has that same dark theme the other games pulled off.

Gameplay

The gameplay is your basic FPS set up, run around killing monsters. What makes this FPS different is the developers have added a melee system in the combat. The melee is very basic and easy to use. The player is able to perform combos to gain health and adrenaline by kicking and using a weapon or other melee weapons. While the melee combat is interesting idea it’s not really needed it’s more of a cool factor or a proof of concept then anything. The other way you can do combos is how well you can shoot. When you get headshots you gain adrenaline the more consecutive headshots you get the more powerful your weapon becomes. I like this because it rewards you for actually shooting with accuracy unlike any other FPS game maybe except Unreal Tournament but all you get is a guy yelling HEADSHOT!!.

The health bars are separated into different sections, one for health and one for your adrenaline. Adrenaline is used to run fast or to slow time for short periods of time. One cool element is that when you get to 2% health your adrenaline kicks in and slows time, which gives a chance to run away and find cover while your health regenerates. I have a problem with bullet time, it’s over used please stop using it. It was cool when it first came out but not its just getting old and boring.

The AI (artificial intelligence) is a little dumb at times and can easily tricked into getting stuck on objects. The boss battles are a joke and not really boss battles more like a bigger version of the other AI characters with more health and damage. As long as you have dual heavy machine guns you can take down any boss in less than 10 sec’s. This is what we like to call OP (overpowered) which makes this game have balance issues which means it doesn’t have replay ability like other FPS games.

Graphics

Graphics are ok but then again this game is made for DirectX 10 which you have to have windows vista to run. I played this game in DirectX 9 it still looked ok but I’m pretty sure it looks ten times better in DirectX 10. The level environments are incredible and very detailed it really shows how hellish World War One was with toxic gas on the battlefield and just an all around dark look. The engine that is used is a heavily modified PAIN engine using Havok physics. This combination is great when you blow off a guys arm or leg and watch it fly off in the distance or seeing buildings crumble but this isn’t the best use of Havok physics I’ve seen.

Sound

The ambient sound is great you can hear explosions and soldiers screaming in the background, it really sets tone of the game. Only problem is the gun sounds don’t sound realistic they sound man made. The machine gun sounds are the worst out of the bunch they are washed out and sound like noise.

Final Thoughts

This is the same Publisher that published Cryostasis, 1C Company which seems to be trying to break into the US market with more games set to be released later this year. From the body of work they have released seems to be subpar at best which makes me wonder how the hell they are one of the most popular publishers in Europe. Is it that America produces better games than Europe? Probably but I guess they are trying to be like Codemasters but they have a long way till they even come close to them in terms of quality and production value. While Necrovision try’s new things in the FPS genre it is executed poorly. While Necrovision try’s new things in the FPS genre it is executed poorly. Even with a $29.99 price tag  it cannot make up for  poor execution. I give this game a generous 3 out 5 BFG’s.

The BFG has spoken and this game review is now law.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Phase 2 Studio or the clients of Phase 2 Studio. Phase 2 Studio makes no representation concerning and does not guarantee the source, originality, accuracy, completeness or reliability of any statement, information, data, finding, interpretation, advice, opinion, or view presented.