Necrovision does a capable job of delivering some old-school shooter fun with a few new-shooter frills. With a little more polish, it might have earned top honors, but it's still solid enough to earn a recommendation to fans of FPS shooters.
Necrovision puts you in the combat boots of a yankee soldier who is for some reason stationed with the British army in the trenches during WWI.
In the prologue/tutorial, you are sent over the wall with your men to attack the Germans in their trenches. You miraculously survive, wake up near the German line, and ultimately learn that the Germans have been fighting on two fronts -- one against the British, and one against some undead horrors that have been emerging From Below.
Suffice to say the rest of the game involves a lot of you running around killing everything that isn't you in a variety of satisfying ways with a various WWI weaponry and good-old fashioned hand-to-hand buttkicking.
Lets get the flaws out of the way right now...
I liked Necrovision almost from the moment I started playing it, even though it was obvious from the beginning that it wasn't in the same league as iconic PC shooters like Half-Life 2, Crysis, and Bioshock 2.
My two biggest complaints:
Weak guns!
I shot a guy nearly point-blank in the head and neck area about 5 times with a luger before he dropped. I peppered another guy with an MP18 machine gun and he took a similar amount of punishment to drop. All in all, it seems like the developers weakened the gunfire too much for virtually every weapon, probably in an attempt to make melee more important.
Muddled story and directing
The story is difficult to follow in the early parts of the game, and the cut scenes don't always help fill in the gaps (and some of them even seem out of order with what is happening in the game). Although the basic story is actually built upon pretty cool ideas, it's poorly constructed and told through the game.
And I've yet to figure out how our southern-accented yankee boy ended up in the middle of the British army during WWI.
A few other minor blemishes include:
The main character talks way too much.
He's like an action hero brimming with uncontrollable one liners. I appreciate the attempt to craft a Duke Nukem-esque character, but it doesn't work well and most of the action-hero one-liners fall a bit flat. Also, his voice inexplicably changes for a variety of lines -- as a matter of fact, it changed into two different voices (one of which had an English accent). I suspect (and I am just speculating here) that it's because the 'director' decided to switch directions in the middle of development, and they decided not to have the voice-over actor re-record lines -- but used the old lines anyway. It also seemed like they may have had multiple voice-actors for the same character.
Poor writing
The one-liners and constant yammering from the main character aren't great. They never reach the realm of 'poorly-translated-English-bad' but they do hover around 'Sci-Fi Original Movie' bad. A lot of the dialog falls a little flat too. (Note to Necrovision devs: Hire me to write your stuff.)
Many of the game's other 'issues' aren't so much a failure to work as a failure to rise to the level of top-tier shooters. The character graphics and AI are generally adequate but unexceptional. The same goes for most of the voice acting. The tutorial doesn't do a good job of really telling you much, and it can be difficult at times to figure out your objectives or how to achieve them. As a result, the game can be frustrating at times.
Now for the good stuff
With a laundry list of criticisms weighing against it, you'd think I'd give this game a big thumbs down. Fortunately, it has quite a few strengths that outshine its flaws, and I ultimately still liked it quite a bit. First -- and I feel compelled to mention this -- I like the fact that Necrovision lets me save my games anywhere and any time I want. It sports none of the usual trappings of a quickly, sloppily translated console game, like a user interface that doesn't recognize a mouse, and a checkpoint-only based save system.
A big part of its real charm is a little old-school FPS shooter nostalgia playing in its favor. It frequently felt like I'd stepped back in time and was playing a Quake II-era game. And even though the main character talks too much, he's clearly attempting to channel a little Duke Nukem (in a Southern accent).
The environment graphics look nice, and the levels are large and expansive. Necrovision has a lot of hidden and secret areas with power ups, ammo and weapon stashes, etc. I also like the 'challenge levels' that unlock as you progress through the game. Challenge levels are levels you can play any time and, if completed successfully, they give you special advantages when you return to the main single-player game (such as always having dual-wield pistols, or armor, or other things).
Another fun twist is the integral use of melee, bullet time, and your 'fury' meter. This all works together to encourage kick-in-the-door tactics -- rushing your opponents with guns blazing, feet kicking, and knives slashing. You can use dual weapons (left click for the left-hand, right-click for the right hand weapon), kick with your foot to knock opponents down (CTRL button), and pistol whip (middle mouse click) enemies all in the same series of combos.
There are plenty of cool weapons to use as well, most drawn from WWI weaponry (until about 1/3 of the way into the game when you get an arsenal of 'Vampire' weapons -- but I won't say any more because I don't want to spoil the surprises.) It's just a pity that even the powerful ones -- like the submachine gun -- don't feel like they pack much punch. The later weapons do a little better job, though, and then there's the 'Shadow Gauntlet'...
Overall score: 7/10
Despite its flaws, Necrovision delivers a solid FPS experience, blending some 'old school' FPS shooter mechanics with a few twists and some interesting extras to make a it a worthy addition to your FPS gaming shelf.
Visit the Necrovision home page for more info
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