NecroVisioN Preview

1C’s upcoming first-person shooter NecroVision treads ground that few other shooters have, setting it in World War I. While WWII shooters are a dime a dozen, very few games have dealt with the scope and horror of the first Great War. However, 1C seems to be taking the horror element a step further in NecroVision, throwing the player not only into WWI, but also having them face off against fantastical situations with vampires, zombies, and other crazy enemies. Done very much in the same vein as Serious Sam and Painkiller, NecroVision is a mile-a-minute shootout, presenting a great deal of action and some intense situations.

As I mentioned earlier, NecroVision is a reimagining of the events of World War I, pitting you as a young American soldier in the thick of the war in 1916 Europe. While you’ll start of by fighting German soldiers, things will eventually get hairier, having you take on vampires and demons, even being imbued with their powers a bit later on.

The gameplay is pure action with very little pretence. You’ll go from point A to point B clearing out the game’s stages of enemies using the weapons of the time, like rifles with bayonets and machine guns. One interesting mechanic in the game allows you to dual wield any type of one handed weapon with another, effectively using a pistol combined with a sword or even a pistol/hand grenade combo with each mouse button.

Another cool thing about the game are the boss battles. As showcased for us at a recent 1C press event, you’ll take on gigantic bosses that easily dwarf your character, and add a nice element to the game’s scope.

Graphically, the game is pretty impressive, benefiting from DirectX 10 features and Nvidia’s PhysX capabilities. The character models and the environments look very good, and while there were some polish issues in the preview build, it showed some great potential. There were also some nice special effects throughout, like advanced lighting effects, motion blur and depth of field.

NecroVision is shaping up quite nicely aside from some polish problems here and there, but with a little more work, this game could easy carry the torch from great all-out action shooters like Painkiller and Serious Sam.