E3 '07: Necrovision Impressions

As if World War I weren't a horrific enough event, what would happen if you were to toss in zombies, demons, and vampires in along with the Kaiser's typical soldiers? You'd get something that looks a lot like 1C's Necrovision, a first-person shooter in the vein of Painkiller that the company has on display at E3 2007. 1C gave us a quick look at the game on the show floor, and after seeing it, gamers who like their shooters fast-paced or heavy on the body count ought to keep an eye on this one.

The basic premise of the game is that you play a Russian soldier caught in the middle of an alternate-reality version of World War I. Yes, that's right, we didn't just skip an "I," it's World War One. That means trenches, barbed wire, and enemy soldiers with pointy spiked helmets. It also means blood and death everywhere. This is perhaps even more so than usual, given the game's horror-fiction slant. Not much of the game's story was explained to us, but we got the impression that plot wasn't going to matter a whole lot.

What does matter is that you will lay waste to every single moving thing that crosses your path. 1C is definitely going the Painkiller/Serious Sam route with this one, emphasizing an incredibly quick pace, crazy weaponry, and an absurd number of corpses left in your wake. The sections we saw were from early in the game, so we didn't get quite the full scope of what the game's enemy selection will be like. We do know that you'll be fighting plenty of German soldiers, as well as zombie German soldiers. 1C also made some mention of demons and vampires, which means hellish stuff, all around.

Granted, the whole world looks like a hell-scape, so it's not surprising that you'd be fighting monsters such as these. Yes, you'll get all the typical WWI set pieces, with huge trenches, bunkers, barbed wire fences, and all of that. But everything has been exaggerated and blown up. You'll see humongous cannons firing off comically large shells in the background, blood smeared all over the place, a creepy, foggy haze over the top of the world, and, again, zombies.

You'll be armed with plenty of over-the-top weaponry to go along with that world. Apart from the typical rifles and such, you'll get big honking guns that can pretty much blow enemies apart into big, bloody chunks of meat. You'll also get weapons that will set them ablaze, sending them running around and flailing in agony.

All told, Necrovision looks like it could be a blast if you're into fast-and-furious shooters. The game has a nice look to it, which is backed up by a great-looking graphics engine that's been developed with both DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 in mind. The action borders on mindless it seems, but that could be a good thing, given the pace of the game. There is currently no announced North American release date for Necrovision, but we'll be sure to bring you that info, as well as any additional details about the game, as they become available.