Necrovision Hands-On

The upcoming first-person shooter, Necrovision, combines World War I, vampires, and demonic powers. At least no one can ever accuse developer The Farm 51 of not being original.

At 1C Company's annual press event this week, we took a few minutes to step into the combat boots of a young American soldier, volunteering to join the British army for the adventure of a lifetime. And boy, did he find it. Soon after storming German bunkers and clearing out trenches while avoiding poisonous clouds of mustard gas, our hero witnessed a giant flaming skull floating in the sky. Similar in appearance to Lord Voldemort's dark mark in the Harry Potter films, the skull told us that our life is forfeit and our soul belongs to demons--or something to that effect. Soon, we were attacked by a fiery demon that hurled fireballs at us. Naturally, we shot our Luger pistol at this supernatural monster and defeated it. It must be said, those Germans sure did know how to make a good Luger.

That ended our hands-on time with the game, but we did manage to pick up a few additional story elements. After defeating the Kaiser's wily band of Germans, our hero descends into the underworld where he must do battle against vampires. Only then does he discover that it is the demons and their forces of darkness that are the true threat to human and vampirekind alike. Our hero discovers a demonic power glove and, naturally, assumes the powers of the demons and utilizes vampire technology to save the world.

Convoluted storyline aside, we did enjoy thrusting our bayonet into hordes of Germans. Along with the Luger and traditional rifles, we used stick grenades and our fists to pound through the Kaiser's forces. Later on, you'll unlock magical attack spells, do battle against large bosses, and solve simple puzzles. In one such puzzle, we were cut off from our friends by a malfunctioning electrical panel. We threw a grenade at it, the panel blew up, and we moved on.

If you're looking for something different later this year, you'll surely find it in Necrovision.