Necrovision has some hidden pearls. Just give it some time and you'll start to find them. And will be worth.
This can look like spoiler, but, without this little information, any one will probably give up to play Necrovision in the second or maybe the third level. After beat Zimmerman, it's the moment when this game REALLY starts to shine. Before him, you will only get weak and inaccurate weapons, confuse maps and many repetitive and boring enemies. But, when we go down to the Underworld and start to know all the real history behind all what happened and is happening, then get new weapons and start to face the "real thing", you will probably realize that was worth play Necrovision until here.
And the history is really interesting, with a nice development. Unfortunately, the voices are terrible and will make everything sound weird, mainly when telling us the history. Also, you'll discover that the German "accent" is more irritating than a "good detail" in the voices. For me, the only exception is Shadow Hand voice – and some voices from Simon too, like "Consider yourself purify!" or "Remember my name!"
While we are fighting in the surface, the levels just looks confuse, ugly and without a little touch of creativity. Be a game that uses the First World War for background isn't an excuse to make a poor level design. But, when we go down to the Underworld, things change a lot. Huge underground cities, caves and fortresses will take place of the trenches, and later, we go deeper and reach Hell, where each level uses a nice use of particles and fire, huge designs and creative background. And when I say huge I really mean HUGE. All levels will take at least half hour to be beaten (if you don't die and know the ways to beat the level) in the normal difficult and, only to give you an idea of what I mean of huge, in some moment we RIDE A DRAGON!
For Necrovision being, in its essence, an old-school game, expect many challenges against multiple enemies. Sometimes will make us wonder "will stop to appear enemies?" And we got two sides: the good one is the Underworld, where we got powerful weapons and face creative enemies, with good design and nice variation. The bad one is in the surface, where enemies are repetitive and can be sometimes boring, irritating or frustrating – one of them or a combination of these elements for each combat. At least, when we got the sniper rifle, things got a little better in the surface.
But, for some reason, Necrovision can get much slowdown and low FPS, even when it uses a dated engine. I mean, I can play prettier games with a high or a decent configuration and get good frames. But here, I had to make the game stay with a bad look, with a blurred image and with a low resolution, just to get a playable FPS. The main reason (I think) is because the engine makes the game in slow motion when get frames below 20 per second and, less frames, more slow motion I get. So, to make the game runs fine, I had to cut a lot of effects and sacrifice resolution to play it. Very sad.
At least, the game doesn't waste time when the matter is dismember our enemies. Blood and pieces of body will make part of decoration of each level after each battle. This was a nice touch, mainly when we combine all this blood and violence with the combos, making every combat brutal and, depending of your taste, a fun.
Necrovision uses an interesting combat system, where the edge is the combos. To perform a combo, Simon can use a combination of many elements, from fire arms to melee weapons, explosives and a kick, and, latter, Shadow Hand, which will add a special taste to fun and for Simon's combos. Akimbo is also possible for some weapons and some firearms will have a special combo finish.
To make Simon's combos more powerful, Vampire artifacts can be found around the levels, each increasing one level of Simon's fury. Higher the fury, more powerful the combos become. Each combo will make Simon's fury rise until the limit, which is equal to the number of Vampire artifacts already collected. So, later on the game, the last combo in a chain of combos can knock down multiple enemies, also, higher the fury level or combo, Simon increases his health regeneration and gets better reflexes. High fury levels are also used to recharge Simon's fury, which works like mana or energy to release "special moves". This same fury can be used to activate the slow motion, to gain some advantage against the hordes. When Simon get damaged, his health will regenerate after some time (when not being hit), but, to get full health, he need to collect some med kit or some little red artifacts. And when his health gets to low, like when he's about to die, Simon enters in a "special slow motion", where we "got a chance to avoid the unavoidable".
And when we manage to finish the game for the first time, the mode "Necromancer's Return" is unlocked, where we can play again from the beginning using Shadow Hand. Also, after beat each level, a challenge is unlocked and, if beaten, can make useful resources (weapons, armor and even new skills for Shadow Hand) be always available through the game or when you're playing a single level, like trying to find more Vampire artifacts or undiscovered secret places or even lost letters.
Unfortunately, Necrovision waste too much potential in things that can make players give up from keep playing it for too long. The slow development and poor design of almost all elements from half of the game and plus the unexplained heavy dated engine, these are reasons most than enough to keep players away from it. If wasn't the insistence of a friend, I would never discover these pearls in the middle of Necrovision, like the Underworld, Shadow Hand and the combo system.
# Other positive points:
- Good soundtrack and sound effects;
- Nice ending.