NecrovisioN Interview

NecrovisioN Interview (con't)

FiringSquad: What kinds of weapons and items will the player use?

Wojciech Pazdur: NecroVisioN is a game that mixes the authentic style of the early 1900’s with fantastical visions of a demonic underground world. There is a wide range of classic WWI weapons like the M1911 pistol, M97T trench gun, MG08/15 machine gun, a vast selection of rifles plus many melee combat weapons that were used in the trenches of WWI. We paid very close attention to recreating the authentic feel of shooting these weapons, and understanding that having fun while shooting is one of the most important things for the successful FPS game. After the player reaches the Demon world and survives the transformation into a Shadow Warrior, they will be granted a new set of Vampirical weapons and superhuman skills so they can execute spectacular combat combos.

FiringSquad: What multiplayer options, if any, will NecroVision have?

Wojciech Pazdur: Multiplayer in NecroVisioN will be split in two types of game-play. The first one will be maps oriented for an authentic recreation of WW1 battlefields with objective- and deathmatch modes. The second group of maps will be based on the fantasy part of the game with players having the ability to play as Demons, Vampires or humans, with special sets of weapons for each genre. In both types of maps, players will be able to choose from many different classes of humans, Demons and Vampires. The game-play will also benefit from an extensive system of melee combat combos, the possibility of setting traps, and using gas and artillery attacks as well.

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FiringSquad: What other interesting gameplay features will the game have?

Wojciech Pazdur: Probably the most interesting element of combat in NecroVisioN is the combo system. With some training, players can bash their enemies in spectacular ways with- or without their weapon. Unlike Call of Duty 3 or Condemned, we’re not trying to recreate real melee combat. Instead, we offer a fun addition similar to making combos in arcade fighting games. Here are a few examples:

Melee combo: bayonet stab into enemy's heart + kick into the rebel + rifle butt hit to head.

Machine gun combo: shooting continuously and precisely from legs to head will rip the opponents body into two halves.

Sharpshooter combo: shooting the enemy's weapon out of his hands will make him a sitting duck, so we can finish him with any weapon we have available (for example, with wooden beam or anything else that can be picked up and used as a weapon).

Roller combo: in hand-to-hand combat, we can knock down the opponent with gun butt then finish him with a kick or bayonet.

We want establish the huge monster-bosses as a trademark of NecroVisioN and we have bosses of unprecedented scale and style. There will be mechanical monsters like an evil Tank Machine and huge organic bosses like a Big Manta Demon, as well as totally dark, nightmarish Cthulhu-style bosses in the underground part of the game.

There are much more innovative game-play features implemented in NecroVisioN, but we don’t want to reveal too much right now. Perhaps their names — Spell Force, Disaster Shadow Hand, Possession — can give you some clues.

FiringSquad: NecroVision is using the Painkiller engine as its basis. Why is this engine being used and what added features and improvements will be put into it for NecroVision?

Wojciech Pazdur: We wanted to focus on making a great game instead of developing custom technologies, so when we decided to design a horror action shooter we choose the engine that was created especially for one purpose – for making FPS horror shooters with no design or content limits. The Painkiller engine uses a narrow set of very polished features so it’s scalable, easy to expand and we were able to design and prototype levels very quickly. Many members of the NecroVisioN team have worked on the Painkiller franchise before so they know this technology very well. It has been 2 years since Painkiller PC was released, so we of course added many new features such as a global dynamic light and shadow system, sophisticated shaders, HDRI effects, enhanced ragdoll physics and new game-play mechanics. In the visual department, we’re on the same level as most next-gen engines and we don’t plan on stopping there.

FiringSquad: We've heard that a demo for the game is in the works? Is this true and if so what will the demo contain?

Wojciech Pazdur: Yes, we currently have a huge game-play demo. The demo contains a WWI battlefield map when the player meets undead creatures for the first time. It starts with regular WWI trench warfare, then moves through fighting with hordes of undead German soldiers in underground bunkers and ultimately ends with a massive boss fight.

FiringSquad: What is the current status of the game's progress and when will it be released?

Wojciech Pazdur: The game is scheduled for forth quarter of 2007, and we are currently looking for a publisher to finance the project development.

FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else you wish to say about NecroVision at this time?

Wojciech Pazdur: We would like to thank for the chance of presenting our game and we hope you like what you can see at this point. Stay tuned for more!