NecroVisioN: Lost Company

This is a very underrated shooter and a lot of fun. I highly recommend it! It's like Wolfenstein and Painkiller set in WWI.

Already owning this on Steam but considering to buy it on GoG too because I love it that much! This is the best game that captivates a 'weird war' story that I have ever played and I really really wish there were more of those. It's obviously not realistic but does well to convey the horrors of trench warfare, artillery shelling, poison gas and miles of devastated No Man's Land that made up the cruelty of "The Great War".. Adding demons, undead and unholy magics into the mix only adds to the overall feel rather than taking away from it. Also this might be the only game with a campaign that follows a German soldier that I have ever played. Why can we not have more of that? At this price tag you really can't go wrong even if it isn't perfect.

The game is relatively short (took me about 6 hours to slog through, and I am not a fast player), which I wouldn't mind - it's just small standalone expansion after all. What I do mind is terribly dull, repetitive gameplay that sets in about halfway through. The beginning of the game is ok-ish - hammy and cheesy, yes but passable with some entertaining parts - well exactly two entertaining parts: plane section where you fight dragon and tank section, but even then you will start to notice the terrible practices the game uses - enemies just rush and swarm you (I would say they are brain-dead, but... well they ARE mostly zombies) and the game just LOVES to spawn swarms of melee mobs behind you. Then from about the second half through levels turn into single corridor so you have swarms of mobs that rush you AND no place to maneuver. Add to it the slow weapon that will quickly start to feel anemic against the hordes of meat thrown at you and you get unplayable exercise in frustration. The best part of game - the fun-to-use magitek gauntlet you get for the last 20-minute segment after that you get what must be the dullest and spongiest bossfight ever put into videogame. All in all I don't recommend this game even to the fans of original. It's just packed by the worst design decisions you can put into FPS. MY score is 2* just because the first part is somewhat playable and in places even entertaining, but it's quickly replaced by the dull slog.

I played this first, before “NecroVisioN”, as it serves as its prequel. A strange game, one that I wasn’t drawn to at first at all. The first time I tried it, I had started on “normal” and I struggled so much in the very first battle (at the train station), that I uninstalled immediately! On the next day, being calmer, I gave the game another chance. I started the game from “easy” and since that time I very much appreciated the game for the fact that the enemies don’t drop like flies here, even on “easy”, comparing with other shooters. It’s a game which you’ll need to start from low to get the hang of it. However there aren’t different endings here in the different difficulties (as are in N.). Some diversity in gameplay, there are sequences where you pilot a plane or handle a tank. You can save anytime, except on hard only autosaving. Also, thankfully, secret places aren’t so secret, again in comparison with other shooters. You don’t have to do crazy jumping and stuff to find them. You just have to search a bit out of the main path. 2 negatives: 1) Whereas when using a single gun (1 or 2-handed), you shoot by pressing LMB, if you use an 1-handed gun and also hold another item in the other hand (grenade or something melee) then that takes the LMB and you shoot the gun with the RMB! And before you say “I won’t use anything of the like”, this happens ad nauseam in the last two chapters, where you find a unique glove (which powers take the LMB) and unique 1-handed guns (RMB). These guns not only do more damage than the previous ones, but also you’ll be finding ammunition only for them, from that point on, so you’ll have to use them (with RMB!), including the battle with the last boss! 2) While there are health packs lying around, there aren’t any during boss fights! You’ll have to depend solely on the autohealing feature, which happens when you defeat opponents while not taking damage. All in all, I would advise you to try the game, to experience something different.