NecroVision: The Lost Company

The Farm 51

images c/o Mobygames

I keep saying it: sequels are great. Sure, sometimes they're shameless cash-ins. Sometimes they're glorified expansion packs. That's all true and fair. But sometimes they pick out the parts that worked in their predecessors and expand on those while ditching the bad ideas. So if, like me, you thought that the original NecroVision, The Farm 51's World War I horror shooter, was an incoherent mess that underdelivered on its promises, you might be inclined to think the sequel/prequel/standalone expansion/whatever you call it would be more of the same. It's a fair assumption to make, but, believe it or not, NecroVision: The Lost Company is actually pretty good!

While billed as an expansion, it's more of a stand-alone prequel. Taking place a month or so before the original game, you play as the secondary villain from the original game, as he goes on a horrifying journey from being merely a nationalist scientist working to cure a mysterious disease, to a madman. That's it, that's the plot, and, quite frankly, that's all you need.

The Farm 51 have taken a lot of the lessons learned from the original game and applied them here. As such it's a far more coherent and varied title than its predecessor, and a little less buggy as well. The downsides however include a worse English translation. The core gameplay elements of the original remain: a classic set of World War I-era weapons (though some are slightly anachronistic,) a relatively retraux approach to the shooter genre, a fury system for doing greater damage as you stack combos, notes you can pick up and read, and so on. You also get the benefit of basically invincible AI characters to help you shoot your way through the hordes of enemies, up to and including a young George Patton (!) This makes for a far easier time working through the levels; honestly, it's a lot of fun. The level design is far and away an improvement over the original game's: they're more varied, more interesting, and most of the game is World War I-themed. Only the last two levels take you into the vampire city and Hell itself. You also get an entire level dedicated to a biplane, which is probably the only real weak part.

The game also switches things up to keep you on your toes — you'll alternate between hordes of zombies, and possessed soldiers who actually shoot back at you, with the occasional more fantastic enemy to spice things up. There's a few new enemies as well, most notably zombie nurses!

Like the original game, most of the story is told at the loading screen through letters and notes being read out loud. Some of these notes you can find laying around the level, but for the most part you might as well sit and listen. The load times still take forever anyway.

All in all I was skeptical about how good this could be given my mild dislike for the original, but this is an improvement in every way. Even the final two levels aren't horrible. A few bugs and a generally ugly aesthetic don’t take away from what turned out to be a pretty good shooter. The Farm 51 these days are more known for Get Even and especially Chernobylite, but The Lost Company is a decent title from their early years.

 

-june❤