March 2, 2009

NecroVisioN Q&A: Wojciech Pazdur on Surviving a Different Kind of Horror
By Louis Bedigian

“We believe that the most scary and remarkable thing is the ending (or better to say: multiple endings) after which the player can look back and realize what his entire journey meant. ”

Aiming to create a different kind of horror game, NecroVisioN combines zombies, vampires (standard and ninja edition) and robotic scorpions with a World War I setting. This unlikely combination comes from The Farm 51, a studio with developers that previously lent their talents and expertise to Painkiller and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. NecroVisioN is The Farm 51's first project, which 1C Company has signed on to publish.

"Vampires are the key to the whole plot," said Wojciech Pazdur, Project Lead at The Farm 51. "The war with the demons was fated to failure as demons possessed most of the combat skilled vampire fighters. Vampires needed to look for a new army beyond their kingdom, so they reached the Earth’s surface and started to gather live and dead humans from battlefields, turning them into zombies. Single zombies are much weaker than vampire fighters, but when the number counts, the undead army gets the advantage.

"Due to the fact that zombies are mindless creatures, they attack everything what moves and Simon can often choose which side to join during many of battles he witnesses on his journey. The Giant Scorpion Tank is a completely different story – this machine was constructed by Zimmerman, the villain which Simon has to stop in one of the game’s episodes."

Give us the back story on the main character, Simon Bukner, and the main villain (whoever that is…).

Wojciech Pazdur: Simon Bukner is a cowboy-like hero of America, a lonely gunslinger with an attitude and bitter sense of humor. Running from his not very clear past, he illegally joins the British army and hopes to have the time of his life on European battlefields. A series of strange and sudden events turn the horror of war into something much deeper and much more evil, leading him through internal and physical transformations into someone completely new.

Initially Simon doesn't know who stands behind the unnatural things and who the creatures from the Somme's battlegrounds are. He soon discovers that there is a mad and evil German scientist, Jonas Zimmerman, who made an alliance with the vampires but in the end betrays them in the same way as he betrayed his people. Looking for the answers and his own survival Simon finally has to fight Zimmerman face to face – but then he realizes that his main enemy is even more threatening than this magic-skilled madman equipped with vampire technology. At the moment we can only say that the final villain's name shouldn't be spoken at all.

We've seen a demon theme in feudal Japan (via games like Onimusha), but zombies and vampires rarely touch other war environments. Why bring them to this war shooter?

WP: The answer is simple – for the sake of the storyline and a bigger amount of fun. Both "races" are incorporated carefully into the fantasy background of the game, and their appearance fits both storyline and the combat intensity.

NecroVisioN is being called a horror game. Other than the grotesque and violent aspect of the monsters, what makes this game jump-out-of-your-seat scary?

WP: There are a lot of horror elements – specific usage of light, sound, music and camera positioning and so on. Speaking about the game design, we put the player in many situations where his choices are unclear. Each of them usually leads to more or less evil, just like in a classic drama (usually the more, of course). However, we believe that the most scary and remarkable thing is the ending (or better to say: multiple endings) after which the player can look back and realize what his entire journey meant. We would not like to reveal all the details but we would like to focus on way the war changes a human being and steals his soul drop by drop.

A lot of the hype surrounding NecroVisioN is that you'll dive deep into hell. Will you physically enter hell in the traditional sense, or does that merely refer to the horrific scenarios?

WP: When we talk about Hell it's not a figure of speech for sure. It's the deepest and darkest hell you could enter in your worst nightmares. Our aim was to create a game that would contain elements from classic titles of the genre and add some of our own NecroVisioN flavor.

If you do visit hell, tell us about it -- how you wind up there, what it's like, and what the player must accomplish before exiting.

WP: One can think that he comes here to expiate sins, and suffer for them... But that is wrong. It's not a fairy tale. You are in hell to save the Human and vampire races from the biggest and worst bastard in the universe who plans to unleash his forces over the whole world. If you manage to kick his ass, you're free.

You can't defend yourself from an army of monsters without the proper weaponry. So what does the weapon lineup include?

WP: NecroVisioN is based on history and fantasy, so we don't have any tactical smart missiles, phase-plasma pulse rifles, RPGs or sonic electronic ball breakers. We got plenty of WWI weapons (including dual pistols, rifle bayonets, heavy machine guns, grenade rods, shovels, gas lamps and dynamite), as well as some vampire tools of destruction, both melee and magic, combined with shooting and explosive weaponry of many kinds.

There appears to be a flying, fire-emitting creature in the game (several of them actually). What are they and do you have to battle them?

WP: All of them are habitants of the deepest part of the Earth, the underworld lying before the gates of hell. If you meet them anytime, there is a simple rule - if it fires, shoot or escape. If it allows you to sit on its back - use it to burn enemies to the ground.

What are some of the other creatures we'll have to fight, if not already mentioned?

WP: It's hard even to me to list all creatures and characters of NecroVisioN. Each episode introduces some new foes or folks. These are humans, zombies (lots of species, including animals), vampires, plenty kinds of demons and some mechanical creatures. Even all the bosses in NecroVisioN have their own very unique types of servants.

How is sound being used to enhance the horror or intensity of the game?

WP: We were trying to make use of sound in all imaginable ways that allowed us to make the game more true to life and scary. Just to name few examples – we recorded various types of human screams depending on how the character suffers or dies, countless effects of hits depending on which weapon or tool you use and which body part of enemy you strike. We have got plenty of howling sounds, scratches, booms attacking the player from all directions. Plus plenty of ambient sounds, speech effects and shots!

What can we expect from the music?

WP: Pretty much the same what you can expect from the music in a fantasy-horror movie – it will often remind you that you're not on a picnic and will serve as a warm up for a battle. Occasionally giving you feeling of sadness and despair. We don't use custom themes only, but we licensed some Hollywood-based tunes as well, mixing orchestral themes with hard rock guitars and vocals.

Thank you for your time.

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