You'd be forgiven for not knowing much about NecroVisioN - despite a lengthy development period, the game's only popped up in our news pages once, way back in February.

Now, however, the European FPS is making Australian headlines for all the wrong reasons. The title, which takes gamers all the way from World War I battlefields into a demon-infested underworld, is officially the first game to be Refused Classification in this country in 2009, effectively banned from release due to in-game "depictions of violence that exceed a strong playing impact".

Download the NecroVisioN Trailer #6
We've been in touch with the Classifications Board following the April 7th decision, to find out where The Farm 51 went "wrong" and crossed the line.

When the player shoots an enemy combatant, a large volume of blood spray results and the enemy may be dismembered or decapitated. Injury detail is high with pieces of flesh seen flying from bodies when shot or a high level of wound detail visible on bodies. Post mortem damage occurs when bodies are shot resulting in blood spray, dismemberment and decapitation.

This level of blood and injury detail occurs frequently and throughout the game and in the Board’s view, exceeds a strong playing impact and therefore cannot be accommodated within the MA 15+ classification.

Due to our lack of anything more 'adult' than an MA15+ rating, this means that the game is Refused Classification - which the Board explains means that NecroVisioN "cannot be legally sold, hired, advertised or exhibited in Australia".


We've contacted both The Farm 51 and the international publishers to find out if there's any intention of either appealing the decision, or adapting the game for our local audience.

In the meantime, here's what you're missing out on:

Set in 1917, the Great War has been raging for two long years and new recruit Simon Bukner, a US Army soldier, is the latest to face the harsh realities of war. His first mission sees him get lost deep behind enemy lines, alongside his battalion of Allied troops, after trying to break through the German positions and into Allied territory. The Germans attack hard and the Allieds get pushed deeper into enemy trenches until they’re ambushed and gassed.

Bukner manages to escape into an underground safe-house but everything has changed. The dead are rising from their muddy graves and attacking any living creature they can find. Now Bukner must try and escape through the scores of German soldiers, while fighting off flesh-hungry zombies. As Bukner shoots his way through the trenches, he uncovers a truly horrifying plot to create an army of the undead.

But, in a bizarre twist, Bukner discovers that the zombie force is actually being created for the benefit of humanity. A shadowy group of vampires has enlisted the help of a necromancer to make them their own personal army of the walking dead. This unlikely alliance is a final effort for the vampires who are struggling to stop terrible demons from opening up a portal to Hell and wiping out every living thing on Earth.

Now, armed with powerful vampire weapons and a magical artefact called the Shadowhand, Bukner must venture into the bowels of hell and stop the demons once and for all.

Unluckily for Bukner, he's facing bigger, more scary enemies in Australia, and it looks like - for now at least - he's been stopped in his tracks. As soon as we hear anything about NecroVisioN, one way or the other, we'll let you know.

In the meantime, there's a bunch of videos in the file library, and some other goodies tucked away there too.