Necrophosis: Full Consciousness Review on Xbox

Necrophosis: Full Consciousness is a first-person horror adventure, plunging you into a nightmarish realm teeming with grotesque forms and ominous visuals. 

The premise is play as consciousness, made physical as it makes its way through a dark decaying world, billions of years after the universe met its demise.

The game boasts macabre poems and stories, unique landscapes and entities, encounter mechanics that solve larger puzzles, and the complete edition of the game with dlc included.

Accessibility

With regards to accessibility, the developers have provided a number of options, such as camera POV, toggle run, post processing filters with 3 different visual options, crosshair sensitivity and subtitle background options. The game does allow button remapping and movement stick remapping. In relation to Audio however these are basic. So should you have hearing issues, this may not be the game for you.

Gameplay

The style of H.R.Giger is becoming more and more experimented with the likes of Scorn being a true visual treat. In a similar vain, the developers of Necrophosis also seemed to have tapped into the artsyle of Zdzisław Beksiński. Both artists have produced disturbing images, showing gloomy, nightmarish environments with detailed scenes of biomechanical death, and decay. So seeing a game based on these art styles, this definitely piqued my interest. So will this macabre game open your eyes to a new world or disintegrate into the dust.. let’s find out.

Unlike scorn, the game has a clear indication of what it is, with you solving puzzles and walking around disturbing arenas in a bid to move to the next. You awake in a husk of a body that at is able transfer its brain to other forms in said bid to progress. You are called Consciousness, and whether you take it literally or spiritually will be some that will be explained as you move further into the world at large.

You are spawned from an horrendous being into a skeletal form that, in itself, looks as if its fragile frame will decay at a moment’s notice. A small puzzle of allows you to progress into the outside arena, and this is where the true brutal torture and dread come ‘’alive’’.  

From here the process to progress is simple but effective. Within a restricted area, you will see a variety of different spots to place objects represented by floating gold dust. To do this you will need to be exploring the area in a bid to gather objects, then stick them in the right spot to solve said puzzles. It’s all about interacting with everything or manipulating certain items in ways you may not think of. Puzzles themselves are nothing too taxing with often it being reduced to a brain that needs reconstructing or finding the bone crowns for a three headed entity. 

One area of issue I did have was with a particular puzzle within the second arena, where a living corpse on is on its back, riddled with holes from which maggots crawl in patterns. The idea was to memorise the pattern, pull the maggots, which at the end pass provides a flesh item, which then goes to another being, to be consumed. This in turn then produces a soul which is needed to go forth. The issue came when I tried to pick up said maggots, a bug had occurred where no cursor appeared. This has now been fixed but stopped me effectively from getting this review out in a decent timescale. Thankfully this seems to have been the only issue, with the rest of the game working flawlessly.

In essence this is a simple walking simulator game with some puzzle elements, that’s all about the visual aesthetics and deep lore in which to truly entertain you. You are never attacked, you can die but will respawn in the area you died, with the biggest challenge working out where to go to find a particular item.

The game also comes bundled with a dlc in which you play as Subconsciousness. Much akin to the main game the visual aesthetics take precedent, but here the game focuses on a shorter intense gameplay loop with only two arenas available. Here the puzzle elements consisting of passing items back and forth within these short arenas.

Overall, I really enjoy my time with this game, with its variation of puzzles and stunning visuals. Once everything has been completed though, there really isn’t much to go back to apart from reminding yourself of those stunning visuals.

Graphics

Here is where the game excels in all its gory, decaying and biomechanical death nature. The influences are clear, that is equal to or in some areas, beats the likes of Scorn. Every new area holds fascinating memorable imagery; from it's a large lake of blood surrounded by masked witches or huge doors built from bodies of gods to its dark tombs with characters bonded within its walls.

This is only expanded upon with the items you pick up, in their own grotesque looks. Eyeballs, dead and living twisted corpses, screaming bugs with human faces, each element has been carefully crafted to excite and revolt in equal measure.

Thankfully the game provides a photo mode to explore these unique macabre lands, something I would recommend you use. Whilst the puzzles may get you to the next area, the visuals alone here will keep you exploring over what new decay aspect the designers’ minds have created.

Lighting is also equally superb, with its tone perfect to suit each realm you walk through, though I will say the floating gold dust shimmer can be a little off putting. Visual tone changes also happen depending on the location from possibly a bright dusty brown to a dark blue haze at a moments notice.

The UI is super clean and almost non-existent to ensure you really soak in the landscape and tension it brings around you. Overall framerate and stability were smooth, with no pop-ins or tearing.

Sound

The game has full voice acting that is probably for me the least impressive, but still highly intriguing in their shrieks or robotic tones. The writing for characters is pure perfection, with them often speaking in riddles or poems. To add to the mystery, they can appear and disappear demanding your help at a moments notice. Their pain and torments often is found by reading their lore either on a tablet, carved into a tongue or spinal cord, which can often deepen the mystery.

The game focusses more on environmental sounds than music with swaths of flesh-tearing, bone-crunching, blood-squelching noises as its peak focus. From the removing of your brain to control other entities, to the stretching of muscle, each sound is placed to push you to explore or retract mode.

Music on the other hand is reserved for set pieces with beautiful orchestral music laden piano scores, acting as a background to the larger environmental sounds, to give them more weight. Again, all this work so well to ensure that the experience is tailored to give you the most ‘’ick’’ for your buck.

My recommendation here would be a good quality soundbar as the low deep tones of the game really come alive when you interact with the world around you.

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Necrophosis: Full Consciousness is a ‘’Great Purchase’’.

The game is very short, but the intensity of its visuals is long lasting. You will complete this and may never play it again, but it will always be on your mind in some form. You will be hard pressed to play something like this, and for that alone it deserves praise.

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £16.99 or approx. $20 and depending on your skill and patience would give you about 3hours to complete most things. To get all the hidden lore and various achievements, this will probably set you back another couple of hours.

This is an artistic game that sits comfortably alongside with its contemporary, scorn. Each different, but both impactful, that show off something new, vibrant, disturbing and engaging.