When a deranged scientist takes the Alpha prototype time suit to change the world, you are left with seconds to chase after him with the Beta version. Landing in an alternate past where your world is controlled by his fascist regime, you must help the resistance turn the tide and track down the other suit to help heal the time rift. Armed with powers to slow, stop and reverse time you must fight your way past hordes of enemies and traps where no mere human could go.

For the majority of the game you get this feeling like the potential was lost to really take the game further and explore different opportunities. The story is no exception to this rule, as there is this really great setup which literally goes nowhere. Beyond the initial and closing scenes, reasons are barely given for going to a new zone and even at the end there is little to no new information about the protagonist, he just stays the "scientist with a secret past". It seemed like the development team just stopped caring about this aspect beyond the initial premise and never developed it further.

Luckily the controls and gameplay compensate for that greatly with fluid control and a brilliant use of the time mechanic. Now other games have used different versions of the ‘ole slow-down-so-I-can-get-a-better-shot routine, but here you also have the addition of a pause and rewind function. Primarily these are used to get past the puzzles in the game, but for combat, if you aren't using these to your advantage, you are dying. Odds are severely stacked against you and even if you use the powers correctly there is still a significant chance you will not last seconds; this was especially true on the harder modes. But that was a significant draw for me to the game was the fact you just can't rely on running and gunning, you need to really assess each battle to use your powers correctly just to survive. Unfortunately many times I didn't as I became instantly intimate with the quick-load loading screen which really wasn't all that quick.

Using the powers on the puzzle elements in the game was interesting at first, but then eventually devolved into a rinse-repeat process as you are constantly needing to reverse time to get through or pause time to get across different situations. The novelty only applied to the fighting, and the head-scratchers never got hard because the suit's AI also directed you towards the correct time action to take, leaving virtually no thinking on your part possible. But beyond that the controls accurately flowed between the shooting and time play mechanics creating a decent sense of god-like power over this game world.

Multiplayer online offers a few exceptions to the battleground rules with time grenades and a King challenges match. Really you have a stripped down Halo online function that adds these time grenades which create bubbles of slow; in certain matches these are also used to fulfill kill requirements but ultimately add a unique feature that online gamers might want to experience. In the King mode, you have the juggernaut concept where one guy has all the time powers, but must survive as long as they can against another group. While it would be virtually impossible to carry all of the time mechanics into online, the subset of available weapons and tactics make it worth looking in to.

The graphics of the game are where the differences of consoles appear. As with most games, the high-end PC wins this battle as the 360 takes a close second and PS3 loses. The PS3, however, is the only version that doesn't have some clipping problems. Nevertheless, on all three there can be some stunning moments, especially while using the time mechanics. Sound does an adequate job capturing the war torn city streets and feel for the game, but the score never really takes off.

Ultimately Timeshift is a worthwhile game, but adding to the fact it is released around a bunch of top-notch FPS's and you almost certainly make it the odd man out. Unfortunately the time mechanic gimmick just is never fully utilized to make it more memorable, and with dull achievements the replay value is almost limited to online. While the game stretches to be that 4 out of 5, it just never really reaches it, and consequently it falls short where it could have excelled.

Jan 11, 2008 | 1 comments
Paul Bishop