TimeShift

Added November 22nd, 2007 by Jason Stafford

TimeShift puts you in the role of a scientist with a special suit, although the name or further identity of whom is never revealed. Dr. Krone, the director of a research lab that has been researching a suit for the military that can control time, has allowed the ever-dangerous lust for power corrupt him. He has stolen the prototype suit, destroyed the lab and jumped back through time. Donning the Beta suit, an upgraded version of the Alpha suit which includes the ability to detect and subsequently avoid time-paradoxes, you take a dive through time to following Dr. Krone all the way back to 1939.

Most of TimeShift's story is covered in a brief opening cinematic, though any further reasoning or story isn't divulged. Upon reaching 1939, the world is a much changed place. An uprising has risen against a formidable faction under the control of Dr. Krone, and while the time period is supposed to coincide with and thus be the re-envisioned period of a fascist controlled world this isn't really made clear. All that you know is that your suit can alter time and there a bunch of people with guns trying to shoot you.

While much of TimeShift's campaign is fairly trite, it tries to place itself a cut above the rest with its time control. Using the left bumper, time can be slowed, stopped or reversed, and while this has the specific adverse reaction on the world it leaves the wearer of the suit unaffected, allowing you to grab guns out of the hands of enemies or outright kill them before the suit has to allow time normalcy to recharge itself. Though the suit will automatically choose the manner of time-manipulation it deems best suited to the situation at hand, you can merely override it at your will for the desired effect. The suit's powers also tie into shallow puzzle sequences, such as slowing to make it through a door before it closes, and while it's not very interesting it doesn't break the pacing of the game too much. Being the master of time is all well and good, but it robs much of the difficulty and vigor from the game. Rather than tailor the difficulty and in-game mechanics around this fact, much of the game merely pits you against enemies from any other run-of-the-mill shooter.

Health slowly recovers while you're not taking damage, so even being overrun by enemies requires slowing down time to hoof it behind a wall. Once recovered the next excursion can be made until either all the enemies are dead or you make a lapse in judgment and get yourself killed – and unfortunately, you can't just reverse time. There are plenty of checkpoints with an autosave feature across the campaign, so death never sets one back too far. Even so, the scales are tipping even more in your favor. The game HUD includes a radar that denotes the locations of enemy units. It makes planning an attack and executing with your time abilities a breeze, and being taken by an undiscovered enemy who's flanked you never happens. Not only because you'd see it on the radar, but the enemy AI never does anything further than take some moderate cover, try to shoot at you or occasionally run at you.

Weapons are fairly bountiful and when put into consideration versus being able to slow time and take headshots as if you were the world's top marksman, ammunition is never an issue. Many staples are included in the game's arsenal, including an assault rifle with a grenade launcher, a shotgun, a sniper-rifle and even some oddities, such as a machine-pistol with a flamethrower or a crossbow that fires explosive rounds. TimeShift also features four different types of grenades, such as a laser trip-mine or a “clutch” grenade that can stick to opponents. Gun balance feels all over the place, and while most are fairly useful in the single-player campaign, the multi-player aspect runs the gamut.

Featuring a number of fairly standard multi-player modes such as Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, it also includes a few modes specifically tailored to the time mechanics. Rather than merely utilizing your suit, you work with a meter that can be refilled with specific items. With enough stock in the time meter, you can throw a grenade that engulfs the area with a sphere that alters time appropriately by slowing, stopping or reversing time. Much like 'nade spamming, however, these time bombs can be lobbed with little care as replenishing your stock is a simple matter. As such, most close to mid-range battles turn into a time mess, although thankfully moving into the field of your own time grenade will adversely affect you as well, so there's at least a marginal amount of strategy no matter how minute.

TimeShift's multi-player does offer a couple interesting aspects and modes. The King of Time mode pits players against one another to gain control of an artifact that renders the holder free of the constraints of the time grenades. There's a One on One match, which is exactly what it sounds like and can have its moments as a round of cat and cat can be vastly satisfying given the right players. Other facets of the game can be altered, such as gravity or speed, so some refinement or other tweaks can make the game a little less flat than it is otherwise.

Although TimeShift brings a neat gimmick to the table, that's about all it brings. Buried beneath the time-mechanics is a first-person-shooter that follows tried-and-true rules and formula. It hardly dazzles the senses in any fashion, but it at least presents a fun single player campaign and a modest multi-player. Some more work and creativity could have made a much more rounded game. While it won't withstand the test of time, it'll at least give you a bit of fun before you've had your fill.