TimeShift

I promised myself that I would try and write this review without making any stupid time-related jokes and I sincerely hope I can adhere to that by not saying lame stuff such as “this game is worth your time” and so on (you get the drift).

What I will say is that developer Saber Interactive are a ballsy bunch who, after being thrashed for their previous version of the game (that was to be released on the Xbox and the PC), went back to the drawing board to come up with a brand new game that can visually hold its own ground in the presence of some heavy hitters such as Halo 3, The Orange Box and so on.

Obviously this game isn’t going to outsell any of the above mentioned games but it’s still an entertaining first person shooter that allows players to manipulate time as they deem fit. While games like Max Payne and the more recent F.E.A.R. allowed you to slow time down, TimeShift takes it to the next level by allowing you to pause, speed up and rewind time as well, courtesy your S.S.A.M. (Strategic Systems for Adaptable Metacognition) suit.

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Not only does this suit allow you to manipulate time; it’ll keep warning you of incoming threats so you know exactly which time-shifting ability to use when. While you can blaze through most of the game using just slow motion; other aspects of time manipulation such as pausing or rewinding will come into play as and when you solve certain puzzles.

While slowing down time to make it through a gate/door can get boring after you’ve done it a thousand times, using these abilities in combat is a lot more entertaining. Pausing time, you can waltz up to an enemy, grab his gun, enjoy his bewilderment for a second, and then shoot him in the face before he has a clue what’s going on.

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Speaking of shooting people in the face, TimeShift offers a diverse amount of futuristic weaponry that ranges from machine guns to shotguns to pistols to my personal favorite – the crossbow, which shoots exploding arrows. Nothing is more satisfying than watching a person explode, only to rewind time and watch him explode in a shower of blood and guts all over again.

Unfortunately you’re not the only hotshot with time-twisting abilities. A crooked little scientist by the name of Dr Krone (could he have like a more sinister name?) escaped into the near future using the alpha version of the S.S.A.M. suit and you’re the lone ranger – with a mysterious past, mind you – sent to retrieve that suit.

For some reason the first half of the game kept reminding me of Half Life 2, especially the part when you’re in a trench and the bad guys are ambushing you from above. The game even follows the HL2 formula to a certain extent so you have intense shootouts quickly followed by a scripted event that usually involves rockets blowing up a particular area to reveal your route. Even the vehicular segments that take place in open areas are very reminiscent of those from HL2.

Minor outdoor segments aside, TimeShift is an extremely linear game that has you traveling from point A to point B while eliminating everyone in your path. Enemy AI is nothing to scream about but they’ll keep you on your toes to a certain extent by flanking you, ganging up on you, and so on.

Visually the game is awesome and the extra time taken to turn TimeShift into a next-gen game seems to have paid off. The game boasts of some killer lighting, rain and, umm, timeshifting effects and as the action heats up, the game still manages to run at a smooth 30 FPS.

While level design falls into the generic category, outdoor levels have been made pretty well and provide some respite from all the claustrophobic action.

At the end of the day I actually feel bad for the this game – not because it’s bad but because it had the misfortune of being released during a month when stuff like Crysis, Mass Effect, ProStreet, Call of Duty 4 etc are expected. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that TimeShift is bound to pass by relatively unnoticed in/against the barrage of AAA games.

If this was sometime earlier on in the year I would have definitely recommended the game. As of now, I can only hope Seventymm launch their rental facility here so such games can be at least be experienced as rentals.