Jump through the space-time continuum and unleash your timeshifting powers to prevent a frightening alternate reality.
Contains: Strong Bloody Fantasy Violence and Moderate Threat
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Timeshift is a Sci-Fi First Person shooter, where you have the ability to slow, stop and reverse the flow of time to your advantage to prevent an unfolding disaster in the timeline.
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STORY - 2/5
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Dr. Aiden Krone has made a time jump across the space-time continuum, a reckless act with frightening consequences. Once there he alters the timeline, placing himself as the ruler of the Krone Magistrate that controls a dystopic world. Now, a disturbing alternate reality has evolved within the bleak and rain-soaked Alpha District. Armed with the experimental beta suit, you go back in time after Krone back to 1939 (in an alternate timestream) and proceed to assist the Occupant Rebellion. With the power to harness time, you alone have the power to lead the uprising to victory and put an end to Krone's madness.
Sounds promising, but the fact is, Timeshift's story isn't very interesting in game. You'll be getting boring and repetitive mission objectives, and will be constantly going through each level to try and catch up to Krone, who is piloting a huge mechanical walker. There's a good mix of different locations where the gameplay proves fun, but all in all, Timehshift runs predictably to a final conclusion, and with random cutscenes during levels that don't quite make any sense or purpose, you'll be glad to get back to reality.
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CHARACTERS - 1/5
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Now, the characters in Timeshift are not rubbish, like the 1/5 rating suggests, but are just terribly weak. The protagonist who you play as, is not named, and you'll never see his face, giving you the impression that the developer's wanted the player to imagine you were the protagonist.
You'll never spark up a conversation between Krone, which leads you to just know he's bad, and killing him has no reward to you, since you didn't know anything about the man. Like all the characters in Timehsift, there's just no background to any of them, so you'll be progressing though the story, meeting people (most of them giving you orders), but never knowing anything about them. Basically, the characters and story are not important in this game, so now all eyes look upon the gameplay.
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GAMEPLAY - 4/5
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The gameplay is by far the highlight of Timeshift, which is down to the ability to Slow, Stop and Reverse time whenever you want. Not only are these timeshifting powers effective in combat, but also for getting out of gritty situations, and for solving many specific time-related puzzles.
For the most part, you'll be using your unique power during gunplay, so being outnumbered by enemies is no longer a problem. You can slow down time, so that the world around you is affected, and moves slowly, while you can still run and shoot at normal speed. You'll hear cries of disbelief from your foes as you run around them, toying with their mind, and if you choose to stop time, toy with their weapons. You can steal an enemies weapon by freezing time, and then let time resume and see them put their hands in the air and plead you not to shoot - yeah right. And finally, the capability to reverse time. This will mainly be used to save yourself from difficult circumstances, like for instance, if you get stuck with a sticky grenade. The only way to get rid of this, is to leave it to explode (killing you in the process), or remove it using your power. You can also pull other death defying stunts, like if your in a vehicle, and its just about to crash over a cliff, simply press the correct button, and you'll see it reverse, with you safely back on track.
But all this is not unlimited. You only have a limited amount of time you can manipulate before the suit's energy runs out, but it recharges quickly. Your vital signs are also controlled by the suit, and so when taking damage, you will need to find suitable cover, and allow it time to regenerate.
The gunplay is solid for the length of the game, and the weapons are fun to shoot. Guns provide lots of gory encounters, and you'll even encounter some high-tech weaponry, such as the Thunderbolt - which fires dart-like bullets which stick to enemies, and then explode them into a gory mess. And when you combine this with your timeshifting skill, there's plenty of entertaining battles to be had.
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GRAPHICS - 2/5
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While it doesn't have a tremendous effect on the quality and fun of the gameplay, the graphics are one of the game's major poor points. The visuals aren't sharp enough, and cast a gloomy look on most of the environments. Each of the areas you enter are varied, but because of the graphics, and the frequent amount of screen tearing, none of them are appealing on the eye. The weapons look cool, and look detailed, but everything in the environment is anything but detailed, with repetitive objects and colours. One section near the beginning of the game showcases some excellent water features, and the explosions look fantastic too, as you watch boxes splinter into bits in slow motion, and witness enemies limbs fly off in different directions, leaving behind a charred, bloody mess.
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SOUND - 3/5
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The sound effects are great, you will so often hear a realistic gut-squelching noise when you explode enemies, and the guns are all varied in their fire effects and bullet penetrations on the surrounding environment.
While the music score isn't bad, it just gets rather boring, and the trying to make it exciting during shootouts, is a failed attempt. Voice acting is passable, but overall the characters reactions and feelings are portrayed weakly.
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CONTROLS - 4/5
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The controls are good, not the best combinations for during combat scenarios, but all together are simple to get the hang of. Timeshifting powers can be a bit tricky to master at first, not only do you have to remember the correct button for the power you want, but you have to press two buttons simultaneously. Sometimes though, the game already has the correct time power selected depending on the circumstance, so a click of the L1 will unleash the corresponding force from the suit.
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ATMOSPHERE - 2/5
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There's no real sense of urgency in the predicaments you find yourself in, and so hardly any form of tense atmosphere is generated. And with the dull terrain visuals and uninviting backdrops in virtually each and every location, there isn't any chance of being enveloped in credible action, even considering that you've warped back in time, things still feel like a present day.
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ENEMY AI - 3/5
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The groups of enemies you encounter along your path are well organised and fairly credible opponents, they'll always be taking cover, and so your suit can provide you ways of flushing them out. They'll occasionally communicate on the type of weapon your using, especially when you've just blown up one of their pals with the Thunderbolt from distance. If you freeze time, and run around them, then resume time, you'll see the shocked enemy wonder where the heck you've gone, and if you steal their weapon, you'll not only see them submit and put their hands up, but if a weapon is lying nearby, they'll rush over and pick it up.
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LENGTH - 3/5
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Timeshift holds a campaign worthy of about 11 hours of sci-fi action, but its a good thing it wasn't any longer, since it will start getting very repetitive towards the closing stages. There's no intel to give you any reason to search the area, so the linear format is generally an example why there isn't anything to scout out for.
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REPLAY VALUE - 1/5
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There is absolutely no rational explanation to replay Timeshift again. Since it gets repetitive on the last few levels, and with no available intel to collect, one playthrough will be more than enough for most players. If you enjoyed it, then you may want to engage with the cool timeshifting concept once again, but several months later is advisable, so you don't get bored within the first 20 minutes. In conclusion, Timeshift is a really fun game, with the ability to slow, stop and reverse the flow of time whenever you want to fracture your enemies defences, and overcome the madness of a power-hungry scientist.
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 7.5/10
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Good Points: Gunplay is gory with fun-to-shoot weapons, You can slow, stop and reverse the flow of time, Some great sound effects, Organised enemy AI.
Bad Points: Story and characters are dull, Graphics and environments are visually unimpressive and dull, No replay value.