Reviews  |  PC

TimeShift

By David Perkins / February 25, 2008

It speaks volumes about the wealth of FPS titles currently available that TimeShift has been released to relative indifference amongst fans of the genre. After rescuing it from the aftermath of a terrible first attempt, developer Saber Interactive has advanced the game in almost all areas since its disastrous unveiling last year, when it became clear that its limited use of time controls, unnecessarily heavy emphasis on story and dated graphics simply weren't going to cut it. The TimeShift of today has a renewed focus on its time control hook and, powered by a genuinely impressive engine, manages to deliver a satisfying FPS experience despite the constraints of its aged design document.

The first thing you notice is how naturally the time control feature slots into the game. This isn't just down to the unobtrusive control method, but also in the way in which you can choose where and when to use the three time modes (slow, pause & forward). Whilst the game will automatically select the mode it thinks will best help you in any given situation, you are free to override it at any point and create your own temporal solutions.

I made the decision to play on one of the harder difficulty settings, and it seems to have paid off. Progress is a constant question of tactics; of deciding when to use each mode and judging if you've got enough juice in your time-gauge to make it to the next patch of cover. The buzz of empowerment you get from leaving cover, shooting frozen enemies, then ducking back into shelter to watch normal time resume and your unsuspecting targets go flying is extremely satisfying.

Enemy tactics rarely offer anything beyond brute force, but this is balanced out by thoughtful level design, which never leaves you without the tools or options to make a fight of it. Sensible checkpoint placement and the inclusion of a regenerative health system also ensure that, whilst you're constantly fighting the odds, it's rarely a frustrating experience.

Intersecting all the shooting are a clutch of rather obvious puzzles, mostly consisting of little more than freezing time to defy physics, and whilst unfulfilling in themselves they are enough of a distraction to keep the pace of the game from stagnating. The pace further picks up in a later level when you're tasked with defending an airship from attack using a mounted canon. Set against the backdrop of snow-draped vistas, it's a definite visual highlight.

With the game hitting the mark on so many levels, it's easy to forget about the turbulent development cycle which led up to its release. Rather tellingly, it's in the very things you would expect to have been fixed before a single line of code was written that the biggest cracks appear.

The paper-thin "mad scientist changes timeline" plot is so jumbled, that I went through most of the game with only the faintest idea as to why I was moving ever forward, but perhaps of more consequence is the near complete lack of art direction. The only coherent aspect about the game's look is just how unremarkable it all is. That's not to say it isn't technically competent, but it's all stock textures and generic character designs, with even the chief protagonist looking as though he's escaped from a Haze level editor. Sadly this isn't just a matter of aesthetics; against the environment's permanently muddy palette it can often prove difficult to pick out where the similarly drab enemies are, resulting in moments of panic fire whilst you desperately scan the landscape for movement.

At its heart TimeShift is a linear FPS with a gimmick, but it knows its limits and comfortably exploits its abilities to paper over them. It may not have what it takes to make an impact against the big FPS titles released this past Christmas, but what it does it does quite well, and is certainly deserving of the genre's fans' attention.