"Time is on my side," The Rolling Stones once sang. And in the case of Sabre Interactive's upcoming game TimeShift, truer - and more literal - words were never spoken. In fact, "time" is not only on your side, but it's one of the main weapons within your gib-friendly arsenal.

TimeShift is the most recent first person shooter to be tabbed as "Next Big Thang." It's set in an Orwellian, near-future world where a tyrannical leader named Professor Ivan Krone has stamped out the rights of the people. He's done this by manipulating time. Both time travel, and the physical ability to stop, slow and reverse time, play an important role in this game. Not just with the potentially paradoxical storyline, but with actual gameplay.

You take on the role of the world famous, and recently retired Air Force test pilot, Colonel Michael Swift. The good Colonel is asked by the government to test the most significant invention of the century: a time-control device called the "Quantum Suit" and a time machined called the "Chronomicon." At first he balks at the offer, reluctant to risk losing his 5-year old daughter Emma to the ravages of time. However, Emma suddenly and tragically dies in a school bus accident. Or was it? Depressed, Swift decides to take part in the experiment in order to escape his own personal hell.

His first mission sends him back to 1911 to plant an experimental probe. Sort of testing the time stream waters so to speak. When he returns to his own time, he discovers that his little jaunt has caused a "shift" in the space-time continuum and the world he left behind has drastically changed. Making maters worse, his knowledge of the true time stream has made him Numero Uno on the government's most wanted list. Your mission, if you choose to accept it... stay alive long enough to set the correct time. Can't let the worlds virtual VCR flash the wrong time forever now can you?

Recently we got some hands on time with the PC demo of TimeShift and ran it on a less than beefy rig. We wanted to see what sort of monster you'll need for the graphical shock and awe purported to be inside. The rig: a Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz with 1.5 GB RAM and a 256 MB GeForceFX 5950 Ultra video card - replete with updated drivers. Needless to say, it didn't run so much as crawl on any setting above the defaults (resolution set at 800x600 32pp, antialisasing off and material quality low). However, even with the somewhat archaic Ultra card, the graphics were stunning.

Especially those having to do with effects like fire, lightning, smoke and steam, shimmering force fields and reflective surfaces. Fire is rendered to near life-like quality. Steam spiraling from manhole covers, and smoke wafting from bombed out wreckage, appeared real enough to make us do a double take. The same goes for the reflective properties of water puddles. But with all the drooling you'll be a doing... you're gonna need a pretty hefty rig loaded with some serious high-end graphical goodness to get the most eye candy out of this game.

The demo opens "en media res" (Latin for "in the middle" of the action) as you arrive beneath the large Imperial Building. Swift receives his mission objectives from General Mitchell upon insertion. As way of background, Mitchell used to be Swift's superior, and is the military overseer for Project TimeShift. It's Mitchell who first suggests tapping Swift as the test pilot for the project. You need to make your way from the insertion point, through a subway and above ground. From there you need to get past the main gate (guarded by auto-firing turrets and a few guards), through a secondary gate (blocked by force fields and manned by several more troops) and into the main courtyard. But you're only half way there. Now you must backtrack past the front of the building (where a slew of guards will arrive via personnel carriers), cross over a wide-open driveway with little cover (while dodging a sniper armed with a laser guided rocket and a swarms of troops) and make your way down to a garage entrance. Easy enough, right? It is when you have time on your side!

This level illustrates the games primary "gimmick" (the ability to manipulate time) with extraordinary glee. If this tiny slice of the game is any indication of how much fun time shifting will be... we're in for a real treat. The shifting ability is displayed on screen in three parts, which equates to slow, stop and rewind. It looks like something you'd see on a DVD or CD player. Hitting the "F" key stops time and turns the screen a wavy, distorted black and white. Hitting "E" slows time to a crawl, and washes the screen in a bluish hue. When you tap "X" and reverse time, it makes everything a sepia color. Reversing time is a full-blown mind trip because you can bring enemies "back to life" and kill them all over again. TimeShift is likely to redefine the words "gib" and "fragfest."

Stopping time is perhaps the coolest feature because it allows you to snatch weapons from the hands of the enemy. When you resume time they'll react with astonishment, and say things like: "Where's my gun?" or "What the hell happened?" Once they "realize" they're sans weapon, they bolt for the nearest one so they can resume fighting. The demo, as short as it is, is endlessly replayable because of your ability to bend the fabric of time. No matter how often I grabbed the gun from the time-frozen hands of a solider and shot him in the head... it never got old. Can you imagine how fun this is going to be over the course of 11 missions and 30+ levels? It literally forces you to think in a fourth dimension and is going to affect gameplay in a way we've never seen. In the end, this "gimmick" seems perched to be as revolutionary as the gravity gun was in Half-Life 2.

But TimeShift isn't just banking on time manipulation to get them by. There is an array of unique weaponry. While there's only a handful available in the demo, there are a total of 14 in the game. Trick is, you can only carry three at any one time. Each weapon has a primary and secondary fire mode, along with melee ability. To help with aiming, the onscreen reticule turns from orange to red when you have a good shot.

The Pistol has a single shot primary; with the ability to fire short, full-auto bursts in secondary mode. Clicking either the third mouse button or scroll wheel (if your mouse can do that) acts as the melee mode. This goes for each weapon. The Stalker Rifle is a full-auto assault rifle with a grenade launcher secondary. Additionally, there are grenades that you can toss, but they're standard fair and reminded me of the plasma grenades in Halo. The Sniper rifle is outfitted with a zoom scope (right click to zoom in) and laser aimer - although the laser doesn't really do anything but look cool. Many of the enemy vehicles are outfitted with turrets, which you'll be able to use as well.

However, my favorite weapon is what I dubbed the "Fire Gun." Its primary fire mode shoots incendiary bullets that ignite on impact and burn the baddie to a cinder. It causes the target to run around screaming and flailing about until the fire finally consumes him. And guess what? The bodies smolder. It's an outstanding visual. The secondary fire mode on this gun is a flamethrower, which engulfs everything in its wake with a wave of fire that is a beautiful to behold.

The game's physics are as top notch as the graphics. Bodies react according to the amount of damage and the location. What's more, the bodies explode into chunks when caught in explosions. Overall, this is one very bloody game, so it's likely that it will receive a mature rating. Environments are partially destructible. You can shoot out spotlights to make it harder for them enemy to see, and barrels to help cause bigger explosions (random thought: why are there so many barrels full of flammable liquid in combat zones?)

Explosions, weapons fire, and music - all of it sounds fantastic. Dialogue is intriguing, well written and voice acted well. Even in the demo there's differing lines of dialogue from the NPC soldiers. According to Matthew Karch, CEO of Saber Interactive, there are over 9000 lines of dialogue throughout the game.

The look of the game is extremely interesting. The vehicles appear to be a mesh between a souped-up 1957 Chevy Bel Air (complete with the sweptback fins) and a World War II half-track personnel carrier (complete with a .50 caliber turret). Supposedly there will be vehicles you can drive in-game as well. The enemy soldiers look like modern day knights from yore, replete with helmets and armor. All that's missing is a shield and a sword!

While the demo didn't have multiplayer, the final version will include the ability to play against 16 other players... and here's the twist - with time-based weaponry! Now that's something to look forward to. Or, maybe look back to... damn paradoxes! All in all this is shaping up to be an absolute must buy.

So, what is time? A law? A measurement? A function? A weapon? Find out in March!