TimeShift Review (PC)

Although TimeShift suffered a long development history and was redesigned on multiple occasions, making the current version almost completely different from the one first introduced in 2005, none of it was enough to help the game stand out. After years of shifting things around and fixing gameplay elements, TimeShift still ends up being a bland and boring shooter with only a few unique touches.

The plot is hard to piece together, but a secret testing lab develops a time travel suit that's stolen by someone named Dr. Krone, who goes back in time and creates an alternate reality by conquering the world. Luckily, the main character jumps into a second suit, called the beta, equipped with a built-in artificial intelligence and supposedly designed as a military prototype. Players jump back to a Krone controlled version of 1939, where people use advanced assault rifles, energy grenades and giant mechs patrol the streets. The main character joins with the local resistance, who immediately trusts him without question, in an effort to reach Krone and somehow undo the damage.

Unfortunately, the fight to control time isn't a very spectacular one. Nothing about the blasted city really stands out and the levels feature linear progression. Some of the areas have invisible walls, so players running behind a tent to hide are suddenly halted and shot down by enemies. Characters are forgettable, and it's hard to tell allies apart from enemies, besides the fact that you can't shoot friendlies. The player spends most of the time fighting alone and blindly following orders from some guy... simply because he gives them out. Mission objectives are often confusing or utterly lame, like fighting across an entire level to open a door, and although there are loads of objects that can get knocked around and broken, the game lacks a great deal of interaction. For example, players can man vehicle turrets but can't drive the vehicle to run over enemies.

Using the time suit, players can slow down, stop or reverse the flow of time. Since the suit has an artificial intelligence built in, there's a recommended action mapped to a key, but players are free to manually activate any of the abilities on their own. Although it's fun to play pranks on some of the enemies, like stealing their guns or punching them while frozen, there's usually no strategy involved. Hide around a corner long enough and soldiers are bound to come running. Once they peek around the corner, freeze time, shotgun blast, unfreeze and wait for the next victim. Time slowing and time stopping will see the most action, but the time reverse power doesn't seem useful for much besides solving annoying puzzles. Additionally, even though the suit has a nice collection of abilities, it's completely ill-suited for combat. Players can't sustain more than a few gunshots before dropping.

Even though the time control powers add a little variety to the gameplay, and the different weapons are entertaining, there's no saving TimeShift from being an average and altogether boring shooter. With games like Crysis, which offers open-ended gameplay and a stronger functioning suit, this really isn't the time (no pun intended) to be an average shooter.

Our Final ScoreOK

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