Last year, a lot of people were anxiously awaiting the release of Timeshift. Fast forward to now, and the game is just coming out, after a lengthy redo process undertaken by Saber and their numerous publishers.
It’s an ironic fact, considering Timeshift’s main focus is manipulating time via your special suit. By using a variety of annoying button combinations, you’re able to freeze, slow down, or reverse time. There are plenty of instances where doing so is required to bypass an area or solve a puzzle, but even when you don’t have to use your powers, doing so is still fun – a far cry from the normal gimmick effect being annoying to use.
The little things related to it are just well done as well. Water and raindrops freezing in mid-motion as you pause time, stealing your enemies’ weapons as you pause time, reversing a collapsing building or bridge so you can cross over it before it’s demolished – the little things you can do make it much more interesting and useful as a gameplay element rather than a pure puzzle solving feature.
As for Timeshift’s story… That’s where things get a little muddled, although to be fair, on purpose. Without spoiling too much, it’s the typical “old white dictator guy in the future police state” scenario, except you have a suit which manipulates time and happens to be malfunctioning, as well as messing with your head. Whether or not it was a cop-out due to a bad story or planned from the beginning isn’t really important; it is, and that’s all there is to it. And hey, not every FPS can have a fantastic narrative.
Outside of the time effects, Timeshift doesn’t bring a whole lot of newness to the table. There’s something about it, though, that makes that not matter. Whether it’s the fighting or the environments (which admittedly aren’t as spacious as we were originally promised), it just has some aura surrounding it when you play, making it fun. I can’t really explain what makes the game so entertaining to play and watch, because I really can’t pinpoint a specific reason. It’s similar to what happened with the first Halo game, although not nearly as forceful. (And no, I’m not saying Timeshift is the next Halo.)
While the single-player isn’t anything new or even too exciting, multiplayer changes that. Obviously you don’t have the same time powers as you do offline, because that would completely break online gameplay. Instead, you have time grenades which affect areas in their radius.
It’s a blast nailing people with a pause grenade then unloading into them, or hitting a guy with a slow grenade as he tries to desperately escape from you. Compared to Halo 3 the online isn’t quite as good, but it’s a better offering than many other Xbox 360 games out there, and the variety of modes will keep you busy for quite a while once you finish your solo play.
Timeshift isn’t going to crack the Top X FPS Titles list unless you list FPS titles with a new gimmick, but it’s certainly not a waste of money. While a certain other FPS which brought nothing revolutionary to the forefront succeeded greatly and became an instant classic, Timeshift just doesn’t capitalize on what’s in it well enough to make a similar claim at greatness. For FPS fans it’s a fun game that should be considered for your library, and at least tried. For other gamers, you may as well play through it if you have access to it, but it’s not something to crack open the checkbook for.
