The Flux Capacitor,

TimeShift is a game that has gone through development hell and back. Originally announced in early 2005, this game has gone through at least one of each of the following: a change in publishers, a change in main protagonist and story, and a significant change in art direction. Usually one of these can be enough to signal an end to a budding game; an interactive experience unjustly ripped from our grasp. Against all odds, TimeShift has persevered and crawled its way to release, wanting nothing more than to please eager gamers. You gotta give the team credit for trying!

The greatest strike against TimeShift is that it is a game that players have seen many times over. For the most part gameplay consists of liberal amounts of Half-Life 2 mixed with sprinkled doses of Painkiller and Bioshock. The original steampunk design of the game was jettisoned for a very 30s art deco vibe, much like we’ve seen in Bioshock, which is then a shame considering that TimeShift cannot match the former’s visual flair.

It’s not even that the graphics are bad, far from it, the rain effects in the first part of the game are astonishing, but they lack a bit of polish, which diminishes any residual “wow”- factor. In addition, the mediocre graphics have a tendency to stutter as frame rate drops,though not bad enough to be game-breaking, are quite simply annoying.

A Nifty Mr. Fusion,

Of course, that is not to say that I did not enjoy this game, which in the end makes it all the more heart-breaking that TimeShift is as mediocre as it is. While much of the gameplay is gleaned from older, better games, TimeShift succeeds in its gimmick (mostly). As the title implies, a form of time travel is the novelty of this game, and it is a fun one indeed. While this gimmick is not taken fully realised (players can only rewind, speed up, or pause a finite amount of time), nor is it used for much outside of combat (for solving simplistic puzzles that frustrate more than they thrill), when used creatively in a hectic firefight, a player’s control over the sands of time comes close to making this game a homerun.

Put simply, it is this control over time that makes you feel as though you are truly the only hope of the story's enslaved populace. The enemies in TimeShift, while having the AI of a turnip, are pretty tough; their armor actually protects and I’d imagine most soldiers have almost as much health as the game’s protagonist.

Manipulating time: pausing it to snatch an enemies’ weapon from his hand (sweet!) ; rewinding it to get out of the way of a barrage of bullets (useful!) ; speeding it up to easily attach a grenade to an opponents helmet (CliffyB style!) ; all of these elements combine to add unique wrinkles to the otherwise stale gameplay of TimeShift. I would have liked to see the developers push this element a bit more – integrate it into more elements of gameplay, but considering the shortened development cycle it remains the saving grace of TimeShift and an aspect I found to be very satisfying.

The approach to multiplayer in TimeShift is quite clever. There are standard Deathmatch (DM), and Team Deathmatch (TDM) style options that are all well and good, but have been done a lot better in other games. The gametypes that focus on time manipulation, not surprisingly, were the most fun to play.

The King of Time has players battling and searching for the TimeSphere, which makes the carrier immune to all manipulations of time, giving one ample power to rain vengeance down upon their enemies. Meltdown adds an interesting twist to the “capture-the-flag” style game by having players throw chrono-grenades at an opposing teams machine in order to stall its doomsday countdown. It’s these unique twists or applications of the time-manipulation theme that really make TimeShift shine; a little more faith in its gameplay may have pushed this title up over the edge into something truly special.

And a Bitchin' Car Make Time Travel Possible, Baby!

A solid idea mixed with uninspired execution makes up the basic recipe of TimeShift. While I had a lot of fun playing this game: manipulating the flow of time to trick, outrun, or straight-up murder my enemies; I just couldn’t shake the feeling that more could have been done, the envelope could have been pushed, and some boundaries could have been stretched. It’s all the more painful to think what this game could have been had the team not been limited by the project’s ‘reboot’. As it stands TimeShift is a game content to stick to the mold and with all the other innovative titles released within the last few months, a well-designed gimmick is just not enough to make it stand out from the pack.