Santa must have got my letter this year as not only did he bring health and happiness to my family and friends over the festive period, he also managed to snag a copy of Timeshift into my bulging stockings (well it is panto season after all).

Now, before I start this review let me make something quite clear, First Person Shooters (FPS) don’t do plot. There are bad guys with guns and it’s your job to shoot them before they shoot you. Id games got it right with the DOS version of Wolfenstein 3D that I played on a “State of the art” 386 PC back in the day when I should have been working a night shift. It works, so let’s not get hung up on why we are shooting these virtual victims, just enjoy it.

TimeShift is no exception to this rule I am happy to report. Basically it’s mad scientist makes suit that can travel through time, pops off to recreate the past in his own image and you have to follow him to stop him. That old chestnut. This will obviously not keep the likes of John Grisham awake at night with worry but if you want a good plot download a Dickens from Project Guttenberg, may I recommend “A Christmas Carol” as that would tick all the seasonal boxes.

So you enter the game armed with a gun and bad guys shooting at you, you don’t have your time altering powers yet so it’s a straight up shooter, and a challenging one at that, although in fairness this first section is nothing more than a tutorial, albeit a long one. Then with that out of the way you are into the game proper, and if anyone is familiar with the recent single player demo released on PSN then this is that level, replete with time altering powers – you can pause, slow and rewind time (handy), and this is where the fun really begins.

The best way of describing what it feels like is if you think back to the first Matrix film, and the way Neo paused all those bullets before him, we imagine you were the guy firing those bullets and you could stop time before you shoot. Headshot everytime, and as cool as it gets. Don’t think of a massive frag fest, this look a lot more balletic.

With the potential to be very confusing with all this time control flying around Saber Interactive, the developers, have put in all under one button, hit the L1 button and the games AI will pick the Time Power to use, although this can be overridden with a push on the L1 and taking an option from the onscreen menu, but trust me, L1 will take care of most requirements. So, gameplay is run, stop time, shoot bad guys, and occasionally reverse time to not end up a puddle under a large amount of debris.

Graphics are moody, atmospheric, and of course crystal sharp, it’s raining most of the time which gives the cityscapes a “Blade Runner”-esq feel to them, and when the temporal powers are brought into play the droplets form the sky slow, go upwards, or pause nicely. The ubiquitous ragdoll effects employed left right and centre these days are, of course, here and make every kill satisfying from each one of the two fire options on the 9 available weapons or a nicely planted grenade, that will even stick on an unfortunate soul if placed with loving care. Sound wise the guns make the right noises, along with the explosions, but there is little music to speak of in the background and sometimes the ranting form the evil scientist can get a little repetitive.

Online play is available on the Net or over a Local Area Network if you have buddies who will turn up with their PS3’s for an evening’s entertainment. On-Line the usual matches occur with the likes of Deathmatch and Team deathmatch as standard, with a match included called Meltdown Madness where you have to stop a giant machine exploding with the help of “Chron Grenades” which take the place of the time altering powers in multi-player to keep things running smoothly.

So in summary a good solid shooter, yes it doesn’t have an engaging plotline, memorable characters, or a soundtrack you will be humming for days. But it has a lengthy lifespan, and an enjoyable ride. Hats off to Saber for trying to do something new in the stuffed world of shooters.

TimeShift is published by Sierra, and retails for about £40 in the UK and $60 in the US.

Soon it must be “time” for a sequel……. See what I did there?

08 – Production Values

09 – Graphics

07 – Sound

09 – Gameplay

04 – Plot

Filed under: Main, T