Perhaps you didn’t notice with the avalanche of top-tier titles hitting the Xbox 360 library lately, but Sierra Entertainment has released its newest game, TimeShift. TimeShift is an action-packed first person shooter in which the gamer can manipulate the hands of time at will. By donning the Beta Suit players can pause, slow or rewind time much like a DVR does for television. By harnessing time gamers can destroy foes, evade incoming projectiles and even take weapons from the grip of enemies. Other games have offered “bullet time” features, but TimeShift takes it further, and makes it a major component of the game, to much success.
While the time manipulation features are something new and innovative, most everything else with TimeShift has been done before. The clichéd mad scientist hell bent on ruling the world is Dr. Aiden Krone, former professor of Applied Physics at MIT, and leader of a top secret time travel project. Dr. Krone uses his research to travel back in time and create an alternate path for humanity, as Krone and his minions build an Orwellian society bent on global domination. As a fellow physicist, you are dropped into a vastly different 1936 with your Beta Suit to help the “Occupants” liberate the Alpha District, and stop the reign of terror. From this point (i.e. the beginning), the story line begins to break down and become a little confusing and disjointed. Levels are not held together well, and it’s often difficult to know what the overall goal of the level is. Very brief cut scenes of 2 to 3 seconds in length are dropped on you randomly and add little, if anything, to the plot.
The levels progress in a very linear manner, and the gamer will often feel like a rat in a maze, with rooms and tunnels that leave you nowhere to go but forward. There are no power ups or collectables to be found that may have enticed the player to go through the campaign a second time. Although the levels are very rigid without much in free roaming, the scenes are paced nicely. TimeShift is quite adept at throwing ambushes and intense battles your way. After a very concentrated firefight, you may have to use your time manipulation abilities to solve some basic puzzles to go on to the next objective. These puzzles usually involve pausing time so that you can climb up a seesaw like objects, or throwing switches and reversing time to get on platforms. Though the puzzles are not terribly challenging, they often provide a chance to catch one’s breath between some well-done gunfights. Occasionally you’ll be manning a turret aboard a zeppelin, or riding on a quad looking for the next ambush. Overall, the levels play out nicely and feature enough variety to avoid repetition, even if it’s difficult to see how they fit into the big picture.
The upper left corner of the screen shows a gauge that correlates to your time shifting ability. The gauge is depleted by manipulating time, and will fully recharge after about five seconds of inactivity. Pausing time drains the gauge quickly, but it will allow the gamer to do some amazing things, such as shoot down incoming rockets or walk on water or through fire and electricity, and move through spinning rotors. Slowing time is the most common use of the Beta Suit, as it allows you to get the jump on your enemy, or line up a headshot or two. Time reverse is mostly used in solving puzzles, but it can be quite handy for getting clutch grenades off you (think Halo plasma grenades).
In the period leading up to the release of TimeShift I wondered if the time manipulation would be a gimmick and not well instituted, as we’ve seen in a lot of “bullet time” games. Fortunately TimeShift does a great job incorporating these features and making them a central focus of the game. Holding the left bumper and using a face button will select the appropriate time phase power. Alternately, tapping the bumper will act as a toggle, with the game selecting the best time shift. This works great during an intense fight, but acts like a spoiler when attempting some of the puzzles. Otherwise, the controls are laid out exactly like Halo 3, with the exception of the grenade button, which was moved to make room for an alternate weapon fire feature on the left trigger.
