Customer Reviews

Timeshift

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is an interesting FPS that allows you to use 'time' as one of your weapons in defeating the enemy; time can be slowed, stopped or even reversed. In fact, you won't get very far without using your one of your 3 'time' options to either defeat the enemy, avoid them or solve puzzles.

Some brief comments on the good and not so good...

The Pros:

1.)Smooth flowing graphics, great special effects (ambient lighting, smoke, dust etc.) and good audio.

2.)And to show off the graphics there are some stunning visuals once you get out of the urban area and into the country.

3.)A large selection of weapons (although you can only carry 3 at anyone time) that have a primary and a secondary firing option. You have, for instance, your standard pistol, automatic carbine and shotgun but you will also come across a guidable rocket launcher, a sniper rifle, an energy gun, an incendiary pellet gun and an extremely powerful crossbow.

4.)You have the ability to operate turret guns (both on the ground and on flying Zeppelins) and drive vehicles. Also, you can use 'time' when operating these units.

5.)Easy, anytime save/load with F5/F9 respectively, as well as game generated checkpoint saves.

6.)But the best (and most fun) feature of this game is the ability to alter time; however, the amount of 'time' you have to use is extremely limited, so using this asset wisely does require some thinking. Initially using 'time' was a huge advantage (especially against one or two enemy), but it soon became an absolute necessity as you proceed into some difficult combat situations (against larger, spread out groups) and also for some puzzles. There were areas that I had to 'inch' my way along (using frequent saves) to get through.

7.)I felt the game scenarios and challenges improved as the game progressed.

The Cons:

1.)Fairly narrow path to follow; very little area in which to 'roam' around or explore. (not unusual for most FPSs I guess)

2.)Limited replay value.

3.)About the only irritating thing about this game was the non-stop, repetitive propaganda dialogue, spewing from the loud speakers that were everywhere in the first couple segments and the finale.

4.)The game has fairly high hardware and video card requirements* (if you want to see it played as the developers intended).

5.)On 'Normal' game difficulty I felt there were 2 things that took away from the overall challenge of the game, these were:

a.)one weapon (crossbow) was a little too much of an advantage against the majority of the army-type personnel (it gives you the ability to easily pick off individual men from great distances).

b.) Ammo was too readily available. There was no need to conserve ammo, no need to be concerned about running low on 'bullets'; ammo seemed to be everywhere.

Conclusions:
I really liked this game...A game that uses 'time' manipulation to add a definite twist to this otherwise excellent FPS. If the game developers had not given the gamer such an omnipotent weapon (crossbow) with an overabundance of ammo, this game would have been extremely challenging to play and finish. But for this drawback, this game may have been in the running for single player 'Game of the Year' honors**. Nonetheless, an impressive and graphically beautiful game...4-4 1/2 Stars.

*System Specs...Played on Vista with an Intel Dual core processor, ASUS P5K motherboard, 2 GB RAM and Nvidia 8800 GTS video card

**other nominees (IMO) for single player, 'Game of the Year' would be 'Bioshock', 'Half-Life 2 episode 2', and 'Call of Duty 4', closely followed by 'STALKER-Chernobyl', with 'Crysis' a more distant, second tier contender.

Timeshift may not win any awards for creativity, but it was an incredibly fun game that I was totally immersed in. The time shifting function was not unlike F.E.A.R.'s, except Timeshift added the ability to stop and reverse time. And the dystopian atmosphere of the game was very similar to Half Life 2.

Single player mode is very important to me as I'm not into internet-based games, and Timeshift definitely does not disappoint. I like to play these games fairly slowly, explore everything as I go, and, with a game that has great visuals -- like Timeshift -- I probably spent 20 to 25 hours playing.

It's hard to put into words exactly what I liked about Timeshift. But I guess it's similar to what I liked about HL2; the feeling that you have physically visited a well-realized world, not that you've simply been playing a game. I personally love crawling through holes in the ground and finding your way through an elaborate environment that spans from a broken-down city to the beautiful countryside, and caves, a zeppelin and then back to the broken down city. When a game feels like an epic odyssey, you know you've enjoyed that game.

There are a couple of things that kept this from being a full 5 stars. The AI is generally excellent but occasionally limited. It says the wrong thing at certain times. Also, it is oftentimes too easy to dodge the opposition. For example, in some cases you can hide behind a closed door, let your health rebuild and then open the door and fire away. And then repeat until all are gone.

As others have mentioned, the crossbow makes it quite easy to take the opponent out. But, by the same token, it's a very fun weapon to use in certain situations as it is so effective. The scope function on the crossbow is like nothing I've seen; very impressive.

All in all I loved the game and found it hugely entertaining. The sound and music are fantastic. The visuals are different from usual, muted and almost matte; but absolutely effective and beautiful. So if you like games like Half Life and F.E.A.R. you will enjoy Timeshift. The puzzles in Timeshift are not super complex, but you do need to think in multiple dimensions to solve them. And the puzzles are the type that after you figure them out, you have a smile on your face, and are thinking "oh yeah, now I see!"

This game took the reaaaaally scenic route before, finally, finding its way home. Release dates were pushed back, again and again; publishers were changed (from ATARI to SIERRA), like horses while crossing a river: an equally bad idea. What finally reached the shore was nothing to brag about...

TIMESHIFT runs for about 10-15 hours, not short yet not long either by regular standards (I mean "regular", mind you, not HL2-Episodes which run shorter than demos). In all those hours the story never manages to engage you. Time travel has always been a mind bender to grasp - and this is especially true when the story is tissue-paper thin...True, most FPS games do not have thicker stories - yet all *Great* FPS games surely did.
In the original UNREAL you tried to escape an alien planet you crash-landed in a prison-ship. In HALF-LIFE you either fought in an alien-infested underground Black Mesa or were doing Mr Smith's biding in combine-controlled City 17. In FAR CRY you were thrown onto a tropical island with a wild bunch of mutant-creating mercenaries. In MAX PAYNE - oh, don't get me started on MAX PAYNE...
In TIMESHIFT you try to, well, get back a time-shifting suit from the evil doctor and then go back in time to amend the bad things he already did. Yeah, really exciting...

TIMESHIFT manages to stay afloat by improving on old idea. Remember MAX PAYNE's bullet-time? Well, in TIMESHIFT you can actually stop or even reverse time. This is not unlimited of course and it has rather slow recharge cycle but it provides with a number of interesting possibilities: dodge bullets, throw back the live grenade, disarm the opponents and then use their own weapons against them...(if you die though, you do stay dead).
AI? What AI? I don't know whether it is due to going back and forth in time, but your enemies never raise above flatlined braindead. Even without slowing time they will just walk in front of your mawing machine gun...

The one thing that DID improve by the long wait were the graphics. Compared to early-released demos, there seems that a lot of work has been put into all of textures, surfaces and shadows. Slow time and watch for the explosions: they are really impressive! Combine this with a collection of really imaginative and impressive weapons and you have TIMESHIFT's major success. Incendiary projectiles anyone? And I really liked the abundance of ammo! (some FPS are so stingy with their ammo crates, you would think they actually had to pay for them!)
Now, these high quality graphics do require the latest beta drivers (in fact the installation routine will direct you to the appropriate site for this reason), have pretty steep system requirements - and expect a number crashes. Ah well, that's what patches are for.

All in all, give it a try - but there are much better choices out there...

I almost missed this release amid the huge slew of first person shooters which came out recently. While I have not hit the new episode of Half-life 2, I have played the first episode as well as Bioshock recently. I would say this game tops those easily.

Lets start with the pro's:

1. The game was built for both XP and Vista, so none of that sad little marketing ploy of "You need the amazing powers of Vista to play this." The visual difference for games such as Shadowrun and Halo 2 wasn't enough to merit an upgrade and it is good to see that this game appeals to everyone (unless you are a Mac user, not sure if it is available for that).

2. Looks absolutely amazing and runs very smooth on my machine. I recently went through a pc upgrade for some new gaming. Using a Core 2 Duo, 8800 GTS, and even just 2 gigs of ram, this game looked wonderful. I haven't seen quality like this before in any game. While Half'Life 2 did very well, Timeshift's use of focal distance, blurring effects and water reflections was amazing.

3. The control worked well in this game. I love games where you can load it up and start playing immediately without fiddling with buttons for the next few hours. If you have played any PC FPS before, you will fall into this easily enough.

4. Gameplay. Odd that this is actually last on my list of Pro's, but it is the last thing I see when starting a game. The reason I value this game over any Half-Life or Bioshock is simply the amazing gameplay. The use of time powers to reverse, slow or stop time is incredible. While you may play those annoying teeter-totter puzzles of Half-Life just so Valve can show off a physics engine, the added dimension of time gives this game a complete edge over the competition.
While these powers did make combat interesting, I didn't feel that they unbalanced the game. Even on the normal skill level I sure died enough times to prove that.

And the con's:

1. I had a score of rather nasty crashes when I tried to play with the game settings. I use on board sound in my machine, which usually sounds like total garbage in any game. I went into the sound settings to attempt to turn down the default quality, and locked up my computer. After resetting and starting the game once again, ALL of the default configs were gone. Sound, Video, Control, everything was wiped and would not restore.
Attempting to manually fix everything caused one of the worst error messages I had ever seen. How often does a game dump you into a debug screen full of what looked like assembly code?
I did a reinstall and never touched the settings again, game worked well after that but I was too scared to try and fix my sound or play with my video modes after that.

2. I felt a distinct lack of plot details when I started into this game. You pick up bit and pieces as you go along (Much like the tape recorders in Bioshock) but I miss the days where you started at the beginning of the story and followed it along. Having to read a plot summary later to fill in gaps isn't my idea of a very deep gaming experience.

Overall, I loved this game. I never touched the multiplayer aspect of it, but I would assume that since you wander around and shoot things in both modes, the multiplayer works well. From what I have read, the use of time powers makes an interesting experience.

If possible I would give this game 4.5 stars due to the lack of an engrossing storyline as well as my crash issue. But then again, most gamers would shell out the 15 bucks and buy a decent card to avoid this issue altogether.

What a wonderful First Person Shooter. I ran it at 2560 resolution with maximum texture resolution, Depth of Field, maximum anti-aliasing, and more... I've played it on both the 360 and the PC and the PC (with a moderately good PC makes the console version look like a console game. ;-). This thing is easy to get into--and an absolute and literal blast to play and replay.
First--the Single Player takes a solid 20 plus hours (indoors, outdoors, in the air, and on) to play with the use of Slow, Reverse, and Stop time and your ability to literally gib--and reverse, gib and reverse, and play with your enemies. The game is technically astonishing with a depth of dynamic shadows, incredibly detailed environs and a butt-kicking (no-slow-down) frame-rate. Then when you get great at it--you can play it again against AI that is better than first rate and makes great use of your ability to confuse them (temporarily) with the time powers.
The Multiplayer though?
It puts other games to shame. I have never seen more game types--faster play for up to sixteen, and had such fun with everything from Rocket Arena to Team Deathmatch. There are new modes like King of Time (get the player with the time powers and you become the target) and Meltdown Madness where you use your four time grenades (Multiplayer has weaponized time bubbles) to slow the coolant to your enemies reactors. This is more fun than Halo 3, Half-Life Orange Box, Gears of War, and Bioshock combined (and actually longer than the new content in the three of them if you include multiplayer. Highly recommended.

I remember playing the first demo for this game a year or so ago. This final version has greatly enhanced graphics from that demo. If you don't have a powerful PC, then I would not recommend this game. Also, the installation program advises you to download the "special" Timeshift NVidia video driver - DON'T DO IT! Its really not necessary and it will mess up your system if you are running video in SLI mode.

Despite the goofy install, the game is worth playing. The timeshift gimmick is fun and some of the levels are challenging without being too frustrating.

Timeshift was an OK game, but it comes with SecuROM v7 (v1.0: v7.33.0017 / v1.2: v7.34.0014). Deleting Securom off my machine took third party utilities and too much time. I now check games out to see if they have Secrom on them and will NEVER again buy any game with Securom on it.

This game was OK to play, although it lacked something to give it a real edge. The time shift function looked like it was going to be cool, but in the end it was just another button to press when he story was getting a little weak.

The graphics engine was also a bit weird looking. It made everything look kind of grainy, a sort of reverse Bio Shock which was all hazy..

All in all slightly better than average I'm afraid.

This is a classic shooter with no visible story. As lots of folks have pointed out, it is amazingly derivative of lots of other games out there. There is a moronic Utopian/Distopian guy talking through it just like Half Life 2. There is time manipulation (really slow motion more than anything else) like FEAR and many others. But in reality, its actually quite a decent shooter.

It kind of reminds me of SIN Episodes, in that its not massively original, but its really kind of good actually. Not a classic, but a worthy addition to any collection. Certainly as good as the massively overhyped and under delivered Crysis train wreck.

As a couple of other reviewers pointed out, its not worth the premium price. This game is a classic example of great technology and a stupid story with no real objective. The artwork, graphics, movement, AI and general gameplay are all quite good. But unfortunately, its wasted on a non story that doesn't go anywhere.

The Graphics are very good. Sound is Ok and the controls are fine but the game play is too linear and uninspired. Maybe it was designed by commitee. Another bad point is the plagiarism of another game. After about 30 minutes of play I realized this game is very much like parts of Half-Life 2, only not as interesting. The voice of the propogandist even sounds like the one in HL 2. The time shift properties add some interest, but, overall it is a rather insipid game. The game designers need to make the stories interesting, to draw you in so you care about the characters and what happens. If you have not played very many 1st person shooters it will be fine, otherwise it's "been there done that". OK for $15.