Timeshift(Playstation 3) Review

Whenever I think of Timeshift, the demo on the early days of the Playstation Network on PS3 is what I always thought of. Out of all the demos I played this I did play an awful lot. The time manipulation powers just felt so inherently cool and awesome. Not a lot of shooting games even give time powers outside of Quantum Break so Timeshift has some novelty to it. That is weird thing about it, the game is extremely derivative but the game rips off so many titles that released in the 00s that it inadvertantly becomes innovating in an extremely bizarre way.

Before I start, the game does have a strange glitch where the PS3 version if you remain idle when paused for too long, the melee attack animation will trigger on it's own in an infinite loop and then crashes after a few minutes.

The story of Timeshift is incomprehensible and hard to follow, the cutscenes are too vague to get a clue on what's happening. There's an evil dictator name Krone, main character goes back in time, there's a resistance you help them, Krone dies and it seemingly ends. There are some jarring ways the story is told like how it has cutscenes in the middle of levels when the story is presented in first person. There's a reason why Half-Life never cuts away from Gordon's perspective or even games like Call of Duty and Halo where the cutscenes often happen at the start and end of every level but never in the middle of one. The advantage of the first person perspective is how it creates the illusion of going through one take without the issues that film crews go through when making them.

Timeshift makes it almost too obvious how much it loves Half Life 2. There's a resistance and dictator who talks on the radio like Wallace Breen. It doesn't end there. There sections where you are going through a canal, a lengthy vehicle sequence remiscent of Highway 17, breaking into and out of a prison, going through vast outdoor areas of land on foot to get an enemy stronghold, there's also helicoptor fights, vehicle riding in first person and puzzles to solve too. There's also loading screens when entering a new part of the level. Weapons have alternate fire modes too.

The devs really like Half Life 2 but it doesn't just end there. There's the variations of bullet time from both Max Paynes 1 and 2. A radar that displays enemies, melee attack, grenade throw button like in Halo. Rewind like in the Prince of Persia Sands of Time Trilogy. There's also aspects of FEAR games like a 3 weapon limit and where many enemy encounters begin with enemies in an unaware state with death animatons being gory and over the top like in those games.

You can ridicule and mock the game to death for how "uninspired" I just made it sound. This is where the charm comes in and loops back in of itself. Half Life 2 doesn't have FEAR's over the top and gory combat. Max Paynes 1 and 2 doesn't have Halo's instant grenade throw button. Halo has regen health but doesn't have the bullet time of either Max Payne game as a quick way to save yourself when at critical health or get the quick drop on enemies. You may not be able to hold all guns like in HL2 and Max Payne but you get a little more flexiblity with the 3 weapon limit. To top everything off, Timeshift's various guns while standard fare also have their own alternate fires like in HL.

This makes for the most entertaining frankenstein's monster combat system ever created. You can can freeze time to disarm and quickly kill enemies, time speed up to make to quickly close the distance, throw a grenade to get some group kills. Use time freeze to better aim shots. You can even use time speed up to make the assault rifle have a faster fire rate and use the grenade launcher. You can also hold powerful weapon to keep for later along with the assault rifle and shotgun like a rocket or sniper. When low on health, time speed up to some far away cover or freeze to quickly kill an enemy in front of you.

The game is very much worth for it for how derivative yet indirectly unique the combat because of that.

Gameplay issues with the game is that the turret sections are dull and out of place. The saving grace is that you can use your time powers during these parts. The rewind ability serves no purpose outside of mandatory puzzles and you can quick save anywhere. Rewind is only here so the puzzles can exist. It's so useless in combat, it's easy to forget this power.

There is also random sections where there are hazards that can kill the player very quickly if you don't use your time powers in time to save yourself, the voice in the suit will give you a warning but they can still be rather intrusive since they can be trial and error.

First level is terrible since you have to play it like every other regen health shooter with far off enemies and waiting for health to regen. The 2nd level is when it gets good.

Overall, Timeshift is bizarre in that it rips off so many games that it indirectly makes becomes fun and memorable.