TimeShift

The time elements are very well done, giving you a true sense of power and time manipulation. However, there are some balancing issues with the weaponry, and an overly linear feeling throughout.

With a satisfying campaign, backed up with a truly unique multiplayer experience, TimeShift certainly isn’t a run-of-the-mill title anymore, and for sci-fi fans this may be one of your most rewarding titles this year.

What Half-Life2 did for physics, TimeShift attempts to do with time. By and large, TimeShift succeeds where many have failed.

A great game, perhaps unfortunately overshadowed by the number of higher profile FPSs being released around this time, and let down only by an overly confusing plot.

A hugely enjoyable shooter. Ignore at your expense. [Issue 27, p.92]

Basically it's a well done shooter with time twisting gimmick. Obvious puzzles and stupid AI makes things too easy even on elite-level. Fiddling with time is fun although the game does not use all of its potential. [Dec 2007]

The combat is a blast (literally!), particularly when you use your time powers effectively. Unfortunately, the puzzles are far too simple.

TimeShift is an entertaining shooter with a different take on the tried and true bullet-time mechanic, but feels like there were a lot of golden opportunities lost. Still, you won’t regret your time spent in TimeShift.

While it may not approach the craftsmanship or innovation of a "Half-Life 2," TimeShift introduces enough interesting elements to its derivative gameplay to make this game worth a look.

An uneven hit or miss proposition that relies heavily on elements borrowed from shooters that came before it, but managed to deliver on the innovative feature it brings to the table.

Not perfect, but TimeShift is a satisfying and empowering FPS, guaranteed to entertain. [Christmas 2007, p.83]

Entertaining, visually clean, but not enough to set it apart.

TimeShift would be a pretty average game if it wasn't for the time manipulating abilities.

The greatest shame is that developer Saber Interactive wasn’t bold or ambitious enough to really capitalise on the one or two good ideas they actually had, and that’s ultimately the difference between a game that is just good and a game that is great.

A great deal of work was done to bring the look and feel of TimeShift up to date, though an equal amount of time should have been spent on the design and presentation.

TimeShift has its moments, but you'll wish that you could rewind time and re-release the game with more imaginative level design and smarter AI.

The time travel themed story is ineffectively told and the enemy AI is rather brain-dead. You'll also face overwhelming numbers during most battles but the good thing is that your time powers provide a nice edge.

TimeShift does some interesting things with the idea of using time control. It's a little familiar to anyone who's played games with bullet time, like Max Payne, but it's original enough to not be called a copycat. But it's not challenging unless you decide to make it so, and the puzzle portions of the game are just silly.

TimeShift doesn't do a lot of innovative things, but it's still fun.

With TimeShift, the price of admission gets you a very challenging shooter with a lot of fantastic special effects and excellent graphics, but not much else.

Over-all while there are better FPS titles now available with Call of Duty 4 and others setting the grade, there is a place for TimeShift in the grouping.

A solid shooter in many ways and has the seeds of success sown into it, there are simply too many undercooked elements peppered throughout the experience for it to ably thrust forward from the shadow of much bigger and much better FPS entrants that have graced 2007 with genuine 'Game of the Year' wow factor.

Brilliant use of time powers which means it fulfills it primary purpose, misses out on reaching its full potential though as the puzzles and game are made far too easy.

Although we've been here many times before, Timeshift is still a slick shooter with some neat ideas. [Christmas 2007, p.83]

If it had been released in 2004, TimeShift probably would've been the bee's knees. In 2007, though, it's merely a one-hit wonder in a sea of timeless gaming anthems.

A drawn out and largely mediocre experience that's perhaps to be expected given TimeShift's difficult gestation, Saber Interactive's shooter nonetheless has some bright moments - but they're too little few and far between.

An average shooter that has the ability to be great, but misses out by not using its namesake correctly.

While TimeShift is perfectly adequate for killing a few hours, as a rental perhaps, it never elevates itself from merely okay, and if you only buy one shooter for the holidays you can do much better than this.

With your $60 on the line, however, it's only multiplayer that rescues TimeShift from the throes of average-dom. [Holiday 2007, p.74]

It's a decent game that feels ultimately out of its league. [Dec 2007, p.62]

Although TimeShift brings a neat gimmick to the table, that's about all it brings.

In conclusion, Timeshift is a decent game worthy of a weekend rental. If you enjoy FPS’s like FEAR and are not concerned with story, you may enjoy this game.

Time shifting is a good example of innovation within the first person genre, but TimeShift fails to really make good use of it.

Overall a good game, but not something that is going to make it out of the shadows of the other big blockbusters on the market, even if it can control time.

Breaking no moulds, but good solid fun. [Christmas 2007, p.90]

Timeshift is a simplistic and vaguely enjoyable shooter with an unfortunately scheduled release. It's a shame about the other shortcomings Timeshift brings to the table, otherwise it could have been a sleeper classic.

We might say that this game was a bit “unlucky” with its release date, because it can’t measure up with some of the FPS that came out this year. The truth is, although the time controls are a fun idea, everything else is a carbon copy of every other generic shooter out there. [Dec 2007]

The game is a solid, creative FPS that brings a lot of new ideas to the genre, despite its minor flaws. Unfortunately, due to the short story, and multiplayer overshadowed by better games, spending more than you'd need to to rent this thing from Blockbuster would just be a waste of money that you'll probably need to purchase food, or paper towels for some reason.

TimeShift is a good game that could have been considered great if it was released earlier. Placed against the current competition though, most of the experience feels generic in execution. Only worth purchasing if you've already played through every other recent shooter out there.

TimeShift frequently faced me with challenges that were initially incomprehensible, and then too easy to overcome once I had some idea of what the hell I was supposed to do.

Timeshift starts off with a bang, with impressive visuals and God-like powers at your fingertips. The bang, however, fails to last throughout the game, and you’ll constantly find it harder and harder to keep going.

The controls are solid enough, but there have been so many other stellar shooters over this holiday season, I can’t see why anybody would choose this game.

TimeShift's appeal and lasting value are directly proportional to what you're in it for and what you're willing to put up with. The single-player campaign is justifiably criticized with being overtly derivative, but the time shifting component makes it just fresh enough to be worth a look.

What we are left with is a really good shooter that is somewhat hindered by bad AI, a bad storyline and tedious objectives toward the end. The sum total of the whole game still comes out being a pretty good one even with those problems.

The time manipulation gimmick makes TimeShift an enjoyable if forgettable experience.

An interesting time-shifting mechanic and fun-to-shoot weapons can't make up for the rest of TimeShift's run-of-the-mill first-person shooter gameplay.

TimeShift has a great concept that should have added something new and original to the crowded first-person shooter genre. Unfortunately Sierra's newest action game is marred by a boring story, an easy difficulty and time shifting abilities that aren't nearly as much fun as they should have been.

The clunky puzzles and mechanics often overwhelm any sort of enjoyment you might get out of confronting large squads of enemies, especially when the overall formula for the game follows a typical solve-the-puzzle-and-fight-wave-of-enemies-and-repeat design.

The things it does are rife with potential it doesn't really exploit, and the result is adequate but nothing more - worth picking up in the January sales when you've overdosed on the competition, perhaps, but otherwise unremarkable.

Basically, Timeshift is a decent game marred by a massive amount of already used ideas and not enough unique appeal, even with its time travelling mechanics. Customers who see this on a shelf, which also contains the likes of Halo 3, The Orange Box, and Call of Duty 4, will probably leave the game out in the cold this winter.

It may have few aspirations beyond being a dumb FPS, but it never fails to make the most of its limited talents. [Christmas 2007, p.97]

Gamers looking for a solid shooter on the next gen consoles could do a lot worse than Timeshift, but as cruel as it may be, Timeshift will simply not be remembered in any way shape or form in the not so distant future.

If you're somehow done with all the big FPS releases of the year then TimeShift isn't a bad option, it's just not a game that will get a second look by most gamers gorging themselves on the likes of Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4.

TimeShift definitely looks a lot prettier than it did the first go-round, but once again it finds itself behind the times. [Holiday 2007, p.80]

A little Crysis here, a little Half-Life 2 there, TimeShift's patchwork construction definitely shows. What you wind up with is a standard shooter where you blast away until things go sideways, and then it's time to mash the "easy" button.

Only the mere prospect of reversing a grenade, or shooting a missile in slo-mo will save the gamer from feeling completely brain-dead at the end of the game. [Dec 2007, p.102]