Scott
11-30-2007, 01:55 PM
At first glance H.G. Wells, Cher and Hiro Nakamura may not appear to have much in common. After all, one is an author, pne a cosmetically enhanced pop singer and the other a fictional character in Heroes.
In their various different ways however all three have addressed the issue of manipulating time to personal and professional advantage.
Given it's associations with Science Fiction, evil geniuses and elaborate gadgetry , it is surprising that the gaming world has not followed old H.G.'s (not to mention Cher's) lead and properly tackled the issue of clock control. Until now.
Timeshift, it should be stressed, does not proffer and invention to hop between epochs like a turbo-charged Judith Chalmers.
Rather, it injects a welcome does of originality into the FPS genre by allowing you to stop, slow or briefly rewind the action and re-arrange matters either to accelerate your progress or given the quality of programming here, simply admire the asthetics.
We have come close to this already this year and sniffed the potential: Call of Juarez and Stranglehold both benefited from slow-motion shoot-outs, while the latter also approached the Holy Grail of merging the visual spectacle of a stunning cut scene with genuine control.
This cracking release, which is in real danger of being totally eclipsed by the brouhaha surrounding Halo 3 achieves this likely feat of promising something entirely new and successfully delivering it.
An essentially linear futuristic FPS boasting beautiful and phenomenally detailed graphics - you can for example actually view the distorted world through a frozen raindrop - it plays almost as well as it looks.
Enemy AI is one of the first order, which means you can play havoc with established routines and behaviors by hoping back a few moments and for example, swiping the weapon from the guard your about to butcher.
Weapon selection starts small and grows as you progress with satisfying twists on familiar gizmo's and it is never forgotten that imaginative carnage can be an end in it's self, not just an means to mission completion.
If the single-player game is a little repetitious, the multiplayer is a master class in expanding a games appeal.
All told this is one of the best looking games around, while the time-shift gimmick makes what would otherwise be a highly competent excursion into familiar territory that little bit special.
Verdict:
If you could turn back time.... Wit you can!
In their various different ways however all three have addressed the issue of manipulating time to personal and professional advantage.
Given it's associations with Science Fiction, evil geniuses and elaborate gadgetry , it is surprising that the gaming world has not followed old H.G.'s (not to mention Cher's) lead and properly tackled the issue of clock control. Until now.
Timeshift, it should be stressed, does not proffer and invention to hop between epochs like a turbo-charged Judith Chalmers.
Rather, it injects a welcome does of originality into the FPS genre by allowing you to stop, slow or briefly rewind the action and re-arrange matters either to accelerate your progress or given the quality of programming here, simply admire the asthetics.
We have come close to this already this year and sniffed the potential: Call of Juarez and Stranglehold both benefited from slow-motion shoot-outs, while the latter also approached the Holy Grail of merging the visual spectacle of a stunning cut scene with genuine control.
This cracking release, which is in real danger of being totally eclipsed by the brouhaha surrounding Halo 3 achieves this likely feat of promising something entirely new and successfully delivering it.
An essentially linear futuristic FPS boasting beautiful and phenomenally detailed graphics - you can for example actually view the distorted world through a frozen raindrop - it plays almost as well as it looks.
Enemy AI is one of the first order, which means you can play havoc with established routines and behaviors by hoping back a few moments and for example, swiping the weapon from the guard your about to butcher.
Weapon selection starts small and grows as you progress with satisfying twists on familiar gizmo's and it is never forgotten that imaginative carnage can be an end in it's self, not just an means to mission completion.
If the single-player game is a little repetitious, the multiplayer is a master class in expanding a games appeal.
All told this is one of the best looking games around, while the time-shift gimmick makes what would otherwise be a highly competent excursion into familiar territory that little bit special.
Verdict:
If you could turn back time.... Wit you can!