What do you think of it? Most people who played it (and then comment on it, and I find their comments) seem to see it as disappo […]
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What do you think of it? Most people who played it (and then comment on it, and I find their comments) seem to see it as disappointing and acceptable at best, but I really like it. Well, I really like a lot of it. Unfortunately, I feel that some sections of the game are boring, there aren't enough enemies in many parts of the game, the story is very badly told (seriously, I must have completed the game half a dozen times now, and I still seem to have missed most of the story), the most fun enemies to fight (the ones who can slow down time for themselves) occurrtoo late in the game and too infrequently, I wish there wasn't a weapon carrying limit (still, at least it's three weapons, and not the far more annoying two weapons as in many other games), and even though some of the areas are quite big there is little incentive to explore because you don't find hidden rewards (such as unique or at least rare weapons, or friendly NPCs who you can optionally save).
On the plus side, many of the levels are really fun, the weapons are great, graphics-wise I really like the alternative time-line style building and the fantastic weather effects, and the time-based puzzles were short enough to not get repetitive. When the game is good, it can be really good.
And the time powers were at times great! Being able to rewind time, whilst not really useful, looks great, at least for the first two or three times you try it), but being able to slow down time at will is great, and being able to stop time, then shoot some enemies, then restart time and watch the enemies then get hit and die is fantastic.
But the problem with the time mechanics is that they are too short. You can rewind time for about seven seconds, which, aside for a few in-game puzzles and one quick dash to safety near the beginning of the game, is over to quickly for you to do anything productive. You can rewind time and bring back anyone who has just died, but then you don't have enough time to save them from dying again if they are facing more than one enemy. The time-pause and time-fast-forward functions are less limited, because they last for about twice as long as time-rewind, but they are still too short to try anything really non-conventional when fighting a group of enemies.
What this game really, REALLY needed was an upgrade system, so you could upgrade how much time-energy your suit could store, how efficient your time-pause power is (more efficient would make it use less time-energy, so basically it increases the time you can stay paused), how efficient time-rewind is, how efficient time-slowdown is, how much damage your shield can take before it stops working, and so on. A good upgrade system could have really transformed this game.
And, like so many good first person shooters before it, Timeshift has the obligatory unenjoyable level. I hate the tedious turret section when you're travelling in the flying zepplin thing.
I wish more games had copied Timeshift's time mechanics. You could make some really great first and third person shooters that utilized time control.
