Vivendi Universal games
Timeshift

In 2007, Timeshift was released, developed by Vivendi Universal Games, a company already famous for distributing F.E.A.R. (in my opinion, one of the masterpieces that should not be missing in every FPS lover’s collection).

The storyline is very simple: two suit projects capable of time manipulation are created, the first of which (Alpha suit - the standard version) is stolen by Dr. Aiden Krone, the project leader, playing the role of the more canonical mad scientist. It is up to the player, having seized the second device (Beta suit - full-optional military version, adapted for combat), to pursue Dr. Krone to prevent him from going back in time and becoming the master of the world.

From the start, you are thrown into a very Orwellian reality, where we see Krone towering over giant screens, quite similarly to how Dr. Breen ruled over City 17 in Half Life 2. The city we find ourselves in is reduced to heaps of rubble, continuously scoured by Krone's guards, supported by robots as tall as buildings (with whom we’ll immediately have the honor to clash); these last ones echo the style of the GDI Titan, present in the old Command&Conquer: Tiberian Sun. By our side, the rebels, immediately identifiable as the "good guys," will often help us in battle throughout the game.

Having described the storyline (not too complex), we proceed to a more detailed analysis of the game. In my opinion, this game presents very few innovative elements, while many game schemes have already been seen and revisited even in quite famous titles. Among the first is the ability to slow down, stop, or rewind time at will, which essentially boils down to a way to justify the presence of Slow-Mode, the famous mode (already widely experimented in other titles, such as F.E.A.R.) in which enemies become chronically slow, and we can shoot them with the same calm as shooting fish in a barrel. Obviously necessary at some points, where there are so many enemies that the game becomes difficult without it. It is despised by purist shooter fans.

Its use in solving puzzles, which are sometimes really original, sometimes already seen in other titles, is interesting, though it is facilitated by the fact that the suit’s AI (also vaguely inspired here by the speaking suit Mark IV of Half Life) automatically chooses the necessary type of time warp, thus eliminating any difficulty (option obviously removable from the menu). This automatic selection of powers also occurs in combat, thus removing from the player the choice of the best path (in their opinion).

Even the weapons seem banal and canonical. We have a machine gun, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, the most canonical long-range crossbow (HL2), the weapon of curses against moving targets, plasma rifles firing typical orbs, rifles shot howitzer-style, a flamethrower, and lastly, a real rocket launcher with a red dot indicator guidance system, which does not resemble at all those developed by Valve seven years prior (Half Life - Game Of The Year 2000). Truly nothing new.

The enemy AI is not bad and is reasonably well developed, although at times they seem more like shooting range targets than soldiers. You’ll often see them standing still, without even bothering to kneel (the bare minimum). Moreover, they’ll frequently become ridiculous by crashing entire vehicles into walls while trying to hit the player or caught in other poorly executed threatening attempts. They don’t exactly strike as professionals. Furthermore, they struggle to find cover, except in situations where it’s obvious they should, and they sometimes seem a bit static, while at Valve, the Combine were even capable of putting poles between themselves and the player (they should have ended up in the NBA for certain grenade tosses). Nonetheless, the gameplay remains voluntarily chaotic, enemies are hard to spot, and encounters are always dynamic and difficult to control, at least without the radar and time-warping powers.

The setting is very beautiful, especially within the city compared to other environments. Anyway, the scenario is always kept lively and pulsating by aircraft engaged in battles in the skies above the city, machine-gun bursts, searchlights, and other elements that are really well done. The inspiration is clearly Cyberpunk in nature, and it can be noticed throughout the game. The only flaw is the design of the enemies (except for the giant building-sized robots), which, again, isn’t particularly innovative.

This is also supported by a really excellent graphics engine, which has the advantage of not being heavy at all, but of fully exploiting the machine’s potential. In fact, the game can run even on 256mb graphics cards, despite the high-poly characters and the extensive, detailed environments (for more modern shooters, 256 is usually tight). The rendering is excellent, the game is smooth and well-optimized, with a really good final result. Note the lighting, in my opinion, the mainstay of the entire setting, well executed and detailed. The rain is also well done, constantly present in the city and finely reproduced; being picky, only the shadow of one’s character is missing, which would add a greater sense of immersion in the scenarios, but it remains at a great level.

In conclusion, the game is a copy-paste of schemas and elements already developed in various titles and not even badly re-proposed in the end. You wonder if this was intentional, to ensure the title's success, or due to a simple lack of inventiveness. In any case, it’s a nice game for spending a few hours in front of the PC. If you are looking for something new compared to the standard, searching for a work of art, or a piece of cutting-edge video game development, then this is not what you're looking for, this is the standard. If you want to have fun, the title more than serves its purpose.

P.S.: The comparisons with some of the most famous titles were made to contextualize the work.