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Review: TimeShift (Xbox 360)

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With Halo 3 being released not so long
ago it’s a wonder why anyone else would want to release another first-person
shooter, especially given the mass fanfare that surrounds the Master
Chief and co. But abandoning all sense of reason, TimeShift has taken
up the challenge. 

As the title suggests, TimeShift’s
narrative centres on temporal manipulation, in this case the ability
to pause, rewind and slow time. This is done so thanks to a time-shifting
suit, and it’s up to you to find another professor in the dystopian
future that just also happens to have a similar suit. 

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Ever since the Matrix trilogy many
films and games have ‘borrowed’ the ‘bullet time’ effect of
slow motion. In the gaming world the more relevant examples would be
F.E.A.R. and now TimeShift.  

We’ve seen the ability to slow down
time so often, but the addition to rewind and stop it altogether does
mix it around a bit, slightly.  

Here’s how it works. (cont.)

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{mospagebreak}Outnumbered? Simply stop time, take
the enemies weapon off them and blast them in the noggin with it, when
time resumes their head’s been blasted into pieces before they even
realised.

Or you can alter time. Left with low health after walking
into a hail of bullets? Then rewind time for a few moments and do things
differently. 

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It may not sound all that at first,
but it’s actually more satisfying than we thought it would be. The
rewinding of time in particular is also used to solve puzzles in the
game. Most of which involve situations like slowing down time to get
to a door before it shuts, or rewinding time to use a path before it
becomes obliterated by explosives.  

Not exactly taxing, but the developers
should be given credit for trying to add something to a saturated genre.
But even so, shootouts are entertaining no matter how much you choose
to manipulate time.  

The levels and setting takes place
mostly in a dystopian future, skies are dull and grey, buildings are
derelict and mechanised gun-toting robots patrol the landscape. A great
deal of effort has gone into creating a believable world, and graphically
there is not much wrong.    

There is not much wrong with the game
as a whole either. While the level design is not exactly original it’s
still well executed. Gameplay is relatively simple and straightforward
enough to get to grips with. The only problem TimeShift has is that
there isn’t really anything that makes the game stand out. 

The ability to rewind, pause and slow
time does add something, but it can get repetitive. Hardcore fans of
first-person shooters will enjoy this title because there is great fun
to be had. But at a time when games of this genre are plentiful it’s
just another first person shooter. 

Rating: 7/10

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