TimeShift

TimeShift - (PS3 Xbox 360 PC)
Developer: Saber Interactive
Format: PS3 Xbox 360 PC
Genre: FPS

Bold and brutal time-shifting fighting

By now the words bullet-time will probably set you off to sleep with distant dreams of getting excited when The Matrix was first released. In the context of describing TimeShift though, it gives what's on the surface an OK shooter, an extra boost of impact.

You're a shadowy physicist armed with a special suit. So special in fact that it has regeneration, shield and time shifting capabilities. Within a convoluted storyline it's the actual combat and time shifting parts of this game that grab your attention, not the plot. You'll quickly learn when and how to pause and reverse the time of the game so that you can solve puzzles and dodge bullets (and anything else fired at you). If this sounds like you've opted for the god cheat mode then it is slightly. But what the developers throw at you is an ever-shifting enemy AI combined with some tricky choices to make while shifting the seconds. It's not even close to as easy as it sounds to frag your way through these detailed environments, even when you can pause a sticky grenade in mid-flight. If you go back and alter time, the future can change too. This is handy to realise when there are explosives flying at you from all directions.

Online multiplayer is where the frenzied fun can be found. Time shifting here throws up a bubble-like Halo 3 shield and slows everything it touches. It leads to intense arena style battles that you can jump straight into. It certainly beats the repetitive nature of the puzzle solving that quickly develops in single player. It's almost a no-brainer though with the game set-ups in multiplayer (capture the flag, team deathmatch) but the combat has an edge that makes it worthwhile. (Having to trap enemies inside a chrono sphere before you can kill them is great fun).

This is a case of giving the first person shooter a new lease of life but it's just up against too good a title already out on this console and there's no prizes for guessing which one.

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