Timeshift (Xbox 360)

From the first time I saw the trailer, I was gobsmacked. Such a cool idea and a cool uniform. I couldn't wait for the chance to stop time and steal the enemies weapons to use on themselves. I played the demo too and that seemed very good too so I decided to buy the game.

Like most games now, there is a single player and online multiplayer of up to 16 players.

Singleplayer
The single player game is a bit confusing at first but I think it's designed that way as you try to figure out what is actually happening. You start off with a cut scene of a demolished building and a news review. Time goes backwards and you find out there was an expolosion in the lab and you use the suit to escape. Things are a bit hazy at first as the story unfolds.

Gameplay-Gameplay reminds me a little of call of duty but you are very limited on jumping movement. You can obviously slow, pause or reverse time and makes getting past obstacles very interesting. You really need some lateral thinking to help you get to the next level. This way of multidimentional thinking sort of reminded me of a PS2 game called Soul Reaver. Anyway, I found the gameplay very linear as there is always only one way to go/one door to chose which sometimes limited my enjoyment of the game. I also was a little disappointed that it's purely 1st person view and you can't even see your feet. I was sort of hoping that there would be an option for 3rd person view as I was rather looking forward to seeing myself in the cool suit in action. Especially when ripping the enemy rifle out of their own hands and using it on themselves (like in the trailer). Alas this isn't the case. By the way if you hadn't tried it in the demo, you can do this but you need to have paused time (not slowed it down). As you progress along the story, you unlock content like music tracks, video cut scenes.

Multiplayer
Although I've only had this a day, I have tried several times to attempt a multiplayer game as I thought the game would be a lot of fun with the potential of up to 16 players. However I have so far found that much like the problem that I have with HALO 3, the connections are very poor. Don't get me wrong I'm not on a super slow broadband (I've got 4Mb broadband with Virgin media) and have not had any problem with GRAW 2, but have found that with Halo 3, Rainbow Vegas and this game, I've been lagging all over the place. Maybe I just need to accept that I've got to go up to 20Mb package but I can't imagine many people having this as standard. I think many US players tend to host so maybe this is the problem.
Anyway, the few multiplayer games I've had are reasonably good. Maps are big and you have a variety of options, however it's understandable that not too many people are on yet as it's a new game. You have Ranked and Player matches like most games and each are split as follows;
Deathmatch - each man for himself
Team Deathmatch - team with the most kills wins
King of time - Grab the time sphere to become the king of time and impervious to all time effects
Metdown Madness - Throw Chrono grenades at the opposing team to prevent it from functioning. Your team wins when your machine completes its countdown
Capture the flag - self explanitory
One-on-one - one on one battle to the death
There are 14 maps available, each with a recomended number of players ranging from 2-8 players to 8-16 players.
You can't really pause, slow or reverse time in multiplayer mode as you can with singleplayer, but your timeshield does allow a bubble of time to be created around you allowing you to act at the same speed but everything around you becomes slow. I'll stick with it and see whether an upgrade to a faster broadband speed helps - maybe games now need to have broadband speeds that fast. I also found it hard to figure out which team I was on as you can't really see yourself so had to go into game review to find out.

Overall
An excellent concept with very cool suit and good gameplay. A shame about the multiplayer so far but may improve. I remain hopeful. I would advise to rent first if you have the option before you buy as your multiplayer experience may be limited.

If you've played through "The Orange Box" and "Halo 3" and are looking for more original FPS fodder, look away now. Almost all of the solo campaign play is reminiscent of HalfLife2 with dabs of the Halo trilogy added to mix it up a little. It's as if a committee of businessmen asked "what's gone down well lately then?" and set about steeling other developers ideas. And given how long this game has been in production, that probably did happen at some stage.

So why am I still playing it then? Because, even though this game is a loveless void of facsimile with fairly dated game-play, YOU CAN BEND SPACE-TIME.

After a while, you realize that the only weapon you would really need is a big spanner, because once you've paused time, run around a soldier and then happy-slapped him from behind, what's the need to have elaborate high-tech weaponry? Ok, there are those semi-scary time-bending supersoldiers to deal with from time to time, but since they are expecting to win, pinning them with explosive crossbow bolts is amazingly satisfying. I laughed once when I picked up a tossed grenade, reversed time to prevent the thing going off and then deposited between one of these supersoldiers' legs. He actually said "huh? impossible..." before going up his own posterior. Classic.

So there you have it. If you are a Valve or Bungie zealot, stay well away. If, on the other hand, you can get over the obvious influences (ahem) of this title, and especially the "circa 2004 feel", you might just have a good giggle with this one.

Oh, I should mention that there are some clever puzzle solving aspects to this game that are impossible to complete unless you utilize your time-space bending powers, so it's not all slow motion slaughter.

Frankly though, I think this game would have worked much better as a third-person shooter ala "Gears of War". Maybe next time, eh lads?

this is a great game, excellent graphics, good controls and a good choice of weapons, the ability to use time to your advantage is fantastic, slowing things down and having the enemy freak out and wonder what has happend is excellent, its not all freezing things and dodging bullets though, just when you think its going well, you have to decide, do i freeze time, do i slow time, or do i reverse it, lots of little puzzles that will have you pulling your hair out if your as thick as me, havent finished the game yet, but i dont see myself getting bored at all, comparing this to halo 3, id say its twice as fast to play, nice smooth movement, gets you thinking! worth buying