TimeShift

I promised myself that I would try and write this review without making any stupid time-related jokes and I sincerely hope I can adhere to that by not saying lame stuff such as "this game is worth your time" and so on (you get the drift).

What I will say is that developer Saber Interactive are a ballsy bunch who, after being thrashed for their previous version of the game (that was to be released on the Xbox and the PC), went back to the drawing board to come up with a brand new game that can visually hold its own ground in the presence of some heavy hitters such as Halo 3, The Orange Box and so on.

Obviously this game isn’t going to outsell any of the above mentioned games but it’s still an entertaining first person shooter that allows players to manipulate time as they deem fit. While games like Max Payne and the more recent F.E.A.R. allowed you to slow time down, TimeShift takes it to the next level by allowing you to pause, speed up and rewind time as well, courtesy your S.S.A.M. (Strategic Systems for Adaptable Metacognition) suit.

Not only does this suit allow you to manipulate time; it’ll keep warning you of incoming threats so you know exactly which time-shifting ability to use when. While you can blaze through most of the game using just slow motion; other aspects of time manipulation such as pausing or rewinding will come into play as and when you solve certain puzzles.

While slowing down time to make it through a gate/door can get boring after you’ve done it a thousand times, using these abilities in combat is a lot more entertaining. Pausing time, you can waltz up to an enemy, grab his gun, enjoy his bewilderment for a second, and then shoot him in the face before he has a clue what’s going on.