Product Description

Dr. Aiden Krone is a former professor of Applied Physics at MIT, notorious for his unrivaled brilliance and obsession with Thermodynamics, Advanced Propulsion, and Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). Despite his increasing tendencies to demand control and secrecy, he became the Founder and Lead Physicist of a classified Time Travel research program. Over a decade later, Krone's program had successfully developed the world's first time-traveling suit technology. However, as the program's equally secretive decision-makers demanded this technology be adapted for military applications, Krone's feelings of self-entitlement and anger grew. He secretly desired a new existence, a new world where his scientific endeavors could be shaped and experienced without outside interference. The combination of Krone's mind and his suit technology gave him the ability to create and control another existence - an existence where a man of science could finally operate without restrictions and do so within a place where science itself was properly respected¿ regardless of the effects on humanity. It is now up to you to trace Krone's last known appearances and stop his tyrannical rule over Alpha District. In a twisted world where scientific accomplishments reign, it's up to you to don the Beta Suit and Master Time to Become the Ultimate Weapon.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2508 in Video Games
• Brand: Sierra
• Model: 72620
• Released on: 2007-10-30
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platforms: Windows 2000, Windows XP
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .40 pounds

Amazon.com
Dr. Aiden Krone is a former professor of Applied Physics at MIT, notorious for his unrivaled brilliance and obsession with Thermodynamics, Advanced Propulsion, and Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). Despite his increasing tendencies to demand control and secrecy, he became the Founder and Lead Physicist of a classified Time Travel research program.

Over a decade later, Krone's program had successfully developed the world's first time-traveling suit technology. However, as the program's equally secretive decision-makers demanded this technology be adapted for military applications, Krone's feelings of self-entitlement and anger grew. He secretly desired a new existence, a new world where his scientific endeavors could be shaped and experienced without outside interference.

The combination of Krone's mind and his suit technology gave him the ability to create and control another existence - an existence where a man of science could finally operate without restrictions and do so within a place where science itself was properly respected… regardless of the effects on humanity.

It is now up to you to trace Krone's last known appearances and stop his tyrannical rule over Alpha District. In a twisted world where scientific accomplishments reign, it’s up to you to don the Beta Suit and Master Time to Become the Ultimate Weapon.

Features:

• Harness time as the Ultimate Weapon: Slow, stop and reverse the flow of time to destroy your enemies
• Unleash a powerful arsenal of weapons and vehicles in 24 combat missions
• Up to 16-player multiplayer, featuring the use of time grenades in 14 different maps, allowing for unique style of slow, stop and reversal of time
• Completely customize your multiplayer experience with over 40 different features to fit your style of gameplay

ESRB Mature:

• Blood and Gore
• Intense Violence
• Language

Customer Reviews

Timeshift...an excellent FPS that with some improvements could have contended for 'Game of the Year' honors
This is an interesting FPS that allows you to use 'time' as one of your weapons in defeating the enemy; time can be slowed, stopped or even reversed. In fact, you won't get very far without using your one of your 3 'time' options to either defeat the enemy, avoid them or solve puzzles.

Some brief comments on the good and not so good...

The Pros:

1.)Smooth flowing graphics, great special effects (ambient lighting, smoke, dust etc.) and good audio.

2.)And to show off the graphics there are some stunning visuals once you get out of the urban area and into the country.

3.)A large selection of weapons (although you can only carry 3 at anyone time) that have a primary and a secondary firing option. You have, for instance, your standard pistol, automatic carbine and shotgun but you will also come across a guidable rocket launcher, a sniper rifle, an energy gun, an incendiary pellet gun and an extremely powerful crossbow.

4.)You have the ability to operate turret guns (both on the ground and on flying Zeppelins) and drive vehicles. Also, you can use 'time' when operating these units.

5.)Easy, anytime save/load with F5/F9 respectively, as well as game generated checkpoint saves.

6.)But the best (and most fun) feature of this game is the ability to alter time; however, the amount of 'time' you have to use is extremely limited, so using this asset wisely does require some thinking. Initially using 'time' was a huge advantage (especially against one or two enemy), but it soon became an absolute necessity as you proceed into some difficult combat situations (against larger, spread out groups) and also for some puzzles. There were areas that I had to 'inch' my way along (using frequent saves) to get through.

7.)I felt the game scenarios and challenges improved as the game progressed.

The Cons:

1.)Fairly narrow path to follow; very little area in which to 'roam' around or explore. (not unusual for most FPSs I guess)

2.)Limited replay value.

3.)About the only irritating thing about this game was the non-stop, repetitive propaganda dialogue, spewing from the loud speakers that were everywhere in the first couple segments and the finale.

4.)The game has fairly high hardware and video card requirements* (if you want to see it played as the developers intended).

5.)On 'Normal' game difficulty I felt there were 2 things that took away from the overall challenge of the game, these were:

a.)one weapon (crossbow) was a little too much of an advantage against the majority of the army-type personnel (it gives you the ability to easily pick off individual men from great distances).

b.) Ammo was too readily available. There was no need to conserve ammo, no need to be concerned about running low on 'bullets'; ammo seemed to be everywhere.

Conclusions:
I really liked this game...A game that uses 'time' manipulation to add a definite twist to this otherwise excellent FPS. If the game developers had not given the gamer such an omnipotent weapon (crossbow) with an overabundance of ammo, this game would have been extremely challenging to play and finish. But for this drawback, this game may have been in the running for single player 'Game of the Year' honors**. Nonetheless, an impressive and graphically beautiful game...4-4 1/2 Stars.

*System Specs...Played on Vista with an Intel Dual core processor, ASUS P5K motherboard, 2 GB RAM and Nvidia 8800 GTS video card

**other nominees (IMO) for single player, 'Game of the Year' would be 'Bioshock', 'Half-Life 2 episode 2', and 'Call of Duty 4', closely followed by 'STALKER-Chernobyl', with 'Crysis' a more distant, second tier contender.

Huge amount of fun!
Timeshift may not win any awards for creativity, but it was an incredibly fun game that I was totally immersed in. The time shifting function was not unlike F.E.A.R.'s, except Timeshift added the ability to stop and reverse time. And the dystopian atmosphere of the game was very similar to Half Life 2.

Single player mode is very important to me as I'm not into internet-based games, and Timeshift definitely does not disappoint. I like to play these games fairly slowly, explore everything as I go, and, with a game that has great visuals -- like Timeshift -- I probably spent 20 to 25 hours playing.

It's hard to put into words exactly what I liked about Timeshift. But I guess it's similar to what I liked about HL2; the feeling that you have physically visited a well-realized world, not that you've simply been playing a game. I personally love crawling through holes in the ground and finding your way through an elaborate environment that spans from a broken-down city to the beautiful countryside, and caves, a zeppelin and then back to the broken down city. When a game feels like an epic odyssey, you know you've enjoyed that game.

There are a couple of things that kept this from being a full 5 stars. The AI is generally excellent but occasionally limited. It says the wrong thing at certain times. Also, it is oftentimes too easy to dodge the opposition. For example, in some cases you can hide behind a closed door, let your health rebuild and then open the door and fire away. And then repeat until all are gone.

As others have mentioned, the crossbow makes it quite easy to take the opponent out. But, by the same token, it's a very fun weapon to use in certain situations as it is so effective. The scope function on the crossbow is like nothing I've seen; very impressive.

All in all I loved the game and found it hugely entertaining. The sound and music are fantastic. The visuals are different from usual, muted and almost matte; but absolutely effective and beautiful. So if you like games like Half Life and F.E.A.R. you will enjoy Timeshift. The puzzles in Timeshift are not super complex, but you do need to think in multiple dimensions to solve them. And the puzzles are the type that after you figure them out, you have a smile on your face, and are thinking "oh yeah, now I see!"

THE SUIT! MY KINGDOM FOR THE SUIT!
This game took the reaaaaally scenic route before, finally, finding its way home. Release dates were pushed back, again and again; publishers were changed (from ATARI to SIERRA), like horses while crossing a river: an equally bad idea. What finally reached the shore was nothing to brag about...

TIMESHIFT runs for about 10-15 hours, not short yet not long either by regular standards (I mean "regular", mind you, not HL2-Episodes which run shorter than demos). In all those hours the story never manages to engage you. Time travel has always been a mind bender to grasp - and this is especially true when the story is tissue-paper thin...True, most FPS games do not have thicker stories - yet all *Great* FPS games surely did.
In the original UNREAL you tried to escape an alien planet you crash-landed in a prison-ship. In HALF-LIFE you either fought in an alien-infested underground Black Mesa or were doing Mr Smith's biding in combine-controlled City 17. In FAR CRY you were thrown onto a tropical island with a wild bunch of mutant-creating mercenaries. In MAX PAYNE - oh, don't get me started on MAX PAYNE...
In TIMESHIFT you try to, well, get back a time-shifting suit from the evil doctor and then go back in time to amend the bad things he already did. Yeah, really exciting...

TIMESHIFT manages to stay afloat by improving on old idea. Remember MAX PAYNE's bullet-time? Well, in TIMESHIFT you can actually stop or even reverse time. This is not unlimited of course and it has rather slow recharge cycle but it provides with a number of interesting possibilities: dodge bullets, throw back the live grenade, disarm the opponents and then use their own weapons against them...(if you die though, you do stay dead).
AI? What AI? I don't know whether it is due to going back and forth in time, but your enemies never raise above flatlined braindead. Even without slowing time they will just walk in front of your mawing machine gun...

The one thing that DID improve by the long wait were the graphics. Compared to early-released demos, there seems that a lot of work has been put into all of textures, surfaces and shadows. Slow time and watch for the explosions: they are really impressive! Combine this with a collection of really imaginative and impressive weapons and you have TIMESHIFT's major success. Incendiary projectiles anyone? And I really liked the abundance of ammo! (some FPS are so stingy with their ammo crates, you would think they actually had to pay for them!)
Now, these high quality graphics do require the latest beta drivers (in fact the installation routine will direct you to the appropriate site for this reason), have pretty steep system requirements - and expect a number crashes. Ah well, that's what patches are for.

All in all, give it a try - but there are much better choices out there...