TimeShift (Xbox 360)

The one area (over Live and System-Link) that really does shine in TimeShift is the multiplayer aspect of the game. There are several game modes on offer that most gamers will be familiar with.

Deathmatches, Team-Deathmatch, 1-on-1 duels, Capture the Flag are all in the game's arena-style combat mode and it harkens back to the good old days of Quake and Unreal Tournament in that respect. The weapons that were fairly overpowered in singleplayer have been balanced to near-perfection in multiplayer and none of the issues are prevalent.

The game's true strength is in the tactical use of chrono-grenades, these offer a slice or bubble of time-shifting power to anyone that hurls them. They project a chrono-effect into a bubble (like Halo 3's bubble grenades) and anything that enters that bubble is subject to the effect, so projectiles slow down for instance or players are frozen to the spot as time pauses.

There are variants of play in the game's modes too, there's a variant where one player has a full set of time-shift powers but is the target of everyone else, a mode where you have to catch enemies inside a time sphere to kill them and a gametype that's like attack/defend where you lob chrono-grenades into the enemies' machine to blow it up and win.

It's one of those multiplayer games where it's so simple its complex, the correct use of those time-shift chrono-grenades can turn defeat into victory and there's sparse cover so the firefights harken back to the good old days of shotgun-to-the-face Doom or Quake. There is a dearth of customisation options for your controller and it's nice to see the option to switch between right/left handed players included, since some developers actually forget that.

TimeShift has gone from being a weak, wimpy, completely pathetic excuse for a FPS into the realms of a decent game. Yes, there are glitches and a few clipping errors, yes it's not really going to push the 360's graphics very far and some people will argue it's a bland looking game. Well, yes and no, it does look bland in some areas and in others it looks positively gorgeous. It's a real treat to see the torrential rain reacting to the effects of a time shift power; it's also strange and somewhat hypnotic to watch the rain go back up into the sky when you reverse time.

The most important fact is that TimeShift is fun, the tactical options offered by the 3 core powers in frenetic gunfights both sp and mp give a real sense of joy. There are times in a shooter you just want to run into a big group, stop time, throw down a grenade and then run away. You can do that in this FPS or as we tested last night. Beat down guard, rewind time, beat down guard, repeat for a while.

The developers have put in some destroyable environments too, with certain walls being reduced to rubble when sufficient force is applied to them. You can rewind time as well to watch the wall rebuild, which is gimmicky, but also cool.

The time puzzles might be a little simplistic but they are paced just about right and you are never short of something to do in the game. The best feature by far is the mad chrono-grenade inspired multiplayer that is a true kill-em-all frenzy with enough weapons and ammo to make sure anyone can dive into the battle and start racking up kills straight away.

I think the developers have redeemed themselves and I'll be looking forwards to seeing what they can come up with next.