Preview

Timeshift

By Daphinicus
May 31, 2007 11:48 AM PST
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Could Timeshift's numerous delays pay off in the end? We're betting on yes. Take a look at how it's coming along.

In November of 2005, as the explosive release of the Xbox 360 finally began to die down and the gaming world started to settle back into its comfortable routine, a relatively small developer called Saber Interactive announced TimeShift. Saber promised to re-imagine time manipulation as no other company had done, combining great visuals with an enveloping story and a fully-realized gameplay mechanic. But Saber's only released game at the time was Will Rock, a painfully derivative FPS that tanked under the weight of its relentless, gore-fest combat. No one had much faith in the company's vow.

In April of 2006, it seemed that even TimeShift's publisher, Atari, was questioning the title's viability. Saber ended up switching publishers to Sierra and Vivendi Games, and TimeShift was pushed back a few months for further polishing. By August of 2006, the game was a handful of bugs away from being ready for release.

Them's some good firepower.

It claimed an all-star cast of voice actors (including Dennis Quaid and the infamous Michael Ironside) and a respectable visual aesthetic. It was good, but it wasn't great. So Saber decided to take a page from their own creation and turn back time. They scrapped the script. They scrapped the engine. In essence, they scrapped the game, and started all over again.

Almost a year later, TimeShift is a completely new beast. Its engine has been smelted down and refashioned into a next-gen behemoth, sporting all the fancy visual doodads gamers have come to expect post-Unreal Engine 3 -- plus a few new ones. Character models, once defined only by a few thousand polygons, now regularly sport over five million of them. The entire aesthetic, previously rooted in a colorful steampunk design scheme, has been shredded in favor of a darker, grittier, grimier feel. Even the controls have been switched out for more streamlined, accessible play.