how a great game fails its fans

This was supposed to be my favorite game of the late winter, I find myself greatly dissappointed and rewarded at the same time. If you are only about single player or some how haven't gotten online yet then this is the game for you. But, if you are a multiplayer fan who focuses on the online play then this game dissapoints. The story mode is amazing and compelling utilizing great sound and lights to key moods and to build suspence and fright.

The multiplayer is okay at best with the frustration at only 3 settings for your weapon/armor configurations. The one thing that I was amazed to see was that you can not join a match with a friend easily. There is no party system at all. So unlike halo 3,gears of war 2, or call of duty 4,5. you can not join a friend in a match or invite them to yours. I was relegated to creating a party in xbox live and then the group doing a search for a particular match and then attempting to join that host at the same time. This meant we could get into the same match but had no choice as to whos team. The kicker is that we had to repeat the process for every match, there is not vote to stay together or any way to keep the party together. This is a major oversite from a multiplayer standpoint. I am surely selling this game and overall have to not recommend this title.

another failed great idea

This game showed alot of promise. Why else would I shell out 60 of my hard earned cash. Upon playing I became increasingly frustrated and disappointed. Minor glitches in detail or user friendliness became more and more apparent as difficulty stepped up through the game. One simple example of a minor detail not being worked out is the zoom. When in zoom mode primarily with the sniper you expose yourself quite a bit. If you begin to be shot from behind you can not simply switch guns to turn and fight. No Timeshift makes you take the necessary steps to zoom out, not too responsive either, or hit reload to bring you back out to normal view. May not be a major flaw but shows the lack of detail for the player. The scenery plays out well for the alternate timeline of a grisly future or past as it appears. Water effects and explosions are eye candy. The graphics and pretty effects cannot overcome some of the level design flaws. You will find yourself constantly running in loops because you simply fell off an edge and now must walk your happy butt back through the trails. This would be a happy consequence if the controls were tight enough so you could avoid doing so. The time abilities are a nice break from other shooters. The A.I. however can get in the way and also save you from yourself. The A.I. presets different time abilities from pause, slow, to rewind based on the situation. You can override this each time you want to use the abiity by holding the button down, and then selecting the proper task. I for one would have prefered constant choice or a better A.I. on recognizing tendencies or just the situation. I for one am a run and gun take the bad guys out first. Therefore if I come up on a group of enemies, heck I'm slowing time, slower use of ability meter, and take out 2 or 3 and take cover. The A.I. seems to think the better move, if close ot any enemy, is to pause, exhaustive on time ability allocation, and leave you able to take out 1 enemy and leave you in the open to be shot to bits. On the whole its a great idea that just didn't flesh out well. Graphics and storyline were good for a shooter game. The gameplay left me needing more control and better A.I. Hopefully Vivendi or whoever they had finish this game can return with something a bit better in the future and I won't be left wishing I had the reverse time abiiity back to my purchase of this game.