oesn’t it seem like we’ve been talking about Timeshift for quite a while now? Regardless of the fact that within its four-year development cycle it’s switched publishers and even moved onto next-gen hardware, Timeshift looks like it will finally see the light of day. At Sierra’s Gamers’ Week last week, we had the fortunate experience of getting a super-brief taste of the single-player experience, but most importantly we got to see how the multiplayer scenarios will work with a heap of 16-player LAN matches.

In Timeshift, players will have the ability to stop, slow and reverse time. In multiplayer that poses quite a bit of problem. If everyone has these same abilities, it’s going to be a screwed-up situation, because if one person uses time powers no one else will really be able to do anything, resulting in quite a mess. So what Saber Interactive decided was to take each of the three time powers and allow users to throw grenades that create sphere’s or bubbles, which, inside this area, a certain time-altered state will happen.  There will also be a time shield available that will make you invincible to all time powers.

These time bubbles change quite a bit of how the game can be played. While you can’t bring back a teammate from death by throwing a time-reverse bubble on top of him, anything shot into the time-reverse bubble will shoot back. Say your buddy is about to get owned by a rocket. Toss in time-reverse grenade, and not only will it act as a barricade and block the shot, but it will reverse the rocket onto the enemy. Time bubbles can most effectively stop enemies in their tracks, and especially in CTF matches, they can prove to be quite valuable. 

Multiplayer modes are generally standard fare deathmatch, team deathmatch and CTF. Two new Timeshift-specific modes include King of Time and Meltdown Madness. King of Time is a variant of something like Halo 2’s Oddball, in which one player has time-control powers and other players are trying to kill you to gain those powers. Meltdown Madness pits two teams against each other in which each team is trying to destroy a Time Machine in the enemy base with Time Grenades.

What will really separate Timeshift’s multiplayer elements is the amount of flexibility server administrators will have. Saber wanted players to be able create a multiplayer experience tailored to what they wanted. Hate campers? Is someone taking paths to pick up all of the key power-ups and weapons? Put on camp protection and change the respawn time of items. Low gravity? Insta-gib? It’s all there. 

Let’s face it — this holiday season is going to be filled to the brim by first-person shooters looking to nab the contents of your wallet. While there will be a lot of FPS experiences coming out that have a been-there-before taste to it, it’s nice to see Timeshift offering up a cool twist, as well as allowing players to create the type of games they want. However, the big question is, will these differences be enough to make a mark in the crowded FPS market this year? We had quite a blast fragging our friends with Timeshift multiplayer, and our little taste will definitely bring us back for more.

We’ll have more on Timeshift in the coming weeks, but for now, take a gander at a variety of direct-feed movies.