TimeShift

The key feature of TimeShift is the player's ability to control time: slowing, stopping or even rewinding time more or less at will. This allows a player to stop time to dodge an incoming projectile or steal an enemy's weapon. Specific time-related puzzles also require these abilities. The player's abilities also affect the color of their environment in such that slowing time produces a blueshift, rewinding it produces a yellow haze, and stopping time creates a white filter "haze".

The player must use them wisely to make its way through the game. In some parts of the game the time powers are lengthened.

Scientists from the near future have begun work on creating a viable time machine. The project results in the creation of two devices: the Alpha Suit, a prototype jumpsuit, and the Beta Suit, a more advanced, military-grade model with features the Alpha Suit lacks such as combat-related time manipulation abilities and an integrated artificial intelligence named Strategic Systems for Adaptable Metacognition (or S.S.A.M.) designed to assist in combat and to prevent the creation of temporal paradoxes.

The director of the project, Dr. Aiden Krone, rigs the laboratory to explode, takes the Alpha Suit and travels into the past. Once there, he uses his knowledge to alter the timeline, placing himself as the ruler of the Krone Magistrate that controls a dystopian world.

TimeShift was originally going to be published by Atari in Fall 2005 for PC and Xbox. In August 2005 the game was delayed to spring 2006 and the Xbox 360 version was announced. In February 2006 Atari delayed TimeShift to 2007 and cancelling the Xbox version. Publishing rights switched to Sierra on April 20, 2006. On August 31, 2006, TimeShift was delayed for a second time.

Because the game had been delayed several times and was not mentioned very much in gaming news, the press thought that the project had been abandoned - later attributed to a highly negative reception of the 2006 demos. However, on April 10, 2007, Vivendi Games announced that they were giving TimeShift a complete overhaul and were fixing many bugs.

TimeShift received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.

Critics found the gameplay derivative of other titles released before and close to Timeshift and found the plot underwhelming. However, the core gameplay and mechanics were praised for their polish.