This is a comparison and commentary of two games on the PC that uses time travel in the gameplay and story. You won't find a scorecard at the end or which game I believe you should play. Spoilers are present here.
I decided to do this because I have seen people on certain forums compare the two games and claim one is better than the other w/o saying anything more than flames and troll like statements. This annoyed me enough to try this out.
Both games were played on:
Gateway DX4200-09 with AMD Phenom 9150e Quad-Core Processor~1.8GHz, Vista 64 bit, HIS ATI Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3
In both games you play as the silent protagonist trying to unmake the future or present reality that you are in because of some massive douchebag. You also have time powers and original weapons that are used in the game-play and story which are supposed to immerse you in the storyline.
singularity:
The player in the Singularity is Nate Renko, a Black Ops specialist that is trying to find out why Katorga-12(a Russian island)in 2010 has suddenly went hot with radioactivity. You learn that two Russian scientists working on time travel may have taken over the world with their work. You are in this future time-line or not (it'll get confusing) and you work with the 'good doctor' in trying to fix things. You will acquire a time manipulation device that will give you time altering powers and allow you to travel back to 1950 when the time travel research was ongoing. Along the way you will find graffiti on the wall, notes & voice recorders from people the worked in Katorga-12 and even ghostly non-CG past events of unfortunate victims that lived and worked on the island. All of this will help to immerse the player in the storyline or provide game-play hints. You also acquire help with another Black Ops agent and female agent of a group called MIR-12. This story also provides you with four different twist endings, one of which you should have seen coming and the other two is somewhat surprising that they actually let you do it. Majority of the game uses non-CG movies.
Raven software really tried to make an immersive experience for the gamer. It tried to pull you into the story with all the little notes scattered around. The voice recorders were more of a hit and miss. I can see why some people would have a voice recorder on them but not when they are battling for their lives. Perhaps that is why they died. They were more concerned with lugging around that unwieldy thing than shooting the monsters.
Timeshift:
The player in Time Shift is a silent no name protagonist/scientist. He is battling Dr. Aiden Krone of a time travel project that he was part of. He seems to be doing it because Krone kills a woman scientist/engineer(?) he slept with. He might also might have some secret agenda of which is never explained in the game. Krone has the modern Alpha suit while you have the older Beta suit. They both allow time travel while the one that you wear has computer helper and he does not. Dr. Krone has created an alternative time-line where he rules the world with giant city spiders and cloned men
with some time manipulation powers. Along the way, the player receives pretty CG cut-scenes that should explain his motivations and some back-story of the time travel project. You fight Dr. Krone in this future time-line just so you can get at his suit which will allow you to go back and save the girl. One ending for the game is provided and it feels pretty anti-climatic. It feels like the game is gearing up for Alpha Vs Beta timesuit fight and it never happens. A CG cut-scene kill.
Timeshift:
You have regenerating health. Practically God mode.
Your weapons seems to have been made for third person perspective which is odd for an FPS. You have to rely on your cross-hairs to kill people because your guns are permanently placed to the right of your screen. While you can see the gun, you can not look down it's sights or use it's image as reliable idea where your bullets are going to go. You will have three weapon slots and some different grenades. Ammo is picked up by dropped weapons or found by crates. Some game breaking and some useless.
Your time powers:
Run, Pause and Reverse time. Powers are limited with an regenerating energy bar.
Run: Everything slows down and you can now walk faster than everybody else. Takes the least energy.
Pause is self explanatory. Takes the most energy.
Reverse time: For puzzles mainly. Is quirky in it's energy consumption rate.
The game will a times take away your weapons to make game-play harder but they don't explain why those weapons have disappeared in your inventory. You will also have to drive quad bikes to get past some arbitrary obstacles and have to do an escort mission.
Enemy AI: will react when you shoot at them and tend to circle strafe or camp at wide open spaces.
Enemy variety: Some can fly, use time powers, shoot different weapons and are tanks both literally and figuratively.
Saving is done by both checkpoints and the quick save/load and ability to make your own save files.
Singularity:
Health doesn't regenerate but you can collect health packs and instant health syringes. You have a Regenerating time power bar for your time powers and E99 recharge packs.
You have two weapon slots and the capability to upgrade your weapons with weapon kits. (Clip size, reload speed, damage). Two completely game breaking weapons and one only useful to get at secret areas with weapon kits and E99 cores. All weapons have secondary capabilities and you can sight in with them.
You receive a time manipulation device (TMD) that gives you a variety of powers either active or passive.
_Active_
Age things/people or Revert age them
Take things/rockets or push them away and stun enemies.
Create a sphere that slows things/people down except for you and your weapons.
_Passive_
Upgradable based on collectible E99 cores. A variety of powers like increasing health, accuracy, regenerating health, increasing number of health packs, E99 recharge packs, run stamina, underwater breathe holding time, etc. The passive powers and the upgradeable guns will only make your game easier to play.
You also get the chrono ping. Which shows you a glowing set of footprints which tells you where to go. I do not understand why this was given to you since this game isn't a sandbox type of game. Maybe it was just to show that the TMD wasn't solely a weaponized tool.
Enemy AI: They will group up and try to take you down using each other or they will camp locations around the map.
Enemy Variety: More so in the monsters than with the men. The men will just have different weapons. The monsters tend to have time based powers but they tend to be easily dispatched since they follow the same attack method. No variety in attacks. At least the bosses had more variety.
Saving is done by checkpoint only. You can load up to three different load slots but you can replay a section easily. If you wanted to do that, you would have to play two parallel games on two different load slots.
to walk through, let alone fight in. Singularity art tends to be more gritty while Time shift seems to have went for steampunk type quake look.
~You can use your TMD to grab explosive barrels and use them against the enemy. You are not forced to use the TMD or your weapons only like in Time shift where certain situations forced you to use your weapons. The you are forced to use your powers in conjunction with your weapons in some of the boss battles. Time shift's game-play forced you to use your powers. Everyone but you can run in timeshift and quite a few of your weapons do not work well with a mouse and keyboard setup. While the Singularity game seems to work with both easily enough.
~TimeShift seemed to have been designed for the consoles and the PC version lacks because of it. ~Singularity seems to have been built for the GeForce series of cards which can be annoying but it might more have to do with my system.
Timeshift's story is nearly basic generic FPS except for the ending. There isn't anything during the game-play elements that would keep immersed in the story. Singularity's story has a few holes like how Renko were able to choose exactly where and want time to go when he couldn't do it prior in the game. Why was Renko able to go back to the 1950s before he acquired the TMD? No one else seemed to be able to jump back forth like that. Why does both games have such different futuristic weaponry when both seem to be in the past. Timeshift never explained why the protagonist is such a good shot, while Singularity gave the guy military experience.
I decided to do this because I have seen people on certain forums compare the two games and claim one is better than the other w/o saying anything more than flames and troll like statements. This annoyed me enough to try this out.
Both games were played on:
Gateway DX4200-09 with AMD Phenom 9150e Quad-Core Processor~1.8GHz, Vista 64 bit, HIS ATI Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3
In both games you play as the silent protagonist trying to unmake the future or present reality that you are in because of some massive douchebag. You also have time powers and original weapons that are used in the game-play and story which are supposed to immerse you in the storyline.
~Story~
singularity:
The player in the Singularity is Nate Renko, a Black Ops specialist that is trying to find out why Katorga-12(a Russian island)in 2010 has suddenly went hot with radioactivity. You learn that two Russian scientists working on time travel may have taken over the world with their work. You are in this future time-line or not (it'll get confusing) and you work with the 'good doctor' in trying to fix things. You will acquire a time manipulation device that will give you time altering powers and allow you to travel back to 1950 when the time travel research was ongoing. Along the way you will find graffiti on the wall, notes & voice recorders from people the worked in Katorga-12 and even ghostly non-CG past events of unfortunate victims that lived and worked on the island. All of this will help to immerse the player in the storyline or provide game-play hints. You also acquire help with another Black Ops agent and female agent of a group called MIR-12. This story also provides you with four different twist endings, one of which you should have seen coming and the other two is somewhat surprising that they actually let you do it. Majority of the game uses non-CG movies.
Raven software really tried to make an immersive experience for the gamer. It tried to pull you into the story with all the little notes scattered around. The voice recorders were more of a hit and miss. I can see why some people would have a voice recorder on them but not when they are battling for their lives. Perhaps that is why they died. They were more concerned with lugging around that unwieldy thing than shooting the monsters.
Timeshift:
The player in Time Shift is a silent no name protagonist/scientist. He is battling Dr. Aiden Krone of a time travel project that he was part of. He seems to be doing it because Krone kills a woman scientist/engineer(?) he slept with. He might also might have some secret agenda of which is never explained in the game. Krone has the modern Alpha suit while you have the older Beta suit. They both allow time travel while the one that you wear has computer helper and he does not. Dr. Krone has created an alternative time-line where he rules the world with giant city spiders and cloned men
with some time manipulation powers. Along the way, the player receives pretty CG cut-scenes that should explain his motivations and some back-story of the time travel project. You fight Dr. Krone in this future time-line just so you can get at his suit which will allow you to go back and save the girl. One ending for the game is provided and it feels pretty anti-climatic. It feels like the game is gearing up for Alpha Vs Beta timesuit fight and it never happens. A CG cut-scene kill.
~game-play~
Timeshift:
You have regenerating health. Practically God mode.
Your weapons seems to have been made for third person perspective which is odd for an FPS. You have to rely on your cross-hairs to kill people because your guns are permanently placed to the right of your screen. While you can see the gun, you can not look down it's sights or use it's image as reliable idea where your bullets are going to go. You will have three weapon slots and some different grenades. Ammo is picked up by dropped weapons or found by crates. Some game breaking and some useless.
Your time powers:
Run, Pause and Reverse time. Powers are limited with an regenerating energy bar.
Run: Everything slows down and you can now walk faster than everybody else. Takes the least energy.
Pause is self explanatory. Takes the most energy.
Reverse time: For puzzles mainly. Is quirky in it's energy consumption rate.
The game will a times take away your weapons to make game-play harder but they don't explain why those weapons have disappeared in your inventory. You will also have to drive quad bikes to get past some arbitrary obstacles and have to do an escort mission.
Enemy AI: will react when you shoot at them and tend to circle strafe or camp at wide open spaces.
Enemy variety: Some can fly, use time powers, shoot different weapons and are tanks both literally and figuratively.
Saving is done by both checkpoints and the quick save/load and ability to make your own save files.
Singularity:
Health doesn't regenerate but you can collect health packs and instant health syringes. You have a Regenerating time power bar for your time powers and E99 recharge packs.
You have two weapon slots and the capability to upgrade your weapons with weapon kits. (Clip size, reload speed, damage). Two completely game breaking weapons and one only useful to get at secret areas with weapon kits and E99 cores. All weapons have secondary capabilities and you can sight in with them.
You receive a time manipulation device (TMD) that gives you a variety of powers either active or passive.
_Active_
Age things/people or Revert age them
Take things/rockets or push them away and stun enemies.
Create a sphere that slows things/people down except for you and your weapons.
_Passive_
Upgradable based on collectible E99 cores. A variety of powers like increasing health, accuracy, regenerating health, increasing number of health packs, E99 recharge packs, run stamina, underwater breathe holding time, etc. The passive powers and the upgradeable guns will only make your game easier to play.
You also get the chrono ping. Which shows you a glowing set of footprints which tells you where to go. I do not understand why this was given to you since this game isn't a sandbox type of game. Maybe it was just to show that the TMD wasn't solely a weaponized tool.
Enemy AI: They will group up and try to take you down using each other or they will camp locations around the map.
Enemy Variety: More so in the monsters than with the men. The men will just have different weapons. The monsters tend to have time based powers but they tend to be easily dispatched since they follow the same attack method. No variety in attacks. At least the bosses had more variety.
Saving is done by checkpoint only. You can load up to three different load slots but you can replay a section easily. If you wanted to do that, you would have to play two parallel games on two different load slots.
~Graphics:
Time shift holds to the quake models and the outdoor tree's and fields feels artificial while Singularity alien plants had a more natural feel to it. I want to describe the outdoor quality to you, but my game tended to bug out on me. All the dirt and rubble would reverse gravity and stretch itself out across the screen. It made certain sections of the game nearly impossible to walk through, let alone fight in. Singularity art tends to be more gritty while Time shift seems to have went for steampunk type quake look.
~Music:
Both games were atmospheric and didn't intrude in my game-play. Nothing worth remembering or mentioning. sounds: They both have their strengths and their faults. Timeshift didn't have enough and only seemed to used them for their weapons. While Singularity almost had too much. I don't think I ever got to point in the game where it was completely silent.~You can use your TMD to grab explosive barrels and use them against the enemy. You are not forced to use the TMD or your weapons only like in Time shift where certain situations forced you to use your weapons. The you are forced to use your powers in conjunction with your weapons in some of the boss battles. Time shift's game-play forced you to use your powers. Everyone but you can run in timeshift and quite a few of your weapons do not work well with a mouse and keyboard setup. While the Singularity game seems to work with both easily enough.
~TimeShift seemed to have been designed for the consoles and the PC version lacks because of it. ~Singularity seems to have been built for the GeForce series of cards which can be annoying but it might more have to do with my system.
Timeshift's story is nearly basic generic FPS except for the ending. There isn't anything during the game-play elements that would keep immersed in the story. Singularity's story has a few holes like how Renko were able to choose exactly where and want time to go when he couldn't do it prior in the game. Why was Renko able to go back to the 1950s before he acquired the TMD? No one else seemed to be able to jump back forth like that. Why does both games have such different futuristic weaponry when both seem to be in the past. Timeshift never explained why the protagonist is such a good shot, while Singularity gave the guy military experience.
