Games with time travel mechanics?
What games involve time travel or time control in their gameplay mechanics? I don't mean games where time travel is just part of the story (i.e. it's used just to take the player to different eras or periods, as in the Timesplitters games, and most other games that have time travel storylines), nor games where you can simply slow down time (i.e the Max Payne games), or games where you can just speed up time (like in the Sim City games).
No, I mean games where you can rewind time (as in Braid), or better yet, rewind time but have time not effect you whilst it rewinds (as in Timeshift), or where your one player character performs one set of actions, then goes back in time to co-exist with your earlier self and performs a second set of actions 'simultaneously' (as in Wiwo Dido: The Case of the Broken Timemachine), or where you can jump to any point in game time (either directly or by fast-forwarding/rewinding through the game) and make changes to the game world and those changes are then naturally built upon as game time progresses forward (I can't think of any game like this, offhand, but I'm sure there are some).
Any suggestions, or thoughts on games that others in this thread have named? And please, no spoilers for those of us who've not played those games, so don't give away games secrets (i.e. everyone who've heard of the time travel based game Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask knows that the game has a three day (game time) cycle, and after the three days the game world resets, Nintendo made no secret of that, but those of us who've not played the game know little more than that, so please don't discuss the game in detail, or use spoiler boxes, if you do).
No, I mean games where you can rewind time (as in Braid), or better yet, rewind time but have time not effect you whilst it rewinds (as in Timeshift), or where your one player character performs one set of actions, then goes back in time to co-exist with your earlier self and performs a second set of actions 'simultaneously' (as in Wiwo Dido: The Case of the Broken Timemachine), or where you can jump to any point in game time (either directly or by fast-forwarding/rewinding through the game) and make changes to the game world and those changes are then naturally built upon as game time progresses forward (I can't think of any game like this, offhand, but I'm sure there are some).
Any suggestions, or thoughts on games that others in this thread have named? And please, no spoilers for those of us who've not played those games, so don't give away games secrets (i.e. everyone who've heard of the time travel based game Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask knows that the game has a three day (game time) cycle, and after the three days the game world resets, Nintendo made no secret of that, but those of us who've not played the game know little more than that, so please don't discuss the game in detail, or use spoiler boxes, if you do).
Post edited by ewgf on
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Bloody good game though, originally you believe the whole purpose of the game is to find the person who killed you, but as it unfolds....blah blah I'll say no more :D
Seconded. I really enjoyed that one too. Great atmosphere, and a very clever little game...
Majora's Mask's time-travel is an extension of the first N64 Zelda game, Ocarina of Time. That made you play the N64 controller's buttons like the holes of an ocarina to play tunes that, at first, just advance night and day, though you could always just hang around for nightfall instead. That didn't make a huge difference, but a few puzzles and quests could only be completed at night. Wind Waker expanded on this with not just night and day, but phases of the moon sometimes being important in side-quests.
The main factor with Majora's Mask's time travel is that everything in the game world (except a few critical progress items) resets when you repeat the three days. Ocarina of Time, like A Link to the Past on the SNES, used a kind of two-parallel-worlds plot where things learned in one world affect what you do in the other. But it was more about pre-scripted puzzle and story elements than using it in gameplay. As such, Soul Reaver did it better as you could watch the landscape morph from the real world to the warped spirit world in real-time.
In the later Zelda games they'd chuck in a bit of time travel, but not really as a mechanic - just a stage that lets you participate in a historical bit of backstory.
Blinx:The Time Sweeper on the XBox (which got a sequel) is the only other one I've played - a 3D platformer with VCR-like time controls, though some were a bit naff.
For example - 'Fast-Forward' and 'Slow' just affected baddies and lifts on the level like any other game with bonuses. 'Rewind' was a bit fake as it just made things like broken bridges repair themselves, regardless of when you got to them. When you died, there was a brief rewind and retry the last few seconds rather than lives. The only interesting gameplay element was 'Record', where you could run around for 10 seconds invincibly doing something like operating a switch or distracting a monster, then you see a ghost version of yourself repeat that action as you do something else.
As for Soul Reaver et al, I always thought it would be cool to have a four-dimensional Speccy game. Something like Knight Lore, but with an extra control that warps the level, such as extending one platform while shortening another, or blocking one door and opening another.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
One of them is Day of the Tentacle.
One of my mates had it, I always thought it looked good but never ended up playing it for myself.
i played that on the c64, you kept jumping in time but stayed in the same scene. nice idea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_containing_time_travel
The (other) usual suspects which came to my mind have already been mentioned or are on that long list.
Patrik
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0017912
I seem to remember that Ocarina of Time was pretty robust at avoiding this sort of paradox, though later titles flaunted it. I almost forgot there's another time mechanic in one of these games with crystals that can revert their surrounding area to a past state. It's an extension of the 'light-the-torches' mechanic that activates switches, doors, monsters, traps and NPCs in the immediate vicinity, but done with a spectacular visual effect on the environment.
What's so common in a lot of these games is that you either have video-like control over a recent few seconds, or in the longer term you have practically no control at all - you can only visit fixed distinct periods that run along in parallel to each other. And logically it's very hard to have realistic interactions with yourself without actually having a gaming platform capable of time travel!
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
Oh and Duke Nukem: Time To Kill had you going back in time alot. Nothing complicated like different time zones on the same level though.
Banjo Kazooie (or was it Tooie). That had Tick Tock Wood. 4 diffenet seasons all on the same level with thing done in winter changing things for spring etc...
It's kind of hard to explaine really! I myslef found the demo to be unplayable because you couldn't invert the controls, so I spent all my time looking at the sky/floor :lol: I heard from a friend at work that they have since fixed that, but I deleted it a while ago. I may give it another go someday...
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
they should really think about adding that sort of thing to portal 3, kinda like a time shift portal
oh sorry you said "time travel". that'll teach me to speed read.. I really need to get new glasses ;)
chrono trigger probably the best example for me. genius game.
Which is based on Chronotron.
You have just described Achron.
... which is based on Prometheus (released in 2009), which is also based on Chronotron (released in 2008).
I mean ADVENTURE
Yep, so true!
Day of the Tentacle and Banjo Kazooie (it is Kazooie that has Tick Tock Wood) are very good games, but don't have many time travel mechanics in the way I mean. BK is still my favourite ever 3D platform game, though. When the (still excellent) Super Mario 64 came out and astounded the world, I never thought any game would better it. To be fair, I've not completed Banjo Tooie, or played much of Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 (I don't own a Wii, and only one person I know has a Wii and these games) so maybe my view on BK beign the best will change if I ever play these right through.
Bob, I've not heard of Blades of Time, and I agree that by now every game should have fully user definable controls. Console first person shooters are becoming ever less configurable, and their designers seem to randomly choose which buttons represent functions like Crouch, Melee attack, Sprint, and Jump.
Mile, Portal with those time shift mechanics could be good, but the levels could quickly get too complicated for anyone but Doctor Who to understand... Would be interesting to see, though.
XTM, Singularity is a good suggestion (and a fantastic game, though so undeservingly under-rated, despite it doing so much so very well, gameplay-wise) but it's not exactly what I mean, as the time travel is purely story related, in that it's all strictly scripted. You do get to travel to the past and then return to the present, in several places, and it's interesting seeing the locations change according to the time period, and also of course when the past has affected the future, but since it's all scripted you (the player) have no real control over any of it. And the changes you can make to plants and other objects via the E99 time control are really just object manipultion.
Brilliant game, though; great story, interesting and varied levels, varied enemies, some of the weapons really are great (I love the slow-time sniper rifle, and the user-guided bullets), and the deadlock is fantastic, one of my favourite inovations in any FPS, and I recommend Singularity to any FPS fan on the message boards I frequent, but sadly due to poor sales we're unlikely to see a sequel. A direct sequel might be a bit difficult to come up with, storywise, but done well it could have been brilliant.
XBomber, is Chronotrigger the SNES RPG? If so, I've not played it (I'm not much of an RPG player) but I hear from all sides that it's an excellent game.
Einar, I've just tried Chronotron, and you're right, it is the same principal as Dr Beep's great Broken Timemachine. I'll look at Achron later, as it looks like it demands a lot of user time to play.
Dr Beep, slightly off topic, but will you be returning to the Speccy for your future games? MY favourite of yours is probably 123 Maze (it holds my attention for hours when commuting, which seems amazing given how simple it is), but maybe I prefer Wiwo Dido's Lost Keys, or Broken Time Machine overall (it's just that 123 Maze is so endlessly replayable).
It depends...
This looks boring:
But this looks amazing:
It's an awesome platformer for the PC or Mac or Linux where one of the controls is time.
... as mentioned in the very first post that started this thread :)
Yes, it is. But it has also got an excellent (perhaps even better) re-release for the DS, if you have one...
Patrik