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Time of War

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Developer: Oniric Games Publisher: Oniric Games Genre: Action > General Released: Jul 23, 2008 Players: 1 Website

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- Time of War Review

Michael Scarpelli: 8

I think Time of War might benefit from what has been a dearth of quality this month, but… I ended up being pretty jazzed for this one. Isometric run and gun shooting action awaits you here.

Like all good shooting games, the ammo is plentiful, the enemies are everywhere and there are just tons of things you can blow up. I would have liked to see a better of angle for viewing your foes (the horizon line is oddly clipped, and makes me feel like if I bend down, I can peer under my screen and see more of what I want to see), but beyond that this is a fun romp.

Like a lot of shooters like this, your gameplay options are limited and levels will generally be pretty repetitive, but just because the formula is tired doesn't mean it's not executed well. The hard rock soundtrack is the exclamation point on the end of this review, too.

Pany Haritatos: 6

Certain aspects of Time of War shine with a heavy amount of polish. The audio is generally well done, the graphics are top notch, the physics are fun, the weapon selection interesting, and the inter-mission story book panels are of top quality. Ultimately, however, the game suffers from a few critical flaws. The most significant issue is the camera angle. It is somewhat of a mix between isometric and third person. I think the developer was trying to do something new here, but it didn't really work and this is partially because of control choices that conflicted with this set up. The character fires at the cursor, where ever it might be on the screen, which means that often times you'll find yourself firing into the barriers in front of turrets or at the ground in front of the enemy soldiers. In a top down or isometric point of view, where your character automatically fires parallel to the ground, these types of issues don't exist. Needless to say, it is very frustrating to waste half a clip and take several blows to your health before realizing that you were aiming too low to tag your target. The aiming is also a bit too twitchy. I had the hardest time hitting targets until I realized it was easier to adjust your aim by moving your character rather than adjusting your firing angle. This would be fine if I was firing a high precision weapon like a sniper or something, but for a hand gun or automatic rifle, there should be some amount of assisted aiming, or, at the very least, some smoothing of the input so it isn't so sensitive. Another part of the game that I was dissatisfied with was the repetitiveness. I suspect that if the control issues were sorted out, this would be less of a concern. The last quibble I had with the game is that it is too dark. My monitor might be a tad bit on the darker side, but the game was basically unplayable until I turned up the brightness. The game should not have been that dark, or should, at the very least, allow for some amount of gamma correction if it wants to push the limits of visibility. Time of War does enough things right that it's sad that the most important parts of the gameplay, the viewpoint and controls, don't live up to the standard established by the rest of the game.

Coby Utter: 8

Time of War has tons of action, loads of explosions, and steady pacing. Couple all of this with a strong presentation and you get a pretty good game out of the deal. Like most action games, you are single-handedly tasked with taking out a whole lot of bad guys using a variety of weapons. Most of the missions can only be accomplished one way: kill everything that moves. There is little in the way of stealth and the prevalent skills necessary are simply strafing and firing steady.

Visually, the 3D graphics are good, with nice lighting, shadowing, and other effects. The game did have performance problems for me on the highest settings, but with some minor adjustments the game ran smoothly. My largest complaint is with the view, which is an odd hybrid of third person and overhead views, that always keeps the forward looking distance rather short. Despite this, and the lack of original mechanics or the need for sound strategy, the game is a solid and enjoyable shooter.

Russ Carroll: 6

Onric Games is responsible for Project Xenoclone, a game the panel reviewed almost exactly 2 years ago, and like Time of War it was a shooter. Another similarity between the two games is that they both fall short of the best indie shooters available (Alien and Zoombie Shooter), in the case of ToW, I'd say well short.

Time of War has a nice graphics engine going for it, but the firing is very bland with overly precise targeting and boring levels. There are enemies everywhere and you seemingly shoot them because they are moronic. Very moronic. They always fire when you get close enough to them, even if they are facing away from you, which leads to some good laughs as you walk into a room and see an enemy fire in the opposite direction and then leave a circle of bullets as they adjust their aim towards you. Shooting through doors is a great tactic at times in addition to being a nifty trick! Overall ToW is fine, but it doesn't measure up to the great shooters out there already, and honestly, I even enjoyed their first game, Project Xenoclone, more.