Every person has a moment in life that they want to go back to in order to correct a mistake. But time is such a mysterious substance that we will only dream of being able to control it for a long time. And even if you are the author of a video game, adding time control will not be so easy. In this article, we recall famous projects in which you can control time.
Released in 2003, The Sands of Time turned players' ideas about time management upside down. Unlike other similar games, «The Prince» had many more options. Using a magic dagger, the hero rewinds and slows down time to avoid death or gain an advantage in battle. And if his health is very low, he simply freezes his opponents and quickly deals with them.
The unique gameplay largely formed the fan base of «Prince of Persia». Moreover, to a large extent, The Sands of Time laid the foundation for all future games about time management.
According to the plot of TimeShift, in the future, people created a special suit that allows them to control time. However, as usual, the technology fell into the wrong hands. Using the suit, the main villain found himself in the 20th century, changed the past and thereby created an alternative reality in which he seized power and became a dictator.
The main character, who has an improved suit with the functions of slowing down, stopping and playing time in reverse (inversion), must fix all this. However, despite the advanced suit, the hero is still an ordinary soldier who dies from a couple of bullets.
To survive, you need to use your abilities wisely depending on the situation. Moreover, the game has mini-bosses who, like the main character, are able to control time. At such moments, you are unpleasantly surprised how your abilities work against you.
The authors of Singularity abandoned direct time control. However, the game has several original ideas. The most memorable, of course, is the ability to rejuvenate or age objects and living beings. For example, an enemy is running at you, and you — bam — have aged him to the state of dust. Or enemies crowded around a rotten barrel of fuel, you «rejuvenated» it, and it became explosive again.
Sometimes you can travel to the past yourself and take something useful from there, for example, ammunition or a quest item. Singularity also allows you to slow down the flow of time in a small hemisphere — useful for quickly killing enemies or dodging bullets in Neo style. Another ability puts the enemy through a series of time anomalies, turning them into an aggressive mutant.
The Dontnod studio's adventure interactive film would not have gained popularity if Life is Strange did not have time manipulation. It would seem that such things look good in action movies, but the French quite organically wove into their project the ability of Max, the main character, to rewind time.
And the solution itself seems logical. The desire to read minds or know the right answers in advance is very typical for teenagers, whose problems the game is dedicated to: answered the teacher's question incorrectly — rewind; a psychopath shoots Max's friend — rewind.
Add to this branching dialogues, where you often have to look for the right answer by trial and error, and then time management creates an excellent artistic technique for storytelling.
Another first-person shooter, the main concept of which is control over time. But this time everything is completely unusual. When the main character does not move, time practically freezes, but as soon as he moves, the world also comes to life.
It would seem that the player gets a significant advantage — time to assess the situation, think over tactics, aim. However, you should not expect an easy walk from Superhot. NPCs target the player almost instantly, bullets fly lightning fast, health and ammunition are limited. Playing in the «shoot and run» format, your hero is more dead than alive. Constantly.
Yes, Superhot with its non-standard gameplay requires a certain skill and «getting into a state of flow.» The gameplay acquires a strategic component when you need to control the firing zones and choose the best line of fire.
Most players remember the action game Dishonored for its plot, varied gameplay and steampunk style. However, this is one of the few games that also has excellent time management.
The main character Corvo Attano is not just an experienced killer, he is endowed with supernatural abilities. For example, «time bending» allows you to slow down the course of events so much that the hero can grab bullets flying past.
And with the help of upgrades, you can completely stop time, for example, to fire a dozen arrows at frozen villains. Particularly creative players also manage to change the position of enemies so that they start shooting at each other.
An indie game that became noticeable thanks to its unconventional approach to time management. The first minutes of Braid resemble a 2D platformer Super Mario Bros. — we walk, jump, dodge enemies and traps. However, as soon as we die, it turns out that time can be rewinded.
Even now, it is rare to find gameplay solutions so organically woven into the arcade gameplay. For example, on one of the levels, you cannot control time manually. Everything happens automatically as the hero moves. If you go to the right, then time will go forward. Go back — and time will reverse.
As the player progressed through Braid, not only did he gain new abilities and master new puzzles, the levels themselves changed, for example, in one of them time went backwards, not forwards.
The adventure shooter Quantum Break has become one of Microsoft's main projects in the outgoing generation of consoles — many remember the game for its pompous advertising. In addition, Quantum Break is just right for our topic — it offers many opportunities in terms of time management.
Among the simplest and most understandable is the ability to freeze time around opponents using a «chrono bubble». Perfect for shootouts! And using a «chrono blast» you can not only destroy enemies, but also freeze those who fell into the area of the ability. In turn, the «Chrono Shield» allows you to reflect all damage. Finally, «chrono dodge» helps you quickly move around the level, dodging attacks.
All this will come in handy in battle, but Quantum Break's abilities are not focused on action. Often, the player needs to solve puzzles with objects stuck in a time loop — they can be an obstacle or a platform that allows you to move to the next game location.
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That's all. We remembered the most famous games about time management. Of course, the list can be continued — which we invite you to do in the comments. Where else were the most unusual mechanics related to time management implemented?