Stargate: Timekeepers Review – IGN

The useful Tactical Mode makes it simpler to coordinate a number of characters. I discovered the flexibility to subject a number of orders and robotically sync them to occur on the similar time particularly helpful, as an illustration, when it’s worthwhile to knock out two guards with out both of them noticing. I used to be a bit disenchanted there is no motion queue, nevertheless – although you may inform a personality to maneuver to a particular spot earlier than utilizing a capability. Choosing a number of characters may also be a little bit of a ache, particularly if they don’t seem to be standing shut collectively. I’d have killed for a Ctrl + A command to pick all my items like in an RTS, or the flexibility to carry Shift when hitting the F1 – F5 keys so as to add a squadmate to my current choice, as an alternative of biking via them one after the other.

Additionally, for all the liberty of playstyle it provides, Timekeepers would not actually reward stealth or nonviolence in any notably impactful methods. There are deadly and nonlethal assaults, and for the primary few missions I attempted to solely use nonlethal ones. The Jaffa are simply brainwashed people, in any case. However I used to be by no means even verbally recommended for doing so, a lot much less given any type of mechanical reward. Choices in a single episode do not appear to hold over to the following.

And whereas you’ll be instructed what number of alarms you triggered on the finish of a mission, there is not even any type of medal or S-rank for going undetected. The one causes to make use of stealth and nonlethal choices in any respect, it appears, are to maintain from alerting sure enemies who can name reinforcements – which is able to make the entire stage more durable – and the truth that ammo and grenades are a restricted useful resource.

Timekeepers would not look half unhealthy, all issues thought of. The portraits, character fashions, and particle results aren’t particularly trendy or detailed. However every stage options wealthy and attention-grabbing alien environments, from a starlit forest settlement to an historical jungle temple, with loads of character to maintain issues from feeling repetitive. The extent design additionally offered a satisfying problem curve, including in new parts, like patrolling drones, at a gradual tempo and at all times making me assume on my ft to adapt to the state of affairs.

I additionally actually favored the mission intros, that are formatted just like the “Beforehand on…” recaps from the TV present. A few them lower off awkwardly and look like they could be lacking some animations that had been meant to transition seamlessly right into a stage. But it surely’s a pleasant contact. I really feel like I am enjoying via an episode of SG-1, and that is a welcome expertise for me. I even have to present a nod to the clear, readable UI and dialogue subtitles. The loading screens even present coordinates being dialed in on the stargate, which is fairly neat.

Issues can go a bit sideways generally, although. In a single mission, a patrolling enemy randomly discovered a physique I had hidden one thing like half-hour in the past and alerted all of his pals to come back search for me. However we might already left the world fully, so that they had been simply operating round randomly in a panic, bunching up on ladders, and fully breaking every-different’s AI and animations. What makes this worse is you can’t save your sport if there are any enemies alerted anyplace on the map. So I simply needed to hit quick-ahead – an important function for rushing up patrol cycles, and coping with nonsense like this – and look ahead to them to settle down and return to their posts.