Timespinner, a game by Bodie Lee, puts players in the role of Lunais, a young time traveler on a mission of vengeance. The presence of time traveling in stories is usually a red flag for me. Once you open that door, from a narrative point of view, there is no closing it. Instead of a neat, focused narrative, time travel literally unravels it all and suddenly the story teller has too much power with the ability to pull the plug on a story and change the outcome…because time travel.
Lee was careful about his use of time travel and set the rules early on to cement his control of the narrative and not leave the player wondering if he was going to pull a quick one in the end. (Spoiler alert: he does not.)
With wonderful drama and some great characters, Lee presents players with a universe that feels like it has existed for decades, fleshed out in other forms of media. Turns out, when you’ve been toying around with ideas for the same fictional universe since grade school, your final product will likely be wonderfully immersive.
Timespinner falls into the metroidvania genre of platformers, and there are some late-game nods to the genre’s namesake in some wonderfully creepy pixel art. The level design was varied and featured distinct settings that kept the game from feeling repetitive, even when the player would retrace their steps through the same area in a different timeline. Lee did a great job of making each timeline feel unique without sacrificing some great set pieces for the player to recognize as they familiarize themselves across the parallel timelines they’ll explore.
Aside from the time traveling, Lunais also has the ability to command a pair of magical orbs that offer her unique offensive abilities as auto-attacks. I really liked the orb system. Timespinner operates with a basic RPG gear/leveling-up system, but instead of finding weapons you find magical orbs that grow in power the more you use them. Because you can use two orbs at a time, this allows for some fun combination experimentation. I enjoyed using a hammer and axe orb pairing that, when activated, shifted my orbs, Green Lantern-style, into giant weapons; I also had some fun roasting enemies with with some fire-combo orbs. Secondary to the orbs are powerful mana-draining abilities that deal large amounts of damage, and mysterious companion creatures that can aid you in battle in various ways.
The orbs and companions are scattered throughout Timespinner’s environments. Some you’ll find just by playing through the storyline, others require a bit of guesswork as they’re hidden in secret rooms (smack a wall and see if breaks).
As I bounced Lunais through time, there were a couple of issues I encountered in Timespinner that left me a bit disappointed. Regarding the gear system, you’ll acquire armor by looting enemies, finding it in treasure chests or by buying it from a vendor. The first piece of gear I found was a headpiece called Pointy Hat. I was so excited to plop a little witch’s hat onto Lunais. When I equipped it and nothing on the character model changed, my disappointment was an audible, “Dang.” While the orbs all get unique visuals, the equipment has no affect on Lunais’ player model. This minor disappointment grew as I continued finding cooler-sounding gear the further into the game I got.
It’s 2018, games like Timespinner are not limited to Super Nintendo cartridge storage space. Having one type of gear uniquely visualized (the orbs) and leaving the other half to the player’s imagination (the armor) makes the game feel rushed, like a cheap mobile game where gear is basically a condensed way to describe a set of numbers with no visual element beyond the word itself. It’s totally a minor issue, I know, but the orbs are just so cool, I wanted to see some cool gear as well.
The other issue was a graphical one. I played Timespinner at 1920×1080 on my PC and there were segments of the game where the screen tearing was very noticeable. Beyond the minimal graphic options there are no settings to tweak, no v-sync to enable, nothing for me to try and fix the visual blemish that would arise whenever the camera panned across an area. The problem marred what would have otherwise been some great pixel-art appreciation moments as I traveled through some of the games longer corridors.
Apart from the two more-annoying-than-major problems I had with the game, Timespinner was a memorable experience. The story was engaging, the characters amusing, the boss fights felt fair and balanced, and the music (apart from a few jarring segments involving organ sounds), complimented the game as a whole. The game unlocks a New Game+ and Nightmare difficulty modes after the initial playthough, offering casual players the chance to try out their sharpened orb-combat skills, and gives hardcore players the content they’ll likely be craving by the time the credits roll.
Timespinner is available now for PC and is coming soon for PS4 and PS Vita.
A review copy of Timespinner was provided to Epic Brew by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
