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TimeShift

by your evil twin

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Original Thread: Time is on my side... Let's Play TimeShift

 

Introduction

This Let's Play was originally spread across two threads:
Dr. Aiden Krone has made a time jump across the space-time continuum - a reckless act with frightening consequences. Now, a disturbing alternate reality has evolved within the bleak and rain-soaked Alpha District. Armed with the experimental Beta Suit, you alone are able to slow, stop and reverse the flow of time. Only with this ability can you lead the uprising to victory and put an end to Krone's madness.

MASTER TIME TO BECOME THE ULTIMATE WEAPON




TimeShift is a sci-fi FPS developed by Saber Interactive. For most of its development TimeShift had an unusual Steampunk aesthetic, a complicated storyline about changing history, and heroes and villains voiced by Hollywood stars. Then Atari sold the publishing rights to Sierra; the story and unusual art design were thrown out, and what we actually ended up with was Half-Life 2 cross-bred with Halo and Gears of War.

Still, TimeShift has impressive graphics (including lots of dynamic lighting and shadows), amusing ragdoll physics, enemies with decent AI and complex animations, and challenging combat intended for experienced gamers that have already played and beaten all the other games that TimeShift rips off. It might have been a commercial success if Sierra hadn't chosen to release it at the same time as BioShock, The Orange Box, Unreal Tournament 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Oops!

The game's unique selling point is TimeShifting. The Prince of Persia games let you rewind time to undo mistakes, but TimeShift makes you rewind time in order to progress, as most puzzles and obstacles require you to make the world run backwards. Max Payne and FEAR gave the player "enhanced reflexes" that allowed slow motion combat; in TimeShift you and your weapon move and fire at normal speed regardless of your time powers. This allows you to perform feats such as walking on water or through flames, teleporting next to an enemy and shooting him with his own gun, or empting a 30-round magazine into a squad of enemies before they have even managed to raise their weapons. Rather than breaking the game and making things easy, the game is designed with these powers in mind and without them you are no tougher than an average enemy soldier.

Videos




Here I give some background info on the game's development and show footage of the old cancelled version of the game, before delving into the options menu and playing the opening cutscene.

UPDATE: The music in the opening cutscene was causing the video to be blocked in some countries, so I have used youtube's new "remove song" feature to solve that problem. To view the proper intro movie including music click here.




On the hunt to find our betrayer, Dr. Krone, we have arrived within his alternate timestream...




Time is on my side, yes it is.




Even when fighting a civil war in a schizo-tech dystopia, you should still find time to go to the park and look at butterflies.




To get into the Krone Corps Administration building we sprint past a Sentry mech, slip through some force fields, dodge a crapload of grenades... and break the universe!




Krone Corps: stomping out rebellion. Me: exploding Krone Corps!




This is one of my favourite levels; we'll fight through the Krone Corps Archive, have a big shootout in the very swanky lobby and steal data from decopunk computer servers.




Our escape takes us to the rooftop, where we find a new weapon and new enemies.




In this super-short update, we have a chapter entirely dedicated to the highlight of every FPS game... the turret section!




This chapter starts with a tough fight, but rewards you with a new weapon and a sweet ride. Vehicular time travel, and I don't even need to hit 88 miles per hour!




If you enjoy explosive combat, this is the chapter for you! We get to try out a very satisfying missile launcher.




It's time to free the prisoners, but first Krone has some new toys that will to try to stop us.




Get your motor running, head out on the highway! Fire all of your guns at once and explode into space/time.




I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter.
The Hell-Fire is one of my favourite videogame weapons. (Additional music by Giorgio Moroder.)




We get a mix of combat and time puzzles as we deal with deadly corridors and giant turbines.




An intense battle with time-slowing Flash Guards in Krone's munitions warehouse.




We ride a conveyor belt through a tank factory and try to dodge being crushed or burnt. This place was already pretty dangerous before the gunfights!




A little bit of sneaking, followed by blasting our way through a cyborg assembly line, allows us to reach the reactor core. But to escape we'll have to defeat Krone's time-stopping Warp Guards...




Exploding enemies galore! The munitions factory is about to blow and we have to get past a gauntlet of tough enemies and a Helo. Fortunately we've still got that amazing Surge Gun...




Commander Cooke plans to steal a Zeppelin, so we get to ride in a truck with him and then have some intense combat storming the hangers.




Soldiers and cyborgs and choppers, oh my. Lots of combat and explosions in an industrial zone.




This short chapter seems to have been built simply to justify a time puzzle... but it is a fun little set piece and an interesting environment for some action to take place.




Grand Theft Zeppelin!




In the penultimate chapter of the game, the zeppelin has to make a quick pit stop. What next? Pay the zeppelin insurance? Get some elbow grease? Headlight fluid? Still, it's a decent enough excuse to go and shoot some dudes.




The finale!

----------------------------



Dr. Marissa Foster


Dr. Marissa Foster is a beautiful, brilliant student who was one of the first to join Krone's graduate research program. Marissa is Dr. Krone's 'second' within the facility and is largely responsible for the development and advancement of the Beta Suit, as well as the creation and integration of S.S.A.M.

Dr. Nathan Tucker


Dr. Nathan Tucker is another colleague on the N.E.X.T2 program. He serves as the conservative voice of reason regarding the serious and unpredictable implications of the program's success.

Commander Mason Cooke


Commander Mason Cooke is the leader of an anti-Krone underground movement. Because the two of you have a common goal - to find and take down Krone - you join Cooke and his men, known as the Occupants, in their failing struggle against the Krone Magistrate.

Dr. Aiden Krone


Dr. Aiden Krone is a former professor of Applied Physics. During his fifteen years, he begrudgingly taught a single graduate-level Statistical Mechanics course between his exhaustive research efforts. The motivation behind his research work was to justify and documents his advancements, and therefore his seemingly endless need for concurrent research grants.

It was during this time that he hand-selected a group of his most capable grad students to document his (private) research. The studies branched across multiple fields, including Thermodynamics, Statistical Mechanics, Advanced Propulsion and ultimately Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). It was secretly dubbed the N.E.X.T2 programme - Next-Gen Engineering for the Exploration of Time Travel. The opus of their collaborative efforts is the Suit.


The Manual posted:

The Suit, the first being the Alpha Suit, was originally developed as the device through which a human body can safely take part in the act of Time Jumping or "Jumping" (i.e., time travel) without being killed in the process. During the successful act of Jumping, the suit is the primary object travelling at the speed of light as it passes through any "Bridge" or wormhole (e.g., Einstein-Rosen Bridge).

The Alpha Suit was developed to shield the human body from the exponentially increasing density effects of matter as it travels at the speed of light, essentially serving as a "Time Travelling Body Shell" for the traveller. Thus, the person wearing it was simply along for the ride, hoping to survive. However, while the suit was conceived and designed with the capability to safely return to its Original Point of Exit within its "A.D." timestream, this was something the traveller was expected to initiate manually.

After over a decade of development, the Alpha Suit was the first successful, fully-operational prototype of the N.E.X.T2 program. But this first suit was designed to be strictly functional and was built without the modifications necessary for practical application.

In contrast, the Beta Suit has been refined and substantially modified for military specifications. In addition to making it lightweight and sleek, it's designers made use of next-gen materials and a host of classified biological technologies.

The Beta Suit is designed to integrate with the inner workings and design of the human body. When functioning properly, the two "systems" are married - together they form a fully operational tactical system.

The Beta Suit also addresses the potential dangers in the Alpha's manual return system. With the manual return, once the wearer made a Jump in time, it was up to him to initiate a return, which left open the possibility of the wearer remaining at the destination coordinates forever-whether by accidental circumstances or even on purpose. With an Auto-Return system, the traveller's suit will course-correct. Assuming it can respond in time, the suit will automatically reverse its Jump pathway out of the destination coordinates and Auto-Return the wearer to the A.D. coordinates.

Similarly, many of the suit's functions are automated. This leads us to S.S.A.M....

S.S.A.M.

The Manual posted:

Along with the inclusion of the Auto-Return System, chief among the many improvements to the Beta Suit was the integration of a prototype Artificial Intelligence program. The Strategic System for Adaptable Metacognition, known affectionately as S2.A.M. or S.S.A.M. is a significant addition to the suit's capabilities.

Whilst the S.S.A.M. program has been researched and developed over the course of the past ten years, the program is still in its infancy as a self-learning and fully adaptable AI program.

In addition to all the known and implied characteristics of an Artificial Intelligence system, S.S.A.M. also has the ability to intercept and record every digital audio and video feed within the systems pre-set proximity.

It was thought that the experience of a Jump would be severely jarring to a traveller's body, motor skills and sense - so much so that it could be life-threatening. The stored A/V information can be used in many ways, however the intended purpose was to enable S.S.A.M. to play audio clips, video snippets-at times, even memories-to familiarize weary and possibly shocked travellers of their mission goals, history and purpose.

Additionally S.S.A.M. is meant to regulate the Beta Suit's internal systems, monitoring all electrical diagnostics, and manage the wearer's central nervous system, vital signs and neurological status.



At the end of the first level (Arrival) S.S.A.M. activates the Auto-Return system to return the player to his own time, but something goes wrong and the Jump fails. Stuck in Krone's alternate timestream, S.S.A.M. adapts the malfunctioning time drive to instead cause localized time distortions.

Using the suit’s time powers will deplete the suit’s energy at various rates. Once the energy is depleted, you cannot use the timeshift functions until your power is recharged. There is a finite amount of energy available in the suit, however it will recharge after several seconds when it is not in use.

S.S.A.M. can intelligently choose which time power will best aid the player at any given moment, and pressing the TimeShift button will use this selected power. The player also has individual buttons for each time power, allowing you to override S.S.A.M.'s selection and choose any power at will.

Time Slow – This function slows down everyone and everything around you for ten seconds. Time Slow does not affect your movements or actions — you will continue to move at normal speed while everything else moves in slow motion.

Time Stop – Time Stop allows you to completely stop time for five seconds (from the player's point of view), during which all molecular motion in the world stops — except for what you control. If you kill an opponent during Time Stop, the accumulated force of your gun shots will only be apparent when time resumes. There are some things that can only be done while the world is frozen around you, such as safely walking through fire or electricified areas, or stealing a weapon from an enemy's grasp.

Time Reverse – This power allows you to reverse time. While reverse is in effect, you cannot use any weapon or device, take items or interact with opponents in any way without cancelling the effect or breaking the space-time continuum. Time Reverse usually allows you to rewind 5 seconds of time, but during certain scripted sequences and puzzles this is extended to 15 seconds.

Rapid Recovery System – The Beta Suit is also outfitted with measures to protect your safety. Via its Rapid Recovery System, any damage taken by the wearer is automatically deflected by the suit’s on-board shielding systems. Although the suit cannot revive you from death, any injuries you sustain will be repaired after taking cover in a safe zone for a few moments.



KM2103 KARBINE

The KM2103 Karbine is an automatic rifle with an under-mounted grenade launcher. It has a modern/futuristic appearance, but the rifle's thirty-round magazine is located on the side, which is reminiscent of some World War 2 weapons. Another unusual feature is that the grenade launcher has its own magazine that holds two grenades, and you can carry two more grenades in reserve. Karbine grenades usually detonate on impact but you can delay the explosion by keeping the alt-fire button pressed; this allows you to bounce grenades around corners or put them into the path of enemies and use them like mines.

In the original 2006 version of the game this weapon was known as the Stalker Rifle and it had a very complex Steampunk-inspired design.

The Karbine has a high rate of fire and decent accuracy, but inflicts a low amount of damage per bullet; it functions more like the Half-Life submachine gun rather than the powerful assault rifles depicted in most videogames. Enemies wear bulky body armour that Karbine bullets are not designed to penetrate. (I guess Krone wanted his forces to have a weapon that was effective at oppressing civilian masses but ineffective if captured by rebels.) It can often take half a magazine to take down a single enemy. Of course your time powers turn enemies into sitting ducks, giving you the time you need to riddle them with bullets. When fighting without time powers the best option is to use the grenade launcher. Every Karbine you pick up will give you one or two grenades.

KM-33

The KM-33 is a select-fire pistol that can be fired in either single shots or four-round bursts. It has an ammo counter on the side and a large 16-round sickle-shaped magazine that gives it a very distinctive appearance. In the old 2006 version of the game the weapon was called the Knuckleduster and the magazine had spikes on it!

The KM-33's bullets are more than twice as powerful as the Karbine; presumably they have some armour-piercing capability, like the real life FN Five-seven pistol. The single shot mode is very accurate and good for picking off distant enemies, but it has a slow rate of fire. The burst-fire mode can be devastating, but it burns through ammo quickly and has very high recoil which limits its effective range. This means that the pistol is decent at short range and long range but outperformed by the Karbine at medium range.

Shattergun

A full-auto double-barrelled combat shotgun. It has a tighter spread than most videogame shotguns and the primary single-barrelled firing mode has a rapid rate of fire. It holds 8 shotgun shells and needs to be reloaded one shell at a time, though you can interrupt the reload.

The original 2006 version of this weapon was known as the Gearmaster, and its automatic firing mechanism appeared to use some sort of clockwork.

The effectiveness of the Shattergun can be a bit random; sometimes it can be a one-shot kill, other times it can require several shots, depending on whether the pellets his the enemy's face, chest, limbs or bullet-proof helmet. It is quite common for an enemy to survive a Shattergun blast but for him to be disarmed in the process, making him an easy target until he can reclaim his weapon.

The double-barrelled alternate fire is deadlier but has a slower rate of fire and uses up ammo twice as quickly. It also inflicts twice as much physical force; it can often be fun to use Time Stop and unnecessarily fire several double-barrelled blasts at someone just to see them fly through the air once the laws of physics return.

Clutch Grenade

Clutch Grenades are timed hand grenades that adhere to humanoid targets using glowing blue electromagnetism, electrocuting the target until detonation. Once a Clutch Grenade sticks to a person, nothing will get it off. If the grenade does not hit a humanoid target then it will bounce and roll like a conventional hand grenade, and detonate after a few seconds. The blast radius is significant and capable of killing several enemies simultaneously.

At first it is easy to mistake these glowing blue sticky grenades as being identical to Halo's plasma grenades, but the fact that TimeShift's version cause electrocution before detonation makes them more effective (as it immediately takes the victim out of the fight) as well as being darkly amusing. Some enemies will flail their arms in desperation, others will be sent into spasms by the electric shock.

Clutch Grenades are usually found in grenade packs that are carried by random enemies; the packs are actually visible on their uniform and fall off when they are killed. Enemies will start to throw Clutch Grenades at you from the third level onwards, and they have excellent aim. Although Clutch Grenades spell inevitable doom for your enemies, it is possible to avert the same fate yourself if you are able to quickly activate Time Reverse.

Echo Rifle

A semi-auto sniper rifle with a four-round magazine and a variable zoom scope (up to 9x). The Echo Rifle is one of the few weapons that appears identical to its appearance in the old cancelled Steampunk version of the game. I've included an image of the silver version that was supposed to appear in the redesigned game but I guess they decided that the old version was more interesting and still modern/futuristic enough.

The red laser beam is supposedly a built-in digital stabilization system to compensate for human quiver while aiming. This nicely justifies the old skool Unreal-style sniping and the lack of annoying mechanics like the view wavering or needing to hold your breath. More importantly, the laser allows the player to shoot from the hip rather than being forced to use the scope. (Fortunately enemies do not notice your laser dot; perhaps the beam is infra-red but made visible by your suit's visor?)

The Echo Rifle fires powerful hollow-point rounds that can pierce enemy helmets, so a headshot is always an instant kill. The tough body armour of Krone Guards means that they take two shots to the chest to kill, but the first will stagger them and will often cause them to fall over, making them easy targets for your second shot. When used by enemies, two shots will usually kill you unless you have completely full health/armour in which case you will be reduced to 1% health. (In the hard Elite difficulty setting the second shot is always fatal.)

ThunderBolt

Known as the Krossbow in earlier versions of the game, the ThunderBolt shoots projectiles that penetrate an opponent's armour and detonate after a short time, blasting them into a gory mess. It has a scope for long-range accuracy, though the explosive bolts travel slower than bullets and are likely to miss moving targets at long distances. At short and medium ranges the enemies do not stand a chance, and if combined with Time Slow or Time Stop it becomes a great sniper weapon.

For many players the ThunderBolt will become their primary weapon for the rest of the game. One shot is fatal to even heavily-armoured enemies, it has a decent rate of fire and a surprisingly large magazine size of 10 crossbow bolts, allowing it to replace the Karbine and ShatterGun, and the sniper scope makes it an effective replacement for the Echo Rifle as well. There is a brief delay between the bolt hitting its target and detonating, but enemies will be stunned by the impact and are instantly removed as threats even before the explosion. It would tempting to criticise the Thunderbolt crossbow as making the game too easy, if not for the fact that you acquire it once you are fighting large squads of Krone Guards and Jetpack Soldiers that are both tough and dangerous, and you'll be grateful for any edge you can get over the opposition.

The ThunderBolt is commonly carried by Krone Guards from the 9th chapter onwards so ammo is plentiful. Being hit by an enemy ThunderBolt will knock 1/6 off your health meter, but they are likely to miss you at long range as enemies lack your time abilities.

Bloodhound

This shoulder-mounted rocket/missile launcher causes massive damage, and has a large blast radius. The launcher can be fired four times before needing a reload, you can carry three additional magazines, and you can restock endlessly from any ammo crate, so it appears the developers wanted to encourage rocket launcher rampages rather than have you save it for special occasions.

The Bloodhound gets its name from its guided fire mode, activated by bringing up a targeting screen that has a small amount of zoom. Missiles will follow the laser sight/targeting reticule, allowing you to track moving targets or guide missiles over obstacles. It is similar to Half-Life's laser-guided RPG, except for the fact that the Bloodhound requires you to use a zoomed-in screen, making you a bit less mobile and aware of your surroundings. The guided fire mode is very effective at long range or when slowing time, but impractical in real-time run-and-gun situations.

E.M.F. Cannon

This weapon uses energy cells to shoot concentrated projectiles of magnesium. It has a decent capacity of 20 shots per reload, a fast rate-of-fire of 5 shots per second, and the shots have a small radius of splash-damage, allowing you to injure or kill enemies even if you cannot hit them directly. While not necessarily "plasma" in the traditional sense, it fits the role of a sci-fi plasma rifle, except that the magnesium blasts are affected by gravity and travel in an arc. This limits the effective range to a few metres, but can also be useful; a loading screen hint says "You can fire the E.M.F. Cannon's plasma over obstacles and drop it onto enemies."

Each shot is very powerful; it takes just two shots to explode Krone Police into bloody chunks, and 3 or 4 hits to splatter Krone Guards. (Thankfully it appears that the player's Beta Suit is somewhat resistant to this type of damage; enemy E.M.F shots seem to do about twice as much damage as Karbine bullets, which is dangerous but not enough to liquefy you in a couple of shots.)

The E.M.F. Cannon also has an alternate-fire "Magnesium Overload", a charged shot that travels in a straight line. Holding the alternate-fire button will charge from 1 to 9 units of energy. A charge of 2 or 3 units is instantly lethal to Krone Guards, and the larger blast radius means it can kill a couple of clustered enemies. A full charge of 9 units of energy results in an incredibly powerful blast that can wipe out an entire squad of enemies. It is important to fire the shot as soon as possible, as a fully overcharged E.M.F. Cannon will start damaging the player at a rate of about 10% health per second, which can be especially dangerous if you are in combat and already injured.

The E.M.F. Cannon is a great all-purpose weapon; the short-range primary fire is superior to the the Karbine and the ShatterGun, while the explosive alternate fire mode can be used at long range and is a decent alternative to Karbine grenades or the Bloodhound missile launcher.

Enemies that spot you using this weapon will often shout "He's got a cannon!" but will occasionally call it a "MagCannon", which was actually the weapon's name in earlier versions of the game, and makes sense as a shorthand nickname. In the older versions of the game the projectiles were blue-white rather than orange, and it used to have some sort of green computer screen or scope, which was replaced with a power meter.

Hell-Fire

Originally known as the Hell-Razer in earlier versions of the game, the Hell-Fire is both a sub-machine pistol and a flamethrower. The primary fire mode uses a drum magazine of thermite bullets, while the alternate fire draws from a cannister containing a solution of white phosphorous and carbon disulphide. Whether firing incendiary bullets or flammable liquid, either type of projectile is ignited by the pilot light when leaving the barrel of the weapon.

Hell-Fire bullets are spectacularly lethal; 4 bullets will eliminate a standard Krone Guard, while 6 is enough for those with the heaviest armour. Often you can get away with just 2 or 3 bullets, as this will cause most enemies to burst into flames, drop their weapon and flail around in agony. Occasionally they may succeed in extinguishing the flames, but usually they will burn to death. It is also worth noting that the bullets will burn straight through "bullet-proof" helmets, making headshots a one-shot-kill against all enemies.

The flamethrower alternate-fire has a very short range, but is even deadlier. The cloud of flame can hit several enemies simultaneously, incinerating entire squads in seconds.

The Hell-Fire is the signature weapon of the shielded cyborg Storm Guards, but is carried by few other enemies, making it quite rare. However it has a very large ammo capacity, and it can be refilled at any ammo crate, so it is perfectly viable to use it as your standard weapon for the rest of the game.

Surge Gun

This BFG is a rare weapon used exclusively by Krone's time-stopping Warp Guards. The primary fire mode shoots a fast plasma bolt that explodes in a blast even more powerful than a Bloodhound missile. This is horribly ammo inefficient though, as each shot uses up one sixth of the internal battery. The weapon cannot be refilled by ordinary ammo crates, so using the primary fire will cause your fun to be over far too soon.

The secondary fire mode shoots a continuous stream of lightning that will explode enemies within a fraction of a second, and it also has a small area of splash damage that can injure nearby enemies. A fully-charged Surge Gun can fire 15 seconds of continuous lightning, far more useful than six primary fire blasts. The best way to use the Surge Gun is to tap the secondary fire button rather than hold it down; even the briefest lightning bolt is enough to turn most enemies into an explosion of meaty gibs, so keeping your finger on the trigger simply wastes ammo. By using quick taps it is possible to get considerable use out of the Surge Gun and massacre every enemy in a chapter with it. There is also a trick that you can exploit to get even more use out of it...



In TimeShift the player fights the forces of the totalitarian Krone Magistrate. Enemies are very mobile and have complex animations; they vault over objects, fire while moving from cover to cover, roll to avoid gunfire or grenades, and occasionally they will charge to do a melee attack. They are very aggressive and will often attempt to overrun you so that your health/armour does not have time to regenerate. Other times they will use squad tactics such as having some soldiers stay back and provide suppressing fire while others flank you or advance on your position.

Krone's troops wear body armour that actually works, making them more durable than most videogame mooks. They take reduced damage if shot in the limbs. Headshots are instantly lethal but most enemies are protected by helmets, and it takes about three Karbine bullets to knock off a helmet. Shooting an opponent in the face or neck still guarantees an instant-kill headshot, although some enemies also have facemasks or armour protecting their necks.

TimeShift has tough enemies but avoids "bullet sponge" syndrome by having the enemies respond to your gunfire rather than shrugging it off; leg shots can cause enemies to fall to their knees while a shot to the chest might knock someone flat on his back. You can also shoot a weapon out of an enemy's hands, or steal it from him while time is stopped.

KRONE POLICE
Two heavily armoured Krone Police Sergeants (left) and a Krone Police Corporal (right)

Krone Police are the standard enemies for the first 6 levels of the game. Despite being the first enemies they are as tough and dangerous as soldiers encountered in the middle of games such as Half-Life and FEAR. Squads of Corporals are sometimes led by Sergeants that wear more armour and more advanced tactics. From the third level onwards they will start to use grenades and from the fourth level onwards they will occasionally launch Karbine grenades at you.

SENTRY

Sentries are enormous mechs driven by human pilots. Each arm is equipped with a powerful machinegun and a rocket launcher, while the chest region has a searchlight for scanning dark areas.

HELO

Helos are futuristic helicopter gunships with turbines for wings, armed with a nose-mounted machinegun. They are tough, powerful and very manoeuvrable.

PROWLER (TANK)

Prowlers are tanks armed with a 130cm cannon and a dual-barrel machinegun turret. One can first be seen driving down a street a knocking down lamposts in the first level, and inactive Prowlers are parked in enemy bases throughout the game. The only one that attacks you is towards the end of the third level, New Blood. Technically it is possible to destroy the tank using the heavy machingun turret in the park, but this is difficult, dangerous, and also quite slow and tedious, and there is no benefit to doing so other than a sense of personal satisfaction. It makes far more sense to simply use time powers to escape.

SENTINEL

The Sentinel is Krone's giant mobile fortress. It walks on four spider-like legs, and is armed with lightning death ray cannons! (Technically, it is armed with three huge plasma turrets mounted on top, and a massive plasma cannon on the underbelly. It can also do artillery barrages using a number of missiles launchers.)

KRONE GUARDS

Krone Guards are the standard infantry of the Krone Magistrate. They wear green full body armour over a blue uniform. They are introduced on the 7th level Getaway, and become the main enemies for the rest of the game. Their military green body armour allows them to withstand almost twice as much damage as the Krone Police, and they have access to a much wider selection of weapons. Even those armed with the standard Karbine cannot be underestimated as they often use the grenade launcher. As the game progresses variants are introduced that wear especially bulky torso armour covered in wires, as well as thigh armour pads. These "heavy" Krone Guards are tough enough to survive a direct hit from the Karbine's grenade launcher, so when they appear it is time to start looking for some new weapons.

JETPACK SOLDIERS

A special variant of Krone Guard equipped with a jetpack, flight goggles and an oxygen mask. When they spot an enemy they take to their air, allowing them to shoot you from above even if you try to take cover. They usually float slowly with a blue flame, but when attacked they will quickly dodge with a burst of yellow flame. They are not quite as tough as conventional Krone Guards (perhaps to compensate for being difficult to hit) but they can still take much more punishment than Krone Police. When killed they fall from the sky and explode on impact.

FLASH GUARDS

The first Quantum Guards encountered in the game. Quantum Guards are cyborgs; a mixture of human and mechanical parts. Their voices sound robotic, and their mechanical hands "lock" onto their guns too tightly for them to be disarmed. There are a few variants, each with a different special ability. Flash Guards can slow time, making them appear to run at incredible speed, fast enough to become a blur. Now we know what enemies see when we use our own powers! The key to defeating them is to use Time Slow to bring their movement down to "normal" speed, or to use Time Stop to freeze them entirely.

Flash Guards are stored inside metal crates that are often stacked in long rows. It is impossible to tell which crates are inert and which crates contain a deadly Flash Guard until they burst out to attack you. They are armed with powerful E.M.F. Cannons, and they are heavily-armoured. Strangely, their Cylon-style helmets are not bulletproof, so you can instantly kill them with a carefully-placed headshot. It also appears that their TimeShifting field does not surround their weapons, so they still fire at normal speed.

STORM GUARDS

Storm Guards are the second type of cyborg Quantum Guards. They are armed with deadly Hell-Fire incendiary sub-machine guns that can mow you down in a couple of seconds, and at close range they will use the alternate-fire flamethrower mode to wipe you out even faster. They do not have any timeshifting abilities, but they are equipped with wrist-mounted energy shield projectors. These circular force fields cover the upper body and most of the legs, and they block all projectile attacks.

The energy shields do not provide complete protection against explosive splash damage, making the E.M.F Cannon an ideal weapon to use against them. They can also be killed by explosions from crossbow bolts and missiles, though it will usually take several shots rather than being a one-shot-kill. The real weakness of Storm Guards is that their shields vanish if you use your Time Stop ability; the shield must have some kind of "frequency" and fluctuate many times a second, rather than being continuous. While time is stopped it is a simple matter to riddle them with bullets, or headshot them for an instant kill.

WARP GUARDS

Warp Guards are the most advanced version of Krone's Quantum Guards. There are only ten Warp Guards in the entire game, but they certainly make an impression. These cyborgs use Time Stop, vanishing and reappearing anywhere at will. To an observer they appear to teleport from place to place in a flash of blue light. Quantum Guards never run, dodge attacks or take cover, instead they behave like the Chrono Legionnaires in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 - they always move by teleporting.

Fortunately their time field does not surround their weapons, so they have to return to normal time to attack. A split second is all they need, however, as they are armed with deadly Surge Guns that can kill the player in under a second of constant fire.

Warp Guards will freeze time and vanish the moment they take any damage, making weaker rapid-fire weapons pretty ineffective. Even a hit from a powerful weapon is not guaranteed to eliminate them as they have extremely durable armour capable of withstanding multiple hits from the Thunderbolt crossbow, the Bloodhound rocket launcher, or the Surge Gun. The best way to deal with them is to either score a headshot, or to stop time yourself and use those frozen seconds to inflict a massive amount of damage.



UNLOCKABLES 1-6
Video with music "Cold Rain"





UNLOCKABLES 7-12
Video with music "Predator/Prey"
(To read the small writing put it into 1080p resolution and view full-screen.)





UNLOCKABLES 13 - 18
Video with music "Drop Like Flies"





UNLOCKABLES 19-24
Video with music "Winding War"





UNLOCKABLES 25-30
Video with music "Perilous Trespass"





UNLOCKABLES 31-36
Video with music "The Gauntlet"




UNLOCKABLES 37-42
Video with music "Motor Blitz"



UNLOCKABLES 43-48
Video with music "Sever The Line"



UNLOCKABLES 49-54
Video with music "Bullet Storm"




UNLOCKABLES 55-60
Video with music "Break the Mountain"



UNLOCKABLES 61-66
Video with music "Retaliation"



UNLOCKABLES 67-73
Video with music "Last Gasp" and "Dethroned"


Archive Index