Game Review: Time Recoil (Switch)

Fresh off the heels of Neon Chrome and JYDGE, developer-come-publisher 10tons are back with the twin-stick-shooter Time Recoil; a game which puts the emphasis on speed, precision and skill-shots rather than all out mayhem. So with this being said what can one expect from Time Recoil? Well let’s take a look!

	Title:	Time Recoil
	Publisher:	10tons
	Developer:	10tons
	Platform:	Nintendo Switch
	Resolution:	1920 X 1080
	Audio:	English
	Subtitles:	English (White)
	Local Players:	1
	Online Players:	N/A
	Install:	YES (257mb)

Our View:

10tons are seemingly becoming the masters of ‘twin-stick-shooter’ gameplay as within the past few weeks the Finland based development studio have released a variety of twin-stick-shooters onto the Nintendo Switch, all of which have been developed over a range of years and released onto a variety of platforms. Time Recoil, the latest entry into this twin-stick-shooter genre, is 10tons latest Nintendo Switch release and while it may look and play similar to the aforementioned games it instead offers something drastically different.

In Time Recoil players take on the role of Alexa, a woman with the ability to safely travel through time and a defector from Mr Time’s scientific organisation where she previously worked before being imprisoned, who after being rescued by ‘the director’ of another organisation finds herself being recruited to stop Mr Time’s evil plan. It’s a vague story but the general idea is that Alexa is ability to travel through time and she is recruited to stop Mr Time from destroying the world by using her time manipulating abilities.

This story is mostly played out through dialogue when the Alexa interacts with characters on screen; but additional context to the games story can be found in the form of documents scattered around the world. Naturally given this style of gameplay, i.e. a twin-stick-shooter, the story merely provides context for the events of the game, such as travelling through time, and the types of powers that Alexa can use; such as ‘bullet time’ themed skills. This is where Time Recoil begins to shine amongst other twin-stick shooters but at the same time provides some ‘frustration’ with its questionable rules.

For the most pat Time Recoil is a twin-stick-shooter that will see the player playthrough individual levels by defeating enemies (or avoiding them) in order to proceed to the objective; an objective which can range from securing Intel, assassinating a target or exiting the building. The difference between Time Recoil and other twin-stick-shooters is that each mission sees Alexa starting without a weapon, which is rather unheard of for a game of this genre. Additionally when a weapon has been secured only a limited amount of ammo is available. This is where Alexa’s time manipulating abilities come into effect as with each enemy she kills time will slow-down allowing for her to easily kill another target.

It’s an interesting mechanic and its one that fuels Alexa’s additional abilities which, in turn, wield stronger attacks, some of which are required to move forward in the game. These stronger attacks can include the ability to fire a large shot in a single direction, thus destroying multiple enemies, or creating a large explosion to get past stronger doors. These abilities are fun to use; but in order to actually use them a combo of kills must be achieved with this proving more difficult than it actually sounds due to limit time constraints and one hit deaths.

That’s right; a single gunshot or melee attack from an enemy will result in the death of your character and  whole level having to be replayed from the beginning. In my mind it is an extremely tough learning curve, especially when it comes to the trying to activate the stronger attacks, as one wrong move and you’ll find yourself back at the beginning of the level. As a result of this Time Recoil can sometimes be more about repetition (i.e. find enemies, die trying to kill them, repeat until successful) than actual progression but it does provide that ‘one more go’ approach of old-school arcades games.

Personally this is what disappointed me the most, as it can literally stop progression of the story, but fortunately the levels are rather short so it shouldn’t become too much of a hindrance. Apart from this questionable design choice, and some poorly implemented tutorial notices, Time Recoil is a pretty solid game thats worth of space on your Nintendo Switch.

Time Recoil offers short bursts of fun with interesting story that is portrayed in a bizarre manner, but the combination of limited ammo and slow-down mechanics further add a refreshing twist to an already milked genre.

Score:

Time Recoil is now available to download from the Nintendo Switch eShop; alternatively Time Recoil is available for other platforms such as the PC via Steam.