Coming from developer Autoexec Games, TimeMelters is a unique mix of Tower Defense and third-person action-adventure, featuring a time-traveling experience like no other. The game offers the usual level of strategic thinking that comes with taking on hordes of monsters with spectacular magic abilities, while also providing players with personal touch, high stakes and an extra tactical layer thanks to the time-bending shenanigans.
Saving the world from an approaching apocalypse is old news, been there, done that. But what do you do when the end cannot be stopped and is in full swing already, and your chances in this timeline are slipping right through your fingers as the world inevitably plummets into abyss?
The answer is as simple and as complex as any wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff: you just have to travel to another timeline and prevent it from ever happening in the first place. But first, you need to get used to your new powers and responsibilities, and acquire an ancient artifact that would make such a journey possible.
Sounds quite easy, right? Or at least it might have been, if you weren’t possessed by a witch and chased by furious undead and various corrupted beings. This is our TimeMelters PC review.
Magic is not unheard of in the universe of TimeMelters, with all the boons and dangers it can provide. The wrath of an ancient druid sweeps across the land and corrupts everything it touches. Terrified of this unknown magical plague, the kingdom descends into witch hunting, seeing many innocent women burned at the stake out of sheer suspicion.
You play as Teagan, a seemingly usual woman from a small village caught in the wave of these witch hunts and destined to be one of its many victims. However, she manages to narrowly escape the stake, but doesn’t come out of that situation entirely unscathed: not only does Teagan get possessed by an old witch, she also loses her brother in the struggle, forced to flee alone.
As Teagan runs for her life from the wave of the Corrupted, she gets an unexpected help… from a future version of herself. With the guidance of her unwanted passenger and a few quick lectures on magic she provides, Teagan manages to get out of the sticky situation and learn more about herself in the process. In particular, she finds out that she has incredible innate magical abilities that allow her to manipulate spirits, create portals, and, most importantly, bend time to her will. With certain limitations, of course.
As Teagan makes her way across the ravaged kingdom, finding new friends and enemies along the way, she will learn more about this world’s past and its future: the reason for the appearance of the Corrupted, the role the Silver Chain and her grandmother played in the catastrophe, why it can no longer be stopped, and what she has to do in order to give this world a fighting chance. The game has a single-player campaign with an interesting, deep narrative that unfolds with each passing mission: be it insight into the overall lore of this world, unexpected twists, betrayals and more.
However, if you were playing together with a friend in co-op, you will notice that the campaign has certain changes right from the very beginning. Unlike the solo version, the co-op has Teagan’s brother survive the prologue and continue on as the character controlled by Player 2. Seemingly a small enough change, nevertheless it affects both the narrative and the gameplay in a major way. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that TimeMelters shines in co-op, punishing hasty actions while simultaneously rewarding thoughtful teamwork with the mechanics focused on good strategizing.
Note that the game balance feels very different when you are playing with another person as it affects the number of Spirits you acquire and how effectively you can traverse the map and protect important points or NPCs. TimeMelters offers a Friend’s Pass – so that you can play the full co-op campaign for free with only one person owning the full version of the game.
When you are just starting the game, TimeMelters might look deceptively simple or even shallow with the half a dozen abilities that you have access to and the simple puzzles you face, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. The first few maps will tightly hold your hand as you learn the basics of magic and strategizing: auto-attacks, Mana, portals, Spirits, Void Stones, and more, all under the watchful eye of the Silver Chain as you go through the mock trials.
But the very next map after your impromptu apprenticeship test will see the developers not only let go of your hand but also shove you down a flight of stairs just to prove a point: you are on your own now, and it is up to you how to use your arsenal. Cleverly combining abilities, portals and time-melting will see you take on the strangest and hardest of challenges.
Here’s how the flow of each mission goes, in very general terms:
Each mission has one or more objectives, usually revolving around killing enemies, protecting NPCs, reaching a certain point, or a few of these at once. There are also some pretty unique tasks, but we’ll talk about them later. Of course, neither you nor your allies are allowed to die in the process which is actually harder to accomplish than it might sound. Especially considering that Teagan herself only has a single point of HP and usually dies when anything reaches her.
Still, the difficulty does not come from the devious enemy AI but rather from your allies having a death wish and refusing to do anything to contribute to their continuous existence. The number of times I’d watched Teagan’s friends stand exactly one step outside of the range of one of the Sons of Great Oak and heroically (but ingloriously) die to a single zombie or demon while not having Mana to do anything about it…
All NPCs behave according to the predetermined pattern, either staying in place or moving along the routes you will be able to see with your Spirit Sight (Spacebar by default) – the ability that allows you to observe the battlefield from the bird’s eye view and respond swiftly.
Certain enemies have blue orbs floating above them – the very Spirit element mentioned before. Vanquishing them and claiming Spirits for yourself allows you to interact with the environment: activate Sons of Great Oak (possessed trees that serve as traps to thin out enemy population), block certain routes or slow enemies to buy yourself more time, place Fire Spirits that will aggro and funnel the Corrupted right to where you want them.
You also want to pay attention to time: enemies become stronger during the night, forcing you to play much more defensively and carefully. Not every map has the day time change, and the ones that do will feature a counter on the side of the screen so you cannot overlook it.
And, the game’s most unique feature: teleports and time-bending.
There is no overstating how important the teleports are to any strategic game, especially when you have multiple objectives, more often than not requiring you to go to opposite corners of the map. However, multiply that by hundred simply due to the effect playing with time has on it.
In TimeMelters, you can literally Rewind Time. Using the ability will spawn an Echo, a past version of yourself from the timeline you just abandoned. It will act exactly as you did, down to the last action: any ability used, any creature defeated, unless you intervene. Doing so will create a Time Distortion that can have both positive and negative consequences. Going into the Strategic View (TAB by default) pauses the game and allows you to assess what to do next and how to assist your Echo.
Running alongside your Echoes (yes, you can have multiple Echoes acting at the same time!) and seeing how these versions of Teagan take on enemies, imbue trees with Spirits, portal around and more is an unforgettable experience.
However, the most interesting feature is that some things remain unchanged even when you rewind time. Among these is the teleport point you’ve marked. This frees you to mark a teleport somewhere in the middle of the map, then spend lengthy time addressing issues and fighting in one corner, only to Rewind, teleport and immediately appear in the center as your Echo gets to work.
Here’s an example from one of the early maps how it can actually work in-game: one of the early missions requires you to save an NPC that is fighting for her life across the river from you. There is no way to cross, and by the time you get to the shore to be within the helping distance, the NPC already loses her life. However, what you CAN do is drop the teleport on the shore, rewind time to the beginning and immediately teleport to that point to assist before the NPC is mauled to death. All the while you will see your Echo make her way to the shore. There are many ways to cleverly combine abilities to similar effect.
There is a limited number of Echoes you can create, and if you still possess any that aren’t currently created, the game will offer to rewind time instead of receiving a killing blow and a “game over” screen. If you’ve run out of Echoes and get caught, that’s that, back to the checkpoint for you.
Note that when you are playing in co-op, rewinding time affects both players so you might want to coordinate when to use this ability to get the fullest benefit out of it.
Just when you thought you’d seen it all and learned what makes TimeMelters tick, the game upends it all by offering you a whole new set of abilities in addition to the existing one. Whereas your early skills were powered by Spirit, this new set draws from life-force and Souls.
Unlike the Spirit, the Souls are reflected as purple balls of energy. In general, these abilities are stronger but more demanding and restrictive to use. My favorite from this “shadow” tree is the Shadowform, which makes Teagan transform into a wolf for a limited period of time and get an increase in running speed. Additionally, wolf-Teagan does not draw aggro from enemies and thus avoids being attacked.
It is the perfect way to move around a group of monsters standing in your way or to quickly catch up to an NPC that would die without your swift direct intervention. Which is most NPCs most of the time, really.
For those looking to flex their muscles and brain tissue, TimeMelters also offers a set of challenges that will greatly limit your available arsenal. For example, finishing a map with no more than one Echo or not using Rewind Time at all.
TimeMelters is a unique and refreshing take on the genre. Not only do you have the usual Tower Defense-like strategy approach, rewinding time also provides an extra layer of complexity. Your success lies in that tender spot where a clever mix of your abilities and convergence of different timelines and versions of your actions connect.
And if you didn’t manage to defeat the boss or save your allies this time… There certainly is a timeline where you succeeded – you just have to find it!
Note: a Steam key of the game was provided for free for the purposes of this review.
