Timekeepers


Title		Timekeepers
Game Type	Puzzle
Players		1
Company		Vulcan
Compatibility	All
HD Installable	Yes See below *
Submission	D.J.

Review
 Timekeepers is a nod to "Lemmings", and a shallow nod at that.

  I started out liking this game a lot. There's a lot to like. The
graphics are great. I like the Vulcan art work. Images are rounded, shaded
and the Timekeepers themselves move with a cute waddle. The view is
top-down, so the characters appear as 90% nose and 7% feet.

 You are presented with a multi-screen maze containing hazards, doors,
barriers, one-ways and the like. You are seeking a number of
thermo-nuclear devices which you must disable. You are also required to
survive each maze with a minimum number of people. Like Lemmings, the
Timekeepers start moving and keep moving unless you tell them otherwise.
The interface is mouse operated, with a row of icons that allow you to
leave "instructions" on squares of the maze's floor; direction arrows,
jump, use, fight, fix etc. The problems quickly become quite difficult,
even seemingly impossible. Solving them can be greatly satisfying.

 They also start to become repetitive. Some require precise timing so that
even after you have "solved" a level you have to play it until the drudge
work is done. You can only save your position after completing a level,
you cannot save a game while playing it. So you have to start over each
time you screw up. ARGHHHH!

 There are four different "worlds" to play through, which is to say, sets
of graphics and sounds doing the exact same things (like the graphics sets
for SimCity). Again, the graphics are neat but this cannot hide the fact
that, unlike Lemmings, these two-d mazes have a limited number of real
puzzle possibilities and those get used up pretty quickly.

 I was disturbed by the use of the term "Gooks" to describe the enemies in
"Viet Nam World" and the close quarter machine-gunning of them was
gratuitous. Since the thrill had worn pretty thin by this time I simply
stopped playing.

 Some additional design work might have made for more variety and an
editor for custom designing levels could have sustained my interest. But
for me, the fun simply wore too thin too fast.


Note
The game is Hard Disk installable but a few lines were cut off the bottom
of the screen. This did not alter any function.


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