Time Recoil review - A slowed down and sped up top-down shooter

Time Recoil is a shooter that plays by its own rules. Or at the very least it plays by the rules of a whole bunch of other shooters, but squishes those rules into new shapes to fit into the top-down blaster genre.

And it does it with quite a lot of skill. There are a few niggles here, as you might expect from a game that was built with physical controls in mind, but when things click into place it's super slick and super original.

There are a few problems with pacing too, but those are pretty easy to look past when you're gunning down hordes of bad guys, smashing through walls, and generally having a lovely old time.

The game sees you playing a super-powered time travelling secret agent. You bounce between different, but really rather similar, time lines, stealing things, killing targets, and rescuing people to aid you in your fight against Mr. Time.

Yeah, the bad guy is called Mr. Time. Anyway, the missions essentially play out like a series of fast-paced, violent puzzles. And it's here that the game really shows off its chops. And its chops basically involve time slowing down.

Imagine a bullet-time shoot out, but from a top down perspective. Every shot keeps the slowdown going, and you can build up special moves by making the required number of kills. There's a cool desperation to things as well, and it ups the ante impressively.

Don't go into the game expecting a walk in the park though. There's a lot going on here, and the first few times you take on a level you're probably going to die a lot. But you'll bounce back in pretty quickly, determined to take down those evil doers.

On top of the story mode there's Time Attack challenges too. These let you pit your skills against other players in a race to the top of the leader board, and they help to sustain the game even when you've got to the end of the plot.

It might not be the shiniest game out there, but everything is presented in a way that's easy to understand. Lights flash, boxes surround your foes, and your special moves pop up in front of you when they're unlocked.

Times keeps on slipping

If you've got an MFi controller then you can up the score below by a point, because it'll get rid of a lot of the problems with the touchscreen version of the game.

But even if you don't this one is well worth picking up. It's fast, for the most part, and it's a whole lot of fun.

This isn't your average top-down shooter, but if you'rre a fun of blowing things up you need to get it now.