Developer: Autoexec Games
Publisher: Autoexec Games
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Timemelters – Preview
Timemelters is a unique take on the third-person strategy genre that vaguely reminds us of an old game by Interplay, called Sacrifice. Although this is Autoexec Games’ first project, their founder, Vincent Blanchard, has previously been in charge of designing and producing Sang-Froid – Tales of Werewolves. The company’s mission, as stated on their site, is clear: they don’t settle with merely copying existing games. They’re out to create something truly unique and original, and after having spent only a few hours with the Timemelters alpha game mechanics demo, we would say they succeeded at doing just this.
Timemelters’ story and setting are loosely based on the witch trials that happened in Scotland during the 16th century, but with a fantasy twist. You are in control of Teagan, a witch in possession of mysterious powers that enable her to control time itself. Timemelters has a mission-based structure, and the goal in each level varies from defending an objective, to clearing all enemies on the map. The game’s obvious headliner is the ability to go back in time, whilst creating a copy of yourself, called an Echo. You do this either by dying, or by activating a Time Rift. This past self then reproduces every action you previously performed, thus allowing you to be in multiple places at once on the battlefield. The amount of copies you are able to make varies from mission to mission, and since you lose the mission when all your Echos are expended, making the right decisions during each timeline becomes paramount. This leads to a lot of trial and error gameplay in order to figure out the best way to approach each mission. Luckily, Teagan also has control over spirits, which are entities that drop from certain enemies, which you can obtain during your mission. These spirits can then be used to summon elementals or animate trees on the map, all of which hinder the enemies’ progression towards you.
One example is a mission in which you have to defend an NPC, where the map has three paths leading up to him. All three paths contain enemies that slowly advance towards their target, with various obstacles, cliffs, and trees in the way. The first thing you need to figure out is which group of enemies will reach the NPC first, and thus, which group to prioritize. By pausing combat and going into Soul Sight, which gives you the ability to get a bird’s eye view of the battlefield, you’re able to cast spells and fly around the map. This becomes especially helpful when there are several Echos on the map, as it becomes difficult to remember what each one is doing. The next thing is figuring out what spells to use where, as you only get a very limited amount of spirits, and using them all means you won’t be able to cast any more spells. This is the game’s form of resource management. Lastly, there is teleport. This allows you to place a copy of yourself at your current position, which then stays at that position and triggers upon you getting hit or by activation, sending you back to that location. Thinking about correct positioning and where you move towards after is important here, as it serves to increase your distance between yourself and the enemy as much as possible. Speaking of getting hit – did we mention that you only have 1 hit point, meaning that getting hurt by anything will trigger your Echo or Teleport? Timemelters can be notoriously difficult, but surprisingly enough, all these elements work together tightly and never feel out of place or tacked on.
The art style of Timemelters reminds us of the Fable series, which is certainly not the worst franchise to take notes from. Everything in the game is represented clearly and with little visual clutter, which is important when things get hectic and you need to manage yourself in several places on the map at once; literally. While the sound and voices in Timemelters are nothing special by today’s standards, the music is scored by Michel F. April. The latter is a composer, arranger, and producer who has produced music for dozens of television series for companies like Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros, as well as for games like Dead by Daylight. This definitely gives the game a leg up on the competition in the music department.
Conclusion
The development of Timemelters is currently being funded through an ongoing Kickstarter campaign. If it doesn’t meet its goal by the 9th of October, the development of the game will be halted. If this preview has not yet convinced you, try the free demo on Steam, and if the game plays like something you would enjoy, give these guys a pledge. From what we have seen so far, Autoexec Games might have a gem on their hands.
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