Timelie🎮

This was a very nice surprise. The main character, Elie, wakes up in some kind of robot-guarded prison, and starts looking for freedom. To do that, you go over several different levels in which you have to escape and avoid being caught. The gameplay is simple: you control Elie (and soon also a companion cat) with precision. You can pause, rewind, change orders… In a way, it’s similar to Braid (rewinding) but this is not a platformer, and is a basic stealth game. Even though action occurs “in real time”, I think of it better as a turn-based stealth game, in which turns can pass automatically.

▽ Here the cat is seen by a robot. Can it escape before the robot catches it? Timelie’s Press Kit image.

At the end of each passed level, you can see a video of the level playing smoothly, similar to how Superhot does it. Especially in more complex levels, it can be very interesting to see how it all plays out and the characters manage to not get caught amazingly.

▽ The beginning of a level recap video (notice the video controls).

In terms of story, the game doesn’t have a lot, but it does have enough to catch the imagination. Nothing of the story or lore is explained with words—I don’t think a word is really said or any text written anywhere—but it is still impressively engaging. (I played in German, but that only applied to the menus and tutorials.) Still, when it finishes not much is explained.

If you complete some achievements you get some hidden relics. If you manage to get them all, you unlock a secret/additional ending which explains a bit more of the story. I did not complete them all before this review, but did check it online(1) (1)Yes, yes, I’m a cheater. I also try to have a life sometimes 😉 . . It’s interesting, and is a very small reward for those that “100%” the game, but it doesn’t fill up any holes in the story.

▽ At the end of each chapter we collect a memento and store it on an altar of sorts.

The whole game itself, as can be seen, is quite short. It does bring quite some innovations and changes throughout the game. For someone that wants to play more, there is a DLC that introduces quite a few new scenarios, but I haven’t tried it.

Technically the game played very well. I played on a Steam Deck, and the controller is perfect for this game. It also ran flawlessly and didn’t use up too much battery. Graphics, as can be seen in the screenshots are nice, and the sound design, though not revolutionary (nor should it be), is also quite good.

▽ Elie and the cat about to start one of the levels.

A minor criticism is that, as a colourblind person, some puzzles were a bit more complicated that they should be because the game uses colour to connect some elements. It was not a big problem, almost not even a small problem, I could just very quickly test what a switch did and roll back any time, and it’s not something that happened a lot, but is still something that could have been improved.

All in all, a really great game, that I’m really glad to have played. Also, it doesn’t overstay its welcome! I also love that!