Imagine you could go back and change a pivotal moment in your past. Would you do it? That’s exactly the question that Time Loader, by developer Flazm Interactive and publisher META Publishing, leads with. The main character, Adam, was once a young boy with a bright future in science and athletics, but a fateful accident took it all away when he fell and lost the use of his legs forever. Many years later (ironically set in 2020), Adam’s drive to change fate has culminated in three great inventions: A time machine; a sentient AI friend who accompanies you as you explore Adam’s childhood home; and you, a small all-terrain robot with a grabber arm. After a brief testing phase, it’s off to the past to change Adam’s destiny! But how will your actions in the past affect the present?
The game excellently utilizes the 3D perspective on its 2D gameplay, using foreground and background objects to set up puzzles and to discard objects in a realistic manner after use. For example, an open door that poses as a wall can be closed to allow for free passage and vice-versa to prevent backtracking. Each part of the house that you explore is chock-full of secrets, puzzles, and nostalgia: blasts from the past like VHS players, familiar looking toy robots, and even old Mac-adjacent computers await you at every turn. There’s plenty of life to the house, and it feels genuinely lived in as you explore it from what is akin to a mouse’s perspective.
Time Loader is what I consider a Beginner’s Guide to time travel, laying out the rules of cause and effect early on in more mundane ways: for example, you can quickly discover an old VHS containing Adam’s first ever baseball game, which was accidentally erased in the original timeline. You, as the robot, are given the choice to either keep the flow of time as it was or to change the future by preventing the VHS from being wiped. Every action taken in the past has an effect, although it might not be the one you expect once you return to the present. So plan your movements carefully and remember everything you can: you never know what might be important!
Your vessel for this voyage through time, the all-terrain “Time Loader,” comes equipped with solid platforming abilities, precise movement, and a grabber arm strong enough for some incredibly cinematic moments if timed right. My favorite moment, in the early game, was swinging off of a conveniently placed lamp to land a jump. As you progress through the game, you slowly unlock other abilities to solve puzzles, although the only one you manage to hold onto for the rest of the game is the advanced jump earned after stealing stronger springs from a toy truck. The other abilities are more for problem-solving and single-use application than anything else, so their loss after they run out of usefulness isn’t a problem.
If there is anything to be criticized about the game, it is the occasional lack of precision in either gameplay or player guidance. In the tutorial, Time Loader forgets to inform you how to jump, however this problem is soon removed after the player button-mashes a single time. There are moments where the game requires a precise series of movements in order to reach your goal, yet your grabber arm seems uncooperative. I don’t see this as a major dealbreaker, as the setbacks of failing a puzzle require at most a minute of backtracking, but it slowly begins to feel draining when the game asks you to perform Indiana Jones-level stunts with what is essentially a Time-Traveling Roomba.
What is interesting about Time Loader is how important and genuine every moment feels while playing it. Even the moments of frustration from puzzles, or the repetitiveness while patrolling the house performing menial tasks, they all feel intentional. It all goes back to the perspective the player is shown of Adam at the beginning of the story: In his quest to undo tragedy, he casually ignores the gravity and importance of his inventions. For any other scientist, creating both sentient AI and a working Time Machine would be an achievement worth celebrating in itself. But Adam is focused on the past, ignoring the present. Living through his past, going through the motions to fulfill his misguided wishes, it all slowly builds into a crescendo of understanding and awe. As you change the past, you realize where the story is going, but it keeps you gripped on the edge of your seat the entire time.
Time Loader, while not perfect, is a hidden gem. I highly recommend taking the time to enjoy this Blast to the Past. There are plenty of twists and turns to shock you on the way, but I won’t dare spoil them here. I happily rate Time Loader a solid 8.5 out of 10, and I hope to see the developers continue to develop their style in the future. Whenever another game is made by this team, I’ll be there to enjoy it. Unless my future self sends something back in time to stop me. But what are the chances of that?
Check Out the Time Loader Launch Trailer:
Time Loader is available for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. For more information, visit https://flazm.com/time-loader
Gaming is a passion that I, like many other people, hold near and dear to my heart. As an aspiring Game Writer and general Storyteller, I enjoy looking into the vast worlds and deep stories of every game I can. Then again, sometimes bad guys just need a good pummeling, and I am more than happy to provide!
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