Time Loader is honestly one of 2021’s best sleeper hit indie titles. Developed by Flazm and published by META Publishing, Time Loader is a story-driven puzzle-platformer title that will captivate you from start to finish because of its premise. Does this game deserve your time though in the end though? Let’s dive right in shall we.
In Time Loader, players will take on the role of a four-wheeled robot with a grabby claw. Your creator, Adam Wright, suffered a debilitating accident during his childhood which left him crippled for life. Adam is a quantum physicist and engineer and has built a homemade time machine. He uses this to send you, a small robot, back in time to stop the accident that crippled him from ever happening. No pressure huh?
Players will take on the role of the robot loader with a claw and move around in the 1995 version of Adam’s home. After the introductory cutscene, you’ll be tasked with eliminating a small red toy car that caused Adam to slip and fall. In order to do this, you will have to move your robot, find the toy car and destroy it. This is however easier said than done. As the small robot loader, players will have to navigate through Adam’s house. Moving left and right is simple enough but traversing larger spaces such as gaps between bookshelves or tables and chairs becomes a bit of a challenge.
Time Loader is at its core, a puzzle-platformer side-scrolling game. Players will explore specific areas with the robot and have to complete tasks that will help them to progress further. These tasks ramp up in difficulty the further you get into the game and the small robot loader itself eventually gets upgraded with new abilities such as a screwdriver upgrade or bouncy wheels which let you jump higher. These upgrades are necessary to progress further into the game because they help you overcome obstacles and other challenges which block you from advancing without them.
A mild spoiler lies ahead so avert your eyes for the rest of this paragraph if you want to play this game without knowing anything further than what has already been said. After you destroy the red car, your loader runs a “Divergence calculation” and this plays a cutscene. The cutscene shows that Adam’s accident is still not averted and something else needs to be intercepted to prevent the accident from occurring. This happens throughout the game and serves as your objectives which keeps you going.
Each area in Time Loader looks artistically beautiful with the graphics settings set to Fantastic. The physics used in the game is a key aspect of its gameplay with the loader being able to push, throw and grab onto objects. This is represented fairly accurately but there were times where it was hard to tell if a particular jump could be safely made or if it was possible to climb up an object. With that said, the game isn’t difficult to complete at all. If you do get stuck, spending some time looking around an area for interactable objects usually indicates to you what to do to progress.
The soundtrack used in Time Loader features some extremely chilled out music that while slightly forgettable, does its job of keeping you entertained while you traverse Adam’s home. The voice acting used in the game is surprisingly great with the A.I of the robot sounding quite enthusiastic about its goal. The A.I also speaks to you about Adam’s life history as you discover objects and this is a nice touch giving players some much-needed backstory to enjoy throughout the game. Speaking of which, the environmental design of Time Loader deserves a special mention due to the attention to detail that’s been implemented here. Adam’s home is filled with objects which really help build his character. Players will see toy soldiers, trains, cars, a fish tank, Adam’s cat, engineering textbooks and much much more throughout their journey.
The game does however have some minor shortcomings with its actual gameplay. Apart from not giving players much direction at some points, the throwing mechanic feels rather stiff and cumbersome to use. Thankfully, this isn’t used too often in the game with the main grabbing and jumping mechanics taking precedence instead.
Overall, Time Loader is a solid indie title and one that has a lot of heart. The game isn’t all that long coming in at around 4 hours or so but it does feature hidden collectables as well as multiple endings so there is some replayability to be had here. You can tell that the developers enjoyed making this game and spent a lot of time perfecting the puzzles and environments. If you’re looking for a fun, enjoyable physics-based puzzle platformer, Time Loader is a fantastic game to play.
Platforms: Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5
Reviewed on PC
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