What TimeShifters is
TimeShifters is an old school first person shooter inspired by games like TimeSplitters and GoldenEye. It goes for fast paced action with tons of weapons, and it leans into that year 2000 arcade feel rather than realism. The singleplayer side is built around 9 story missions and more than 30 challenge missions, with a linear structure you can learn level by level. The challenges are deliberately varied: pig racing, flying an apache, playing chicken with a train, working as a firefighter, pint smashing and plenty more. Scores and times matter here, so runs are meant to be replayed until you clean them up. You chase platinum trophies on every level and difficulty, learn each layout, and try to beat your own best time.
How a group plays it together
The competitive side is online PvP. You can play against other people in modes like deathmatch, capture the bag and virus, plus more besides. On top of the stock maps, the mapmaker lets you build your own arenas: place tiles, lay out multiplayer maps and story missions, add triggers, change how the AI behaves and adjust the look of the map. Finished maps can be shared through the Steam Workshop, so the group can pass builds around and try each other's work. Note that the mapmaker is a very early feature and will be updated in the coming weeks with more tiles, so expect it to grow over time.
Before you start
Expect a shooter with a lot of surface area to poke at rather than a single tight mode. Environments are full of things you can interact with: smashing windows, potting ball on a pool table, smashing plates, blowing up crates, and using objects in the environment such as a fire extinguisher. The tags cover a wide spread of settings and themes, including zombies, space, historical and sci-fi, so levels change character as you move through them. If you care about clean runs, budget time for repetition: the trophies and best times come from knowing each level and difficulty well, not just clearing it once.