Highlights
- Time control mechanics can enhance gameplay and storytelling in video games, but only a few titles have successfully implemented them.
- Forza Horizon 5 allows players to rewind time during races, adding a forgiving yet skill-based element to the gameplay.
- Max Payne Trilogy and Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective are praised for their time control mechanics, which add stylish and mind-blowing elements to the gameplay and story, respectively.
Being able to control time is something many players enjoy. Having the power to slow time to get the best shot, reverse time to try another option, or stop it completely in its tracks to get across a level. Being able to use time control has its advantages, and that's something many games have added as a feature to their titles. It can be really hard to pull off, and there are many titles that don't end up doing justice to this ingenious mechanic.
Although many games have attempted to implement this mechanic, only a few of them are remembered or praised for how it affects gameplay as well as the story. Being seen as one of the best games with time control mechanics is a hefty feat, showing that developers understood how engaging it can be to mess around with the fabric of time itself to experience something unique and memorable.
Updated August 31, 2023, by Ritwik Mitra: It can be challenging for games to nail the concept of controlling itself in their gameplay. While this mechanic can make for some spectacular set-pieces and unique stories, there are times when players don't feel all that amazed by how games mess around with time. Thankfully, many games have done a great job of integrating time-based mechanics, even if the implementation itself may not be as broad or all-encompassing as most people would expect.
13 Forza Horizon 5
Forza Horizon 5 is one of the greatest racing games available. Players can roam around a vast, engaging open world while completing races, unlocking rare barn finds, accomplishing challenges, and more. The best part about racing is that the Forza games know just how frustrating a single mistake can be during a heart-pounding race, forcing players all the way to last place in certain instances.
To avoid this, most Forza games allow players to rewind time so that they can go a few seconds back before impact. Not only is this a great way to negate the frustration from futile crashes, but it also allows players to nail the perfect turn or avoid a graze that messed with their speed. It can be a bit too forgiving at times, but there's always some skill involved to win the races even with this mechanic in the way.
12 The Max Payne Trilogy
Max Payne is one of the best video game series ever made. Fans will have a great time playing through all three games and witnessing the story of this gritty detective. The third game is a huge jump in terms of gameplay, even if some people felt that the story itself took a knock and wasn't in the spirit of the other two Max Payne games.
Regardless, one of the best features of Max Payne was its Bullet Time mechanic. The idea of jumping into the fray in slow motion while peppering enemies with bullets made for some really stylish kills. Players became dealers of death with their akimbo pistols, SMGs, rifles, and other forms of weaponry. Max Payne is a must-play for any gamer who likes great time-slowdown mechanics in their third-person shooters.
11 Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Shu Takumi is known to many as the man behind the beloved Ace Attorney series. While this series is iconic in its own right, the game that many fans consider to be Takumi's greatest doesn't come from this series. That honor goes to a title that was recently re-released on the Switch, called Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.
The story follows Sissel as players try to piece together the fragments of his past to uncover the reason why he became a ghost in the first place. It's a tantalizing tale, featuring a massive twist that most players won't see coming. There are many ways this twist is foreshadowed, making for a clever and mind-blowing story that is easily Shu Takumi at the height of his powers.
10 Superhot
In the minimalist first-person shooter Superhot, players have limited power when it comes to controlling time. Time only moves when the player moves, allowing them to consider the best form of attack before deciding to pick up their weapon and deal damage.
This turns Superhot from the typical shooter title to something that fits more of the puzzle genre. The mechanics make the player feel intelligent by allowing them to calculate their whole attack before time starts once more and they take down their enemy.
9 F.E.A.R
There are few horror titles that take on any sort of time control mechanics as it may break away from the immersive creepiness of the title. However, F.E.A.R hoped to combine this psychological horror with making players feel as if they were part of an action film.
In this game, players have the legendary feature of reflex time. As the player will find themselves constantly attacked while exploring, reflex time shows off the character's superhuman reflexes letting the player aim and fire at a normal speed while the world around them slows.
8 Singularity
Another first-person shooter with horror genre features is Singularity. Players find themselves on an uninhabited island that was once held by the Soviet Union. After a US satellite is shot out of the sky, the player finds themselves traveling between the present day and the events of 1955 on the island.
A large feature of the game comes from the Time Manipulation Device they wear on their hand. This gives the player the solution to a lot of the puzzles they face on the island being able to quicken time to age an object as well as other features.
7 Timeshift
Many games that allow the player to control time make it a necessary feature to help solve puzzles, Timeshift is no different. In this shooter title, one of the player's main abilities, as suggested by the name, is the ability to shift time.
The player can do this in one of three ways: slowing, stopping, or reversing time. This helps with many time-related puzzles as well as allowing players to stop time to take the weapon away from an enemy or to dodge projectiles.
6 Ghostrunner
In this incredibly challenging action platformer set in a cyberpunk-like world, players must take down enemies quickly if they wish to succeed. A single hit from an enemy will instantly kill the player which can be difficult to avoid during this fast-paced combat.
To make this combat more manageable, players have an ability called Sensory Booster, which heightens the character's reflexes. This then slows down time to assist the player in dodging incoming fire, as well as being able to easily close in on their opponent.
5 Dishonored
Players that have explored the gloomy streets of Dishonored as Corvo will know that he has an abundance of abilities after being blessed with the mark of the outsider. One such skill that he can unlock is called Bend Time.
As the name suggests, Corvo can use this ability to slow down or even stop time altogether. This can be used to either sneak past enemies while attempting to complete the game non-lethally or slow time to get behind the enemy and perform a swift kill.
4 Quantum Break
After a failed experiment, the protagonist of Quantum Break, Jack Joyce, is gifted with the power to bend time to hit will. These abilities are something players will need to use to their advantage both in and out of combat to help put an end to the disaster known as the 'End of Time.'
While players have their usual time control mechanics such as being able to stop enemies. One of the more exciting features of Quantum Break is the ability to use Time Vision, which reveals points of interest as. Meanwhile, Time Echoes allows the player to see past events.
3 Braid
Braid is an interesting puzzle platformer that explores the theme of time within all its levels. Gradually while playing through the game players unlock further abilities to control time throughout the story.
It begins with the simple ability to reverse time. This allows players to try a puzzle again, as they are most likely to get stuck. From here, the time control mechanics progress as they become a crucial part of the puzzles forcing players to understand how time moves within the level before they can attempt to control it.
2 Blinx: The Time Sweeper
There are few games that allow the player to control a cute, cat-like animal like that must complete levels armed with only a vacuum and the power to control time. Blinx: The Time Sweeper does exactly that in this platform adventure.
Collecting specific pairings of gems allows the player to unlock the time control ability linked with that gem and therefore alter parts of the level using it. Many of these abilities, such as reversing or pausing time, are needed to get past blockades as well as assisting in boss battles.
1 Life Is Strange
The intense and emotional story isn't the only thing that Life Is Strange is praised for. In this episodic adventure, one of the main features is that the protagonist, Max, has the ability to reverse time.
Being able to rewind time can either help or hinder a situation, as players will have the information they had learned available to them to make a different choice the second or third time around. However, as the story progresses, this power may be more dangerous than it seems. It turns out there may be consequences for reversing time.