Stargate: Timekeepers Review (PC)

The convoy must get through to the rebels, loaded with important but unspecified supplies. But Jaffa loyalist sentinels are watching the road. Thankfully, there are only two of them, with the rest of the enemy camp apparently unable to spot the difference between their own carts and those used by their enemies. Earth’s forces can easily take advantage of their dimness and bad organization.

Eva McCain, a seasoned soldier, is accompanied by A’ta, a Jaffa rebel, and their skills are highly complementary. The pair can blind groups of opponents before snatching one or two, zip-tying them, and then depositing them in the bushes. They can also distract enemies, draw them in, and then non-lethally eliminate them. Eva’s machine gun and A’ta’s staff can also kill if they are caught by a bigger force and there’s no other option.

Of course, this being a video game, there’s always a quick save to fall back on if anything truly bad happens. Half the fun is in trying out different plans and finding the best way to deal with the Goa’uld loyalists without drawing any unnecessary attention. It might take half a dozen tries but I will probably eliminate both sentinels and everyone else in their camps without my heroines getting caught.

Stargate: Timekeepers is developed and published by Slitherine Ltd. I played on Steam on the PC. The title delivers a tactics-focused experience around the main concepts of the Stargate universe, with the Goa’uld as the main threat.

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The narrative will disappoint many fans of the franchise by not focusing on the original team. Instead, players will take control of a new set of characters during the Battle of Antarctica at the end of the TV series’ seventh season. They will support SG-1 in the fights against Anubis and will gradually discover and thwart another dastardly Goa’uld plan.

The playable characters aren’t as interesting as any seen on the TV shows. Eva McCain is the soldier with a professional attitude and experience that focuses on automatic weapons, while Max Bolton is an adventurous sniper with snarky comments to share. A’ta is a Jaffa rebel, good with her staff and distractions. Derek Harper is the drone-focused tech guy, Sam Watson knows infiltration tactics and a Unas soldier named Xugga also joins the fray.

I was never engaged with the narrative. Stargate: Timekeepers takes the best-known elements of the franchise and does very little with them. It’s hard to care about this sideshow or about yet another Goa’uld rebel and it does not help that the writing never rises above mediocre in terms of quality.

Mechanically, Timekeepers is a very classic take on a top-down stealth experience. Characters enter a level, a short cutscene lays out the stakes and a plan, and then it’s time to quietly move around, take out opponents, and reload when things go very wrong. This SG team is stealthy and ability-focused, although its members have the firepower to kinetically eliminate enemies if needed.

As in other titles in the genre, players can click on any opponent to see their vision cones, which is crucial when planning movement and attack routes. Once anyone is knocked out, make sure to also zip-tie them and find a nice hiding place to make sure a buddy doesn’t come around and raises an alarm.

Team members have a variety of skills that can draw attention, shift movement patterns, and blind or known-out enemies. A Tactical mode pauses the game, allowing players to issue orders their characters will then carry out simultaneously. Again, nothing out of the ordinary for the stealth action genre. Make sure to save regularly and do not be afraid to experiment and test the limits of the tactical puzzles.

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Timekeepers is never as varied or compelling as the recent Shadow Tactics from Mimimi. It is competent at what it is doing and will challenge players who choose the Hard difficulty level. There are sequences where I failed to find a stealth solution and actually lured enemies into killzones to clear the way.

The title’s biggest issue is its limited ambition. A Stargate experience should give players a way to engage with the actual gates. Or mechanics to customize their crew and the way they approach a situation. Or at least create a storyline that feels as dramatic as that of one of the original series’ seasons.

Fans should also take into account that only seven-story missions are offered on launch, labeled as the first season. A second set, also containing seven missions, is set to be delivered later in 2024. Presumably, the same cast of characters will be featured, and the quality of the writing will be similar.

Stargate: Timekeepers is rarely visually exciting, apart from the alien environments. Sure, the visual motifs of the television series are present, especially when it comes to the interface. But players have to zoom in and squint to see any sort of character details and, after a few missions, it’s pretty clear that the focus is on coherent gameplay and not visual spectacle. The cutscenes look pretty bad, especially when they try to replicate some of the bigger set-pieces of the television series.

The interface works well and, more importantly, has a timer that’s designed to get players to quick save as much as possible. The game offers voice acting for the core characters, and they do what they can with fairly uninspired lines. The soundtrack remains in the background and gives players space to ponder solutions to the tactical puzzles.

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The Good

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Conclusion