Time Treker Preview

I’ve got the chance to check out a bullet heaven roguelite called Time Treker, developed by Fuse Game and published by Leyo Games and 2P Games (wow, that’s a lot of games). This is on Early Access right now, and from the reviews so far, it’s sitting on a Mostly Positive, so let’s see what it is all about.

You play as one of six (three currently playable) mech pilots, part of the Harbinger Initiative with the goal of rewriting time for a better future… that is not corrupted by endless swarms of alien bugs. And I do mean endless. Just like in Vampire Survivors, the screen can and will fill with enemies, effects, and numbers to the point where it could cause a lesser PC to explode. Be thankful you only have to last five minutes in the main game mode because things can get really intense in the later levels.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about fixing the timeline. Things are really bad from the looks of it.

You’ll be going across a hexagonal grid, selecting a mission to complete to get to the final boss at the end. These missions can range from simple exterminations, killing a boss, or a roulette wheel that can give you free stuff or a tough mission to complete. While your main goal in each fight is to survive until the time limit runs out, you’ll have side objectives to complete that will increase your Impact, rewarding you with bonuses during your run and making the final confrontation a little easier. However, completing these objectives in the allotted time won’t be easy, at least using only your base equipment. You’ll need to upgrade your mech throughout your run, either by levelling up or by spending crystals. Levelling up gives you a choice of a random set of weapons, passive abilities, and attachments to make your mech suit a little more powerful. Spending crystals, meanwhile, can be used to increase the base stats of your mech, unlock weapon slots to increase your firepower, and buy additional attachment slots. With only so many slots and options, you will need to strategise as you play.

That being said, dying and failing a mission isn’t quite the end of your run though. Instead, it’ll add to the Risk Meter which, with enough failures, will trigger the Great Disaster and end the timeline prematurely. However, your failures are not quite as permanent as they may seem. You can retry missions if you have enough crystals, but only up to three times before the consequences are set in stone, good or bad. The success of your run depends on your performance and actions, because without enough effort, you might not have enough firepower to kill the final boss. No ifs or buts about it.

If you’ve managed to rewrite the timeline, or more than likely let it get destroyed, you can spend Tech Points earned from completing challenges on meta-upgrades that affect all characters, like making their starting stats better, giving them higher level weapons, or just increasing their EXP gain so they can level up faster and sooner. There are quite a few choices and you can reset your points at any time you wish.

I’m definitely putting Time Treker on my radar. It’s a really fun time from what I played and it will definitely be better once the audio issues are resolved, because I really enjoyed the music that was playing… when I could hear it over all the sounds of explosions, bullets, and fire.