Zeit² XBLA Review

Zeit² is a Shoot 'em Up, or Shmup, that on first glance doesn't seem very different than the hundreds of other Shmups out there. You control a one ship, hopelessly out numbered by the swarms of enemy ships that are thrown at you and you are almost constantly unleashing a stream of hot death, killing everything in your path. While this very surface level assessment is mostly right it's the addition of one main ability that changes everything.

Zeit²'s neon visuals can be very hypnotic

Overview
That ability is time travel. Zeit² throws many enemies at you, too many to deal with alone but you're not alone, you have yourself watching your back. Zeit²'s main ability lets you travel up to 4 seconds back in time,   this lets you be somewhere else killing a different group of enemies while you watch your previous self kill the enemies you previously did. In effect it lets you be in two different places at once. It's a little confusing at first, but just as you manage to wrap your head around this concept Zeit² throws more at you. It continues like this for the whole game, adding new abilities and concepts as you only just start to understand some of the old ones.

Rational
It's this time travel mechanic that adds a whole lot of the depth and range of tactics unique to this game. There are many team up abilities that can be used it you plan ahead and think about how you can go back in time and use your actions to their fullest. Zeit² gives you more and more of these abilities as you progress, along with other weapons all while throwing new types of enemies at you. It can become quite overwhelming and at times I found myself barely in control of what was happening and just working in pure survival mode.

It's this frenzy that makes and breaks the game in a way. There has to be more ships than you can handle otherwise the time mechanic would make the game too easy. Barely being in control can be fun for a while but whether you pass or fail ends up feeling more like luck, especially the first time you fly through the level. Usually you have been given a new ability and dropped straight in the deep end. Zeit² never lets up. Maybe if the game was a little longer, giving you one extra level in between dropping yet another ability on you, it would give you that little extra time to get a firm grip on the previous ability you gained.

As it turned out I don't think I even used some of the abilities when I had completed Zeit². I was stuck on the last couple of levels relearning some of the abilities I had used and forgotten from the earlier stages. There is so much going on here, and it's all crammed into a really short little game. I beat this in one afternoon, probably somewhere around 2 hours, but if you're into high scores there is so much to learn and build upon here that this game could keep you coming back for months.

Shmups aren't really my thing but I really enjoyed this one

Summary
Zeit² Is short, but packed so densely with game changing abilities handed out on the regular. The action is so manic that unless you very deliberately replay levels and get a firm grip on every ability as you get them you could find yourself in situations that seem nearly impossible. This is a Shmup that relies not only on split second reflexes and timing but also asks you to plan ahead and use careful strategy while doing so. Zeit² isn't necessarily hard to bumble your way through, like I did, but even to me the opportunities for utilizing the different abilities and differing strategies were apparent. If you take the time to learn the stages and are high score inclined this could be a very addictive game.