REVIEW: Timelie


Title	Timelie
Developer	Urnique Studio
Publisher	Urnique Studio, Milk Bottle Studio
Release Date	May 20th, 2020
Genre	Puzzle
Platform	PC
Age Rating	NR
Official Website

Timelie is a timing-based puzzle game from Urnique Studio, which I hadn’t heard of before this title. I’m always up for trying new things though, so I decided to give this game a shot. The idea behind the game was just way too interesting for me to pass up. A girl with the ability to reverse time and she has a cat? What more can you ask for?

As stated before, this is a puzzle game. Your job is to get to the end of each level, using the abilities of both the girl and her feline companion. When controlling the girl you can rewind time from designated areas in order to activate levers and buttons. While the cat is able to fit into tight spaces and meow to distract enemies. The game is based on a timeline system. You can rewind and fast forward through time, but you have to have enough space on the timeline to make it to the door in the end. If you’re caught by an enemy, then you can no longer scrub to the future and have to rewind and fix the mistake. The little girl can collect certain orbs that let her kill enemies but charges are limited. It’s a simple, yet interesting concept that’s fun to mess around with. Especially since there are certain challenges for levels like “not using the little girl’s abilities”. It makes the replay value of this game very high.

The story in the game is vague but I enjoy how it’s told. I’m not even sure if I understand it all. I know that you’re a girl with a cat and you’re trying to get back to your home. There’s no voice acting in this game. Instead, it’s left to the sappy music and metaphoric visuals. This doesn’t always make for the most active storytelling, but it’s enjoyable for what it is.

With this being a puzzle game, of course a big part of it is puzzles. And I’ll be the first to say, this one does an excellent job. While none of them are really memorable to me, they all do a solid enough job at holding up the core gameplay. Most puzzles in modern games end up feeling either too obscure, or too simple to figure out. This one had a perfect balance of complexity that made it a dream to play. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some finicky puzzles in here that require more out of the box thinking, but that comes with the territory. Even with a few bad apples, Timelie still ends up hitting it out of the park more often than not.

Lastly, we get to the art and honestly, it’s just okay. I’m really not a huge fan of the sleek, clean modernist look. However, it does fit with the aesthetics of the game. So while I may not love it, I can’t really fault it either. The art just kind of exists and that’s not really a bad thing. However, unlike the art, the music is great. I love the somber music, backed by the powerful vocals on some of the tracks. I’d happily buy the soundtrack to this game as I adore that style of music.

My final thoughts are that I really enjoyed my 5-ish hours with Timelie, but it does have its flaws. But the flaws can easily be overlooked for a really great game. You can buy Timelie for $18.99 right now on Steam. If you love puzzle games then you definitely get a seal of approval from me.