Fear The Timeloop Review — Countdown to Extinction

What if you only had 15 minutes to escape the objectively scariest situation you’ve ever been in?

That is sort of the question that Fear The Timeloop asks, a new indie title inspired by classic horror games that forces players to race against a ticking clock while solving puzzles, defeating monsters, and uncovering the mystery of how you ended up in a hellish hospital in need of escaping.

To be more specific, Fear The Timeloop sees players taking on the role of Sheriff James Cooper, a determined officer who, during the hunt for a notorious serial killer, finds himself suddenly waking up in the morgue of a dilapidated hospital, surrounded by ghoulish zombies and bleeding out from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. To his shock, the Sheriff finds himself stuck in a timeloop; he has to find a way to escape the hospital before he bleeds out from his wound, or else he’ll find himself right back where he started, perhaps for eternity.

Fear The Timeloop challenges players to play through its puzzle-heavy, survival-oriented horror gameplay on a short timer of just fifteen minutes. If that time runs out, you’ll find yourself starting the game all over again or reverting to your last save, with all of the progress you’ve made undone. The game is cleverly designed around this mechanic, essentially incentivizing players to gather information, die (or otherwise restart the loop), and use that info to proceed through the hospital faster on their second try. Like old-school Resident Evil games, saving is a rare privilege that requires expendable resources to use, so it is not something you can abuse to get around the loop mechanic.

Speaking of Resident Evil, Fear The Timeloop is very clearly inspired by Resident Evil II, right down to the game’s map being very similar to that of the Raccoon City Police Department. It’s not an exact recreation, nor is the pathing the same (since players begin in the basement and work their way up), but I instantly recognized the similarities in layouts between the two. While the game is clearly paying tribute to its idol, I wish it used something other than generic zombies for its monsters, especially considering the themes used in the story.

Fear The Timeloop‘s titular mechanic is clever, and makes the game stand out from other indie horror titles by a wide margin, but it’s not without its problems. The ticking clock is strictly enforced in every area except the game’s safe rooms, which kind of changes how you play the game compared to other horror titles; it can feel unnecessarily punishing to take your time to explore the environment or read notes left behind, as the clock continues to tick down as you do.

When it comes to combat, the game’s shooting is fine, though I noticed an occasional lag between pulling the trigger and my bullets actually leaving the gun. Having to use the nightstick is a bad experience, with awkward hitboxes and, if you’re in one of the game’s many dark areas, complete darkness when you swing and your flashlight moves away from the thing you’re aiming at. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if not for the fact that taking damage reduces the amount of time you have before you die and resets the loop, as your 15-minute timer is actually your health bar, and any damage reduces it.

Fear The Timeloop was made in the Unreal Engine and showcases both the strengths and weaknesses of the engine for indie projects. The game, in stillness, looks incredible, easily on par with any Triple-A title, especially when it comes down to the incredible lighting. When you’re actually playing and moving around, though, the occasional visual bug gives the truth of its development away. Visual issues were present in not every room or hallway in the game, but were frequent enough to be considerable; Z-fighting on textures occasionally caused an odd stuttering effect, and you can peek through some doors by pushing your character model into them, which is the same way you open them in the first place, so it’s something you’ll be doing often. The game also has some frame rate issues, and I fell just short of 60 on my machine.

Fear The Timeloop is not a professionally made production, something that is clear both through its performance issues and visual problems and its voice acting, but also through its willingness to break traditional gameplay rules and try something new. Much like a B-horror movie, its lack of perfection and polish are part of the charm, delivering something that is pretty unique in the horror game space and highly memorable because of it.

There are choices I wish the game made differently, and there are bugs and problems I wish would be polished out, but I can’t deny that Fear The Timeloop has been a memorable experience. If you can look past its blemishes and if you can handle the at-times frustrating nature of its mechanics, you’ll likely find yourself enjoying it as well. Said issues are hardly game-breaking, and for the game’s incredibly modest price, I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t give it a try if it’s caught your interest.

Fear The Timeloop was reviewed on the PC. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Fear The Timeloop is available on Steam.