Time
Hollow is a game which has virtues that eclipse its
flaws and makes it easy to recommend. If you’re in a hurry and
don’t have time to read every word of my fascinating review,
here’s the bottom line: If you like graphic adventures, you
should pick up this game.

These days lots of PC adventures
are being ported to the Nintendo DS, generally with shaky results.
The screen of the handheld really isn’t appropriate for images
designed to fit on a large PC screen, and the game mechanics can be
awkward as well.

A much better idea is an
adventure designed specifically for the DS. There has already been
at least one first-rate such an adventure: Professor
Layton and the Curious Village.
Time Hollow is the first DS adventure
I’ve played since that’s anything like as good as that
one.

Time
Hollow tells the story of teenager Ethan Kairos, a would-be
normal kid with an anything-but-normal destiny. As the story starts
he realizes two remarkable things: He’s been living in shifting
timelines, and he has a mysterious pen which seems to give him powers
over temporal reality.

His overarching goal is
to somehow rescue his parents, who seem to have been “erased”
from this timeline by some nefarious time-tinkering. As Ethan, you
have to learn to use the magical pen to fix the past and clean up
the present.

The
way this works is that Ethan has flashbacks that are stored in the
inventory. When you discover enough information about a particular
flashback, you gain the ability to use the pen to open a portal into
the past. With that portal open, you and Ethan can attempt to “fix”
whatever bad thing happened, thus changing the present. This time
editing can have unpredictable results, and sometimes by fixing one
thing Ethan will screw something else up. Through the course of the
story he attempts to correct his own mistakes as well as other problems
to try to get to a happy ending.

The game is published by
Konami, and benefits from the kind of high production values such
a major company can provide. The town Ethan lives in is extremely
attractive and pleasant to explore, and the musical score is frequently
superb.

So,
the game has a terrific story, visuals, and audio. What’s wrong
with it, then?

Well, the designers didn’t
quite trust the game’s excellent premise enough to make the
gameplay as meaty as it could have been. The story is largely on rails,
and the demands on the player are not significant. Certainly the controls
work well, and the game handles in an intuitive and logical manner.
But some players might be frustrated by the fact that gameplay mostly
consists of playing connect-the-dots.

Similar criticism was leveled
against FunCom’s Dreamfall
when it came out. I championed that game, however, making the point
that the other aspects of the game were so strong that despite shallow
gameplay, it was a worthwhile experience. I feel the same way about
Time Hollow.

The
game also suffers a bit from some repetition. A certain event happens
with Ethan’s cat that is necessary but plays out in the exact
same way so many times that it becomes tiresome.

The best way to think of
Time Hollow is to enjoy it as interactive
storytelling. If you’re comfortable with that, you’ll
probably have a great time with the game, as I did. If you need lots
of chewy puzzles and tough challenges, you might find the game a little
too mild.

My hope is that Tenky (the
game’s development studio) will build on the strengths of this
game and produce a sequel with just as good a story but with stronger
gameplay.

This
review is copyright Ray Ivey and Just Adventure and
may not be republished elsewhere without the express written consent
of the author. Republication of said review must also contain a link
back to Just Adventure.