Time Gap Crams Every Free-To-Play Game Into One [Review]

Ambition isn’t a bad thing, but it can get in the way.

Time Gap is a free-to-play title that tries to be all free-to-play games at once. It’s mostly a hidden-object game with a plot about the ghosts of famous historical figures guiding you on a mission to discover where all the people of Earth disappeared to, but along the way, you’ll also play minigames like the ones you tab over to during the day instead of working.

It does all of these things capably enough, and it’s an interesting compendium with a lot of variety. But in the end, it’s a free-to-play game, and it is free-to-play as hell.

Most of what you’ll be doing in Time Gap is finding hidden objects, and you know the drill. You look at a variety of exceedingly cluttered locations, and the game tells you which objects it wants you to tap on. Sometimes it lists them, and other times you have silhouettes to work from. Occasionally, Time Gap adds some complications in the form of anomalies that scramble the letters or throw a bunch of fog and stuff in there.

The minigames show up as natural disasters that are ravaging the quiet Earth. I don’t know if the National Weather Service knows this, but you can stop a tornado by playing a match-three game. And if it ever starts raining fire, the solution is Puzzle Bobble. Make note of that, weather warriors.

It is free-to-play as hell.

It all works fine, but with that much to do, you run into free-to-play shenanigans almost immediately. It takes Energy to do anything, and you will run out completely after four or five levels. After that, you can either spend gems or real-ass money to refill your meter, or you can wait. And wait. And wait. It takes hours for your meter to fill back up, and I’ve never understood why games intentionally prevent you from playing them. I mean, I guess I do know, but I don’t want to be completely cynicaltheywanttostrongarmyouintopayingthem.

The only other major issue I ran into was that I had trouble picking out those hidden objects on my iPhone 5s. I’m sure it’s way easier on an iPad, but I couldn’t tell the difference between a coil of rope and the smudge I’d left because I was eating potato chips.

Game Name: : Time Gap The Good: Variety, historical facts, and a halfway interesting story. The Bad: It’s free-to-play and all that that means. The energy meter, multiple currencies, and in-app purchase prompts are all in full force here. The Verdict: It’s an ambitious title that aims to be more than a mere hidden-object game, and it would succeed if its free-to-play-ness didn’t thwart your desire to play it. Buy from: App Store – Time Gap – Absolutist Ltd

[rating=game3]