Timewalk

We are pleased to present to your attention a real rarity from the era of childhood of Russian game development. A game developed by Alexander Efremov himself and published by the Doka company.

In 1992, Alexander Efremov developed a very unusual puzzle Hieroglyph, which is an extremely original variety of well-known tag. TimeWalk, released two years later, is a complete semblance of Hieroglyph in terms of gameplay, but with a completely different entourage, as well as the presence of additional extra-story modes.

The rules are as follows: a field of 3x3 cells is given (from the fourth level 4x4, from the fifth - 5x5), one of which is empty, and the rest contain elements of the labyrinth. On the four sides of the field there are groups of different people (depending on the level). In one of the cells of the labyrinth, a little man appears, who must be brought to the same people as he is (that is, so that his path ends on the corresponding side of the field), moving the cells like tag.

When there is only one person on the field, there is nothing difficult, but when there are two or more of them, the game becomes extremely difficult, because it is necessary to pave the way for everyone in conditions of a strict restriction on the movement of tiles. If a person gets into a dead end or goes to the wrong side of the labyrinth, he moves to the top of the screen; When all five are there, the game is over.

In total, TimeWalk has five levels, each of which takes place in one of the eras, as evidenced by the little men who need to be led through the labyrinth, and the background on which everything takes place. So, the first level is the era of cavemen, who, by the way, can turn into animals while passing through the playing field. The second level will send us to an ancient oriental city. On the third stage, it is proposed to move, as follows from the description, to Europe of the XIII century, although the background is the famous Neuschwanstein Castle, which was built not in the Middle Ages, but in the second half of the XIX century (attributing this castle to the Middle Ages is a very common mistake). The fourth level is a modern metropolis with skyscrapers, and the fifth is the future, represented by a volcanic eruption, robots and aliens.

As in Hieroglyph, there are three levels of difficulty, which differ in the speed of movement of the little men through the maze.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the User Mode. In it, we can decide for ourselves how to play – it is allowed to choose four types of people (even if all are from different eras), the size of the field, the music that will be played, and the speed of movement. There is also a background selection field, but it doesn't seem to work, since there is nothing to choose from, and the game always takes place just on a black background. Nevertheless, it is much more convenient to play without a drawing, because small people are better visible.

Graphics and music deservedly receive high praise. Everything is very beautiful and of high quality.

Bottom line: a great game that offers unique gameplay in a wonderful wrapper. Recommended to all lovers of interesting puzzles.