Stargate: Timekeepers review – A poor use of the Stargate license

 

Stargate: Let’s get this out of the way: I’m a huge Stargate fan. My dad raised me on a diet of sci-fi from Star Trek to Farscape, and a staple of that diet was Stargate in its various incarnations. The exception is the original Stargate movie which I simply don’t care about. But I’ve watched Stargate…review – A poor use of the Stargate license

Let’s get to the point: I’m a big Stargate fan. My dad introduced me to sci-fi, from Star Trek to Farscape, with Stargate being a big part of that. I don’t really care for the original Stargate movie, but I’ve watched Stargate SG-1 and its spinoff, Stargate: Atlantis, at least six times each. I’ve also read some novels that continue their stories. I’ve always been surprised that there aren’t many video games based on Stargate, so I was really excited for Stargate: Timekeepers.

So, what is Timekeepers? It’s mainly a stealth game where you control a squad of four characters and guide them through levels filled with enemies. Based on the mixed reviews on Steam, it seems some players didn’t know they were getting into a real-time stealth game, leading to some negative reviews from those who don’t like stealth. Just to be clear: this is a stealth game. You can shoot at enemies, but most of the time, you’ll be taking cover instead of going all out. This style matches the shows, where small teams often sneaked into places with Jaffa, Replicators, or Wraith, even though big battles did happen sometimes.

I’ll admit that when I think of a Stargate game, I don’t picture a stealth-tactics game. I imagine an FPS or maybe a full RTS, but not something focused on stealth. Last year, my favorite game, Shadow Gambit, came out, and it’s a lot better in the same style. Unfortunately, Stargate: Timekeepers just doesn’t measure up to that game or many others in the genre.

Timekeepers begins during the intense Battle of Antarctica from season 7 of Stargate SG-1. While SG-1 tries to gain the knowledge needed to defeat Anubis, the game introduces two new characters: Commander Eva McCain and sniper Max Bolton. They come up with a plan to help take down some Kull warriors attacking SG-1, fitting into the existing Stargate story.

 

However, after this, Timekeepers’ connection to the wider Stargate universe is pretty weak. It feels like a missed opportunity by the developers, Slitherine Games. You might expect a Stargate game to actually involve using a Stargate, but they’re mostly just background visuals. I don’t mind that SG-1 or the main characters aren’t featured—bringing them in without their original actors would feel strange—but it’s odd that you can’t even visit Stargate Command or use some of the franchise’s lesser-known characters.

Without going into too much detail, Stargate: Timekeepers feels like it has just a thin layer of Stargate elements on top. It honestly seems like the game was created without the Stargate license and then had it added later. That’s just my speculation, but if you removed the Stargate branding, it wouldn’t change much.
 If you’re not familiar with Stargate lore, you’ll likely struggle. Timekeepers doesn’t help newcomers at all, offering no explanations about Anubis, the war on Earth, what a Stargate is, who the Jaffa are, or who SG-1 is. However, I don’t see this as a negative since the game targets Stargate fans, and I respect that focus, even if it doesn’t use the license well.

 Once the opening mission wraps up and a loose connection to the Stargate universe is established, the game shifts to its own story involving the minor villain Moloc. Eva and Max team up with a few more characters: A’ta, a rebel Jaffa trying to be a female version of Teal’c; Sam, an expert in alien languages; and Derrick, a nervous scientist who loves drones.

 There is a story that tries to explain why you jump from planet to planet, with each mission introduced by a strange “now on Stargate Timekeepers!” cutscene meant to provide context. Unfortunately, these intros refer to things that never happened in the previous missions, creating a confusing experience.

While I appreciate the effort to make the levels feel like episodes from the TV show, it really doesn’t work. The voice acting is only okay, and the writing is forgettable. By just a few missions in, I had already lost interest in what we were supposed to be doing and who the characters were.

 The same goes for the missions. As you sneak around Jaffa and set up ambushes, there are plenty of chances for the characters to interact, but Slitherine rarely takes advantage of these moments. When they do, the dialogue feels lifeless and doesn’t help develop the characters. A’ta, the Jaffa resistance fighter, suffers the most; the writers try to make her a stoic warrior like Teal’c from the show, but while Christopher Judge’s charm made Teal’c engaging, A’ta comes off as dull. The rest of the cast doesn’t fare much better, from the cocky sniper Max to the eccentric scientist with drones. Stargate is known for its interesting and charismatic characters, but Timekeepers falls short with flat personalities.

 The gameplay covers the basics of the stealth genre, like navigating enemy vision cones and the ability to pause the game to queue commands. Each of the five playable characters has a few unique skills for sneaking, knocking out guards, or taking them out. You’ll spend a lot of time watching patrol routes and taking out guards by hitting them, tying them up, and hiding their bodies.

 While Shadow Gambit featured larger areas and a playful approach, Timekeepers feels much more linear. The levels are tight, and it often feels like you’re trying to find the specific solution through trial and error instead of coming up with creative strategies. That said, there’s still some room for experimentation; I managed to pull off a few wacky plans that probably weren’t what the developers intended. Overall, though, it felt more like I was figuring out how Slitherine wanted me to progress rather than discovering my own path.

It’s actually reasonably challenging in some ways as there’s not a whole lot of room for error. Some complications are thrown into the mix as well: Jaffa wearing their helmets can’t simply be knocked out, instead, they have to be scouted out by Eva McCain first or else just avoided. Special drones hovering above the ground can also see you hiding in bushes and can only be destroyed by using an energy-based ability followed by a lethal attack, meaning some character combinations can kill them outright. Clever use of skills is vital, then, whether that’s Sam’s handy ability to disguise himself as a Jaffa and saunter around or judicious use of stun grenades to take out multiple foes at one, or dropping decoys to lure in unsuspecting chumps. While they might be lacking in the personality department, your squad do have some decent skills at hand they make them all play reasonably differently, though I typically found A’ta to be the least useful and interesting of the bunch.

It’s quite satisfying when you pull off daring plans or only just make it into cover before a guard spots you. Quickly ordering the squad around and figuring out the best combination of abilities and moves feels great. But compared to other games that do similar things, Timekeepers struggles to set itself apart in any meaningful way. I hate to keep going back to the well, but Shadow Gambit offered up a crew of colourful characters with fascinating abilities, much like Despirado 3did, and compared to those games Timekeeper’s gameplay is kind of uninspiring.

The AI isn’t really up to snuff, either. You can knock out a whole group with a stun grenade and when they wake up they’ll go back to standing in the same spot, completely ignoring the fact that six of them were rendered unconscious at the same time by an unknown force. If you take out a guard who is conversing with a pal, said pal will continue to chat to thin air. If you are discovered and the alarm is raised, it’s very easy to gather up your crew and hide in a bush without much fear of being discovered.

It takes until the seventh mission for the Stargate Timekeepers’ central concept hinted at within its name to actually pop up. And just when it does, the game just ends. Yes, we need to talk about the weird structure of Stargate Timekeepers. What’s actually available to play right now is only half of the game, with another 7 missions coming later in 2024, though exactly when has not been announced. The good news is that the concluding 7 “episodes” are entirely free. The bad news is that without them, Stargate Timekeepers feels like…well, half a game. Because it is.

I’m not sure why Slitherine chose this approach. At first glance, it looks like the developers rushed out an unfinished game because they were short on funds. The result is an unsatisfying ending to a weak and forgettable story, with a jarring cutoff right when the plot seems to be picking up. The abrupt ending makes it feel like the developers didn’t plan to release the game in two parts, as it doesn’t set up any kind of mid-season cliffhanger to keep players wanting more. Instead, it feels like they arbitrarily decided to split the story at a random point.

 

In the end, I’m not really sure who Stargate: Timekeepers is meant for. It’s definitely not for anyone who isn’t already a big Stargate fan. But even for fans, it feels so loosely connected to the Stargate universe that it doesn’t resonate with them either. As a huge Stargate nerd excited to see the franchise return, I found Timekeepers lacking. It doesn’t tie into the existing lore, doesn’t expand the universe, and doesn’t tell a meaningful Stargate story. That leaves the gameplay, which is decent but forgettable, and overshadowed by better options.

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐