I just played Time Phase 3 times and her is my review.
The Good:
- storytelling
The base story is by far more ambitious than the average FPSC horror game and a lot of effort has been put into telling it ingame with notes and voiceovers, which are well done. In addition the player has no motivation problem - at first he's got a job to do and then he's with his back to the wall, fighting to survive.
- fear factor
There wasn't anything new but music & lighting was good, reading the notes did build up tension and the clever enemy placing got me a couple of times.
The Bad:
- level design
The whole level is very bland. The choice of segments isn't bad but some diversity would have been a lot better. The props are randomly threwn throughout the level and repeat themselves to often. Some light entities used in 1 level height rooms where obviously meant for 2-level high rooms.
- story
Although well told, the story itself lacks any logic. The player is sent to the future armed with a knife? And the doctors notes are inconsistent. Starting with "If you read this you are the only surviving human" over the doctors doing some experiments until he seems to find the creatures weakness (if nearly no one has survived uninfected - who cares?), and then humanity is still doomed?? And all that in 31 days??? Sometimes a shroud of mystery is better than trying to explain everything.
The Ugly
- bugged enemies
In one room the enemies are stuck on the floor (happened on all three runs, I guess it's the large blood decal there). One enemy was invisible on all three runs (I apologize, if that is on purpose - but then the doctor's notes should give a better hint to this).
- cell
There is a cell with a steel door and extra bars in front of them. Yet the glass to this room can be broken with a knife...
Overall it's a hard earned 2 out of 5 on my personal game scale and I'd call it "A scary little horror game that tries to tell an ambitious story but ends up as a confusioning run-of-the-mill zombie shooter."
In case you find my grammar and spelling weird ---> native German speaker ^^