Killing Time: Resurrected PC review — And in my last hour, a slave to the power of death

Despite the fact that it originally came out in 1995, I’d never heard of Killing Time before. The Doom clone released exclusively on the 3DO at first, before getting what was practically a full-on remake on PC a year later. This remaster is mostly based on the vastly superior PC remake, although you can use the 3DO’s sprites. Despite the fact that I’ve played nearly every 90s first-person shooter I could get my hands on, this one eluded me until I saw a press release for this remaster. As a nearly 30-year-old game, Killing Time: Resurrected definitely has aspects that have aged poorly. But the game is honestly a joy from start to finish, making for one of the most unique games of its ilk, with an enormous amount of character and a terrific loop.

Killing Time: Resurrected‘s story is almost exclusively told via live-action actors in full motion video. Instead of watching cutscenes, you either have spirits directly talking to you or you observe memories. All of these are indicated in the world by a ghostly apparition. Approaching will see a sequence acted out by real people. This honestly works incredibly well in regard to conveying the narrative, as the story is full of well-defined characters and a campy-yet-enjoyable plot.

Tess Conway has used an Egyptian water clock to freeze time on the game’s island, trapping her spirit and zombifying almost everyone else. The basic gist is that the player character has come to the island to investigate, only to be attacked by zombified gangsters, dogs, hunters, gardeners, clowns, bugs, and a bunch of ghosts. Don’t worry, there’s a reason for the clowns (and an achievement for killing every single one of them.)

Your goal is to find 10 jars containing Tess Conway’s essence and return them in a bid to destroy the water clock and free the island. You’ll learn more about the characters, what happened, and why as you scour the island and watch all of the scenes play. Despite its age, this is all still so very cool and I enjoyed it as much as I likely would have if I’d experienced it decades ago.

As a 90s first-person shooter, you’ll be blasting enemies with an arsenal of weapons while scouring for ammo, health, and power-ups. It’s just like Doom in that way, down to the general game feel. However, there’s a giant difference. Instead of exploring individual levels and finding the exit, the entire island is interconnected. You need to find keys to open up different sections so that you can find all the jars and complete the game. The island is large, but not ridiculously so and, although the various outdoor areas and caves can get repetitive, there’s a solid amount of variety in the visual design for the interiors.

You’ll initially just have a crowbar, but you’ll find pistols, a Tommy gun, a shotgun, a flamethrower, molotov cocktails, and an ankh weapon with very little ammo. All of the humanoid enemies are digitised versions of real people, much like in the original Mortal Kombat games, and they’re higher resolution here. All of the textures have been reworked too, which makes Killing Time: Resurrected look kind of amazing. As you saw above, the enemy list is huge for a game like this. Killing most of them results in them getting gorily ripped apart too. The presentation is uniformly excellent.

The guns feel mostly fine, although I did stick to the Tommy gun and shotgun for the majority of my playthrough, as flamethrower fuel isn’t nearly as common. But the focus here isn’t on the shooting anyway. The only other boomer shooter I’ve played that has an actual interconnected world like this was Strife, and Killing Time: Resurrected completely blows it out of the water. The map can feel overwhelming at first, but I got used to it very quickly and was able to go back and forth as needed with minimal issue. To call this an immensely impressive undertaking for 1995 is an understatement.

However, this is a 90s FPS that came out before Quake, which set the standard for level design. The areas themselves are often confusing mazes where actually finding the keys you’re looking for is easier said than done. On more than one occasion I scoured areas only to not find a key I needed to progress. Not all areas have them and Killing Time: Resurrected does nothing to let you know you haven’t found something important. As such, this game really benefits from a guide that tells you if certain areas have keys or jars. It doesn’t help that there are some fake jars strewn around that made me think the game bugged out.

This lack of direction is the game’s weakest aspect. “You didn’t find the obscured key in a giant maze, now wander around until you figure out what you’re missing” is the name of the game. Near the end, I realised I had completely missed an entire area on the West side of the map. While it might read like I thought this was a bad thing, this only increases the sense of mystery that Killing Time: Resurrected has in spades. It gave me the same kind of vibe as classic survival horror games in some ways. The fact that the game doesn’t hold your hand just makes everything feel so much more immersive, regardless of whether or not you need a guide.

The pacing is relentless and, unless you miss something and are wandering, you’ll be blasting tons and tons of enemies while trying to explore every nook and cranny. There are also secret item caches hidden all over. There are, however, issues with the keys. They’re all named after their colours and that can be incredibly confusing. You’ll find a key and the game will say, “you found the yellow-green key” before having to try and remember if you’ve seen a yellow-green door. I had to make notes of where doors were when I found them. If they just told you what doors they opened, things would be so much simpler.

Again, though, a guide will easily sort that out. The game’s climax sees you searching frantically for specific items while being chased by an invincible enemy. It’s one of the most pulse-pounding things I’ve seen in a game that I can remember. By the time I found everything and beat the final boss, I had the biggest smile on my face. I can’t recall the last time beating a game actually made me feel joyous, even though trying to find your way through the mazes in the mansion while being hunted should have been an unpleasant nightmare.

That’s a good summation of how I feel about Killing Time: Resurrected. It’s needlessly unclear, often confusing, and Nightdive should have absolutely added some QoL changes here and there to smooth out some of these edges (plus clicking to save after pressing the quicksave button switches off mouse aiming and leaves the cursor on screen, requiring escape to be pressed.) With that said, I still had an amazing time with this game. The combination of a boomer shooter with an interconnected island, the fantastic visuals, and captivating story told by full-motion video made this some of the most memorable seven hours I’ll spend this year. It’s still very much worth playing and Nightdive has done an amazing job of touching this classic up for modern audiences. As long as you don’t mind wandering around, that is.

Hungry for more remasters? Check out our previous review:

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