Stargate: Timekeepers Is Now Available

Stargate fans finally have a brand new video game for the franchise, with this week’s long-awaited release of the PC tactics game Stargate: Timekeepers. Part 1 of the game is available now.

Timekeepers falls in the genre of real-time tactics, in the style of the classic strategy game Commandos. Playing through each of the roughly hour-long missions requires players to move with stealth to avoid alerting Jaffa guards, be mindful of the environment, and look for clever ways to take out enemies and advance carefully toward the goal.

Players take control of Colonel Eva McCain, and original character who leads a team of soldiers and specialists through an original story that begins with the iconic Battle of Antarctica (“Lost City, Part 2”).

Timekeepers runs $29.99 and is available only for Windows. Part 1 covers the first seven missions (or “episodes”), with Part 2 planned for release this spring at no extra cost. This will be the second half of the game and its time-travel story — and not DLC.

IGN rated Timekeepers an 8 out of 10, praising its openness to different playstyles and a satisfying difficulty curve from one level to the next. Their verdict:

I’m pretty pleased with the first seven episodes of Stargate: Timekeepers. … I wish the story and characters had a bit more depth to them, and there are some issues with enemy behavior and missing keyboard shortcuts that could use a bit more polish. But overall, I would gladly venture forth through this stargate again.

WhatIfGaming gave it a 6 out of 10, praising its characters and map design but ultimately concerned about the lack of variety in the gameplay:

I’d say that this is Stargate: Timekeepers’ biggest issue, i.e. its painful lack of variety. Each mission largely feels the same as the previous one. All you do is sneak in, assassinate, sabotage, and extract; that’s the whole gameplay loop of Stargate Timekeepers. It’s fun for the first few missions but quickly becomes repetitive after that.

User reviews of the game so far have been mixed, with 48% of players rating the game positively so far on Steam. The game does appear to take some things for granted, presenting a potentially steep learning curve for newcomers not familiar with the tactics genre and its mechanics.

The release of Timekeepers also has the distinction of breaking a streak of failures in the video game space for the science fiction franchise, which has seen several projects languish in development only to be cancelled. Stargate SG-1: The Alliance was developed for the PC, PS2, and Xbox 20 years ago (and featured voice performances by the SG-1 cast), but never made it to market. The MMO-RPG Stargate: Worlds was cancelled in 2009 amidst financial and legal crises, and its spin-off Stargate: Resistance was online only and yanked after 11 months.

More recently, the story-driven mobile title Stargate SG-1: Unleashed (also featuring original voice acting) release its first two episodes back in 2013. But publisher Arkalis Interactive went out of business shortly thereafter, the game was taken down, and the third and final installment was never released.

Stargate: Timekeepers was developed by Polish studio Creative Forge Games and published by Slitherine Ltd. Slitherine has been publishing games in the PC strategy and tactics genres for more than 20 years.

Head over to Steam to download a demo of the game (which includes the opening cut scene and first mission). You can pick up Stargate: Timekeepers on Steam, Epic Games, or GOG.