Review: Killing Time: Resurrected

For quite a long time after obtaining the console, Killing Time was the only game I owned on my 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. I started it up, played🌜 for maybe 20 minutes, and then decided I’d probably be better oﷺff with the PC version. I wasn’t entirely correct on that.

I didn’t even get around to playing the PC version, but I learned with the announcement of Killing Time: Resurrected that there are stark differences between the two versions. The 3DO version had digitized sprites of actors as enemies, while the PC version swapped them out for 3D renders, which… well, I wouldn’t say they’re worse, but you lose some of that 1995 charm, which Killing Time is packed with.

Nightdive is easily the best developer to take on a remaster of Killing Time. They’re probably also the only people that would. They’ve proven very adept at updating games while keeping the original vision intact. And gosh, Killing Time has a vision.

Killing Time: Resurrected ( [Reviewed], , , , , )
Developer: Nightdive Studios, Studio 3DO
Publisher: Nightdive Studios, Ziggurat
Released: October 17, 2024
MSRP: $24.99

It took me about four-and-a-half hours for me to hit the end of Killing Time: Resurrected. I started it late in the evening and finished it early in the morning, all in one sitting. I didn’t intend to. I wasn’t e🎃xpecting to. But once it got its hooks into me, 🅺I was determined.

Killing Time was first released on the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer in 1995. For context, this was the year before Duke Nukem 3D and Quake, but you’d hardly believe it. Okay, that’s a bit disingenuous. Much of Killing Time: Resurrected is based on the 1996 𝔉PC port, which fits in more 𝐆with the time period. 

The map was entirely redone on PC, and the makeover was both substantial and phenomenal. While e⭕lements of the 3DO version were retained, the PC version has convincing room-over-room, much bet▨ter verticality, and more realistic dimensions. In some ways, I wish you could choose between the 3DO and PC versions of the world, but at the same time, I don’t think anyone would prefer the former.

On the other hand, the monster sprites were much better. As I mentioned, the 3DO version used digitized actors, which gives it a whiff of the FMV era. Nightdive chose the actors, making Killing Time: Resurrected the absolute best of both worlds.

As is typical with Nightdive remasters, everything was moved over to their proprietary KEX Engine. Lighting was redone, mouselook was added, and textures and sprites were upgraded. The latter change is the most impressive. The team had access to the original photographs of the actoܫrs to build off of, while the PC monsters and textures were upgraded largely by han🐼d.

The actors in their weird costumes clash against the environments, giving them a surreal “off” quality. You can practically smell the green screen on them. But had Nightdive somehow lost the off-ness of it, they would have also los⛄t a lot of the charm.

Every so often, as you explore, you find little ghosts on the ground. As you approach, they’ll load a video of two ghosts acting out a scene from the past. FPS games of the ‘90s had a great deal of difficulty telling stories right up until Half-Life established the formula. Killing Time’s attempt is actually quite effective. You pick up bits and pieces of the s🐷tory – not necessarily in a chronological fashion. Through those scenes, you get a complete picture of what went down at the Conway Estate.

You play as some dude who arrives on Matinicus Island in pursuit of an Egyptian water clock. You quickly find that the island is overrun by duck hunters💖 and clowns. It’s bizarre. Tess Conway loved to party, so all her friends were over when ev🦹eryone suddenly disappeared back in the 1930s. There are actual explanations for why there are so many clowns and why an endless supply of ammunition is scattered across the island. As ridiculous as the narrative is, someone thought long and hard about how to do it.

What amazes me about Killing Time: Resurrected is that it’s a non-linear world you explore, but it very much follows the key-hunt FPS formula set by Wolfenstein 3D. It’s just done using a single level on a much larger ♊sca𝔍le.

The world design is an incredible flex. Despite relying so heavily on exploration, there’s about as much action as you’d expect from something like Doom. When I said there are a lot of duck hunters and clowns, I mean a lot of ducꦦk hunters and clowns. As you travel the estate, you’re constantly mowing them down in droves, dealing death to whole circuses of entertainers. To enable your rampage, the game dumps ammo on you constantly. It’s possible to run out of buckshot, but that just means you switch to your Tommy Gun. There’s no shortage of gun food on the island.

This kind of sucked on the choppy 3DO ve🦂rsion, but with the added mouselook, you can take on your opponents like any Doomguy or Nukem. Enemies stay dead regardless of where you go on the island, so you can completely lay waste to the housekeeping staff and clear the area. There’s very little backtracking to begin with, but not having to wade back through enemies makes it even more tolerable. It also has the added sideဣ-effect of laying the groundwork for the climax.

Since my previous experience with Killing Time was a somewhat disappointing dalliance with the 3DO version, I was unprepared fo💫r how much I would enjoy the game. I knew it wasn’t going to be another PO’ed, but I wasn’t expecting it to be🅘 in bingeworthy territory. I ate through it, consistently entertained by the weird aesthetic and amazed by the excellent level design. Damn.

This might be Nightdive’s most important remaster. While the developer has helped polish up already popular games like Quake and System Shock, Killing Time benefits far more from their tender touch. It was already great, but this remaster makes it easier to digest. It really brings out its highlights, allowing the whole thing to shine a lot brighter. If you have never explored Matinicus Island, Killing Time: Resurrected is easily the best wayꦚ to do so, and it’s high time you did.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}