You fight through a number of different time periods. Each period has a unique set of enemies and weapons and a different feel. Every moving animal, person or mythical creature is a threat and will attack you on sight. You have to defeat them to move on. The combat is complex enough to require skill and good timing. There a several different attacks and you can block and dodge. The weapons in each period are unique and some require different tactics. Besides combat there are also jumping sections and avoiding traps and other hazards. A key gameplay element is keeping up with the camera and collecting enough data fragments to fill up the gradually depleting time meter. So speed is critical. The camera angle is usually fixed and follows the level's linear path. You sometimes have to slow down or speed up to stay in the frame. This can be annoying at times. The jumping sections can require carefully rotating the player at the right angle or risk jumping off. This is made worse by the fact there is no quick save facility and having a finite number of lives. Though the game has 3D graphics, the player's movement is constrained to single (often narrow) linear path and as indicated above there is no backtracking.
