The mechanic itself isn't actually that interesting. When they released the demo there was a discussion about how the mechanic works over on the destiny.bungie.org forum: http://destiny.bungie.org/forum/index.php?id=15007 — in a nutshell the time pausing mechanic doesn't really make the game a ‘puzzle’: it just lets you pause the game arbitrarily to let you line up your shots. This is why other shooter games (F.E.A.R, Max Payne) that have let you slow down time do so with finite resource mechanics to prevent overuse.
If the developers implemented any more interesting mechanics that let you rewind time, or made some enemies immune from time pausing then this might become an interesting game, but based on the demo it just looks like a shallow but pretty game, and is unlikely to be that much fun.
The time pausing mechanic also lets someone who has not played FPSs for half their life have the experience of being a god-like player who avoids all shots and gets a head shot every time. As someone who normally hates first person games and has no interest in practicing them for months on end, this is cool.
Yes, this really seems like it's an FPS intended for non-FPS players. I think that's the whole point - the game basically says "let's eliminate all skill from the FPS game and make it into pure strategy and see if there's a fun game there".
That's an interesting question - once you can nail every headshot, plan every evasion, and spot every foe with complete ease... is an FPS still fun? Can it be made to be fun?
Obviously, for an FPS fan for whom the skill is a core part of the gameplay, this might not be an interesting question for them.
Is it an option? I think if you move the time moves as well. If you aim badly you still need more time to get it right. You can just take a break in the middle by not moving at all. At least that's how I understood it.
In the original 7-day prototype, time moved at a crawl if you stood still, and accelerated to normal speed when you moved. Changing the view with your mouse did not count as "moving" so you have a lot more time to line up a shot. Of course you also have to contend with travel time of characters and bullets, which is not a wholly trivial task.
I think this is a good point. F.E.A.R did this amazingly well in the first instalment, and the way that the enemies worked with cohesive group strategies was pretty ground breaking for the time.
I think this title could benefit from something similar. It's a fine line to walk though, they have to be different enough to not just be a rehash.
In the demo, you could never fully "pause" the game. Even when you stopped moving, everything still moved, just very slowly.
The game most definitely turned into a puzzle in the same way that Braid's levels were puzzles. I can't see how you could say it was anything else.
IMO, the demo was a blast. If they made 30 more levels like the demo, I'd buy it. Adding grenades, swords, and interesting level designs is more than enough to warrant a purchase.
If the developers implemented any more interesting mechanics that let you rewind time, or made some enemies immune from time pausing then this might become an interesting game, but based on the demo it just looks like a shallow but pretty game, and is unlikely to be that much fun.