By Sam Coles:
Games from the 6th generation of consoles don’t
often age well due to 3D graphics looking rather crude and blocky; however
there are some games that still stand the test of time in the gameplay
department. Timesplitters 2 is one of those games, originally released on the
Xbox, PS2 and GameCube it was somewhat of a spiritual successor to Goldeneye,
as the studio Free Radical had former Rare developers that worked on the
shooter. Does the game still hold up today? Yes it does for the most part, let’s
get into it.
The story in Timesplitters 2 is about the titular creatures,
who want to destroy humanity, how they go about this is that they travel through
time living up to their name’s sake. You take control of Sergeant Cortez, a Vin
Diesel look alike, who wants to stop these alien creatures. He travels to
various points in history, but he assimilates forms of different people in time
similar to Quantum Leap but you shoot everything in sight. The story is fun and
over the top, it does not take itself seriously at all with funny quips and
dialogue from the characters, it also helps that the delivery from the voice
actors is excellent.
Gameplay is where the game shines, it is fast and fluid
which still holds up today and can give some modern shooters a run for their money.
If you have played Goldeneye or Perfect Dark the game will feel very familiar even
down to the user interface, but this game is playable as it doesn’t run at 15
frames per second, as this game runs at a consistent 60 frames per second.
There are a huge selection of weapons and they are period appropriate, from
revolvers in the wild west to the science fiction plasma rifles and pistols in
the future, they all handle well and have a satisfying punch and feedback.
The campaign is not the only singleplayer offering, there
are arcade league challenges which will put you into unique scenarios, these
can range from taking waves of the undead with nothing but a shotgun, to
deathmatches with certain stipulations. These can get insanely hard especially
if you’re going for the platinum trophies, you want to do these challenges to
unlock more maps and the colourful cast of characters. There are varied and will give you a meaty
challenge that will keep you occupied for a while.
Multiplayer is where the game truly shines with your
standard modes like Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and Free for All, but it’s
the more unique modes that make the game fun. Let’s start off with one of my
favourites Assault, how this game mode works is that you’re given a set of
objectives and you must push forward in the map. Think of it as a smaller scale
version of Rush from Battlefield, but instead Russian and American soldiers
running around you have monkeys and Ginger Bread Men darting around with Miniguns.
Another unique mode, which is also hilarious is the Monkey Assistant
game type, what this entails is that every few seconds a bunch of monkeys will spawn
on the field and will start to kill every other player on the field except for
the person in last. This is funny but horrendously unbalanced as the person in
last place can shoot up into first in no time, as the A.I has pin point
accuracy.
The presentation is the only part of the game that hasn’t
aged well; most of the textures look bland, blurry and flat and don’t look
great on an HDTV these days as I lack the component cables for my GameCube.
There are some graphical flourishes that I love, I like the rain and snow
effects in the Siberian and Neo Tokyo levels it still looks good today coupled with
the eerie and foreboding soundtracks to complement the levels. The graphical
sacrifice was necessary as the game runs at a buttery smooth framerate of 60
frames per second which is absolutely mandatory for a fast paced first person
shooter.
Timesplitters 2 is still worth playing today, you can find
it for a reasonable price on PS2, Xbox or GameCube. I would recommend getting
it on the GameCube or Xbox as they look the best and run well compared to the
PS2 which looks a bit oh dear and has some performance issues.
No comments:
Post a Comment