Timesplitters 2 Review - Evolving the console shooter.

By Sam Coles:

Games from the 6^th 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.