TimeSplitters Future Perfect

By Kristan Reed Published 11 February, 2005

It gives zombies a splitting headache, but is it challenging enough?

Order yours now from Simply Games.

When the time's right to look back at this console generation's most important games, surely TimeSplitters 1 and 2 will rank among them. Sure, both games had fairly throwaway single-player story modes that took only a few hours to crack, but both also sported the hilarious and original Challenge mode and a control system so slick we swear it's never been bettered. Throw in an amusing and unique visual style and you've got a series that stands out from the generic mass of po-faced me-too sci-fi schlock that every publisher and his dog has churned out. Colour us excited about a long-awaited third in the series.

Following our last fleeting glimpse of a highly-promising work-in-progress version at EA's Hot Summer Nights event we were already well versed in what the aim was this time; flesh out the main single player story mode, add the online multiplayer that was so dramatically dropped from TS2 and just generally improve on what everyone loved about the first two. Simple really.

Spring into spring

'TimeSplitters Future Perfect' Screenshot 1

And this preview build (dated 28/11/04) of one of this year's most highly anticipated games gave us an extra spring in our step when it plopped onto the doormat. Needless to say the day's schedule was to revolve firmly around Free Radical's latest and hopefully greatest, playing a decent chunk of the story mode, challenge mode and some offline multiplayer. As first impressions go, this is one of those rare occasions when we can really get a proper feel for what to expect.

Kicking off with the all-important story mode, the focus this time is much more on the central character, Colonel Cortez. We don't know about you, but we barely even recall any emphasis previously on this Cortez chap, but this time he appears throughout in cut-scenes with plenty of pre-mission banter with the game's cast, all depicted in typically exaggerated cartoon-style thoroughly in keeping with what's gone before.

As before, each level is generally set in a different time period, so for example you begin proceedings in the year 2401 (Time To Split) in a rocky desert environment flanked by steep mountain sides, with alien creatures appearing out of thin air on opposing sides of the map. Fortunately Cortez starts the game well-equipped with laser fire and dealing with these unnamed foes is a matter of course. Moving forward onto a rocky precipice to join up with some of your comrades, you man a machinegun emplacement to see off the constantly appearing creatures before eventually exiting through a nearby door to an underground complex, complete with a disabled generator to get up and running via a water pump that's also out of action.

Easy As

'TimeSplitters Future Perfect' Screenshot 2

But, in worryingly straightforward fashion, you dispatch guards without so much as a blink, pick up their disguarded ammo, flick a few switches along the way before moving back through to the previously locked door. At this stage you might muse that for all its trademark visual style and slick controls, it's not exactly breaking the very boundaries of the genre, and seems a tad on the forgiving (and dare we say it, easy) side. But on we plod. The next section, Scotland The Brave (1924) is a huge contrast. Largely set inside an old castle, the general aim is to run the gauntlet while the Navy busy themselves bombing the crap out of the island. But it's another level that's over barely before it's even begun.

Next up, the two-part 1969 mission The Russian Connection/The Khallos Express plays up on the whole Summer Of Love theme with a firm emphasis on protecting your groovy moustachioed accomplice Harry Tipper (a recurring theme, we learn) who elects to split off from you and crawl through a series of tunnels and hatches. Meanwhile Cortez must go off, "be stealthy" (they lie, it makes little difference) restore power, find a disguise to sneak through the next section and so on, while simultaneously sniping at enemies trying to halt his buddy's daring dashes to safety.

Through the next section you can leap into a jeep and try driving your way through the checkpoints (with fairly bonkers handling as it goes). Otherwise though it's another straightforward march through willing sentries that emerge on cue from behind boxes and again provide scant challenge before you get to blow the doors off to gain entrance to the train... which you naturally have to board in order to prevent its march to Third Wold War doom.

Please shoot me for I am a gaming sentry

'TimeSplitters Future Perfect' Screenshot 3

Marching forth onto The Khallos Express, the inevitable cannon fodder stands obediently in the train carriages providing something for us to expend our ammo on, while others stand near gas bottles on the more exposed sections of train and oil barrels that practically scream "shoot here". Plough through them and a chopper roars into view to try and shoot you into next week. Well obviously. A couple of fairly hairy excursions with said livewire chopper provide us with an opportunity to see a few spectacular explosions and dodge red hot pellets of death, not to mention its inevitable doom thanks to the somewhat contrived presence of a disconnected SAM launcher. As if that wasn't improbable enough, we don't even get to operate it; our sidekick back at base manages to take that fun away from us from her end, and so the level goes on, with a curious interchange between Past and Future Cortez; wormholes and the like allowing Free Radical to mess around with the plot dynamics to interesting effect.

But, after four levels, a boss face off and a chunk of the fifth level in a haunted mansion (complete with standout stunning outdoor weather effects), we generally feel decidedly underwhelmed with the opening section - of a game for which we had extremely high expectations. This is evidently an unfinished build that's "not representative of the final quality", so we shouldn't be hasty to jump to any conclusions just yet, although ominously PSM2's World Exclusive review this week reports the story mode was "blandly unchallenging", and seemed generally downbeat despite the obligatory 90 per cent score. We couldn't agree more with most of their assessments from what we've seen in the four hours we played Future Perfect; there's something curiously soulless and uninvolving about what we've experienced thus far, with the greater emphasis on storyline only serving to underline some really excitable and annoying voice acting - rescued only by some superb animation and crisp character models. This wasn't what we were expecting, we have to admit. We can only hope things improve as the game wears on.

Better news elsewhere, though, with the challenge mode likely to offer its trademark range of hilarity in the name of first-person beheading. The first challenge, though, is far from it, with 122,000 points racked up on our first go at shooting the heads off zombie monkeys. But aside from that it's the usual array of complete insanity, with another level arming you only with a gravity gun and a few boxes to behead the zombies with. Oh, and their heads to behead them with once you've sent a few of those flying. Yes, beheading zombies with... the heads of fellow zombies. If there's anything that's likely to make us want to continue our love affair with TimeSplitters, it's humorous touches like this. Overall it looks as if there are at least 30 or so challenges; most reprising what's come before - escorting VIPs, smashing things up and the like - except this time it has the added benefit of not having to be unlocked first, which is definitely the right decision for those who can't be bothered with trawling through single-player missions first. As before, you get medals for your progress; Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, with the welcome addition of a little medal indicator in the top left keeping you informed of how well you're doing.

The allure of the many

'TimeSplitters Future Perfect' Screenshot 4

For many PS2 and Xbox owners though the addition of full 16-player online play is likely to be one of the major draws, and although we won't be able to experience this until we get the boxed version, the presence of bots certainly gives a flavour of what to expect across the game's 15 maps. Listed under the bracket of 'Arcade', all the standard favourites make their customary appearance, including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture The Bag, Bagtag (hold onto the level's only bag), Elimination (Deathmatch with limited lives), Zones (a.k.a. domination), and Assault (defend your own base while attacking the enemy's), so we shouldn't need to remind many of you what these entail.

The more imaginative flavours of multiplayer include TimeSplitters' very own Escort, which tasks you with protecting a VIP; the ingenious deathmatch variant Shrink, where the size of each contender is based on their ranking (so, higher rankings equal bigger character model and thus easier to hit); Vampire, where you must kill others to increase your lifespan; Virus, whereby tagged players stay on fire, with the last one alive the winner; Gladiator, a mode where only the gladiator can score; and the Monkey Assistant mode, which remained locked in our build, so answers on a postcard please. Thrown in for good measure is a League option within Arcade which provides a mix of modes for a challenge/medal-based multiplayer experience, so in other words a pretty exhaustive list of modes that can be enjoyed just as easily offline as on, with a challenging set of bots that will kick your arse given half the chance.

And if that wasn't enough, there's even a set of mapmaker tools for you to mess around with, potentially creating a vast community of homebrew TS levels that should prove extremely popular with those who have the patience for these things. It'll be interesting to see exactly how popular this feature proves amongst console owners at any rate.

Challenge Anything?

At this stage we're cautious to read too much into what we've played, but admittedly we're not quite as beamily confident as we were that Future Perfect will be the console FPS of the year. For one thing the final build needs to be a mite more challenging and show a bit more guile to stand a chance of being held up alongside the rest of the series, but even on a technical level things haven't really noticeably moved on to an especially noticeable degree; it's more a case of progress in increments than two and half years of slog. That's not to say it's not a delightful-looking game, because the TS series has always looked ahead of its time; it's just not doing much that's in any way special anymore. You could say the wow factor isn't quite there. But don't take this as an attack. Not yet. It's still evidently an extremely polished title with an immense amount of entertainment packed into it, especially in its challenge and multiplayer modes. It's maybe just not heading for top marks. All will be revealed when we get the finished build in the lead up to the game's 25th March release.

Order yours now from Simply Games.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • drumbaby #1 7 years ago

    Gotta say, the OPS2M demo sucked the big fat weiner.

  • space_ace #2 7 years ago

    Publisher
    Electronic Arts

    oh
    next

  • onyxbox #3 7 years ago

    EA probably dumbed it down for their audience.

  • MikeP #4 7 years ago

    "...and a control system so slick we swear it's never been bettered..."

    Presumably I was playing some alternative-universe version of Timesplitters 2 then. It had one of the poorest console FPS control systems I've used. So much so that it was the primary reason for returning the game.

  • Blerk #5 7 years ago

    Pfft. Even I can control Timesplitters! :-D

  • Eighthours #6 7 years ago

    Any news on whether the "EA LIVE" servers will be up to their usual....um.....HIGH standards, or whether this time EA might actually not completely f*ck the online mode up. Yes Burnout 3, I'm looking at you.

  • Clive_Dunn #7 7 years ago

    "Its a different side of the business to the development side. And thus the games are handled differently."

    Enough to stop Free Rad moaning about how much they hate working with EA ?

  • templar-wizard #8 7 years ago

    were they moaning?

  • Thamuhacha #9 7 years ago

    >Enough to stop Free Rad moaning about how much they hate working with EA ?

    Or moaning. Full stop!

  • Clive_Dunn #10 7 years ago

    "Or moaning. Full stop!"

    Heh, but it's got monkies in it ??

    /tries to fake enthusiasm.

    /fails.

  • krudster #11 7 years ago

    There are difficulty settings, but so far on Normal level it's way too easy.

  • krudster #12 7 years ago

    I also have huge difficulty comprehending how anyone could view the TS controls as "poor". They're so far and away the best console FPS controls I've ever come across that I almost assume people are actually joking when they come out with comments like that!

  • Thamuhacha #13 7 years ago

    I found TS (1 & 2) the easiest console FPS to control. Much easier than Halo :-)

    The gamecube version of TS2 was SO intuitive ...


  • Peekaboo #14 7 years ago

    I thought the TS1 and TS2 controls where not bad, but was quite happy to find a more 'normal' setup in TS3

  • hp_on_toast #15 7 years ago

    Its not so much the controls themselves but the dead zone, turn acceleration etc that were annoying in TS2.

    As for EA being a problem - that's not the case, I think internally everyone at FRD refered to FP as TS2.5 for a long time...

  • Eraser #16 7 years ago

    Monkey Assistant was there in TS2 as well.
    If I remember correctly (has been a while since I played it) the player last on the scoreboard gets a bunch of monkeys as allies for a certain amount of time who can attack other players. Kills made by the monkeys are added to your own score.

  • Tiger_Walts #17 7 years ago

    Clive Dunn said

    Heh, but it's got monkies in it ??

    What, Davy Jones shuffling along with a Zimmer frame?

  • Mashum #18 7 years ago

    "Love em or hate em, EA know how to do business"

    I don't give a f*ck if they know how to do business I just want to play a video game that isn't shit, do they know how to do that?

    Could they be too busy making the Burnout3 music rubbish, flogging a dead horse with Goldeneye... brainstorming on Urban Streetz Bikini PingPong... etc.. etc..

    Anyway as for this Timesplitters 3, can't you just turn the difficulty up a bit? Some games, especially FPS, don't really hit their stride until you do that.

  • Feanor #19 7 years ago

    FFS, the TS control system is nothing to get excited about. It's a goofy, arcadey FPS and they even don't give you the option of having a cross-hair on screen at all times.

    TS 2 controlled fine, but I didn't find it any better than the Halo control-wise, and I returned the game after a month.
    Edited by 1 at 11/02/05 @ 14:49

  • Cubfan #20 7 years ago

    I didn't buy TimeSplitters 2 for the Xbox because I didn't like the controls of the demo. Maybe they were improved in the retail version?

  • Tiger_Walts #21 7 years ago

    "Anyway as for this Timesplitters 3, can't you just turn the difficulty up a bit? Some games, especially FPS, don't really hit their stride until you do that."

    Have you tried TS2 on the hardest setting? It's harder than a rock troll reading hardcore porn, seams of gold and everything.

    As for the reticule on TS2, you could change the settings to toggle the reticle instead of holding the button down.

  • spindizzy #22 7 years ago

    cubfan et al. : perhaps krudster should clarify which version he's talking about when he says that the controls are great. I suspect he's talking about the PS2 version (which truly is very nice indeed), but since that's the only version I have played I honestly dunno.

  • Feanor #23 7 years ago

    "As for the reticule on TS2, you could change the settings to toggle the reticle instead of holding the button down."

    Yeah, but the reticule would still only appear while you were in "Aim" mode, which is much too twitchy to use constantly. I gave up on TS 2 when this Wild West challenge level totally pissed me off. Fair enough it was sposed to be hard, but there was no way of me knowing where the hell my revolver bullets were going, unless my opponent dropped dead. Often it was hard to tell I hit him even when I did because there's no blood, and precious little response from hit targets most of the time.
    Edited by 1 at 12/02/05 @ 04:30

  • cynic #24 7 years ago

    Id imagine that the harder difficulty levels will have more objectives in them just like ts2 did. Normal setting was always too easy, but as someone has always mentioned hard mode was exactly that, wall punchingly hard. Multiplayer has always been where its at with me anyway, I will buy it for that alone, especially with the improved mapmaker. Best multiplayer options of any game I have played and the best way to shoot your mates.

  • The-Bodybuilder #25 7 years ago

    I'm one of the many that feel the TS2 controls (haven't played the first) were aweful.
    It was the controls that let me down. I guess halo's controls spoilt me.

    Sometimes I feel some people just accept TSs controls just becauce they loved goldeneye sooooo much.

  • Scimarad #26 7 years ago

    Yep, I didn't hate timesplitters controls but I did think the controls on Halo were way more intuitive...

  • mal #27 7 years ago

    Tiger_Walts wrote:
    What, Davy Jones shuffling along with a zimmer frame?
    Genius! It's the next game revolution: Games with Monkees in them!

    Just think, the guy who invented MTV, in a ball, in Super Monkee Ball!

  • 3william56 #28 7 years ago

    If I got to shoot Mike Nesmith and Davey Jones with a homing missile launcher, I'd be sold. "Hey Hey we're the [BANG!]"

    Don't you love it when less inspired games have spoilt gamers to the point when, if someome tries to do a control system properly, they b*tch that it's too difficult?

    News flash - shooting someone in the head from 200 yards is actually pretty difficult!

    The TS control system was a cracker balance of fun and realism. It's the only one yet where sniping actually requires a steady hand to make quick, pixel perfect long range shots at a moving target. It's meant to be difficult! Too many games make sniping an excessively easy option, leading to sniper rifles being over used as a one-shot no-risk easy kill as long as the ammo held. TS was the first to get it balanced.

    Don't know if you've noticed, but you don't generally get a holographic aim point appear in front of you if you pick up a pistol. The normal mode is meant to simulate firing from the hip, so quick and inaccurate (try it at a gun range or paintball), and the aim mode is proper aiming as per using a scope with cross hairs - accurate but twitchy and slow. It's other FPS's that get it wrong by having a lamer millimetre accurate aim point.
    Edited by 2 at 14/02/05 @ 04:56

  • SteveB #29 7 years ago

    I thought the controls were fine on TS2, it was the gameplay and graphics that let it down. In my opinion this has to be the most overated series of games ever. Even if I don't like a game like KOTR, I can appreaciate why peple do like it, but TS I just don't get it at all (Note, I'm talking about the single player mode. I'm sure the multiplayer is great. Maybe.) and this one sounds just as bad as the others.

  • Plaz #30 7 years ago

    That would up to Free Radical wouldn't it?

  • The-Bodybuilder #31 7 years ago

    "Don't know if you've noticed, but you don't generally get a holographic aim point appear in front of you if you pick up a pistol"

    Don't know if you noticed, but you don't get to see cartoon-like men walking around on the road, and monkeys with lasers.

    Don't know if you noticed, but once you get shot in the head in real life, you should die and never come back.

    Don't know if you noticed, but sniping in real life requires much more than just steady aim, as thier are other external elements that affect the sniping.

    Don't know if you've noticed, but TS is just a GAME, and should not be compared to some sort of real life shooting simulation (unless that was it's intentions, which it clearly wasn't).

    Don't know if you've noticed, but everyone is entitled to thier own opinion (and mine is that I feel halo's controls system is WAYYYY better than TS).

  • IronGiant #32 7 years ago

    I'm perfectly happy with TS and Halo controls, have no problem whatsoever with either.