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"[GAME] TimeSplitters Trilogy"

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This thread has been linked to the game 'Timesplitters 2'.
Sun 11/11/12 at 15:27
Regular
Posts: 261
The Timesplitters trilogy is my favourite First Person Shooter series. All three games were developed by Free Radical Design, who was ex-employees of Rare that developed the critically acclaimed Goldeneye and Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64.

Unfortunately after the release of Haze Free Radical Design went into administration and was acquired by Crytek who renamed them Crytek UK. Since then they have worked on Crysis 2 multiplayer and are currently working on Crysis 3 multiplayer.

In the Story mode of the first Timesplitters game there were 18 protagonists and 9 levels. The pairs had to fight their own enemies in their own time eras. I personally didn’t enjoy story mode in the original Timesplitters because the protagonists weren’t given much context in their era making them hard to relate to. Also the sole goal in each mission was to collect an item which would then trigger constant spawning enemies to make it difficult for you to get back to the time portal at the start of the mission. This means that your main objective never changed throughout all the levels. All the missions can be played with a friend as they can take control of the second NPC.

However Mulitplayer was fun and had a variety of game modes to play with. It had your standard Deathmatch and Capture the Bag (Instead of flag) but it also had Escort where one player had to defend an NPC while the other had to attack it, BagTag where you need to hold onto the bag the longest, KnockOut where there is a bag randomly spawned on the map and both players are tasked to bring it back to their base and Last Stand where you and a friend have to survive as long as you can in a scenario.

There was also a challenge mode where you had to beat a set score to achieve Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum awards which unlocked new characters and challenges. You had tasks to headshot Zombies, break glass with a brick, and compete against bots in multiplayer modes. I didn’t think challenges were as fun as playing multiplayer with others but if you like breaking scores then it can be quite addictive.

The game also had its own level editor allowing you to create your own multiplayer maps.

In Timesplitters 2 Story mode the main characters kept changing like the original but the levels had more variety in the level objectives which were structured similar to Goldeneye. Instead of shooting your way to an item and back you had mission objectives like destroying satellites, protecting an NPC from snipers and hitmen, and stalking a hacker while avoiding being spotted by security cameras. There were bosses implemented in many of the levels as well. Although it was difficult to relate to the characters, I found the Story mode to be far more fun and engaging than in the original.

Timesplitters 2 added many additional multiplayer game modes to the game such as Flame tag where your objective is to be the player who is on fire for the shortest time, Virus where one person has to spread the virus one by one to other players and the last person infected wins and many more such as Shrink, Assault, Thief, Leech, Gladiator and Monkey Assistant.

The game also added some different challenges such as Cardboard pop-up shooting where you may have to avoid shooting innocents like you might do with shooting training and monkey curling. The Level editor was improved to allow you to create your own story missions although they couldn’t be played co-operatively.

In Timesplitters Future Perfect they made it so that there is a main protagonist and antagonist doesn’t change so that you feel like the story is progressing rather than taking part in unconnected events. This Timesplitters was published by EA who according to Free Radical Design came to them with pictures of Vin Diesel and Wesley Snipes and asked for a strong lead role for the US market. They chose Sergeant Cortez to be the main protagonist so he could travel to all the different eras of time and meet a new person each time he travelled. He ended up with more of a humourously dumb personality and causing people to sigh with his catchphrase “It’s time to split!”. They managed to create some funny dialogue and moments throughout the short campaign. The missions were structured like the second game with multiple objectives and although I preferred the second one, I enjoyed the campaign in this one as well.

When it came to multiplayer they didn’t add anything at all and instead they cut some of the modes from the second one. This is understandable considering some of the modes that were cut were similar to others, but nothing new was added which was quite surprising. With the Challenges they added Remote control cat racing and some random tasks with one of them involving Elvis but not much else was added. There wasn’t much of a change to the Map Editor either.

Each of the Timesplitters games has a large number of characters to pick from when playing multiplayer, each with their own quotes and stats. For example if you play as the Snowman and someone burns you with a flamethrower he screams “I’m melting!” You can play as a Squid, Ninja Monkey, Alien, Ghost, Duck, Bear and varieties of Undead, Humans, Robots and more.

When thinking about how Timesplitters compares to the military shooters we see today it makes me think of how people compare Saints Row The Third with Grand Theft Auto 4 and how some prefer the wacky characters over more serious ones. What is confusing is how many of the modern shooters claim “Realism” and then have cartoonish “I am Insane!” villains or have Russia invade the whole of Europe simultaneously with everyone acting so seriously.

Ultimately, I’m disappointed that Crytek UK struggle to find a publisher for a fourth instalment as it is one of the few shooters where I enjoyed the campaign as much as the fast and frantic multiplayer. Then again they aren't seeing many people showing interest from petitions for release or kickstarter, so maybe there weren't that many people who enjoyed or heard of the series.

The Timesplitters series only ever allowed online multiplayer by having individuals set up their own LAN matches and I wonder how successful the series would have been if it had made it to our current consoles to compete with the shooters we have today. I’d like to see Timesplitters 4 someday, although it is likely to be on the next generation of Consoles if at all.
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
Sun 11/11/12 at 15:27
Regular
Posts: 261
The Timesplitters trilogy is my favourite First Person Shooter series. All three games were developed by Free Radical Design, who was ex-employees of Rare that developed the critically acclaimed Goldeneye and Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64.

Unfortunately after the release of Haze Free Radical Design went into administration and was acquired by Crytek who renamed them Crytek UK. Since then they have worked on Crysis 2 multiplayer and are currently working on Crysis 3 multiplayer.

In the Story mode of the first Timesplitters game there were 18 protagonists and 9 levels. The pairs had to fight their own enemies in their own time eras. I personally didn’t enjoy story mode in the original Timesplitters because the protagonists weren’t given much context in their era making them hard to relate to. Also the sole goal in each mission was to collect an item which would then trigger constant spawning enemies to make it difficult for you to get back to the time portal at the start of the mission. This means that your main objective never changed throughout all the levels. All the missions can be played with a friend as they can take control of the second NPC.

However Mulitplayer was fun and had a variety of game modes to play with. It had your standard Deathmatch and Capture the Bag (Instead of flag) but it also had Escort where one player had to defend an NPC while the other had to attack it, BagTag where you need to hold onto the bag the longest, KnockOut where there is a bag randomly spawned on the map and both players are tasked to bring it back to their base and Last Stand where you and a friend have to survive as long as you can in a scenario.

There was also a challenge mode where you had to beat a set score to achieve Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum awards which unlocked new characters and challenges. You had tasks to headshot Zombies, break glass with a brick, and compete against bots in multiplayer modes. I didn’t think challenges were as fun as playing multiplayer with others but if you like breaking scores then it can be quite addictive.

The game also had its own level editor allowing you to create your own multiplayer maps.

In Timesplitters 2 Story mode the main characters kept changing like the original but the levels had more variety in the level objectives which were structured similar to Goldeneye. Instead of shooting your way to an item and back you had mission objectives like destroying satellites, protecting an NPC from snipers and hitmen, and stalking a hacker while avoiding being spotted by security cameras. There were bosses implemented in many of the levels as well. Although it was difficult to relate to the characters, I found the Story mode to be far more fun and engaging than in the original.

Timesplitters 2 added many additional multiplayer game modes to the game such as Flame tag where your objective is to be the player who is on fire for the shortest time, Virus where one person has to spread the virus one by one to other players and the last person infected wins and many more such as Shrink, Assault, Thief, Leech, Gladiator and Monkey Assistant.

The game also added some different challenges such as Cardboard pop-up shooting where you may have to avoid shooting innocents like you might do with shooting training and monkey curling. The Level editor was improved to allow you to create your own story missions although they couldn’t be played co-operatively.

In Timesplitters Future Perfect they made it so that there is a main protagonist and antagonist doesn’t change so that you feel like the story is progressing rather than taking part in unconnected events. This Timesplitters was published by EA who according to Free Radical Design came to them with pictures of Vin Diesel and Wesley Snipes and asked for a strong lead role for the US market. They chose Sergeant Cortez to be the main protagonist so he could travel to all the different eras of time and meet a new person each time he travelled. He ended up with more of a humourously dumb personality and causing people to sigh with his catchphrase “It’s time to split!”. They managed to create some funny dialogue and moments throughout the short campaign. The missions were structured like the second game with multiple objectives and although I preferred the second one, I enjoyed the campaign in this one as well.

When it came to multiplayer they didn’t add anything at all and instead they cut some of the modes from the second one. This is understandable considering some of the modes that were cut were similar to others, but nothing new was added which was quite surprising. With the Challenges they added Remote control cat racing and some random tasks with one of them involving Elvis but not much else was added. There wasn’t much of a change to the Map Editor either.

Each of the Timesplitters games has a large number of characters to pick from when playing multiplayer, each with their own quotes and stats. For example if you play as the Snowman and someone burns you with a flamethrower he screams “I’m melting!” You can play as a Squid, Ninja Monkey, Alien, Ghost, Duck, Bear and varieties of Undead, Humans, Robots and more.

When thinking about how Timesplitters compares to the military shooters we see today it makes me think of how people compare Saints Row The Third with Grand Theft Auto 4 and how some prefer the wacky characters over more serious ones. What is confusing is how many of the modern shooters claim “Realism” and then have cartoonish “I am Insane!” villains or have Russia invade the whole of Europe simultaneously with everyone acting so seriously.

Ultimately, I’m disappointed that Crytek UK struggle to find a publisher for a fourth instalment as it is one of the few shooters where I enjoyed the campaign as much as the fast and frantic multiplayer. Then again they aren't seeing many people showing interest from petitions for release or kickstarter, so maybe there weren't that many people who enjoyed or heard of the series.

The Timesplitters series only ever allowed online multiplayer by having individuals set up their own LAN matches and I wonder how successful the series would have been if it had made it to our current consoles to compete with the shooters we have today. I’d like to see Timesplitters 4 someday, although it is likely to be on the next generation of Consoles if at all.

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