TimeSplitters 2
Developer(s)	Free Radical Design
Publisher(s)	Eidos Interactive
Series	TimeSplitters Series
Release date(s)	NA October 9, 2002 EU October 18, 2002 JP February 27, 2003[1]
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer 1-16 humans (via System Link),[2] up to 10 computer-controlled players
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (T) (For Violence) ELSPA: 15+ OFLC: M15+ USK: 16+
Platform(s)	GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox
Media	1 × GameCube Optical Disc, DVD-ROM

TimeSplitters 2 is a first-person shooter video game that is available for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube game consoles. It is the sequel to TimeSplitters. It was published by Eidos and developed by Free Radical Design, a company founded by some ex-Rare members that helped develop GoldenEye 007, an earlier first-person shooter with which TimeSplitters 2 is similar.^[3]

TimeSplitters 2 was first released in October 2002 in North America and Europe, and later in Japan in 2003. Upon its release, TimeSplitters 2 garnered positive reviews from critics, with GameSpot acclaiming the game as the "best split-screen multiplayer-focused first-person shooter ever created."^[4]

TimeSplitters 2 features a story mode consisting of ten levels in which the player assumes the role of one of two space marines. The player attempts to stop the alien race of TimeSplitters by collecting the time crystals in various time periods, ranging from the Wild West to the 25th century. The story mode can additionally be played with two players in a cooperative mode. The game also includes several multiplayer modes.

Gameplay

Screenshot of the Chicago level.

TimeSplitters 2 is a first-person shooter that requires players to kill enemies and complete objectives using a variety of weapons and tactics in different predefined scenarios. Armor and health are represented by two bars on the sides of the screen that lower when the player is shot, which can be increased by walking over body armor and medical kits. The location of the bars as well as other gameplay features such as the objectives are reminiscent of Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark.^[5]

The weapons of TimeSplitters 2 include handguns, rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers, a grenade launcher, various explosives, a crossbow, and a flamethrower. They are of many different time periods, from the historical to the futuristic. Some weapons have an alternate fire which activates a feature such as launching a grenade or detonating a remote mine. Sometimes a player can use two guns simultaneously.

Single player

The main single player campaign of TimeSplitters 2 is divided up into ten levels, each in a different time period.^[6] The levels contain a series of objectives that must be completed. Some objectives are present at the start of the level, while others are added during play.^[7] Some levels have secondary objectives, which are not required to complete in order to finish the level. Each level includes a single checkpoint in the middle where the player can restart if they die or fail to complete an objective.^[8]

At the beginning of each level, the player has the choice of choosing one of up to three different difficulty settings which include Easy, Normal, and Hard.^[9] On any level other than the first, the player can only choose a difficulty setting if the previous level has been beaten under that difficulty setting. These difficulty settings not only affect the strength of the enemies, but also increase the length of the level by adding more objectives and allowing the player to explore areas that are inaccessible on lower difficulties.

At the end of each level (except for the last one), a time crystal must be recovered. After it is picked up, a time portal will appear which must be entered in order to complete the level. However, this is sometimes made more difficult by TimeSplitters that teleport to the location of the player's character.

The game also features a co-operative mode in which two players can play levels together.^[10] When playing co-op, in order to balance the game, players' health is lowered so that enemies do more damage to them.

In secret places of certain levels on a predetermined difficulty setting, there are cartridges of old school arcade games such as Snake (renamed Anaconda in TimeSplitters 2), Lunar Lander (renamed AstroLander), and RetroRacer.^[11] Once picked up, the player can play these games on their Temporal Uplink, the device that normally shows the map of the current level.

There is also a Challenge mode in which a specific objective must be completed that depends on the level selected. The objective range from collecting bananas to shooting heads off zombies. After the objective is completed or the timer runs out, the game will end, and a medal will be awarded depending on the number of points obtained. Certain medals allow the player to play as new characters in multiplayer or use cheats. Cheats can be turned on in the options menu and activate a feature such as unlimited ammo or the ability to shoot paintballs from the guns that change the color of the walls. However, Free Radical's website implies that there are also other cheats that can be activated with the controller which have never been released. They say they like to keep things "as impossible as possible."^[12]

Multiplayer

Arcade mode is the main multiplayer section of TimeSplitters 2. It can normally be played with up to four players with each player using a division of the television's screen. However, with a System Link, up to sixteen players can simultaneously play multiplayer.^[2] When a player gets killed, they are respawned at a random location on the map with full health. Weapons, armor, and other items that enhance players' abilities are placed in several preset positions scattered about the map. The objective of the game depends on the mode selected. Four are available at the start:

• Deathmatch — A free-for-all deathmatch.
• Team Deathmatch — A Deathmatch with up to four teams.
• Capture the Bag — The TimeSplitters' version of Capture the Flag where the player must go to the opposing team's base and take their bag back to their own team's base.
• BagTag — A bag is placed in the map and the player must take it and survive with it for the longest time. If the player is killed, the bag is dropped leaving it available to be picked up by another player.

There are sixteen game modes in total, but twelve are unavailable until the player plays through more of the game.

Several aspects can be customized such as the weapons, the number of points needed to win, the number of minutes until the end of the game, as well as the music that plays along with the level. There is also a variety of different characters the player can choose to play as, each with their own individual statistics. Some characters are from the Story mode, while there are other more humorous ones such as the dinosaur and the Elvis impersonator.

Up to ten computer-controlled bots can be used in Arcade Custom. Their appearance, difficulty, and team can be customized. The bots can do some acrobatic moves that the player cannot such as rolls and somersaults.^[13]

At the end of each match, the results of the game are shown. This includes the number of points each player or team scored, the weapon the player used most often, as well as awards the player earned. There are nearly 60 known awards present in TimeSplitters 2.^[14] Players are given them based on what they did in the match or how they played. Awards are databased in each player's own saved profile which also keeps track of a variety of statistics.

There is also an Arcade League mode in which one player is placed in an Arcade match with pre-set bots and weapons. There are three difficulty levels of Arcade League: Amateur, Honorary, and Elite. Players must beat them in consecutive order. After a player beats a level, a medal is awarded.

A MapMaker is also available that can create playable levels. Unlike the original TimeSplitters, levels for Story mode can be made as well as levels for Arcade mode.^[15] Created Story levels, however, cannot be played co-operatively like the default story levels. Maps are created by selecting and placing different pre-made tiles and rooms onto a grid. Spawn points, weapons, bags, armour, and objectives can then be placed anywhere on the level. There is a bar in the left side of the screen, representing memory, that lowers each time a tile or item is placed. When the bar depletes completely, nothing else can be placed onto the map. However, items can be deleted to increase memory. A theme can be chosen for each map such as Victorian, Industrial, Alien, and Virtual, which changes how the rooms appear.

Plot

TimeSplitters 2 starts off in the year 2401 in the midst of a war between humanity and the TimeSplitters, an alien race bent on the destruction of mankind. However, rather than invade, they are using the special objects called Time Crystals to travel through time changing the course of history, bringing Earth to ruin.

Two space marines from Earth, Sergeant Cortez and Corporal Hart, are sent out to a space station overrun by TimeSplitters to retrieve the time crystals. However, when they reach the bridge, they are too late as they see the last few TimeSplitters take the time crystals into the past using the time portal. Then, some other TimeSplitters try to break through the door to get into the room. Corporal Hart decides to try to hold them off while Cortez goes into different time periods of the past to retrieve the time crystals.

Upon arrival at each time period, Cortez take the form of a person from that particular period of time, similar to Quantum Leap.^[16] For example, when Cortez arrives in the Wild West, he takes the form of a cowboy, and when he arrives in a 24th century robot factory, he takes the form of a robot.

After Cortez retrieves all of the time crystals, he returns to the space station to meet with Hart. The TimeSplitters outside finally break open the door and move into the room and fight. Corporal Hart is killed in the battle. Cortez then proceeds to set the space station to self destruct and he escapes on his ship before it blows up.

Development

In February of 1999, 20 months before the release of Perfect Dark, several members of Rare that were part of the GoldenEye 007 development team, including Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton, Graeme Norgate, and David Doak, left to form their own company called Free Radical Design. After they developed the first TimeSplitters, TimeSplitters 2 went into development, trying to have a more fulfilling story mode alongside the Arcade and MapMaker modes. It was also one of the first multi-platform games to be re-released on both the PS2 Greatest Hits and Xbox Platinum Hits labels.^[17]

The game engine present in TimeSplitters 2 is also very similar to the one present in GoldenEye. They both contain a similar aiming system and both lack the ability to jump.

There were plans for a handheld version of TimeSplitters for the Game Boy Advance possibly to coincide with the release of TimeSplitters 2, but this was scrapped. The game would have been titled TimeSplitters Advance and would have been a side scrolling or top down shooter.^[18] Not much is known about the game except that there would have been a plane level where you control Captain Ash, the character in the Aztec level of TimeSplitters 2, as he avoided dive-bombing monkeys. There were plans to have the handheld game to be an unlockable mini-game in TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, but they were also scrapped.^[19]

Releases

There are a few minor differences between the console versions of TimeSplitters 2. For example, the PlayStation 2 version has a smaller playing field for mini-games such as Anaconda. This consequently makes high scores on the PlayStation 2 version lower than the Xbox and GameCube versions which both have bigger playing fields for Anaconda. The Xbox and GameCube versions also each have their own unique tag line. The GameCube version says "Heir apparent to GoldenEye," said by Electronic Gaming Monthly.^[20] The Xbox version says "First Halo, now this."^[21]

Other release changes include removal of the map editor function and the renaming to Time Splitters: Invaders of the History on the Japanese release of the PS2 version. In addition, Europe, France, Japan, Korea, and USA each have a different box art.^[22]

Reception

The Siberian dam of TimeSplitters 2 is a clear reference to Goldeneye 007.

TimeSplitters 2 received mostly positive reviews since it has been released.

GameSpy complimented the game for its music in addition to the improvements of the MapMaker. They also said that it was easily the PlayStation 2's best first-person shooter.^[34] The lighting effects of the game were praised.^[35] GameSpot said that TimeSplitters 2 could possibly be one of the best multiplayer-focused FPS games.^[4] GameSpot also mentioned that the game's levels were well designed and complimented the game's number of options.^[36] IGN complimented the game's "enormous amount of replay value." Gaming Age said that the game was "one of the best first person shooters ever," but people in need of very detailed and meticulous level design might not be satisfied.

The game has been criticized because of its overtly sensitive controls while aiming and some argue that its fast pace eliminates some skill needed to play.^[37] The game was also criticized for the occasional choppiness when playing co-op and the lack of the ability to play online.^[38] Also, it has been said that the game was too difficult.^[39] Some also say that the game played and felt too much like Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64.^[3] Its gameplay may be too linear.^[40]

The TimeSplitters series is often compared to and contains many throwbacks to GoldenEye.^[41] For example, both TimeSplitters 2 and GoldenEye 007 start off on a Siberian dam.^[42]

Soundtrack

The sound and music of the game is credited to Graeme Norgate.^[43] In 2006, Free Radical Design placed the soundtrack for TimeSplitters 2, in addition to their other games, on their website to be able to be downloaded for free.^[44] Printable album artwork is also available.

An unofficial website related to TimeSplitters' music is also available where music from TimeSplitters 2, in addition to the other TimeSplitters games, can be downloaded (also free). It is called TimeSplitters MusicBox.

There are twenty seven songs in total that are officially up for download.

Players can choose to listen to a variety of the songs while playing multiplayer or on maps that they create.

References

External links

• Official site
• TimeSplitters 2 at GameFAQs
• TimeSplitters 2 at IGN
• TimeSplitters 2 at the TimeSplitters Wiki
• TimeSplitters 2 soundtrack

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