TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

"What's Halo?"

I'm going to boot off this review by saying this: I am not a Halo fan. I'm a Halo Anti-Fan. Halo, along with Grand Theft Auto, in my humble opinion, is one of the most over-rated video game series of all time.

In fact, I find first-person shooters to be generally boring. Maybe it's because I'm absolutely useless at them, but I just can't get into them. Sure, I played and adored Metroid Prime, but that's not much of a first-person shooter, plus it had Metroid elements, making it one of the most unique games in existence.

My friend has always adored the TimeSplitters series since the first game. He introduced me to this great series. Since then, I've been completely addicted.

Gameplay: 8/10

The gameplay itself is pretty much your generic shooter. I'm not going to say it's unique in any way; you'll get guns, you shoot at people. Simple enough.

However, I never knew how many different ways you can KILL people.

The game has tons of modes. Besides story mode (which can be played single-player or co-op), you can do a straight-up deathmatch, or you can divide into one of two, three, or four teams. You can engage in survival matches where defending your set number of lives is the objective, rather than hunting and killing. Capture the Bag is essentially the classic Capture the Flag with guns. Or you could play Bag Tag, which is essentially a King of the Hill game, but you can move around. Gladiator is basically tag, but also with guns; you can kill anyone you want, but you'll only get points if you are the "gladiator" (the equivalent of "it"), which you can become by killing the current gladiator. Virus is similar to tag, except if you get tagged, you're ALWAYS it, and the last person to maintain their status of NOT being it wins...there's even more ways to play than these, including my favorite, Monkey Assistant.

Another option is to challenge...well, the challenge mode. Perform tasks that range from blowing up the heads of zombie monkeys using a shotgun to destroying fine china using only bricks.

Also, you can create your own map using the map-maker mode. While this mode is somewhat limited at times, you can make typical multiplayer matches, while more advanced creators can try their hands at making story maps. Granted, you can't create anything nearly as in-depth as the actual story mode, but it's still fun to create story maps and exchange them with your friends.

The PlayStation 2 controller works far better with the control scheme than the Gamecube controller, and all in all, the game works better with a Playstation 2 (with the exception of Gamecube's ability to play 4-player games right out of the box), but I own the Gamecube version, so that's the version I am reviewing.

Graphics: 8/10

So this stuff isn't pushing the capabilities of any 6th-generation console (Gamecube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2), but it's not completely awful looking. The environments are fairly detailed, and they can get pretty diverse. Don't expect amazing graphics, but they're not bad.

Sound: 8/10

This game has some great music. I know people who've made CDs with just music from this game. Since you can use ANY music in this game to play during multiplayer matches or created maps, it gets even sweeter because there's a multitude of bonus tracks from previous games, as well as previously unheard tracks. Some of them have to do with the game's great sense of humor (more on that later).

Story: 9/10

The game's story is okay. Not to spoil anything, but there's a big plot twist in the game. It's decent at best, but the game's charm comes from its humor.

The game, unlike too many games on the market today, doesn't take itself seriously at all. The plot centers around time-travel, and some of the humor comes from the sheer outrageousness of some of the events of the story and the actions of its protagonist, Sergeant Cortez. Time-travel, zombies, world-dominating villains, and several action, sci-fi, and horror cliches are touched upon. Players of the previous games will appreciate all of the references to previous games, while new players will go back on TimeSplitters and TimeSplitters 2 and realize all of the references they missed. In case you're not interested in the previous titles, there's a plethora of pop culture references ranging from Jurassic Park to Citizen Kane. The game is a nonstop source of amusement, be it of the action or comedic variety.

Also, the creators seem to have a thing for monkeys. Go figure.

Replay Value: 10/10

It's been proven that you could be amazingly awesome at this game, play it every day, and have it for a few YEARS, and still not have everything unlocked. Over 100 characters, tons of challenges, story mode, map-maker, it never stops. Try getting Platinum level on every challenge and arcade matches. This game has literally the greatest amount of replay value I've ever seen in a game, except for maybe the previous installments of TimeSplitters.

So, all in all, if you're a FPS-fan, or you just want one of the longest-lived gameplay in existence, or maybe you're looking for a light-hearted game with a great sense of humor amidst all of the terrorist actions and apocalypse threats in other games, this is your game. If you want me to recommend the classic "Rent, Buy, or Neither", if you want to enjoy this game to the fullest extent, you're going to HAVE to buy, unless you can rent the game for as long as you like. The game takes FOREVER to obtain everything. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/28/07