TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

"EA and Free Radical win with the newest iteration of the Timesplitters franchise"

I think that Timesplitters: Future Perfect is the best Timesplitters game in the series. Timesplitters was a good game, Timesplitters 2 was a great game, but now, Timesplitters: Future Perfect follows the uphill clime of Timesplitters greatness. Great graphics, awesome sound, sharp comedy, and an amazing, complicated story make this Timesplitters one of the best in the Sci-fi Shooter genre, not to mention a whole array of characters and unlockable cheats. And another thing about this game that I felt was different from the others was that this one was more difficult, and it took longer overall to beat Story Mode, which is a good thing. There is SO much to praise with this game, lets just get down to the review:

Graphics – 10 – The graphics in this game are fantastic. Character models look great, and the environments are beautifully done. I mean beautiful. Multiplayer maps have great variations for variations in gameplay, which keeps it fresh and new, and the story mode levels look incredible. My favorite one is probably the 1994 Mansion mission (and the mission after it that goes with it), and the story that goes with the mission. Each gun was created beautifully and realistically, except of course the guns that aren't supposed to be real (mainly the Neon set of weapons), but they still look awesome (especially the Mag-Charger, which literally unfolds from a small box into a semi-huge rife). Also, the guns that are shiny change with the lighting around your character, so when holding the aiming stick to the left, and rotating your character, your gun reflects the light from its source around every bend and curve on the weapon. EA also brings a newly added blood shower to the Timesplitters series, which (in my opinion) is a good thing. This is no criticism towards Timesplitters 2, but the blood adds a bit more realism to the game (if you shot me in the stomach, it sure as hell wouldn't make a big spark so you know you hit me). Plus, in the first person view, there's the addition of hands holding the guns, and reloading them, no matter what character you chose. In Timesplitters 2, it was basically a floating gun. Some characters have tentacles, matchsticks, hooks, or robot claws for hands, so when your character pulls up his weapon, he'll shoot with his tentacles, matchsticks, hooks, or robot claws, and reload with his/her tentacles/matchsticks/hooks/robot claws (not to mention punch and throw grenades with those tentacles/matchsticks/hooks/robot claws). Each and every character model looks fantastic, and there are ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY characters to choose from. That's massive when compared to Halo (everyone is master chief, just a different color), Tekken (on average, about 12-18 people to choose from), or Mario Kart (about 20 – 25 characters [talking about double dash] ), just to name a few random games with a handful of selectable characters. All in all, the graphics to Timesplitters Future Perfect could not really get any better than they already are.

Sound – 10 – The sound in this game is fan-frickin'-tastic, especially when you have a huge sound system around your xbox / playstation 2 / gamecube. The guns sound realistic, and each makes a different sound when fired. With grenades, a small pin being pulled can be heard, then two seconds later there's that inevitable and tremendous *BANG* that everyone knows and loves. Also, if you know Timesplitters at all, you should know that MINE ROUNDS are fun. (Basically it's a thing people do in an arcade style match when all the weapons are set to Proximity / Timed / Remote mines, and the explosions keep coming.) But besides how the weapons normally sound, there are so many detailed variables that go with them that bring this score up to a full 10. Shoot stone and you're likely to hear some sand or drywall fall on the floor from the bullet. Shoot a metal wall, and you're likely to hear the *TING!* of the metal bending a contorting when the bullet makes contact. Shoot a man in the foot, and you're likely to hear a cry of pain and sort-of-sickening thud when the bullet makes contact. There are also trucks and cars (vehicles in general) that sound awesome. Sometimes you can tell the vehicle's engine's sound file is just repeating and repeating and you can tell where the sound file starts and ends over and over again (mainly with that type of truck in the Siberia multiplayer map), but it really isn't that much of a big deal because this is a First Person Shooter, not Gran Turismo. Also, besides all the regular things, there's those variables I was talking about. For example, when the small heads cheat is activated, everyone's voice is changed to a higher pitch, almost squirrel-like, and when everyone has the big heads cheat on, the voices change to lower pitches for deeper voices. And perhaps my second favorite sound to come out of this game is the human gun sounds cheat. What's that you ask? After unlocking the cheat, and activating it, everytime you fire a gun, and man's voice tries to imitate what the gun sounded like before, like pulling the trigger for the 9mm handgun will get you a “bang!” and the soviet rifle will sound like “bangbangbangbangbangbang”. But my favorite one is the flare gun, which sounds like “FOOOM!” and then the guy whistling as it twists through the air. And here is the end of the guns part of the review and the beginning of the voice acting review. The voice acting is great. The comedy is sharp, and the great acting just makes it better. And who could forget Sergeant Cortez's favorite frase, “TIME TO SPLIT!”? This games sound kicks ass on many levels of excellency.

Gameplay – 10 – There just aren't enough positive words in the dictionary to describe the gameplay. Smooth, fluent, fast, not too complicated, fun, amateur friendly, variable, and kick-ass are the first ones that come to mind. Lets start with the story mode gameplay review. Where to start… ok, I'll just start with the artificial intelligence. To be honest, there really is nothing too special about the enemy's A.I. in this game. The shoot when they see you, they pull out the handgun for close range and the rifle for long range, they duck for cover when hit, and run from grenades, and even remain unaware when you're skillfully using a silenced weapon, but to be completely honest, it's what we've come to expect from the from the current age of gaming. Not to say the AI is bad, its just… average. Done with the AI part and on to the weapons and framerate part. I have to say, from day I owned this game, I have never experienced any type of slowdown at all. Even when the gameplay gets hot and heavy, there is no sign of the game getting any slower at all. That's with single player and multiplayer, meaning I could be playing with my friends, throwing grenades, while shooting my automatic rifle, while my friend is driving a truck into a minefield, and there is just all hell breaking loose, with NO SLOWDOWN AT ALL. Still not convinced the gameplay is great? Well, there are many modes of play to choose from, mainly the Single Player Campaign, Campaign Co-op with a buddy, Challenge Mode, Arcade League Challenges, Arcade League Custom (my personal favorite), and the awesome Mapmaker mode. I have to say, hands down, this is the easiest mapmaker for any game I've ever played that had mapmaker, and it produces great results. Custom Arenas can have many levels and corridors and open areas and specific objectives (for making story mode type levels, but custom), and there is so much more, it would be a waste of your time and mine to type/read them all. There are also pretty cool scenes in the Campaign mode were you meet your future self, help each other out, go through a time rift, and become the future self you just saw, and help your past self. And finally, the review of the shooting, the most important part of the gameplay section of a first person shooter. This is definitely a game where I would file the shooting under arcade type shooting. What does that mean you ask? I mean this. If you are playing, say, Rainbow Six: Vegas, you have to plant yourself down, have a strategy, plant your other squad members around the perimeter, mark your enemies, and set charges for planned mass killing, that would be filed under strategic shooter, because of, if its not obvious enough, the strategy. Timesplitters is more like “hit A to open the door, and let those bullets fly!” because this is more of a rock em' sock em' type shooting where, as I mentioned before, all hell breaks loose. Get it? If not, the game is still fun as hell and you should definitely get the game.

Story – 10 – I don't know what everyone else thinks, but the opinion I've formed on this section of the game is the story is fun, futuristic, funny, and most of all, enjoyable. Besides the sharp comedy that is portrayed throughout the entire game, the story itself is excellent. It's complicated, sometimes bizarre, and takes some completely unexpected turns at times, but nothing takes too sharp of a turn to make you loose where you were or what was going on, or why you were somewhere. Anyway, here's the breakdown on the story. Earth is a worn torn wasteland. There are Timesplitters, disgusting creatures that kill humans without regard, hoping to take over the planet. The war has been going on for centuries, and the humans are on their last leg, so they call in their best soldier, Sergeant Cortez, to travel through time and try to stop them from ever existing in the first place. You'll travel from the year 2401 to 1924 to 1969 to 1994 to 2052 to 2243 to 1924 to 2401 to 1924… it gets a little confusing, but you should always have a general idea of why you are where you are in time. Throughout the entire storyline, except for one or two levels, Cortez always meets up with someone or something that agrees to be his ally, so you're usually not alone in your travels through time, and your assistant, Anya, is always giving you intel on the current situation at hand, and sometimes the conversations between Sgt. Cortez and Anya get pretty funny. And as opposed to Timesplitters 2, Sgt. Cortez actually stays as himself when he travels through time, rather than changing into some random person. All in all, there really isn't much more to say on the story portion except that it's excellent.

Extras – 10 – The extras in this game are so great, they get their own review. Everything can be won through achieving goals and beating challenge mode challenges, and getting gold medals in Arcade League challenges, and just playing through the story mode itself. You can win a lot of cheats, characters, and weapons by completing these things with time or kills to spare. That may not seem like much, but believe me, with 150 different characters, a huge arsenal, and cheats to keep it fresh and new, the extras section definitely deserves a ten.

There you have it. A review for Timesplitters: Future Perfect. If you see this in an EB Games or something, and you're fighting with yourself over whether to get it or not, GET IT. It is a great experience and one I'm glad I didn't ignore because even with my Xbox 360 and the games I have, I probably play this game more than most of my 360 games. (More than likely because as I said in the Extras Section of my review, there is always something to keep it fresh and new.) And if you decide to get this game (which you definitely should), you should probably get it for Xbox or PS2 because of the Online Support.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/07

Game Release: TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (US, 03/21/05)