TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

"Timesplitters: Future NEAR Perfect"

I was first introduced to the Timesplitters series by going going to my local video game rental store (rhymes with lockluster) and saw Timesplitters 2. I thought "what the hell" and gave it a shot. I could not put the game down. Now Future Perfect comes out and I am ready to have some fun...

Graphics (8/10)
Free Radical decided to use the old TS2 engine to make Future Perfect and this comes down to be an average decision. The graphics are effected the most. They still seemed to upgrade the graphics but none the less, the characters don't have individual fingers, just a round lump with lines on it. Other then the hands though, the graphics are great, many expressions are shown and depicted quite nicely. The game always moves quickly, never slowing down.

Sound (7/10)
Unless it really sticks out in my mind, I really don't care about sound. You can still basically know what each gun sounds like but you get the same groans for quite a few characters during gameplay. The music is plentiful and will not leave you reaching over for your cd player.

Gameplay (8/10)
--SinglePlayer-- (8/10)
I must say, they really improved the single player quite a bit since TS2. The story is immersing and will always leave you thinking what might happen next (or in some cases, what you will be facing next). The monsters are plentiful here and no way in short variety. Throughout the story, the characters seem to keep their sense of humor and this in many ways can kills the sense of any real danger but then again, was there any real danger in the first place? One gripe I have with the single player, IT WAS WAY TOO EASY, even on hard. Once I flew through normal, I went onto hard and beat it in one day. In TS2, they would add quite a few more things to levels on hard including more baddies and gun camera turrets. TS: FP fails to do this. Basically the only change you will notice is the basic stuff including less pickups, baddies harder to kill and more damaging. I was expecting more out of the difficulty ever since I could never get past the first level on TS2 on hard. The challenges and leagues are fun also but again are just too easy. I find myself always getting gold and platinum trophies. Many times it would only take you to just camp in one spot and fire whenever someone approaches. I flew through this and got 100% completion in about 5 days.

--Multiplayer-- (8/10)
I really can't review this too accurately because almost every game I have played so far, I basically dominated in (my score would be 100, 2nd place person has 69). You sometimes find yourself going back to bots to get a real challenge. There have been a few times where one person would actually be able to kill me but it would take a great deal of looking before so. Xbox Live tracks everyones stats so you can compare scores with everyone else. You can even download other people's maps which I consider a big positive.

--MapMaker-- (8.5/10)
Free Radical greatly improved the mapmaker to include many little things that you can control, even the respawn time of certain weapons, but the greatest improvement of all is the fact that now you can make assault maps. I always liked the assault missions on TS2 and TS:FP and now I can make my own. The greatest con of the mapmaker though is that you find yourself without much memory space for a map. When you are given 5-6 levels to work with, you want to use all 5-6 levels

Control (10/10)
For some reason, the controls were just meant to be from the second you turn on the game. If you have ever played Halo 2, the control scheme is almost exactly the same and seem to work better for TS:FP.

Overall (8/10)
The game was greatly improved but seem to be somewhat of a waste when you can get 100% completion in under a week. Everything in the singleplayer was just too easy. There were a few times where I would have to redo a certain part a few times over and over but still was easily beaten.

Graphics (8/10)
Sound (7/10)
Gameplay (8/10)
- Singleplayer (8/10)
- Multiplayer (8/10)
- Mapmaker (8.5/10)
Control (10/10)
Overall (8/10)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/05