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While the Xbox is currently trailing the Playstation 2 in sales, Microsoft's big black-and-green console is by far the frontrunner when it comes to multiplayer gaming, due in large part to the Xbox Live service. That being said, it's odd that the multiplatform title Timesplitters 2 doesn't make any effort to take advantage of Microsoft's online service.
While online gameplay was long expected to be part of the package, Free Radical pulled it out at the last minute, perhaps because of concerns over support from Sony's struggling online component. Whatever the reasons, Timesplitters 2 is an odd duck...a game designed from the ground up to be played against other people which only allows you to do so offline.
However, one of the virtues a reviewer, game or otherwise, should abide by is to review the product as it is, not as they wish it to be. Taken on its' own merits, Timesplitters 2 is one of the better multiplayer first-person-shooters on the market, provided you have some extra controllers, and a few buddies on-hand to join you in the fragging.
While the original Timesplitters was only available to PS2 gamers, Timesplitters 2 has been ported to both the GameCube and Xbox. Xbox owners who pick up Timesplitters 2 won't have missed much, however, as the sequel is basically the same game as the first, only with improved graphics, sound, and plenty more options. Though Timesplitters 2 is aimed squarely at multiplayer action, it does have a lot to offer solo gamers, something which the first game lacked. The primary single player mode is Story Mode, in which the player is cast as a time-hopping commando trying to thwart the plans of a group of extra-dimensional baddies called 'Timesplitters'.
While the story is incredibly basic, and doesn't give you many details (like exactly who the Timesplitters are and what they are doing), it doesn't really matter. The plot is basically a simple excuse to string together a number of single-player mission-based modes. Since a number of the Timesplitters 2 team members were responsible for the N64 classic GoldenEye, it makes perfect sense that the story mode would share some similarities to that landmark title. Each mission has a number of objectives, which get more complicated and numerous depending on the difficulty level you choose when starting the mission.
Though this doesn't sound like much, it really does affect the missions, as playing them at Easy and Hard modes provides an entirely different experience, not only in the viciousness of your opponents, but in the way the levels play out. This is a neat way to entice you to play each mission more than once. Each mission takes place in a different time period, from 1990's Siberia (obviously a little nostaliga for GoldenEye) to the futuristic Planet X level of the first game. Though a number of the levels are take-offs on old themes (the cyberpunk Neo-Tokyo level, for instance) a few of them are pretty original (like the Old West level, which makes me wonder why nobody has done a Western FPS yet...)
Once you finish the Story Mode, you can move onto the Challenges, which are basically single-player contests which test your skills to unlock characters, levels, and game types for use in the multiplayer mode. Though this sounds rather droll, it's actually a heck of a lot of fun. One thing Timesplitters 2 is not is serious, and the Challenges highlight this perfectly. You'll find yourself carrying out a number of bizarre tasks; throwing bricks through windows, decapitating zombies, gunning down wooden men with hands for heads, collecting bananas, avoiding flaming undead...you name it.
Some are rediculously easy, while others will find you pulling out your hair in frustration. You earn one of three medals for completing the tasks; bronze, silver, and gold. Earning a bronze will usually net you nothing, while earning a silver or gold will award you a pair of unlockables or one of them depending on which medal you win.
Finally, the last single-player mode (not counting the Map Maker utility, which I'll cover later) is the Arcade League mode, in which you play a number of multiplayer games against bots. Like the Challenge mode, in Arcade League mode your objective is to score medals to unlock more goodies. I'll say one thing about this mode: the bots are devillishly clever. On levels featuring flamethrowers and the like, bots will very often seek out water to put out the flames if they've been set alight. They'll also use every weapon at their disposal, and use them well. Don't get me wrong, they're not exactly HAL 9000 smart...they'll set themselves on fire just as often as they'll try to put it out, but the first time you see a bot pull off some intelligent moves, you'll be impressed. While it would have been kinda cool to be able to set personalitites for the bots, as in Perfect Dark, I'm not complaining. They do a decent job of covering their butts, and that's about all you can ask for, really.
This leads me to the real meat of the game, which is multiplayer. Hooking up with your friends is done through the Arcade Custom mode, in which you can set just about every variable one could imagine for a multiplayer game. You can set the level, game type, number and type of bots, the weapon loadout, time and score limits...you name it. If it's possible to tweak in a multiplayer game, it's probably here. The sheer amount of options allows for some really fun gameplay, and chances are, once you dive in and start tweaking things, you and your friends will spend hours trying out every possible combo. Want to play Team Deathmatch with all retro weapons against Bearded bots on the Scrapyard level? Done. Want to play against all schoolgirl bots using flamethrowers and crossbows in the Amazon jungle? Done. Really, there are almost too many options, if you can believe that. A multiplayer game is really only as good as it's game types, and Timesplitters 2, while not breaking any molds, certainly features a robust and varied host of game types.
All the usual suspects are here, including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag (here called Capture the Bag) and Assault, but Timesplitters 2 has upped the ante by throwing in some really fun and original types including Vampire (your health constantly depletes and you must fill it by inflicting damage on other players), Shrink (the player actually shrinks depending on how good or bad they play), Flame Tag (if you are set on fire, you must pass it on to another player in order to score), and the ever popular Monkey Assistant mode (in which the lowest-ranked player gets a handful of simian helpers that harass the other players).
Of course, the other really, really important element of a multiplayer game is the maps. The variety of maps in Timesplitters 2 is pretty impressive, but none of the maps are particularly exciting. They're all rather small and don't really offer one the opportunity to spread out much. Of course, this has the virtue of ensuring that you'll always be in close proximity to your enemies, but it would have been nice to see the developers open things up a bit. If you tire of killing each other, there's also a co-op mode which lets you and your buddies tackle the single-player mission modes together. While it doesn't add anything to the gameplay (outside of the novelty of playing the single-player modes with some friends), it's still a welcome feature.
Finally, Timesplitters 2 brings back the cool map editing mode from the first game. While there have been a few improvements made to the map editor (such as the ability to create 'story' maps complete with objectives, enemies, and event triggers), the weaknesses that hampered the original map mode have been carried over. You still have a fairly limited number of map tiles to work with, and the memory constraints prevent you from getting really wild. Still, if you like to tinker with map editors and like to create maps, you'll probably find a lot to like here. The map editor really is more suitable for creating multiplayer maps, given the relatively small number of enemies you can deploy per map, but taken on that basis it's really quite a nice addition...and let's face it, since it's icing on the cake, what's there to complain about?
Being a rather straightforward port of the PS2 version, Timesplitters 2 fares about as well as you'd expect. The graphics aren't anything to write home about, but they're adequate. The character models are well-done, in a cartoony way, and there are a metric buttload for you to use in multiplayer, many of which are pretty bent. Set up a session against Duckman Drake, the Dinosaur, Calamari, Beetleman, and Handyman, and you'll see what I mean. They're animated well, though not particularly detailed. The same could be said about the environments. The Story Mode levels are well thought-out, though nothing to get excited at.
As mentioned above, the multiplayer levels suffer the same fate. The textures are decent, and don't really suffer from any pixellation issues, and there are a few neat effects, such as the rain during the Neo-Tokyo level. The sound is likewise adequate; perhaps the best thing about it is the various vocalizations for each of the characters in multiplayer mode, particularly when they're on fire. The guys at Free Radical clearly took particular glee in voicing the various character's agonizing screams as they burn. The best, hands down, goes to the Snowman who pitifully cries 'I'M MELTING!' as he madly flits about on his flying carpet (yes, flying carpet). Of course, my brother and I couldn't stop laughing when we packed about a dozen schoolgirls into the Amazon jungle and then used flamethrowers on them, creating a sort of twisted charnel-house of screaming, burning teenage girls. I'm not 'fessing up to any dark hidden desires or anything, but I suppose you had to be there...
Performance-wise, I have to hand it to Free Radical for creating a very fast-moving game. Even on four-screen play, the game rarely slows down, keeping the proceedings very fast-paced. Of course, this comes with the caveat that you'll need a decent-sized television to really enjoy four-player multiplayer, unless you have a link-cable, a copy of the game, and an Xbox for each player...and really, who has that handy?
So what does Timesplitters 2 have to offer in a market full of multiplayer games? Well, to be honest, it really doesn't do anything that any of its' competitors doesn't do, but it does offer a heck of a good time for a relatively low price ($29 at the time I'm writing this review), provided you can get together a bunch of your friends and have a few extra controllers handy. The characters, levels, and game modes are entertaining enough, and it's got just the right sense of humor. I really can't recommend it for solo players, as most of it's solo modes are aimed towards unlocking multiplayer content. But if you've finally gotten tired of Halo or Unreal Tournament, and want to have some good 'ol fragging fun with a sense of humor, Timesplitters 2 is a worthy distraction.
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