The best FPS in the Classics Catalog
TimeSplitters 2, the shooter from before the scripted corridor
- Critic score
- 90
- Player rating
- 4.6/5
- Main story
- 6.9 h
- Genre
- Shooter
A 2002 shooter made by the people behind GoldenEye, hopping across eras and taking nothing seriously. It is a reminder of what the genre looked like before it became a tunnel.
TimeSplitters 2 was developed by Free Radical Design, a studio founded by part of the GoldenEye 007 team. The lineage is audible immediately: ten levels across different eras, each handed to two space marines chasing the TimeSplitters, an alien race that manipulates time.
The campaign's premise is its best asset: every level is an era and a pastiche. A black-and-white Chicago in 1932, a Siberian station in 1990, a Wild West town, an 1895 Notre-Dame, a Martian base. The game changes setting, music and tone every twenty minutes, and never takes itself seriously.
Its structure belongs to a generation of shooters now largely abandoned: open levels with objectives to complete in whatever order you like, several routes, and a difficulty setting that adds objectives rather than enemy health. You do not follow a corridor listening to someone talk; you learn a map.
The other half of the game is its arcade mode, and it is substantial: dozens of characters, absurd rule sets, a map editor, and above all a split-screen multiplayer suite that remains among the most generous ever shipped. It is also why its community never let go.
Seven hours for the campaign, and effectively no limit on the rest. Classics Catalog, so Premium subscription required.