TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (PS2)

...Well, in the instance of TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, 'bargain' would be a severe understatement - I came across a brand-spanking-new copy on play.com for the ridiculously small total of £4.96. It's certainly the best game I've never spent a fiver on!

TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (TS: FP) is the third (and probably final) PS2 instalment of Free Radical's highly-acclaimed dynasty of first-person shoot 'em ups. Despite the fact it ...
...hard to put down.

Whether you're a fan of the series or not, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect will appeal to the kid in everyone. A speedy adrenalin rush which is laugh-out-loud funny, stunningly playable and at less than £5, a bargain that's too good to miss.
  ... more

I'm sure everyone will agree, it's great when you spot a bargain. Well, in the instance of TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, 'bargain' would be a severe understatement - I came across a brand-spanking-new copy on play.com for the ridiculously small total of £4.96. It's certainly the best game I've never spent a fiver on!

TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (TS: FP) is the third (and probably final) PS2 instalment of Free Radical's highly-acclaimed dynasty of first-person shoot 'em ups. Despite the fact it had to follow an excellent predecessor and that between instalments the gaming-goliath that is EA snapped up the rights to the series, it is easily the best iteration to date and in my opinion, the most complete first-person shoot 'em up to have graced the PlayStation2.

For your £4.96 you get 14 game setups, 150 selectable characters, a ridiculously large arsenal of weapons, a host of dodgy one-liners and enough bawdy innuendo to have scripted another 'Carry On…'film. Oh, and the gameplay's not bad either!

The Story mode carries on directly where TimeSplitters 2 left off, seeing the hero Cortez crash his out-of-control spaceship onto a (relatively) alien planet. As ever, travelling through time is the aim of the game but rather than simply retrieving time crystals as before, your primary job here is to follow and apprehend the mysterious and evil creator of the race of Timesplitters' beasts - ultimately with a view to killing him so as technically, he could never have created them in the first place.

The Story mode contains 13 levels (3 more than TimeSplitters 2) and all are fairly memorable. The fact that levels are set in different time periods and in radically different settings has given real freedom to the developers' designs, and they rarely disappoint. So one minute you're leading an assault on a Scottish castle in 1932, brandishing an antique pistol or vintage rifle, and before long you find yourself in war-ravaged 2252, fighting alongside human resistance against an army of robots with plasma rifles and sci-fi handguns - it's just marvellous.

Not content with simply sticking to the series strengths, Free Radical have also added a rather novel new invention known as 'meet-yourself gameplay'. As you progress through the story levels, you'll occasionally come across a past/future version of your character, and this usually sees you having to team up with him. For example, one instance requires you to drive a tank through a warzone, protecting yourself and the 'future' Cortez who's shooting down planes with the turret. Equally, later on you'll get to shoot down the planes whist 'past' Cortez drives the tank. It's quite a clever innovation, and whilst far from scientific, it's a system that works nicely and isn't overused.

The levels are designed specifically to excite, and the naturally high-tempo of TimeSplitters means for some thrilling gunfights, though in fairness there is a little more to the game than this. The level set on a moving train will remind many of Goldeneye (comparisons are clear, as some of the Free Radical team have worked on both games); at points seeing you running through carriages blasting away guards with a shotgun in hot pursuit of a villain. Elsewhere in Future Perfect you will need to use your brainpower to deactivate a missile launch, your sniping skills to protect an ally, and a steady arm to blow some zombies' heads off - as that's the only way they die! The levels in themselves may not be especially original - more a homage to Bond films and sci-fi B-Movies, but what it does it does superbly well, and with enough variety in each section to satisfy even veteran games. The only slight hitch comes in the form of the moderately numerous boss-battles, which make life very tiresome on the higher difficulty levels, as everyone knows there's rarely any major tactics you can employ against them beyond simply blasting away with your biggest weapons. But I won't be too critical as, Killzone aside; most games of this ilk have the odd boss thrown in. I guess some things never change…

The playability-factor is great, but the humour is absolutely spot-on too - perhaps best illustrated by the wacky sidekicks that team up with Cortez in the various time zones. Captain Ash enjoys the siege on a Scottish castle as it reminds him of the war, and cares not the least that you dropped out of the sky into the middle of a lake - in fact, he'd probably tell you it was splendid, old bean. Elsewhere, you get a robot with a personality (a sarcastic one at that), and the accompaniment of the brilliantly-memorable American teenager Jo-Beth Casey for the 1994-based zombie levels. She's an absolute hoot - not least because of her 'whatever' attitude toward zombies; the word 'SLUT' printed across her top and the marvellously quirky comments she comes out with - upon finding her hanging upside down with zombies closing in, she remarks: "If I'd known this was gonna happen, I would have worn pants'. That's TS: FP in a nutshell and it's partly this off-beat humour that makes it continually such an enjoyable game.

Once you've polished off the Story mode, there's an Arcade and a Challenge mode to tackle, consisting mainly of some quite mad mini-games, though they make excellent use of the array of characters, weaponry, modes of play and environments within. Cleverly, you are given a rating from platinum through to bronze depending on your performance, allowing for a host of cheats and extars to become unlocked with a bit of effort, so there's a good deal of value to be found.

Whilst TimeSplitters 2 was seen as one of the best examples of its genre, Future Perfect betters it in almost every department. The controls are slightly more efficient, making aiming slightly easier; the environments are bigger and sharper looking, the characters are noticeably more detailed, and the level-design is also marginally better too. It's a dream to play - at its best it's mesmerising, utterly frantic and hugely enjoyable. Free Radical have tuned the gameplay engine to near-perfection and as such, it's really difficult to find fault with it.

The multi-player modes add a great deal of value to the product, with a number of different game setups available, plus the added bonus of having as many as 10 computer-controlled bots involved simultaneously. You can try the old 'kill everything that moves' Deathmatch and its Team variant, as well as the mad 'Monkey Assistant' seeing the player in last position being given a hand by a troop of gun-totting chimps. With such a giant array of options, the lifespan is near-endless and it's no exaggeration to say that no two games are ever exactly alike.

Graphically, it's a step-forward for the series. Admittedly it's still brighter than your average FPS and contains rather more monkeys, zombies, snowmen and ducks than say, Half-Life, though the environments look rather sleek. The scale of some levels, namely 'Scotland The Brave' is terrific, as from certain vantage points you can see for what seems like miles; war-ravaged terrain, the sea on the horizon and bombers flying around the castle - its all rather atmospheric. Fans of destruction will no doubt be pleased to know that a fair bit of the scenery can be blown up, whilst the lighting, reflection and weather effects are first-class. It's not just aesthetically excellent - it's also by a considerable margin the fastest-paced and smoothest FPS on the console.

There are really only a couple of gripes I have with the game, and they are relatively minor. Firstly, the Story levels remain more or less the same regardless of the difficulty you play them on - in the previous games the higher settings would demand greater exploration and the completion of new objectives, whilst TS: FP merely ups the enemy and damage count for the most part, which is a shame really given the scope it has for expanding the missions, and as there are only thirteen in total it's still ever so slightly on the lean side compared to other FPS games. Also, it's slightly easier than TimeSplitters 2 (perhaps no bad thing) and experienced gamers may find this and the slight reduction in the quantity of challenges available a bit of a letdown.

It's got itself a '15' certificate thanks to some tasteful blood-splatter effects and some rather rude (but likable) innuendo cropping up on occasions, though I would not hesitate to recommend it to any and all who are old enough to play. As with the best arcade games - it's easy to pick up but hard to put down.

Whether you're a fan of the series or not, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect will appeal to the kid in everyone. A speedy adrenalin rush which is laugh-out-loud funny, stunningly playable and at less than £5, a bargain that's too good to miss.
 

...less