TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (Xbox)

-(Game Information)-
Name:Timesplitters:Future Perfect
Publisher:EA Games
Developer:Free Radical
Genre:First Person Shooter
Release Date:Mar 24, 2005
Age Rating:15+ for Blood and Gore and Violence
Number Of Players:1-4 or 1-16 online
Xbox Live:Yes
Custom Soundtracks:No
In-game dolby digital:Yes
Developer Site:www.frd.co.uk
Product Site:www.ea.com/official/timesplitters/timesplitters/us/timezone.jsp
...games are part of the huge Electronic Arts company. Electronic Arts have many more companies as well, like EA Sports and EA Sports BIG. EA games publish most of the non-sports game, like Black; Def Jam; Need For Speed; Harry Potter and Command and Conquer. When the PlayStation launched a little game called Timesplitters popped up and change multiplayer shooters for ever. About two years later Eidos released a sequel called Timesplitters 2 which improves ... more

-(Game Information)-
Name:Timesplitters:Future Perfect
Publisher:EA Games
Developer:Free Radical
Genre:First Person Shooter
Release Date:Mar 24, 2005
Age Rating:15+ for Blood and Gore and Violence
Number Of Players:1-4 or 1-16 online
Xbox Live:Yes
Custom Soundtracks:No
In-game dolby digital:Yes
Developer Site:www.frd.co.uk
Product Site:www.ea.com/official/timesplitters/timesplitters/us/timezone.jsp
Memory Card Usage:

-(History)-
EA games are part of the huge Electronic Arts company. Electronic Arts have many more companies as well, like EA Sports and EA Sports BIG. EA games publish most of the non-sports game, like Black; Def Jam; Need For Speed; Harry Potter and Command and Conquer. When the PlayStation launched a little game called Timesplitters popped up and change multiplayer shooters for ever. About two years later Eidos released a sequel called Timesplitters 2 which improves on everything the previous game missed. Then Eidos lost the license to make Timesplitters games and EA got the license. So EA and Free Radical released Timesplitters:Future Perfect. This was the first game to have online play, which made the game better than it would of been had it had no online play like the previous games.

-(The Story)-
The Story is following after Timesplitters 2, Sgt Cortez is returning to earth after the battle at the space station and the recovery of the Time Crystals when his Ship is Hit by missiles and Cortez has to land early. You play on after Cortez Crashes and must return to HQ with the Time Crystals. After you've gone through the level you meet up with the commander and his assistant. The assistant takes Time Crystals and uses them to make a Time Portal to the past, present and future. In the story you meet up with many familiar faces and some new faces.

-(The Controls)-
Future Perfect controls like your ordinary First Person Shooter. You move around with the left analog stick and aim with the right analog stick. You throw grenades with the Left trigger and melee attack with the B button. Crouching is done by pressing down the left analog stick. If you're not lazy then you can press the X button to manually reload. The D-Pad is used and change the weapon, toggle your weapon sub-type and to change grenades. Overall, the controls are responsive and pretty simple as well.

-(The Gameplay)-
The storymode in Future Perfect is the best of the series, as this time around there's actually a plot to the whole thing. There are a total of thirteen levels, which is three more than that found in Timesplitters 2, which all take place in different time periods. The levels usually require you to get to the end without dying, though there are checkpoints along the way so it's not too punishing, but there's usually objectives you have to do to get to the end. Some of these missions are to defend a friend with a sniper rifle while he finds some disguises, disarm a missile before it explodes and much more. There's side missions as well, but these are optional.

What makes the storymode really fun are the encounters with your past and future self. it's as crazy as it sounds. These are when you'll team up with your future self and do something that two people need to do. But later, you'll swap positions so now you help your past self so he can help the future self. Confusing? Well it's simple as you'll do an objective with your future self like you kill ghosts using a ghost gun, while he kills the zombies so they don't eat you. Then later, you kill the zombies and he kills the ghosts. These encounters are really humorous and really fun, yet Free Radical could of added more encounters.

But the storymode isn't the only mode of play. There's an arcade league mode, challenge mode, a mapmaker tool, lots of multiplayer options as well as a co-op story mode. The arcade league mode is when you pick a league, which contains a set of challenges. Usually, these challenges involve you playing in a deathmatch type fight where you must do a number of killings in the time limit or before someone else does that. But there's different types of challenges that involve you using other modes like virus, where someone must avoid someone who is on fire; vampire, where the less you kill the more chance you have of dying and much more. These challenges are hard at first, but once you get used to the game these are pretty easy and really fun. All the arenas used in the league can be played with computer A.I. or in multiplayer.

To be honest, the challenge mode is a more varied version of arcade league. The challenges don't really stick to the deathmatch formula, more throws objectives at you, which are similar to those in the story mode. You'll usually have to do something like find an item in a level and then get back to a portal, or more wackier things like shooting melons out of monkeys hands or shooting cardboard stands as quick as possible. It's more crazy, more gimmicky and more fun than the arcade mode and definitely harder than the arcade league. Both of them have gold, silver and bronze awards. All the awards require you to do a certain number of whatever the challenge requires you to do. For example, if you have to kill a certain number of people to get bronze, if you can kill more then you will get a better medal. Getting all bronze/silver/gold can get you a new character to use.

The mapmaker in the previous game was great, but Future Perfect's mapmaker is much better. It allows you to make bigger maps with more enemies. The way the mapmaker works is that you can choose many types of tools to use. You can choose between beginner and advanced mapmaker. Beginner lets you build a map with light and items, but no enemies or story. But the advanced mode lets you add story and enemies. The advanced is the way to go if you want to go simple, but the beginner is great to grasp how the mapmaker works. You can use a number of tools. The tile tool lets you place down and rotate the route of your map; the item tool lets you place items like guns, power-ups and other things of that nature around the map; the lights lets you change the colour of the light, as well as change whether the light is normal or whether it flickers, flashes etc.; the story A.I. lets you place enemies around the map and the game logic lets you add story objectives as well as objectives for assault maps. You can create maps for all the map types. You can take your maps online and show them off to the world. Overall the mapmaker is deep and really fun.

As far as multiplayer goes, it's as excellent as ever. Offline you can play in four player matches, using all the match types available including the standard deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag, well capture the bag actually; as well as spin offs of the deathmatch including Vampire, Monkey Assistant and Gladiator. There's even some wackier modes as well including virus, where you have to avoid an inflamed character until everyone else is set alight. The online play lets you have up to 16 players, which is quite a lot. Also you can share your created maps online and play in them, as well as make clans as well. Though it depends if people still go online, which is unlikely as Future Perfect is more than 2 years old, as well as online 360 games being released. I wouldn't know as i don't have Xbox Live, but if you can find some people online then you'll have tons of fun as if it's as good as the offline multiplayer then it's great stuff.

-(The Graphics)-
Graphically, Future Perfect looks excellent. The effects are awesome, with huge explosions vibrating your screen. The animation is top notch as well, as all the characters move realistically, as well as die realistically. And the guns move in a realistic fashion as well. The character models themselves look smoother this time around, with less edges than that of Timesplitters 2. The environments this time around are still massive, in fact i'd go as far to say that they're bigger than that of the previous game. Yet, while the frame rate runs at 60 frames per second most of the time, the frame rate can take some hits during big explosions. But that doesn't effect the gameplay. Overall, Future Perfect looks excellent.

-(The Sound)-
Sound-wise the game is also excellent. The voice acting isn't great, but the dialogue is hilarious. It also suits the time section the game takes place in. In the 70's you'll hear a lot of 'Hey dude' and 'Woah man', whereas 500 years in the future you'll hear a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo. Plus there's some truly hilarious moments, especially when Cortez encounters his future self. The music is great, with a mostly techno vibe to it all. Yet, the game still lacks the custom soundtrack option, where you can rip and listen to your own music while in gameplay. The effects are also great, as all of the guns sound very powerful, especially the machine guns. Overall, the sound is better than that of what was heard in Timesplitters 2.

-(Replay Value)-
Future Perfect is HUGE! Once you've finished the story mode on your first time through, which takes around 8-10 hours long, there's three more difficulty levels that reward you for playing through them. Also there's the arcade mode league which takes ages to get gold in. The challenge mode also takes a while to get all gold in and there's the cool mapmaker mode, which is great fun. Also, if you find people on Xbox Live then there's unlimited value, and even if you invest in the offline multiplayer then that will last quite long as well. Timesplitters has always been about lots of modes and characters, and Future Perfect doesn't disappoint.

-(Score)-
Controls=10
Gameplay=10
Graphics=9
Sound=9
Replay Value=10
Overall Score=9.6

-(Ending Comments)-
Future Perfect is one of the best First Person Shooters ever made, and one of the best Xbox shooters made. Future Perfect piles on the modes, but adds excellent gameplay as well which makes these modes fun and not shameless. Also, Future Perfect has an excellent presentation with gorgeous visuals and hilarious dialogue. Overall, Future Perfect is an excellent game that is needed for fans of First Person Shooters, and if you're not into these kinds of games, this is the one to get you into them.

-(If You Like This I'd Suggest)-
Halo
Doom 3
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay
Half-Life 2

-(Where You Can Buy It)-
Amazon:Used and new from £2.80 

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