''TimeSplitters'' is a

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

developed by Free Radical Design and published by

Eidos Interactive Square Enix Limited (formerly Domark Limited and Eidos Interactive Limited) is a British subsidiary of the Japanese video game company Square Enix, acting as their European publishing arm. The company formerly owned ''Tomb Raider'', which was in ...

. It is the first game in the ''TimeSplitters'' series. It was released on 26 October 2000 in North America and 24 November 2000 in Europe as a PlayStation 2 launch title. The game revolves around the concept of travelling through time in a story mode spanning 100 years. The game features a story mode, arcade mode, unlockable challenge mode, and map maker.

Gameplay and premise

As a

game, ''TimeSplitters'' bears several gameplay and presentational similarities to '' GoldenEye 007'' and ''

Perfect Dark ''Perfect Dark'' is a first-person shooter developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64 video game console in 2000. The first game of the '' Perfect Dark'' series, it follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute research ...

'', including a similar aiming system and unlockable options through quick level completions. The game's story mode can be played alone or co-operatively with one additional player. Every level in story mode can be played on three difficulty settings; several aspects, such as the enemies' aggressiveness and the addition of new areas, can vary in function of the chosen difficulty. Taking place at nine fictional locations between 1935 and 2035, the story follows 18 characters' individual attempts at defeating their own foes and the TimeSplitters with whom they have sided. In each level, the player can choose from one of two characters specific to each mission, and must kill enemies as they move through the level to retrieve an object and then carry that object to the exit portal. After a player picks up the object, the TimeSplitters – evil mutant creatures – spawn endlessly throughout the level and attack the player. ''TimeSplitters'' features a multiplayer mode, known as "Arcade", where up to four players and ten computer-controlled

bots The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Br ...

can compete individually, or in up to four different teams in certain modes. There are six multiplayer modes and aspects of each mode — such as the weapons and levels available, the winning condition, and managing characters — can be customized to match player preference. Completing the story mode on the easiest difficulty unlocks "Challenge Mode", which provide certain goals on a pre-set map within the time limit. The game contains a

level editor In video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual f ...

that allows the player to create their own level from a selection of various pre-made tiles. Light settings of the tiles can be edited individually and items can be added to the map. The map can be given any one of five themes; these themes change the interior shape of the tiles and their appearance. The player can also play and test their levels in any certain multiplayer modes, as well as saving them to their

memory card A memory card is an electronic data storage device used for storing digital information, typically using flash memory. These are commonly used in digital portable electronic devices. They allow adding memory to such devices using a card in a soc ...

Development and release

In February 1999, several members of the ''GoldenEye 007'' and ''Perfect Dark'' development team — including David Doak, Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton and

Graeme Norgate Graeme Norgate is a British video game music composer who has composed music for a variety of video games developed by Rare. His first project at Rare was writing music for the Game Boy game, ''Donkey Kong Land''. He also contributed to the ...

— left Rare to form their own company based in

Nottingham, England Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robin H ...

called Free Radical Design. ''TimeSplitters'' was the first project for Free Radical Design team, and the development was carried out by eighteen people. Graeme Norgate composed the music for ''TimeSplitters''. The game was developed in 16 months with a budget of £500,000 David Doak, the designer of ''TimeSplitters'', said that the team focused on "action-based gameplay, but there are many other elements" and stated that the game would be "using both analog controls on the

DualShock 2 The DualShock (originally Dual Shock; trademarked as DUALSHOCK or DUAL SHOCK; with the PlayStation 5 version named DualSense) is a line of gamepads with vibration-feedback and analog controls developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the Pla ...

and all of the controls will be fully customizable." The team additionally included a "sign-on" system, which saves individual player profile and preferences stored on the

. Because of the PlayStation 2's hardware limitations, Steve Ellis explained that " tting a four-way split screen working at a good frame rate is a problem on any console, and the PS2 is no exception". The team did not use anti-aliasing for ''TimeSplitters'' as it would reduce the

frame rate Frame rate (expressed in or FPS) is the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images ( frames) are captured or displayed. The term applies equally to film and video cameras, computer graphics, and motion capture systems. Frame rate may also ...

drastically. ''TimeSplitters'' was released in North America on 23 October 2000 and in Europe on 24 November 2000, as a launch game for the PlayStation 2. As part of the

Platinum Range Essentials is the Sony PlayStation budget range in the PAL region, which covers Europe, the Middle East and Africa as well as Australia and South Asia. It was launched in January 1997 as the Platinum range but was later renamed for PlayStatio ...

, it was re-released on 8 March 2002.

Reception

Garrett Kenyon reviewed the PlayStation 2 version of the game for '' Next Generation'', rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "True fans of the FPS genre will enjoy ''TimeSplitters'' for its straightforward presentation and simple trigger-pulling appeal." It was a runner-up for ''GameSpot''s annual "Best Shooting Game" award among

console game A console game is a type of video game consisting of images and often sounds generated by a video game console, which are displayed on a television or similar audio-video system, and that can be manipulated by a player. This manipulation usually ...

s, which went to ''

''. ''TimeSplitters'' received generally favourable reviews according to the

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website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. ''

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'' praised the game's fluid and action-packed multiplayer mode, comparing it favourably to the '' Quake'' series, and credited the

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

of enemies for being relentless, especially during multiplayer matches.

References

External links