''TimeSplitters'' is a

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game 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 generate visual fe ...

, developed by Free Radical Design, published by

Eidos Interactive Eidos Interactive Limited (formerly Domark Limited) was a British video game publisher based in Wimbledon, London. Among its franchises were '' Championship Manager'', '' Deus Ex'', ''Hitman'', '' Thief'' and ''Tomb Raider''. Domark was founded ...

, and released in 2000 as a

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

launch title Since the origin of video games in the early 1970s, the video game industry, the players, and surrounding culture have spawned a wide range of technical and slang terms. 0–9 A ...

. The game's premise focuses on players controlling a variety of different characters across different time periods over a span of 100 years, seeking to resolve a personal matter involving their own foes, which brings them into contact with an alien race known as the TimeSplitters, who seek to interfere. Much of the gameplay bears similar aspects to previous FPS games, primarily '' GoldenEye 007'' and ''

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

''. Alongside the story mode, the game features additional game modes, including multiplayer, as well as a map maker for players to create custom maps. The game received favorable reviews upon release, and later spawned two sequels ''

TimeSplitters 2 ''TimeSplitters 2'' is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Free Radical Design, published by Eidos Interactive, and released in October 2002 for PlayStation 2, Xbox (console), Xbox and GameCube. The game's story focuses on the efforts ...

'' in 2002; and '' TimeSplitters: Future Perfect'' in 2005. ''TimeSplitters'', along with the other games in the trilogy, were rereleased on the PS4 and PS5 as a PS2 Classic in 2024, with trophy support, a rewind feature and improved loading times.

Gameplay

As a

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

'', including a similar aiming system and unlockable options through quick level completions. The game features several modes for players to partake in, including story mode and multiplayer modes. 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, vary with the chosen difficulty. Each story mission focuses on players seeking out an object in the level, and then bringing it back to an exit portal. 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's multiplayer mode, known as "Arcade", allows for up to four players and ten computer-controlled

bots The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...

to 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. A

level editor A level editor (also known as a map, campaign or scenario editor) is a game development tool used to design Level (video games), levels, maps, campaigns and virtual worlds for a video game. An individual involved with the development of game levels ...

in ''TimeSplitters'', referred to as "Map Maker", 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

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Premise

''TimeSplitters'' takes place across a series of nine fictional locations across a variety of time periods between 1935 and 2035. The story focuses on the efforts of 18 characters, as they conduct their own personal agenda in their respective time period, seeking to defeat a foe of theirs and recover something important. During the course of this effort, the group come across an alien mutant race called the TimeSplitters, who seek to prevent this, and ultimately impede the characters where possible.

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 — left Rare to form their own company based in Nottingham, England 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 as DualSense) is a line of gamepads developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment (formerly Sony Computer Entertainment) for the PlayStat ...

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 Anti-aliasing may refer to any of a number of techniques to combat the problems of aliasing in a sampled signal such as a digital image or digital audio recording. Specific topics in anti-aliasing include: * Anti-aliasing filter, a filter used b ...

for ''TimeSplitters'' as it would reduce the

frame rate Frame rate, most commonly expressed in frame/s, or FPS, is typically the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (Film frame, frames) are captured or displayed. This definition applies to film and video cameras, computer animation, and moti ...

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

. As part of the Platinum Range, 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 video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can typically be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connec ...

s, which went to ''

''. ''TimeSplitters'' received generally favourable reviews according to the review aggregation website

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

. ''

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

'' 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 the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

of enemies for being relentless, especially during multiplayer matches.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2000 video games First-person shooters Free Radical Design Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation 2 games PlayStation 2-only games TimeSplitters Video games about police officers Video games about time travel Video games about zombies Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games featuring female protagonists Video games scored by Graeme Norgate Video games set in 1935 Video games set in 1965 Video games set in 1970 Video games set in 1985 Video games set in 2000 Video games set in 2005 Video games set in 2020 Video games set in 2035 Video games set in Egypt Video games set in San Francisco Video games set in the 1950s Video games set on fictional planets Video games with user-generated gameplay content