''TimeSplitters 2'' 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 Free Radical Design Ltd. was a British video game developer based in Nottingham. Founded by David Doak, Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton and Graeme Norgate in Stoke-on-Trent in April 1999, it is best known for its ''TimeSplitters'' series of games. ...

, 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 October 2002 for

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 ...

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

and

GameCube The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...

. The game's story focuses on the efforts of a space marine who seeks to recover powerful time crystals from a race of alien mutants called TimeSplitters, which leads them to taking on the form of an individual dealing with their own problems across different time periods between the 19th and 25th century. The developers focused on expanding the story element following 2000's ''

TimeSplitters ''TimeSplitters'' is a series of first-person shooter video games developed by Free Radical Design. The games are often considered spiritual successors to the Nintendo 64 titles ''GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game), GoldenEye 007'' (1997) and ''Pe ...

'', and features influences from various film genres, including horror,

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

and

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

. Alongside the story mode, which can be played solo or co-operatively, players can also engage in multiplayer modes and create their own maps. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised its improvements on its predecessor as well as its multiplayer gameplay and graphics, though criticised its story and lack of online gameplay. ''TimeSplitters 2'' was later followed by a sequel, '' TimeSplitters: Future Perfect'', in 2005. TimeSplitters 2, along with the other games in the trilogy, were re-released on the PS4 and PS5 as a PS2 Classic in 2024, with trophy support, a rewind feature and improved loading times.

Gameplay

''TimeSplitters 2'' is a first-person shooter that requires players to kill enemies and complete objectives using a variety of weapons and tactics in different predefined scenarios. Armour and

health bar Health is a video game or tabletop game quality that determines the maximum amount of damage or fatigue something takes before leaving the main game. In role-playing games, this typically takes the form of hit points (HP), a numerical attribute ...

s on the sides of the screen lower when the player is shot, which can be increased by walking over

body armor Body armour, personal armour (also spelled ''armor''), armoured suit (''armored'') or coat of armour, among others, is armour for human body, a person's body: protective clothing or close-fitting hands-free shields designed to absorb or deflect ...

and

first aid kit A first aid kit or medical kit is a collection of supplies and equipment used to give First aid, immediate medical treatment, primarily to treat injuries and other mild or moderate medical conditions. There is a wide variation in the contents o ...

s. The weapons of ''TimeSplitters 2'' include

handgun A handgun is a firearm designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun, long barreled gun (i.e., carbine, rifle, shotgun, submachine gun, or machine gun) which typically is intended to be held by both hands and br ...

rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine (firearms), magazine-fed automatic firearm, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to descri ...

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...

rocket launcher A rocket launcher is a weapon that launches an unguided, rocket-propelled projectile. History The earliest rocket launchers documented in imperial China consisted of arrows modified by the attachment of a rocket motor to the shaft a few i ...

s, a

grenade launcher A grenade launcher is a weapon that fires a specially designed, large caliber projectile, often with an explosive, Smoke screen, smoke, or tear gas, gas warhead. Today, the term generally refers to a class of dedicated firearms firing unitary gre ...

, various

explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An ex ...

s, a

crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an Elasticity (physics), elastic launching device consisting of a Bow and arrow, bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar f ...

, a

flamethrower A flamethrower is a ranged incendiary device designed to project a controllable jet of fire. First deployed by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, flamethrowers saw use in modern times during World War I, and more widely in World W ...

, a

fire extinguisher A fire extinguisher is a handheld active fire protection device usually filled with a dry or wet chemical used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergencies. It is not intended for use on an out-of-control fire, such as one which ha ...

and a

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

. They are of many different time periods, from the historical to the futuristic. Some weapons have an alternate fire which activates a feature such as launching a grenade or detonating a remote mine. It is possible to

dual wield Dual wielding or Macedonian shooting is the technique of using two weapons, one in each hand, for training or combat. It is not a common combat practice. Although historical records of dual wielding in war are limited, there are numerous weapon-b ...

some weapons.

Story mode

The main story mode of ''TimeSplitters 2'' is divided into ten levels. Each level is in a different time period and contains a series of objectives that must be completed. Some objectives are present at the start of the level, while others are added during play. A few levels have secondary objectives, which are not required to complete unless on the normal or hard difficulty setting. Each level includes a single checkpoint in the middle where the player can restart if they die or fail to complete an objective (with the exception of the last level on any difficulty and the fourth level on easy). For each level, the player must choose from three

difficulty level Game balance is a branch of game design with the intention of improving gameplay and user experience by balancing difficulty and fairness. Game balance consists of adjusting rewards, challenges, and/or elements of a game to create the intended pla ...

s. These difficulty levels not only change the strength of the enemies, but also increase the length of the level by adding additional objectives; for instance, in both easy and normal levels, there are optional secondary objectives, whereas in the hard levels, all secondary objectives are now primary and must be completed. At the end of every level, a time crystal must be recovered. After it is picked up, a time portal will appear which must be entered in order to complete the level. However, this is sometimes made more difficult by TimeSplitters that teleport to the player's location. In secret places of certain levels, there are cartridges of old school arcade games such as ''

Snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

'', that can be picked up and played on the player's Temporal Uplink, the device that normally shows the map of the current level. The game's story mode can be played alone or cooperatively with another player. When playing

co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

, in order to balance the game, the two players' health amounts are lowered. Along with the story mode, there are two single-player modes: an Arcade mode and a Challenge mode where a player is given a scenario and must complete it within certain requirements. The objective ranges from collecting bananas to shooting heads off zombies. After the objective is completed, the game will end, and a medal will be awarded depending on the number of points obtained. Certain medals allow the player to play as new characters in multiplayer or use cheats. Cheats can be turned on in the options menu to activate features such as unlimited

ammunition Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of oth ...

or the ability to shoot

paintball Paintball is a competitive sport, competitive team sport, team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules called Paintball equipment#Paintballs, paintballs that b ...

s. Free Radical's website implies that there are also controller-activated cheats that have never been released. They say they like to keep things "as impossible as possible."

Multiplayer

Arcade mode is the main multiplayer section of ''TimeSplitters 2''. It can normally be played with up to four players with each player using a division of the television's screen. However, with a System Link, up to sixteen players can participate. System link was not included with the

version. When a player is killed, they are respawned at a random location on the map with full health. Weapons, armour, and other items that enhance players' abilities are placed in several preset positions scattered about the map. The objective of the game depends on the mode selected. Four are available at the start: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Bag (a version of capture the flag) and BagTag (where a player must survive while in possession of the bag for the longest period of time). There are sixteen game modes in total, But twelve are unavailable until the player beats certain levels of the game. Several aspects of multiplayer can be customised, such as the weapons, the number of points needed to win, the number of minutes until the end of the game, as well as the music that plays along with the level. There is also a variety of different characters the player can choose to play as, each with their own individual statistics. Some characters are from the Story mode, while there are other more humorous ones such as a dinosaur and an

Elvis Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Presley's sexuall ...

impersonator An impersonator is someone who imitates or copies the behavior or actions of another. There are many reasons for impersonating someone: *Living history: After close study of some historical figure, a performer may dress and speak "as" that ...

. Up to ten computer-controlled bots can be used. Their appearance, difficulty, and team can be customised. The bots can do some acrobatic moves that the player cannot do such as rolls and

somersault A somersault (also ''flip'', ''heli'', and in gymnastics ''salto'') is an acrobatics, acrobatic exercise in which a person's body Rotation#Sports, rotates 360° around a horizontal axis with the feet passing over the Human head, head. A somersau ...

s. At the end of each match, the results of the game are shown. This includes the number of points each player or team scored, the weapon the player used most often, as well as awards the player earned. There are nearly 60 awards present in ''TimeSplitters 2''. Players are given them based on what they did in the match. Awards are recorded in each player's profile which also keeps track of a variety of other statistics. There is also an Arcade League mode in which one player is placed in an Arcade match with pre-set bots and weapons. There are three difficulty levels of Arcade League: Amateur, Honorary, and Elite. Players must beat them in consecutive order. After a player beats an Arcade League level, a medal is awarded. A MapMaker is also available that can create playable levels. Levels for Story mode can be made as well as levels for Arcade mode. Created Story levels, however, cannot be played co-operatively. Maps are created by selecting and placing different pre-made tiles and rooms onto a grid. Spawn points, weapons, bags, armour, and objectives can then be placed anywhere on the level. There is a bar in the left side of the screen, representing memory, that lowers each time a tile or item is placed. When the bar depletes completely, nothing else can be placed onto the map. However, items can be deleted to increase memory. A theme can be chosen for each map such as Victorian, Industrial, Alien, and Virtual, which changes how the rooms appear. Only LAN networks are supported, but online play is possible with the use of PCs and third-party networking software.

Plot

In 2401, humanity is in the midst of a war against the TimeSplitters, a sadistic

alien race Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, a lifeform with e ...

intent on bringing about the destruction of mankind. With the war going against them, the surviving humans of

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

's space marine army discover that the TimeSplitters are in possession of special objects called Time Crystals - green crystals that can provide power for time travel, allowing anyone to travel through time to any point in

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

. Discovering their enemy is attempting to use the Time Crystals to change the course of human history, thus bringing Earth to ruins, space marines Sergeant Cortez and Corporal Hart are sent to a space station overrun by TimeSplitters to retrieve the crystals. However, the pair's arrival forces the TimeSplitters to remove the crystals and scatter them across various moments in human history through a time portal, with the pair arriving just as the last crystal is removed. Sealing themselves into the portal's chamber, Hart decides to stay behind and operate the device, while Cortez uses it to track down the crystals. Upon arriving in the first time period, Siberia in 1990, Cortez finds himself taking on the form of a female spy who was sent to investigate unusual activity in the area (in a similar manner to the TV series ''

Quantum Leap Quantum leap or ''variation'', may refer to: In general * Quantum leap (physics), also known as quantum jump, a transition between quantum states ** Atomic electron transition, a key example of the physics phenomenon * Paradigm shift, a sudden ch ...

''). Undeterred, Cortez attempts to complete each person's agenda in their respective time period, all while tracking down the crystals that have influenced events in that point of history ranging from Notre Dame in 1896, an Aztec temple in 1920, to a major conflict with robots in 2312. Eventually, Cortez recovers the crystals and returns to 2401 to rendezvous with Hart. But by this time, the TimeSplitters regain access to the portal device and attack the pair, killing Hart in the process. Cortez, left with little time to react, sets the space station to self-destruct, and escapes with the crystals to bring back to Earth, moments before the station is destroyed.

Development

In February 1999, 15 months before the release of ''

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 ...

'', several members of Rare that were part of the '' GoldenEye 007'' development team, including Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton, Graeme Norgate, and

David Doak David Doak ( ) is a Northern Irish video game designer. Biography Originally from Belfast, he later moved to England, where he studied at Oxford University on biochemistry specialty and worked as a research scientist. Doak began his video g ...

, left to form their own company called

. After they developed the first ''

'', ''TimeSplitters 2'' went into development, trying to create a more fulfilling story mode alongside the Arcade and MapMaker modes. The game was developed over a 23-month period, with around half of that time devoted to creating the opening level. It was also one of the first multi-platform games to be re-released on both the

Greatest Hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

'' and

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

'' labels. The location of the health bar and other gameplay features are reminiscent of ''GoldenEye 007'' and ''Perfect Dark''. Some gameplay present in ''TimeSplitters 2'' is also very similar to ''GoldenEye 007''; both games contain a similar aiming system and both lack the ability to jump.

Releases

There are a few minor differences between the console versions of ''TimeSplitters 2''. For example, the PlayStation 2 version has a smaller playing field for

minigame A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements and is often smaller or more simplistic than th ...

s such as ''Anaconda''. This consequently makes high scores on the PlayStation 2 version lower than the Xbox and GameCube versions which both have bigger playing fields for the minigames. There are four different versions of cover art for the North American release of the game. Some of the versions had a unique tag line for the GameCube and Xbox ports. The GameCube version displayed the quote "Heir apparent to ''GoldenEye''", by Electronic Gaming Monthly. The Xbox version said, "First ''Halo'', now this". Other versions include the

Player's Choice ''Nintendo Selects'' (and its predecessor; ''Player's Choice'') was a marketing label previously used by Nintendo to promote best-selling video games on Nintendo game consoles. ''Nintendo Selects'' titles were sold at a lower price point (usually ...

edition and the original release without the quotes. Other release changes include removal of the map editor function and the renaming to ''Time Splitter: Invaders of the History'' on the Japanese release of the PlayStation 2 version. In addition, Europe, France, Japan, South Korea, and the United States each have different box art. In ''

PSM3 ''PSM3'' (short for ''PlayStation 3 Magazine'') was a video game magazine specializing in all Sony video game consoles and handheld gaming platforms. It was published by Future plc, a UK-based publishing company. The magazine launched in Octob ...

'', Doak expressed interest in remaking ''TimeSplitters 2'' with HD visuals and online multiplayer. In an October 2012 interview, Free Radical co-founder Steve Ellis said, "We had a "HD" downloadable version of ''TimeSplitters 2'' in development at Free Radical in 2008. I don't know what happened to that but yes, I'd love to see it released at some point. Maybe it could be the catalyst that is required in order to raise enough interest in ''TimeSplitters 4'' that a publisher might want to fund it." '' Homefront: The Revolution'', a game developed by Dambuster Studios (the corporate successor to Free Radical Design in accordance with British business transfer law due to the closure of Crytek UK), contains an

easter egg Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian holiday of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are commonly used during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The ...

featuring two playable levels from the game, accessible via an

arcade cabinet An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Ma ...

located in one of the main game's locations. One of ''Homefront'' programmers, Matt Phillips, revealed in 2021 that he had placed the whole of ''Timesplitters 2'' at a

4K resolution 4K resolution refers to a horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. Digital television and digital cinematography commonly use several different 4K resolutions. In television and consumer media, 38402160 (4K UHD) with a 16:9 asp ...

as an Easter egg from one specific arcade cabinet, but had lost the code to trigger it. Shortly after announcing this on social media, one of the people that Phillips had shared the code with was able to provide it, proving the existence of the game. The original Xbox version of ''TimeSplitters 2'' was made backwards compatible on

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

and

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...

on November 15, 2021.

Reception

The PlayStation 2 version of ''TimeSplitters 2'' received "universal acclaim", while the GameCube and Xbox versions received "generally favorable 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 ...

. It won ''GameSpot''s annual "Best Shooter on GameCube" award, and was nominated for "Best Shooter on Xbox", which went to '' MechAssault''. In comparison to the first game in the series, ''

GamePro ''GamePro'' was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video ...

'' called "''TimeSplitters 2'' ..everything the original game was and more" and "outdoes most other PS2 shooters in the process". ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' said that the game "may very well be the best split-screen multiplayer-focused first-person shooter ever created." The publication later named it the best GameCube game of October 2002.

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

concluded that the game was "clearly the best multiplayer first-person shooter on the PlayStation 2", but commented that it was not story-driven and little empathy was felt for the characters.

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1999 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for Quake, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...

criticized the absence of online play, but complimented the game's "great deathmatching action" and the game's high

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 ...

. They also said the game is "everything you could possibly want in a sequel." ''

Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine ''Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine'' (often abbreviated to ''OPM'') was a monthly video game magazine published by Ziff Davis Media. It was a sister publication of ''Electronic Gaming Monthly''. The magazine focused exclusively on PlayStation ...

'' praised it as "easily one of the best first-person shooters out there—on any system", but called its lack of online play "criminal." During the 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain Summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...

nominated ''TimeSplitters 2'' for " Console First-Person Action Game of the Year". The game has also been compared to ''GoldenEye 007'' because of its many similar game elements, shared developers and references to that game, such as both games beginning on a

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

Legacy

The game features in the film '' Shaun of the Dead'' being played by the main characters Shaun and Ed. The game is also playable within '' Homefront: The Revolution'' as an arcade machine within the Restricted Zone.

References

External links