TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

This game begins with a small company known as Rare. Rare had created several amazing games throughout the 90's and early 2000's, some like Donkey Kong Country, Goldeneye, Bango & Kazooie, Perfect dark, and Conker's bad fur day to name a few. Then 2002 arrived, and sadly, the guys at rare suddenly sucked. whatever happened to the quality software that was coming out at the time?

Well, most of the guys who worked on the really great FPS games went to develop a small company titled "Free Radical." and Free Radical's FPS effort, TimeSplitters, was good. Then TimeSplitters 2 came out. it was great. Then, TimeSplitters; Future Perfect came out. And in my opinion, it's the best Playstation 2 FPS game ever made.

In TS;FP, the player assumes the role of Sergeant Cortez, who in the last game, destroyed a Space station, and got away with something known as the Time Crystals, a series of crystals with the power to send someone back in time. When he gets back to base after a few firefights, he's able to start travelling in time to track down the bad guy, and stop the war before it ever began.

First off, Future Perfect is a fun experience on the PS2. It's not a game that takes itself seriously, it's actually very cartoonish in many ways. The dialogue is riddled with humour, and the characters are hilarious. Nothing says fun like having a death match in the middle of a disco hall from the 70's with a bear, an anthropomorphic hand, and a female police officer who makes Dolly Parton look flat chested. also, it's important to note that this game is also very messy at times. Blood runs really heavy here.

Second, this game is loaded with stuff to do. You'll have several missions to complete through time, Like rescuing an Amazonian woman on a Scottish island in 1924 with the help of a world war 1 veteran, helping a groovy cat with stopping a nuclear missile launch in 1969, then blasting the tar out of zombies in a mansion from 1994. when you're done with that, there's 14 different available game modes in arcade, and then you can use the skills you've learnt to play the challenges, and when you get bored with the game's maps, make your own.

Finally, the soundtrack. There is so much music to listen to, and Graeme Norgate, the maniac behind goldeneye's soundtrack on the N64, is behind this one as well.

Bottom line, this game is one of the best experiences I've had on the Ps2 and I would recommend it hardcore to anyone who loves FPS's.

It's one of my favorite games of all time, I have played this game since I was a little lead. I have completed so many times and I really love fake Vin Diesel.

I really enjoyed himbo, We are playing as, he bounces off the levels so well, He's funny determination with all the other characters in every level just gold.

The time travel helps with the levels it gave every map a little theme and different gameplay. It is so fun How many different spoof of film and franchise as they are doing.

And the music is God like, the tank theme is one of my favorite of all times.

All the different character in the character selecting, having a little thing written about, the user created levels you can have fun with for hours, and the Co-op campaign that I use so many hours with my brothers on.

And the Challenge map when you can't, find anybody to play with, fun and I enjoyed them. Cat racing is funniest and weirdest.

The story is a light-hearted but still takes It's itself serious and there's no irony I love it. Still has some funny and horrifying moments the different levels almost feels like different genre at some point. It is a Marvelous to play and is my favorite FPS of all time.

Story: 3/5: The year is 2401. You are Sgt. Cortez and you have just returned home after collecting the Time Crystals, a tool of the evil alien TimeSplitters that can rip through the fabric of time. When you arrive, you are charged with a new mission: to go back in time and destroy the crystals before they can ever be used.

Hey, at least this one tries to have a plot, unlike TS2. It is passable as a story, even if time paradoxes become mind-numbing after ten minutes. However, even if the story is much more in-depth than TS2, it just doesn't feel as fulfilling. A small part of it might be the fact that it is very easy, and blazing through it is no problem on the Normal difficulty. The main reason is that it doesn't span as many time periods. Part of what made TS2's story mode fun wasn't the depth, but rather visiting many different eras and using unique weaponry. Basically, here, there are only 6 time periods: 1924, 1969, 1994, 2054, 2243 and 2401. All of those were present in TS2, along with other favourites such as 1800s France, 1930s Chicago and, my personal favourite that I sorely missed, the Wild West. We get more story in here than we asked for, but it doesn't seem as fun to blaze through.

Game Design: 15/20: As with TS2, there are three main single player modes: Story, Arcade League and Challenge. Arcade League, surprisingly, has less missions than TS2. While TS2 had a healthy 45 missions to play from, Future Perfect has only 27. Challenge mode continues to be a host to many original missions. Classics like Behead the Undead and Cut-Out Shoot-Out return, along with new modes like Cat Racing and Monkey Curling. However, Behead the Undead and Cut-Out Shoot-Out fit in with the FPS mentality. Games like Cat Racing and Monkey Curling, while interesting concepts, feel quite out of place.

The one point of design that has Future Perfect rise above TS2 is the mapmaker. Sure, the mapmaker was available in TS2, but it has been improved drastically this time around. The amount of space has been increased, and almost everything is now modifiable. You can create your own level one five floors, just like last time, inserting different items (with new ones like Jeeps and Remote Control Cats) and tiles. Unlike the last game, you can now create Assault maps, which is surprisingly simple to do once you get the hang of it. The ability to create your own maps adds a lot of replay to the game.

Play Control: 14/15: The play control was one of the main problems of TS2. Thankfully, that problem has been fixed, which is particularly noticeable when you go back and play TS2 again. The sniping was a major problem in TS2, thanks to the whole scope moving around the screen. The sniping here is more traditional, which may cost some originality points but makes sniping more accurate. Also, the controls were extremely sensitive, where they are tighter here to allow for more precision.

The control scheme has been altered slightly. Grenades have been given a separate command button than the regular fire (like Halo), instead being assigned to the previous secondary fire button. Secondary fire is accessed in a more traditional way, by pressing a button when scrolling through weapons.

The controls are better this time around, even if it makes the game feel slightly more run-of-the-mill.

Graphics: 13/15: If you really look at the graphics, they are quite good, but nothing groundbreaking or really worth mentioning.

Sound: 5/5: Sure, the gun noises and effects are all good, but this perfect goes mainly to the game's humour. There are enough one liners to keep you chuckling just enough to not have you lose focus on the game.

Multiplayer: 19/20: This is what made TS2 incredible, this is what made Perfect Dark incredible, this is what made Halo incredible, and it still works it's magic on Future Perfect. Once again, you have a fully customizable arcade mode with many different gameplay modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Elimination, Thief, Vampire, Shrink, Capture the Bag, Bag Tag, Virus, Zones and Assault. The mode Flame Tag has been lost, and when you combine that with the lack of any new modes, it makes this game have actually less modes than TS2. Still, minor complaints.

You can play up to four players split-screen, making this an ideal party game. However, on the Xbox and PS2 version, it can also play up to 16 players online. The GameCube version is sadly denied this luxury, but this game is more fun playing against a friend beside you than some crazy nerd halfway across the world.

There is also a standard co-op story mode for two players, which puts your friend in the role of the sidekick. Of course, this also brings up a small problem with checkpoints, which warp the one who is lagging behind right to their partner, but it overall a good co-op. Even if it was not included, it wouldn't matter much as the arcade mode is more than enough multiplayer fun.

Satisfaction: 15/20: If you do not have TS2, I suggest you drag yourself to a store and buy this. It is a shooters dream, filled with everything you could ever want. However, if you already have TS2, which you probably do, than I recommend waiting for it to drop in price before buying it.

Total: 84%: Future Perfect is a great game that I really enjoyed. It just doesn't follow up well to TS2. If the jerky controls of TS2 kept you back from that game, you should definitely buy this, as that large problem was fixed. This is still a great game in a great franchise, but the expectations for this just weren't lived up to.

David doak: creator of goldeneye gets to work with the Timesplitters future perfect...This one is even better than timesplitters 2 if possible...With a definitely improved single player and the multiplayer is still as fun as it was...but there is one flaw no unlockable levels or modes, but it makes up for that with incredible goldeneye N64 gameplay, New gadgets, New guns, New vehicles, New characters, More zombies. The multiplayer is amazing including my favourite siberia with the jeep. But there are many other enjoyable levels including classics from timesplitters 2. Not including ice station. :( But there is nothing wrong with this game anything thats better than timesplitters 2 is perfect! David Doak is a very clever man and he should keep creating shooters like this...

Obviously, this game is the latest installment in the (undeservingly unpopular) TimeSplitters series. This game has all the makings of a great first-person shooter, whether you just want to do a quick 5-minute romp-a-thon, or you actually plan to go on a rewards scouting session. But, the reason why the game doesn't get so much attention is because these games fall off the radar rather quickly, since this one fell off the radar within a few weeks as games like Halo 2 and Half-Life 2 get coverage and credit references every two hours.

GRAPHICS: Much like the previous two installments, the game sports a cartoon-ish look, especially with the character models. Though it's a debatable issue as to how bland the environments are, you probably won't care. I read that part in other reviews, and I had trouble noticing, much less caring. UNlike the previous two, the game now incorporates blood, which solves my question as to why this game got an "M" rating. I don't know why Free Radical decided to do this now, but it's there. The weapons look much better this time around, and this time, YOU CAN SEE YOUR HAND! Also, each weapon has its own fire/reload animation, unlike the previous two, which had standard firing animations, and if you reloaded, your gun would just drop off the screen with the sound. Here, reloading now requires a more strategic approach, because taking cover is essential when reloading something like a rocket launcher. The game still maintains its hilarious quality by keeping up with the weird characters (like giant gingerbread men and being able to play as a cow carcass).

SOUND: Some of the gun sounds are pretty much recycled from the other two games, but they sound very good nonetheless. Voice acting in this game is superb (and funny), and the sounds the characters make when shot or killed are funny to listen to (as usual). You haven't heard anything until you've shot a duck in the head after he's been chasing you through a hallway. Along with the new orchestral score (which is kinda boring), the game retains most of the music from TS1 and TS2 (notice I said MOST, so only some of the best songs made it onto the game, probably to save disc space or something).

GAMEPLAY: Partly the same way as the other two, but with improvements. Alongside the ability to customize the controls, most of the features from the other games are retained and some have been changed. For instance, weapons can't be fired with primary and secondary fire with the press of a button. Now, you have to toggle between the two modes. The Temporal Uplink has also been retained from TS2, but in a (slightly) better form. The map on it is actually a hologram that projects from a pod on your arm. This is both good and bad. The good is that...well...it looks cool. The bad is that sometimes the map doesn't say much of what you need to know, and if you're standing against a bright background, you can't see the map. The uplink also doubles as a physics claw that allows you to grab certain objects and project them back at enemies, or just to throw stuff. There's also a huge variety of weapons, and most of them do have secondary fire functions (like handguns can have silencers equipped to them). The game also has Story, Arcade, and Challenge modes. Story allows you to play the main story, Arcade allows you to customize matches or play the pre-set Arcade campaigns for rewards, and the Challenges that have you do random things for more rewards. The MapMaker is perhaps the best part of the game. It functions the same way as the TS2 map, but there are more detailed components added, and the interface is MUCH less sloppy. There are a variety of different things to do and create, but you pretty much get the idea now. You can also play friends online, but I'm a little bit afraid you won't find many people, since the game gets as much buzz as free samples.

STORY: This time, the game actually has a good story. In TS1, there was no story. In TS2, there was a story, but it was about as noticeable as brown cookie crumbs on an oakwood floor, and about as easy to understand as Physics. Here, the story got the same amount of attention as the rest of the game. Sgt. Cortez is just coming back from his Time Crystal gathering mission, and when he returns home, his ship is attacked and he crash lands on the planet in the middle of a war between the humans and the TimeSplitters. From here, you are sent on missions across time to find and eliminate anyone involved with the production of the 'Splitters. You even run into your future and past self throughout missions and he will help you out in reference to time paradoxes (you'll get it).

BOTTOM LINE: Just because a game barely gets any more attention than any other game out there doesn't mean it's bad. It just means people were expecting too much or they simply didn't like the game. The single player itself was enough to turn people off, because I heard this was one game that people bought, played, and returned within the same three days. Halo 2 seems to have caught everyone in the "groundbreaker" flux. Though Halo 2 was an attempt as pushing the FPS genre forward, TS3 is a game to play and enjoy, just enough to keep you awake. And, come on, you bashers! The single-player wasn't THAT bad! You all say it like it really was that big of a problem. 9.25/10.