TimeSplitters 2 Preview

[Joeiss]

An Opening from Joe:

The original TimeSplitters for PS2 was one hell of a multi-player experience. With an amazing aray of multiplayers options and modes, it was a pleasure to play. Now, the sequal has a revamped multiplayer mode, online play and will deliver a much better single player mode (thank the good Lord).

TimeSplitters 2 will be released on September 24 at the price of 4$49.99 USD ($79.99 CDN).

Across the street from the GDC Conference in San Jose, Ca., at the Hyatt Regency on the 6th floor, and sitting next to a flat screen TV screen, a table full of muffins and steaming coffee, the two leading architects on Free Radical's second game explain new developments in TimeSplitters 2.

They're excited to show off the latest additions to their first-person shooter, and they know full well they're talking to one of the biggest fans of their games, which include TimeSplitters 1 on PS2, and as part of the Rare team that worked on Nintendo 64, Goldeneye 007.

They begin by telling me that the game now features a story, unlike the first TimeSplitters. As a part of a crack techno-military team, which isn't officially sponsored, but acts more as part of a resistance faction, you and your team members must track down this group of thieving mongrel- types who have discovered a time-portal technology, which they plan to do terrible things with (naturally).

Your two-person team includes one fine chick and a beefy military dude, but each time you transport into a different era, you take on the role of a different character, and in the levels I witnessed, they were females (which adds a little extra love to the game, strangely). You must collect all of the time crystals and return them to your time, before the TimeSplitters do their damage to succeed. Actually, come to think of it, that sounds exactly like the first game, but here, the story is implemented better, with lots of textual prefaces, clues to a larger plot, and the feeling that you're working toward something bigger. The story, I'm told, is bigger, better, and more integrated than before.

In each of the four missions I saw -- the dam level, which was featured on the demo disc, a futuristic robotic level (which is the game's last level), a tropical mission, which features a crossbow, and a mobster-like level that takes place in the '30s -- the game ran at a crisp 60 frames per second, and was filled with the little details that comprise a solid single-player experience.

New information from Free Radical includes the ability to play through the game in a single- player mode, or cooperatively, with extra mission objectives for the co-op modem giving players something extra to look forward to. Other new additions include:

- The reticule has changed drastically and now provides a kind of camera-like look that's high-tech but sleek and simple in design.
- Players can go about their missions in different ways. For instance, if you want to take out all of the cameras one by one, then you can do so. Or, you can find the computer that controls each one, and simply knock that one out, which then defuses all of the cameras. That was very sweet.
- Players now use a Temporal Uplink, sort of like a portable map, which can be toggled to in the weapon cycle. It shows off the area's obstacles and structures and highlights enemy locations and camera locations.
- Players can log onto computers controlling still and moveable cameras, some of which have machineguns attached to them (if you played them demo, then you would remember), and they can control the machine guns. Several of the levels have this ability, and they some of the roving cameras actually move into locations you wouldn't be able to get to otherwise.
- In the nearly-completed dam level, players faced off with annoying, persistent zombies. If you're a good shot you can blow off each of their arms, and if you're extra good, you can take their heads straight off their bodies.
- The demo we saw a few months back is just a smidgeon of the game's actual size and scope. There are tons of levels, all quite large in size, and they're all very different from one another.
- Many of the sounds from Goldeneye 007, such as gun reloads, mechanical sounds such as explosions, and human grunts, to name a few. And if you listen very carefully, the music -- I swear -- contains riffs from Goldeneye, which is fine by me. But it's also eerie, too.

- From IGN

TimeSplitters 2 is shaping up to look quite nicely. Also, it will be one of the few FPS online games for PS2 in the fall and winter. Although TimeSplitters 2 might not look as good graphically as Red Faction 2, it does have an online mode, and most likely a better multiplayer experience. Mark this date on your calendar, shooter fans. This game is going to rock.

Screenshots

[Perfect Stu]

sweet preview

I look forward to playing this game online...

[Joeiss]

Just remember everybody. Don't thank me, thank IGN.

[Crono]

Nice preview Joeiss...uh..I mean, nice preview IGN!
Yeah I can't wait to play this online.