TimeSplitters 2
Encyclopedia
TimeSplitters 2 is a first-person shooter
video game available for the PlayStation 2
, Xbox
, and Nintendo GameCube
game consoles. The game was published by Eidos
and developed by Free Radical Design
. The game was first released in October 2002 in North America
and Europe
, and later in Japan
. It is a sequel to TimeSplitters
, within the series
.
The game features a single-player mode consisting of ten level
s in which the player assumes the role of one of two space marines as they attempt to stop the alien race of TimeSplitters from ruining history by collecting the time crystals in various time periods, ranging from the Wild West to the 25th century
. It has several multiplayer modes.
In 2005, the sequel, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, was released, developed by Free Radical and published by EA Games.
In June 2007, another sequel was announced to be in development, titled TimeSplitters 4
.
The weapons of TimeSplitters 2 include handgun
s, rifle
s, submachine gun
s, shotgun
s, rocket launcher
s, a grenade launcher
, various explosives, a crossbow
, a flamethrower
, a fire extinguisher
and a brick
. 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 some weapons.
The main single player portion 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
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
, 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 also features a co-operative mode in which two players can play levels together. When playing co-op, in order to balance the game, players' health is lowered.
Along with the story mode, there are two other 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
or the ability to shoot paintball
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."
, 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 impersonator. 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
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.
TimeSplitters 2 starts off in the year 2401 in the midst of a war between humanity and the TimeSplitters, an alien race bent on the destruction of mankind. However, rather than use brute force to destroy humanity, they are using the special objects called time crystals to travel through time changing the course of history, bringing Earth to ruin.
Two space marines from Earth, Sergeant Cortez and Corporal Hart, are sent out to a space station overrun by TimeSplitters to retrieve the time crystals. However, when they reach the bridge
, they are too late as they see the last few TimeSplitters take the time crystals into various time periods using the time portal. While Sergeant Cortez and Corporal Hart are preparing the time portal to follow the Timesplitters, they are attacked by another squad of Timesplitters. Corporal Hart decides to stay at the bridge to keep the Timesplitters at bay while Cortez goes into different periods of time to retrieve the time crystals.
Upon arrival at each time period, Cortez take the form of a person from that particular period of time, similar to Quantum Leap. For example, when Cortez arrives in the Wild West, he takes the form of a bounty hunter
. When he arrives in a 24th century robot factory, he takes the form of a robot.
After Cortez retrieves all of the time crystals, he returns to the space station to rendezvous with Hart. The TimeSplitters outside finally manage to break into the bridge. Corporal Hart is killed in the ensuing battle. Cortez has little time to mourn, as the Timesplitters become relentless to retrieve the Time Crystals from him. Cortez manages to set the station to self-destruct and escape before its destruction.
, several members of Rare that were part of the GoldenEye 007 development team, including Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton, Graeme Norgate
, and David Doak
, left to form their own company called Free Radical Design
. After they developed the first TimeSplitters, TimeSplitters 2 went into development, trying to create a more fulfilling story mode alongside the Arcade and MapMaker modes. It was also one of the first multi-platform games to be re-released on both the PlayStation 2 Greatest Hits and Xbox Platinum labels.
The location of the health bar and other gameplay features are reminiscent of GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark. The game engine
present in TimeSplitters 2 is also very similar to the one present in GoldenEye 007. They both contain a similar aiming system and both lack the ability to jump.
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 minigame
s.
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
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
, Korea
, and USA each have different box art.
In PSM3
, Doak expressed interest in remaking TimeSplitters 2 with HD visuals and online multiplayer.
TimeSplitters 2 has received mostly positive reviews, ranking as the best first-person shooter on PlayStation 2
with an average review score of 91.67%. GameSpot
said that "TimeSplitters 2 may "very well be the best split-screen multiplayer-focused first-person shooter ever created." IGN
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. Gaming Age said that "this is one impressive game" and "the only drawback is the lack of online capability." GameSpy
criticised the absence of online play, but complimented the game's "great deathmatch
ing action" and the game's high frame rate
. They also said the game is "everything you could possibly want in a sequel." Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine praised it as "easily one of the best first-person shooters out there—on any system", but called its lack of online play "criminal."
The TimeSplitters series is often compared to GoldenEye 007 because of its many throwbacks to that game and similar developers. For example, both TimeSplitters 2 and GoldenEye start off on a Siberia
n dam
. However, some say that the game plays and feels too much like GoldenEye.
Review aggregator site Game Rankings
rates TimeSplitters 2 at 92% for the PlayStation 2 version, 90% for the GameCube version, and 88% for the Xbox version.
and certain older versions of the PlayStation 3
.
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
video game available for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
, and Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
game consoles. The game was published by Eidos
Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive Ltd. is a British video game publisher and is a label of Square Enix Europe. As an independent company Eidos plc was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
and developed by Free Radical Design
Free Radical Design
Crytek UK, formerly known as Free Radical Design, is a video game developer based in Nottingham, United Kingdom, probably best known for Second Sight and the TimeSplitters series. After going into financial administration, it was announced on February 4 2009 that the studio had been acquired by...
. The game was first released in October 2002 in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Europe
PAL region
The PAL region is a television publication territory which covers most of Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Western Europe...
, and later in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. It is a sequel to TimeSplitters
TimeSplitters
TimeSplitters is a series of first-person shooter video games created by Free Radical Design. The games are often compared to Rare's shooters GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark since Free Radical Design was founded by a group of ex-Rare employees who developed these games...
, within the series
TimeSplitters (series)
TimeSplitters is a series of first-person shooter video games created by Free Radical Design. The games are often compared to Rare's shooters GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark since Free Radical Design was founded by a group of ex-Rare employees who developed these games...
.
The game features a single-player mode consisting of ten level
Level (computer and video games)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
s in which the player assumes the role of one of two space marines as they attempt to stop the alien race of TimeSplitters from ruining history by collecting the time crystals in various time periods, ranging from the Wild West to the 25th century
25th century
The 25th century of the anno Domini era will span from January 1, 2401– December 31, 2500 of the Gregorian calendar.-List of long total solar eclipses:* April 20, 2414 : Solar eclipse, , of saros 145....
. It has several multiplayer modes.
In 2005, the sequel, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, was released, developed by Free Radical and published by EA Games.
In June 2007, another sequel was announced to be in development, titled TimeSplitters 4
TimeSplitters 4
TimeSplitters 4 is the proposed fourth installment of the TimeSplitters series, to be developed by Crytek UK, formerly known as Free Radical Design, the developers responsible for the first three installments in the series.-Development:...
.
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 bars on the sides of the screen lower when the player is shot, which can be increased by walking over body armor and medical kits.The weapons of TimeSplitters 2 include handgun
Handgun
A handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....
s, rifle
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
s, submachine gun
Submachine gun
A submachine gun is an automatic carbine, designed to fire pistol cartridges. It combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol. The submachine gun was invented during World War I , but the apex of its use was during World War II when millions of the weapon type were...
s, shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
s, rocket launcher
Rocket launcher
A rocket launcher is any device that launches a rocket-propelled projectile, although the term is often used in reference to mechanisms that are portable and capable of being operated by an individual....
s, a grenade launcher
Grenade launcher
A grenade launcher or grenade discharger is a weapon that launches a grenade with more accuracy, higher velocity, and to greater distances than a soldier could throw it by hand....
, various explosives, a crossbow
Crossbow
A crossbow is a weapon consisting of a bow mounted on a stock that shoots projectiles, often called bolts or quarrels. The medieval crossbow was called by many names, most of which derived from the word ballista, a torsion engine resembling a crossbow in appearance.Historically, crossbows played a...
, a flamethrower
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...
, a fire extinguisher
Fire extinguisher
A fire extinguisher or extinguisher, flame entinguisher is an active fire protection device used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergency situations...
and a brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
. 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 some weapons.
Single player
Difficulty level
In general usage, difficulty level refers to the relative difficulty of completing a task or objective.In computer and video games, the term specifically delineates the ease or difficulty with which an average user may complete a game or a part of a game. Arcade games as well as many early console...
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
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
to the player's location. In secret places of certain levels, there are cartridges of old school arcade games such as Snake
Snake (video game)
Snake is a video game that originated during the late 1970s in arcades and has maintained popularity since then, becoming something of a classic...
, 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 also features a co-operative mode in which two players can play levels together. When playing co-op, in order to balance the game, players' health is lowered.
Along with the story mode, there are two other 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
Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...
or the ability to shoot paintball
Paintball
Paintball is a sport in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by tagging them with capsules containing water soluble dye and gelatin shell outside propelled from a device called a paintball marker . Paintballs have a non-toxic, biodegradable, water soluble...
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 Gamecube version. When a player gets 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: DeathmatchDeathmatch (gaming)
Deathmatch or Player vs All is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy computer games...
, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Bag (a version of Capture the Flag
Capture the flag
Capture the Flag is a traditional outdoor sport generally played by children, where two teams each have a flag and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base," and bring it safely back to their own base...
) 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
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
and an Elvis impersonator. Up to ten computer-controlled bots
Computer game bot
A bot, most prominently in the first-person shooter types , is a type of weak AI expert system software which for each instance of the program controls a player in deathmatch, team deathmatch and/or cooperative human player. Computer bots may play against other bots and/or human players in unison,...
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
Somersault
A somersault is an acrobatic exercise in which a person does a full 360° flip, moving the feet over the head. A somersault can be performed either forwards, backwards, or sideways and can be executed in the air or on the ground...
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
Two space marines from Earth, Sergeant Cortez and Corporal Hart, are sent out to a space station overrun by TimeSplitters to retrieve the time crystals. However, when they reach the bridge
Bridge (ship)
The bridge of a ship is the room or platform from which the ship can be commanded. When a ship is underway the bridge is manned by an OOW aided usually by an AB acting as lookout...
, they are too late as they see the last few TimeSplitters take the time crystals into various time periods using the time portal. While Sergeant Cortez and Corporal Hart are preparing the time portal to follow the Timesplitters, they are attacked by another squad of Timesplitters. Corporal Hart decides to stay at the bridge to keep the Timesplitters at bay while Cortez goes into different periods of time to retrieve the time crystals.
Upon arrival at each time period, Cortez take the form of a person from that particular period of time, similar to Quantum Leap. For example, when Cortez arrives in the Wild West, he takes the form of a bounty hunter
Bounty hunter
A bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.-Laws in the U.S.:...
. When he arrives in a 24th century robot factory, he takes the form of a robot.
After Cortez retrieves all of the time crystals, he returns to the space station to rendezvous with Hart. The TimeSplitters outside finally manage to break into the bridge. Corporal Hart is killed in the ensuing battle. Cortez has little time to mourn, as the Timesplitters become relentless to retrieve the Time Crystals from him. Cortez manages to set the station to self-destruct and escape before its destruction.
Development
In February 1999, 15 months before the release of Perfect DarkPerfect Dark
Perfect Dark is a first-person shooter video game developed by Rare for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It is considered the spiritual successor to Rare's earlier first-person shooter GoldenEye 007, with which it shares many gameplay features...
, several members of Rare that were part of the GoldenEye 007 development team, including Steve Ellis, Karl Hilton, Graeme Norgate
Graeme Norgate
Graeme Norgate is an English video game music composer, who has composed music for a variety of video games developed by Rare. His first project at Rare was writing the music for the Game Boy game, Donkey Kong Land. He also contributed to the soundtracks of Blast Corps and GoldenEye 007...
, and David Doak
David Doak
David Doak is a Northern Irish video game designer. Originally from Belfast, he later moved to England, where he studied at Oxford University on biochemistry specialty and worked as a research scientist...
, left to form their own company called Free Radical Design
Free Radical Design
Crytek UK, formerly known as Free Radical Design, is a video game developer based in Nottingham, United Kingdom, probably best known for Second Sight and the TimeSplitters series. After going into financial administration, it was announced on February 4 2009 that the studio had been acquired by...
. After they developed the first TimeSplitters, TimeSplitters 2 went into development, trying to create a more fulfilling story mode alongside the Arcade and MapMaker modes. It was also one of the first multi-platform games to be re-released on both the PlayStation 2 Greatest Hits and Xbox Platinum labels.
The location of the health bar and other gameplay features are reminiscent of GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark. The game engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
present in TimeSplitters 2 is also very similar to the one present in GoldenEye 007. They both 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 minigameMinigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
s such as Anaconda
Snake (video game)
Snake is a video game that originated during the late 1970s in arcades and has maintained popularity since then, becoming something of a classic...
. 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 minigame
Minigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
s.
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
Player's Choice
Nintendo Selects is a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games on Nintendo game consoles which have sold well; Nintendo Selects titles are sold at a lower price point than other games...
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
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, and USA each have different box art.
In PSM3
PSM3
PSM3 is a video game magazine specialising in all Sony video game consoles and handheld gaming platforms. PSM3 is published by Future Publishing, a UK-based publishing company....
, Doak expressed interest in remaking TimeSplitters 2 with HD visuals and online multiplayer.
Reception
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
with an average review score of 91.67%. GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
said that "TimeSplitters 2 may "very well be the best split-screen multiplayer-focused first-person shooter ever created." IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
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. Gaming Age said that "this is one impressive game" and "the only drawback is the lack of online capability." GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
criticised the absence of online play, but complimented the game's "great deathmatch
Deathmatch (gaming)
Deathmatch or Player vs All is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy computer games...
ing action" and the game's high frame rate
Frame rate
Frame rate is the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems...
. They also said the game is "everything you could possibly want in a sequel." Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine praised it as "easily one of the best first-person shooters out there—on any system", but called its lack of online play "criminal."
The TimeSplitters series is often compared to GoldenEye 007 because of its many throwbacks to that game and similar developers. For example, both TimeSplitters 2 and GoldenEye start off on a Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
n dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
. However, some say that the game plays and feels too much like GoldenEye.
Review aggregator site Game Rankings
Game Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
rates TimeSplitters 2 at 92% for the PlayStation 2 version, 90% for the GameCube version, and 88% for the Xbox version.
Compatibility issues
At the present moment, the original Xbox version of TimeSplitters 2 is not compatible with Xbox 360 consoles. The Gamecube and PlayStation 2 versions, however, can be played on their seventh generation console, which are the WiiWii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
and certain older versions of the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
.