TimeSplitters: Future Perfect Xbox Review

Time to unleash the asskickulator! TimeSplitters is back once again. Sergeant Cortez is on a mission back in time to save all of humanity. The only way to stop the recent threat is to prevent it before it begins and has a chance to manifests in the present time. In a race against time, it’s up to Cortez to stop Crow, or all humanity suffers the consequences. It’s not the best premise for a computer game that was ever created but believe me it does work!

Gameplay

In TimeSplitters: Future Perfect you get to journey over and range of different levels set in a range off different time frames which spans almost 500 years. In future perfect you remain entrenched in the shoes of Cortez instead of jumping from character to character like in previous escapades this also offers you a chance to meet your future self during some of the level which is rather entertaining! Future Perfect presents with you even more time jumping than it previous escapades, with a total of 13 different levels ranging from futuristic research facilities, some strange alien planet, science labs and even Scotland! Each of these locations gives you a NPC who tags along to aid you on your quest, gladly these characters seem to have good AI and can hold there own respectably against the enemy hordes.

Most of the levels are large none of them hitting the highs seen in Half-Life 2 or Halo 2 but still big all the same. They also don’t share the free roaming found in those above named game as the level designs are relatively basic usually offering you only one path to get from A to B. There is a glorious amount of weapons available during the course of play in Future Perfect, totalling almost 20 with some of them having secondary functions. Shotguns, pistols, rifles, TNT and miniguns are all available for you to use with some guns only been available in certain time frames. Although most of the missions are fairly straightforward they can be a lot of fun. On average most of the levels take about 45 minutes to complete, some shorter and some longer. This adds up to about a 10 hour long single player mode which is respectable considering most recent FPS releases are all around that mark. It could have been a bit longer to in my opinion but the real bones of any TimeSplitters game are in the multiplayer modes.

With 150 different characters to play as (including a walking glove) with each of them with there own stats the multiplayer mode Future Perfect is, in a word, fantastic! There is so much fun to be had here it is unbelievable. The standard deathmatch and capture the flag options are available with other crazy modes such as Virus, Shrink available to play with to. There is 16 multiplayer maps to chose from with each of them offering something different from the last with lots of different area to suit anyone play style. Then there is the two-player co-op from TS2 that makes a welcome return.

Graphics

If you have played the other two TimeSplitters game or at the very least checked out our screenshots you can see that TimeSplitters has a unique style that sits somewhere between caricature and cartoonish. This style has now become synonymous with the brand and although it is different to most other game out there it does work very well and is a treat to the eyes. The character models and environments looks significantly better than Free Radicals previous efforts with loads polygons been thrown around to produce fantastic visuals. Each level has its own distinct feel to represent the time period it is sent in. Most of the game runs at a steady 60FPS but at time can stutter if there is a multitude of enemies on screen at one time or a massive explosion happen, these stutters can be very noticeable when they happen but gladly don’t happen that often (maybe once or twice during each level at the most). Future Perfect also supports widescreen and progressive scan for those that have the kit to benefit of it.

Sound

The techno/operatic soundtrack for in Future Perfect does exactly what a good soundtrack should do it a game, it make important moments in the game seem even more significant. The music is always rolling along in the background and if a multitude of enemies appear on screen it will kick into high gear to get you pumped up and ready for action. However the sound effects are sadly lacking in places (e.g. no footsteps can be heard). Of course the guns all sound hard hitting and brutal, but every FPS has done that before.

Now onto the voice work which has significantly improved since its predecessor. The script now seems well written with lots of funny laugh out load moments contained within. The lead and supporting characters all have their own unique style with Cortez having all the best line throughout the game. The 150 available chatters in the multiplayer mode all have there one lines that they utter when you highlight them, some of these are very entertaining! The version I played (Xbox) supports Dolby Digital sound which makes all of the above sound that little bit better.

Lifespan

With loads of unlockable content available (with at least one been unlocked after every challenge or level you complete ) there is a lot to make you want to keep on playing. As I said above there is 150 possible unlockable characters so it could take quite a while for you to “catch em all”. There is also a multitude of rock hard challenges the game sets you and the very entertaining arcade mode.

Then there is the online mode that lets you expiring everything the game as to offer in multiplayer mode with the exception of the co-operative. The game also keeps up to 100 different stats as you play though the different modes ranging for how far you walked to how fast you walked to the amount of kills along with loads of weirder stats. It also presents you with awards spent on your time in multiplayer mode and what you do during your time in it. My favourite award I have received at the time of writing was the “I Shot Dead People” award for killing zombie monkeys. Future Perfect also contains one of the best and easy to use map making tools ever seen on a console game there is heaps for you to do here and loads make you want to keep playing!

Overall

Future Prefect is without doubt the best TimeSplitters game Free Radical has created since the inception of the franchise back in 2001. While the single player game does not have the epic nature of titles such as Halo or Half Life there is no denying a lot of interesting, exciting and fun moments are contained within. The Arcade and Challenge modes are literally stuffed to the brim with loads of objective to complete on a variety of difficulties. Couple this with co-op modes, multiplayer modes with bots and stats, online modes and an entertaining map maker there is no denying Future Perfect is great value for money.

8.8 out of 10