In this review, we monkey around in the GameCube game, Timesplitters 2. We find out if this first person shooter is worth playing.
This game was released in 2002.
We have a great deal of familiarity with this series. We first tried the original Timesplitters game. That wound up being quite decent. We then reviewed the Playstation 2 version of Timesplitters 2. That turned out to be quite the great game. Finally, we played Timesplitters: Future Perfect. That game also wound up being a great game worth playing.
Normally, we’d point out that since we played the PS2 port of this game, we’d cover the similarities and differences. In this case, there really isn’t any differences between the ports. So, if you want a detailed review of this game, then I’d suggest reading what I had to say about the PS2 port.
So, instead, I’m just going to talk about what it’s like playing this game all these years later. Having played so many other games already that have been released since then, there are some things that strike me about going back and playing this game. So many games I’ve noticed centres around dead serious themes. The focus tends to centre around trying to make a solid crafted cinematic experience that could, theoretically, translate onto the big screen. There is also heavy focus on what core concepts of a game works and simply implementing them into a game because it has a proven market track record. Straying from the formula tends to be frowned upon.
The negative effect is that games start to be uniform and similar to each other. What’s more is that defining personality of a game starts getting lost in all of this. In some examples, some games simply look to what helped sell other games and even sacrificed what made their own game work in favour of what seemed to be trending at the time. An example of this might be LA Rush – a franchise that had a lot going for it, but seemed to get caught up in the Grand Theft Auto an similar illegal street scenes. So, instead of cool futuristic vehicles that permitted gliding, you had some storyline of someone racing to get all his stolen cars back taking place in modern times. That game, arguably, helped kill the Rush series.
So, when I got back to this particular game, you can quickly get that sense of personality again. Yes, it’s fast paced, but you also got a sense of quality for each little segmented piece.
Probably where this game starts to shine is the arcade style challenges and the arcade mode. While you get that sense of personality, arcade mode pushes it to the forefront. It’s a game that doesn’t really take itself seriously and embraces what it really is: a fun experience meant to entertain. The cartoonish movements in the animations mixed with the ridiculous little premise of so many levels helps make these levels worth playing at the very least. In some of the challenges, you can tell that there was much less market research and more concepts that were bandied about in the office. Hey, this might be an interesting idea, let’s put it in just for fun.
I mean, seriously, a level devoted to breaking as many panes of glass as possible on the level? Shooting watermelons being held by monkeys? Some dude dressed in cardboard pretending to be a robot? I’m not sure some of that would even be considered in some game studios today. So, it’s nice seeing that experimental kind of thinking making their way into games much like how everything was an experiment when we went from 2D gaming in the SNES era to the 3D gaming in the N64 era.
After playing this game again, I still have that feeling that I did play something novel and entertaining. Honestly, it’s quite refreshing and I enjoyed every moment of it.
Overall
Furthest point in game:
Easy: Won
Medium: Robot Factory (moved the energy node after destroying the second to last node)
Hard: Syberia (obtained flame thrower, got the time crystal, destroyed the container, died after defeating the first flaming zombie)
Arcade: Beat all but Nice Threads (Made it to the bottom of the spiral staircase and into the next hallway)
Completed all challenges.
General gameplay: 20/25
Replay value: 8/10
Graphics: 9/10
Audio: 5/5
Overall rating: 84%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
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