Time travel has been an interesting subject ever since I can remember. There have been countless movies based on this theory, from Back to the Future, to more recently The Butterfly Effect, Hollywood has capitalized on the notion that it may be possible to travel backwards and forwards in time. Free Radical has been at this concept as well, in fact, their entire Timesplitters series is based on shifting time around to do certain things, such as saving the world, but mostly to retrieve crystals, which enable the holder of said crystals to perform time travel. If you really sit back and think about time travel for a moment, it can be scary. Lets say for instance you go back in time and stop the assassination of JFK.. that act would change history, but may also be the single change in the past that inevitably erupts World War III. My scenario however has absolutely nothing to do with TimeSplitters Future Perfect, and TimeSplitters is in no way as serious a matter.

Free Radical has collected a huge fan base of time traveling, crystal collecting fiends, and there is a reason for this. The game play in TimeSplitters is, for the most part, mindless run and gun fun, with a ton of humor added into the mix. So if you add this up (fun + humor), people have a good time. Future Perfect stays true to the series in this respect, and adds in some new features, including the first ever online play for the series, as well as a nifty map editor for those aspiring game level designers that can’t seem to grasp the intense nature of what is truly required to make a decent level. But does TimeSplitters Future Perfect add to core goals of its lineage, or take away from them? Lets find out shall we?

Gameplay

As I briefly mentioned above the game play in the entire TimeSplitters series is pretty basic. Go here, shoot the enemies, collect the crystals, save this person, disable this machine, etc. Future Perfect uses the same methodology, and this time around you will play only as Cortez, and at times several of him. The basic theme of the game is to locate and secure the time crystals to stop total chaos from ensuing. You’ll be placed in different time periods all over the spectrum, ranging from 1924, to 1960, to many years in the future. The story, albeit a bit weak and nothing we haven’t already seen from the series, is a decent attempt to get you more involved than you have been in previous versions.

It plays just like any other first person shooter, run and gun style, with little mini quests along the way to keep you entertained. Most of the thirteen campaign levels feature NPCs (non playable characters) who will help you along the way, either by creating distractions for you, or by actually completing part of the mission with you playing the backup, picking off the enemies to keep the characters safe. The one thing that does set it apart from other FPS titles, aside from the time travel aspect, is the humor. All of the characters you interact with say some pretty funny one liners, or dress up in wacky costumes. There’s always something to keep you entertained, and even though you’re on a mission, it feels more like an arcade game. I haven’t seen this much humor in a FPS since Serious Sam. This could be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending upon how you perceive it, but it works well for Future Perfect.

Another added touch to the series is the inclusion of controllable vehicles. Cortez can now take charge of various vehicles within the levels to make getting from point A to point B a little less time consuming, and perhaps a bit more fun since when you have a vehicle, you also have the option of running people over. Any game where you can run people over gets a bonus decimal point from me (perhaps I should seek help). The vehicles available vary depending upon the time era you are in, so don’t expect to be driving a Chrysler 300M in 1924. Much to the same point, the weapons are also era based, so you’ll be using old revolvers at times, and at other times laser guns, all of which are nicely rendered and add to the overall feel of the game.

Under the helm of EA Games, Free Radical has probably made their best effort to date. The way they play with time is intriguing, and you’ll even encounter your future and past self more than a few times. These situations, although interesting, can be repetitive, but again, it just adds to the overall theme of the game. While the main game play is run and gun, there are situations where you need to think, don’t fret, you won’t need to think for very long or very hard, but they did try to incorporate a couple of puzzle solving aspects to the title. Some of these situations are as simple as trying to figure out how to get some hot Neanderthal looking chic out of a prison cell, others are more complex like hacking two computer terminals at the same time. Overall, the entire single player mode is surprisingly short however, and can be completed in less than seven hours by the average gamer. Thankfully, Future Perfect does feature a robust online and offline multi player presence, as well as different difficulty settings for the single player mode.

Control / Playability

The controls for Future Perfect are simple, configurable, and will seem second nature to any FPS player. As expected, the left thumb stick moves Cortez (pressing it will crouch the character), while the right thumb stick aims (press to zoom). Left trigger tosses grenades and right trigger fires your weapon, and if you haven’t guessed it by now, the B button will perform a melee attack. Oddly enough, Cortez cannot jump, instead the A button is used to open doors and activate switches, etc.

One thing they really nailed was the way you switch weapons. You use the D-Pad to select the weapon of choice, pressing left and right to scroll through your arsenal. Some weapons have attachments, such as silencers, or grenade launchers, to equip the attachment you simply need to press up or down on the D-Pad to select the appropriate attachment for that particular weapon. It’s worth mentioning another tool Cortez has at his disposal, the Temporal Uplink. This acts as a holographic type of map, as well as a gravity manipulator, allowing you to pickup, move, and alter objects from a distance… nifty little feature and it was nice to see that they put certain areas in the game where the use of it is required.

Xbox Live

As I stated in the game play section above, the single player mode is disappointingly short, however, Free Radical more than makes up for this shortcoming by adding in almost every conceivable multi player option in the book, with the exception of online coop (coop is only available offline). As for multi player gaming goes, they really spent allot of time and effort to make it interesting and fun. You have your standard Capture the Flag and Death Match modes, as well as a slew of spin off versions which will make for some really interesting matches, online and off. Online modes support anywhere from 2 to 16 players, but due to the size of most of the levels we recommend having a room with no less than 8 players. With about 150 unlockable characters in the game, ranging from Cortez himself, to everyone you encounter in the game, as well as monkeys, bears, demons, etc., the matches will not only be a blast to play, but will be funny as all hell at times. I recall playing as a monkey online and strafing from side to side, desperately trying to kill a teddy bear looking foe, interesting indeed.

When Future Perfect was initially released, there were a lot of connection issues over the Xbox Live service, especially for those players in Europe, but at the time I am writing this review the developers have fixed the problems, and now the lobbies and game play runs smooth. Another addition to the game, the map maker feature, allows you to create, upload, and download custom map levels, created by yourself of fellow gamers. This just shows the lengths they went to in an effort to make the TimeSplitters debut on the Xbox Live service a hit. A word of caution however, as with any feature where a user has control over the landscape of a game, there are bound to be problems. For example, one map we downloaded and tested that a user made had a spawn point in a room with no doors, perhaps this is the reason many games do not offer such a feature.

Graphics / Presentation

While the environmental textures and mapping is nothing to roar about, there is something to be said about a first person shooter that can run as fast as TimeSplitters can. It does however suffer from the occasional frame rate drop when there is allot of action on screen. The characters are modeled well and animate smoothly, while I can’t say there is an exceptional amount of detail in the characters, the simple fact that there are about 150 different ones available has to say something, even if some of them are the same characters with a different skin attached. The main point is the game looks good, it has charisma, and it certainly won’t get slammed in the graphics category simply because it doesn’t offer up some of the more spectacular lighting and shadowing affects seen in other titles. What it does do, it does very well, it creates an atmosphere, more specifically, a somewhat giddy atmosphere, and it fits the overall humorous tone of the game.

Timesplitters Future Perfect Screenshot Timesplitters Future Perfect Screenshot Timesplitters Future Perfect Screenshot

Timesplitters Future Perfect Screenshot

View all Timesplitters Future Perfect Screenshots in the Gallery

Audio

The character voice overs in game are all done fairly well, with Cortez taking the cup in this area. The ambient sounds, planes flying over head, rockets whizzing by, etc. all sound convincing. The music in game doesn’t really give or take away from the experience, it mainly just sets the tone for an upcoming battle or a high point in the game and gets you revved up for it. Dolby 5.1 surround sound is available in game for those who have the right system as well.

Replay Value

This is where Future Perfect shines. There are so many unlockable characters, challenges, different difficulty setting, multi player modes, potential downloadable content, as well as downloadable user made maps, it would be hard to say there is little in way of replay value. In fact, I would venture to say it’s among the top 10 Xbox FPS games in terms of value. They really added in enough to keep you occupied and entertained for as long as you wish, especially if you are an Xbox Live subscriber. For those without a broadband connection, and therefore no Xbox Live subscription, you still have the offline multi player modes, all of the unlockables, and different difficulty settings. One thing I failed to mention above in regards to the multi player gaming experience in Future Perfect is the fact that they have included bots in game, so even if you don’t have any friends to play with (presumably due to the fact that you are so good) you can still have a decent amount of replay value.

Overall Score

Overall Score: 9.1/10 [not an average]

Additional Comments

It’s interesting when you come across a game where the multi player out weighs the single player portion of the game by such a large margin. In all honesty, I think if TimeSplitters Future Perfect came packed as a multi player only game it would have still received an 8.5. Allot of credit has to go to Free Radical for expanding on the franchise by entering the online arena in the way they have, outperforming many of the other available FPS titles by volumes when it comes to game type options and features. That being said, I do think that had they released this title about a year ago, it would have been much better, and much more widely received by the gaming community. Even to date however, you’d be hard pressed to find an Xbox title with all the added goodies this one has to offer. My recommendation to everyone is at least a rental, and be sure to check out the online modes. If you’re a fan of the TimeSplitters series, then just go grab a copy, you won’t be disappointed.

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