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The creators of the original TimeSplitters, Free Radical, are a UK-based development company consisting of many old Rare programmers, who have worked on Goldeneye, the oft-proclaimed 'best first person shooter ever' no less. However, while the original game deviated from Goldeneye's style by a fair margin, the first level of TimeSplitters 2 which we've been playing through is pretty much dedicated to their old Rare project.
The demo we played started off with a cut-scene which takes place inside the first level. Two guards are investigating gunshot noises inside a digging area, when they encounter one of the zombies, who promptly executes them. The scene is entirely realtime 3D and looks fabulous, right down to the cartoony expressions on the characters' faces, and the lip-syncing. Then the level begins; you start off beside a massive dam with a few weapons scattered in front of you and a hefty military installation to infiltrate. By snooping around with the sniper rifle you can quickly pick off a few guards that are patrolling the huts near the starting point, but the surveillance cameras dotted around the place can prove more tricky. Fortunately, by switching weapons you can find your temporal uplink, which provides a Metal Gear Solid-esque radar of the surrounding area, including enemy lines of sight, allowing you to sneak past unnoticed.
This first area takes place outside, in snow-covered surroundings with a blizzard going on, and is a nice setting to show off the game's improved engine. There's plenty of detail there, including flakes of snow which hit your view as you walk around, and not a hint of pop-up or slowdown as you look out across the mountains in the distance. The enemies are also done very nicely, with some great animations to show their responses to different situations. Just by watching a guard through a sniper rifle scope you'll see them go through several animation sequences as they wait around, then shooting near them will suprise them, causing them to quickly look around to see where the shot was fired from. When you finally hit them, they'll respond to the body part you have shot, with head shots killing them in one go while body shots can take four or five shots before they go down. It is all incredibly reminiscent of Goldeneye, which is no bad thing.
After picking up some timed mines and completing your first objective by destroying the communications dish, you enter the dam itself. Unfortunately, you can't use the lifts because the power is off, so you have to work your way to the other side of the dam and into an underground digging complex where some unusual things are going on. By looking around the rooms, you'll find areas which are closed off by force fields, with seemingly dead bodies inside. However, when you reboot the main control station to turn the power back on, all the force fields begin to fail, and the 'dead' bodies come alive as zombies.
The zombies take considerably more hits to kill than the guards, with the only real way to get rid of them quickly being to shoot their heads off. Further into the level, special forces storm the complex with one aim; to kill anyone. This can be both a help and a hinderance, since they will quite happily attack the zombies, keeping them busy while you sneak past, but if they notice you they won't give up easily. Finally, with the power back on, you can use the lift to get to the top of the dam, where a helicopter gunship is waiting for you.
If this first-level demo is any indication of the full game, we've got plenty to look forward to. My only concern so far is with the control system, which takes a little while to get used to. Using the Dual Shock's control sticks to aim has always been difficult, but when playing TS2 it seemed a bit too sensitive at first, requiring quite a bit of practise before aiming with the sniper rifle could be done quickly. However, overall TimeSplitters 2 is looking very impressive, and we hope to have more information on the rest of the game closer to its release this Summer. Meanwhile, check out the direct-feed videos we've captured from the demo by clicking on the links below.
Marc Hull
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