Timesplitters 2 is now on the PC!

[6746ea46c7c0eJDoran]

Free Radical's science-fiction first person shooter with a dash of humour, Timesplitters 2, is a superb game, one of the highest  rated games of the PS2/original XBox/Gamecube generation.  And now you can play it on the PC!

Well, it's been available since 2016, as a bonus on the game disc of (the monumentally inferior) Homefront: The Revolution, but only two levels of Timesplitters 2 were known to be available then. And a while back, it was revealed by one of the programmers, that the full game is included on t he disc, and he supplied the necessary codes to unlock the full game.

Unfortunately, this version of TS2 (which is 4K!) had some bugs, as it was a test version of a potential high definition port (which never appeared, sadly). But some fans have bug-fixed this version, so the entire game is now fully playable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aazmzaUw2xM


The project's homepage is at:

https://github.com/HFTSRedux/TS2Redux

You need the game data from Homefront: The Revolution, of course, it's all in the intstructions.

[6746ea46c7d76icemann]

Nice

[6746ea46c7ee3Join2]

The Timesplitters games were cool but more a collection of ungarnished burger bites than a wholesome juicy steak (lots of segmented game content/sub-games instead of a fully-fledged epic singleplayer campaign). I don't really have any interest returning to them.

[6746ea46c7fceicemann]

It was similar to Chasm the Rift in that each level was a different time period right? I've only played a demo for the first Timesplitters ages ago.

[6746ea46c8108Join2]

Yes. Probably why the singleplayer was only ever 10 levels in each game if I recall. Minimal asset reuse (except in the multiplayer, mini games etc). It is a well-meaning, relatively well-designed game but doesn't hold much value if singleplayer is your preference.

It offers singleplayer, that same campaign but in co-op, moderately customizable multplayer, a somewhat powerful level editor (as far as console editors go), and a wide variety of challenge mini-games. So it holds some historical and general value but won't satisfy if your preference is in meaty singleplayer campaigns, or on the multiplayer side of things, moddable PC arena shooters.

[6746ea46c82ccJDoran]

I disagree, I think Timesplitters 2 and 3 (Timesplitters: Future Perfect) have fantastic single player campaigns. TS2's does feel disjointed, true, since you play as a different character in every level, even though you are actually the same person really, but in each level (in each different time zone)  the person you are controlling takes over control of a native of that time period, like in the TV program Quantum Leap. In Timesplitters: Future Perfect, you play the same character in every level, as this time Cortez (your player character) travels through time in the convential science-fiction sense,

I've never heard or read (in a review, or forum post, etc) of anyone saying that TS2's (or TS:FP's) single player campaign is disappointing. The first game's single player campaign, is, though. It's extremely bare-boned, and over very quickly, and feels like it was rushed by the developers. Which it might well have been, since it was a release game for the PS2.

But it's two sequels are fantastic games, even to this day. And they are my fourth and third favourite games, respectively, and I still play them on my original XBox.

[6746ea46c848fJoin2]

I said they're not good enough if "meaty" SP is what you're looking for, but I will elaborate that another issue is resource management or lacktherof: every level you start fresh, one weapon specific to that theme and have to build up your arsenal again. It all works fine and the game is not bad at all, it just doesn't attain classic gold standard FPS status in its singleplayer. Hell none did in the 2000s if you ask me. Only 90s FPS qualify.
This is one of the better FPS from that time period along with RTCW and...not many others. It was apparent that Devs were chasing realism and graphics hard, often to the detriment of gameplay.

Timesplitters had very divided focus as I mentioned, so it is only natural the singleplayer is not quite there. Most 90s FPS focused primarily on singleplayer until UT and it shows. Doom had 30 levels or so for example (even if some were short).

My favorite was future perfect. I 100% it, made cool levels, played it a lot. But these games ran their course for me a long time ago and I see no reason to return, unless perhaps they are moddable on PC...nope still not interested.

Still, if games like this were still made today I'd be way more content. It's a whole lot better than the majority of shooters of the past 20 or so years