Number 42: Timesplitters 2, Eidos 2002 (Gamecube)
Intro:
The heroes of this game dazzle viewers by making gunslinger slaughter look easy, mowing down the Timesplitters until the creatures retreat into their Time Portal with their mysterious Time Crystals, which sets up the player's motivation to fling themselves into the past time and time again while also setting a very clear tone: this is not a game about stealth or story, but a game about going into different eras and kicking the crap out of the contemporaries with often wild abandon.
Getting Going:
Diving wildly into the game, I hid in the safe starting location for a few minutes and bashed around on the controls for only a few minutes before I figured out how to get around and play reasonably well. The first level is pretty simple, as well as sparsely populated, making a botched moment excusable for the times when my control skill was still playing catch-up.
Fun:
At first grappling with the hazy controls dampered the good time. Aside from that, the fire fights and enemies felt very solid and fierce. The sparse placement of enemies is more than a little peculiar, but not so much as to be frustrating. The display and action felt an awful lot like Goldeneye for the N64, but the familiarity is a positive addition. The level design is very linear, but this simplicity makes the objectives clear and lets the action upstage just about everything else.
Visuals:
The simple design, textures, models, and lighting made the game look a lot more like a pimped-out N64 game than something from a more current generation. The color and appearance were, though, very fitting to the appropriate era while at the same time maintaining the look of the game. Once again, the game seems so wholly focused on action that this short-coming is entirely excusable.
Intelligence:
Enemies aren't terribly clever, but for a game to feel like a raucous arcade experience, highly technical fights make the experience too cerebral. The AI takes things pretty simply: see player, shoot player, sidestep occasionally or pull an alarm when scripted to do so.
Immersion:
The short levels and dry visuals do little to help in the immersion department, but the haunting I-swear-to-God-I'm-not-Goldeneye music and highly visceral action make up for them. Similar to many racing games, the atmosphere is not what holds the player: the gameplay is front and center all the way through.
Cameras:
First-person games don't get camera problems, Trebek!
Controls:
While the controls are mostly managable, weapon switching feels very awkward and using the C-stick to look around is similarly uncomfortable. Aside from that, motion and firing (the REALLY important stuff) works very smoothly and feels just right.
Ideas:
A well executed first-person shooter whose two distinguishing features are the action-focused arcade-style gameplay and the wildly diverse settings. The settings are all clear and have enough personality, though they suffer from being very empty and linear. The pace is well maintained by the weapons, controls and enemy AI acting in harmony to keep the player's attention on the trigger and whatever stands at the end of his or her gun barrel.
Memory:
In a time when games like Halo 2 and Halflife 2 set a standard for long, drawn out, contiguous games, a game that takes itself much more lightly and dishes out mindless violence is highly appreciated (even if it takes ALL of its interface and control strokes from Goldeneye for the N64). The short, intense bursts of play are a welcome break, and the multiplayer is wonderfully frantic.
The heroes of this game dazzle viewers by making gunslinger slaughter look easy, mowing down the Timesplitters until the creatures retreat into their Time Portal with their mysterious Time Crystals, which sets up the player's motivation to fling themselves into the past time and time again while also setting a very clear tone: this is not a game about stealth or story, but a game about going into different eras and kicking the crap out of the contemporaries with often wild abandon.
Getting Going:
Diving wildly into the game, I hid in the safe starting location for a few minutes and bashed around on the controls for only a few minutes before I figured out how to get around and play reasonably well. The first level is pretty simple, as well as sparsely populated, making a botched moment excusable for the times when my control skill was still playing catch-up.
Fun:
At first grappling with the hazy controls dampered the good time. Aside from that, the fire fights and enemies felt very solid and fierce. The sparse placement of enemies is more than a little peculiar, but not so much as to be frustrating. The display and action felt an awful lot like Goldeneye for the N64, but the familiarity is a positive addition. The level design is very linear, but this simplicity makes the objectives clear and lets the action upstage just about everything else.
Visuals:
The simple design, textures, models, and lighting made the game look a lot more like a pimped-out N64 game than something from a more current generation. The color and appearance were, though, very fitting to the appropriate era while at the same time maintaining the look of the game. Once again, the game seems so wholly focused on action that this short-coming is entirely excusable.
Intelligence:
Enemies aren't terribly clever, but for a game to feel like a raucous arcade experience, highly technical fights make the experience too cerebral. The AI takes things pretty simply: see player, shoot player, sidestep occasionally or pull an alarm when scripted to do so.
Immersion:
The short levels and dry visuals do little to help in the immersion department, but the haunting I-swear-to-God-I'm-not-Goldeneye music and highly visceral action make up for them. Similar to many racing games, the atmosphere is not what holds the player: the gameplay is front and center all the way through.
Cameras:
First-person games don't get camera problems, Trebek!
Controls:
While the controls are mostly managable, weapon switching feels very awkward and using the C-stick to look around is similarly uncomfortable. Aside from that, motion and firing (the REALLY important stuff) works very smoothly and feels just right.
Ideas:
A well executed first-person shooter whose two distinguishing features are the action-focused arcade-style gameplay and the wildly diverse settings. The settings are all clear and have enough personality, though they suffer from being very empty and linear. The pace is well maintained by the weapons, controls and enemy AI acting in harmony to keep the player's attention on the trigger and whatever stands at the end of his or her gun barrel.
Memory:
In a time when games like Halo 2 and Halflife 2 set a standard for long, drawn out, contiguous games, a game that takes itself much more lightly and dishes out mindless violence is highly appreciated (even if it takes ALL of its interface and control strokes from Goldeneye for the N64). The short, intense bursts of play are a welcome break, and the multiplayer is wonderfully frantic.