n the story mode of TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, which can be played alone or with up to four players cooperatively, the aliens of the title are a race of large toothed humanoids who are bent on the destruction of the human race. They have access to time travel and are using that ability to bring about humanity's destruction ... before they ever actually contacted the timesplitters in the first place. Players take the role of Sgt. Cortez, who will remind everyone of Vin Diesel playing a space marine, in an attempt to travel back in time to stop the timesplitters and save humanity.
The time-traveling premise of the game gives the designers freedom not only to set levels of the story mode in a variety of different time periods, but also to parody/pay homage to a variety of games and movies. James Bond and Austin Powers both get tweaked, as does Halo, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider and many more. All of this is done via a pure first-person-shooter environment, with vehicles to drive, lots of weapons to shoot and cutscenes that contain many of the best jokes while also driving the plot.
Besides its story mode, TSFP has a variety of other modes, both local and online. There is straight-up deathmatching, plus many flavors of deathmatch games. There are also arcade challenges. These are minigames, such as cat racing and dish smashing, where the player tries to achieve record times or scores, which the game uploads to the Internet to check the player's global rank. On top of all that, there is a map editor that lets players create their own levels and arenas for the game that can be uploaded and shared with the community.
Ninja monkeys continue to rock
TSFP is actually the third game in the TimeSplitters series, but it isn't necessary to have played the other two to enjoy this one. The previous games had levels set in different times, but this is the first TS game to link the levels with a story. And as video-game stories go, it is an entertaining one. Its best moments are when Cortez, the hero, encounters future and past versions of himself. These moments are good both for how he handles the confusion that ensues and because players get to then watch these moments again later from the other point of view.
Entertaining as it is, TSFP has some definite flaws. The most glaring is that players can't save in the midst of levels. There is a checkpoint system allowing characters to respawn without having to start the level over from the beginning if they die, but those checkpoints aren't recorded permanently anywhere. If the game is shut down in the middle of a level, the next time the game is turned on, the player has to start from the beginning of the level he was on. Also, none of the characters the players control, in the story mode or in deathmatches, can jump. This is a limit on character movement that feels very 20th-century.
That said, TSFP has a ton of content. There are a vast number of unlockables: characters, weapons, items, galleries, etc. There are ultimately about 20 different weapons from all eras of history, including the future. More than 100 characters with their own stats, abilities and histories can be unlocked for use in deathmatching. These include robots, zombies and several flavors of monkeys, including the always-popular ninja monkey. TSFP isn't a game that is going to make players forget Halo, but with its humor it is certainly the best "beer and pretzels" FPS/deathmatch game on the market.
I've enjoyed the other TimeSplitter games, and I was enjoying this one even more than its brothers until I discovered that shutting down in the middle of a level meant losing my game progress to that point. On the other hand, building and playing on my own map with other people over Xbox Live was an incredible feeling of accomplishment.
—Eric
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