Jon Porter of The Clockwork Manual is back with his latest article - a look at Timesplitters 2.

Everyone has their childhood sweetheart of a game. That one series, which made you fall in love with gaming, which you sunk countless hours into instead of perhaps more productive things, that one game that always got played on Friday nights in. Mine was Timesplitters. The simply divine multiplayer mayhem, complete with dozens of bots and complemented by three – in retrospect insane - companions took hold of those blissful Sunday afternoons and refused to give them back, instead displaying them proudly on a statistics page, proof to this day of its undeniable hold over me.

Timesplitters 2 was where the problem nay, relationship really picked up. Aside from the graphical overhaul from its predecessor it also improved the single player mission structure tenfold, giving you a wide and varied set of objectives in each level rather than what were essentially fetch quests. It would be taking it a step too far to say that TS2 had a great overarching story, but it did its job, giving you an excuse to visit the different time zones that make up the game. Cortez may be a space marine on a mission to collect the time crystals scattered throughout history but within each level he takes on a completely different persona, who adds his own objectives to your goals. Harry Tipper for example, needs to prevent an evil super genius from taking over the world, whilst others will be investigating an underground hacker association. Every level has its own tale to tell, made all the more appealing by a host of oddball characters.

To say that each world possesses more character than most other games manage in there entirety would be an understatement, but not all of it comes from Free Radical themselves. Each mission is a love letter to either a film genre, or one piece of cinematography in particular. The second level, Chicago, takes obvious inspiration from the gangster films of old whilst a later Aztec location reeks of Indiana Jones. Blade Runner fans should find lots to love in NeoTokyo, and it won’t take a hardcore Riddick lover to spot Cortez’s obvious resemblance to one Vin Diesel. Taking things a step further, Free Radical also made every character playable in multiplayer, letting you take the role of that Russian guard you so lovingly capped back in Siberia.

It would be arrogant to say that the developers made the most technically impressive game ever created, but the package as a whole is made infinitely more appealing by its offbeat vibe and charm. The lack of an aiming reticule lets you focus your attention more on the environment than the HUD as well as making those accidental headshots all the more impressive. You’ll never find Timesplitters taking itself the least bit seriously, and whilst it never outright tries to make a funny, the absurdity of some situations never fails to bring a smile to the face of everyone present. As an example take one of the game’s ‘challenge’ modes – in themselves a huge addition to the single player story - which tasks you with taking down a rogue school of calamari who have unexplainable grown to human proportions. This isn’t a game a non-gamer will laugh at, it’s one they’ll laugh with.

When delving into the treasures of a previous console generation there’s always a drop in graphical quality that some gamers just can’t ignore. Whilst the polygon count on a PS2 game is never going to be as high as today’s modern shooters the stylised art style employed by TS2 means that even today the game still looks good. Levels have a simple feel to them, but they’re all very distinct from each other, which aside from meaning that you’re never left feeling deja vu throughout the campaign mode also ensures that you’ll never lose yourself in a multiplayer match, searching desperately for a man they call Tyler Durden. Wait…let me start over…

Timesplitters 2 is a simply amazing multiplayer experience. It’s not something you drop into for a couple of hours and come out not wanting more. It’s charm and style are undeniable, but it’s not going to hit you round the head with it’s own narrative. Timesplitters is the conman of video games whereas others are the thieves. You’re always going to give your time to it willingly, even if you’re oblivious as to why.