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Gaming, In My Opinion
The Timesplitters stage their debut on a Nintendo system, despite being the brainchild of the same people behind N64's greatest shoot-em-up Goldeneye. Bored of being taking bullets in the head on Facility, David Doak (Dr Doak) and his team bring us time-travelling gun-toting delights to our purple-box-of-wonders.
The visuals are, naturally, incredible. Donning a slightly cartoony-yet-realistic look, TS2 is probably the most unique looking game on the Cube so far. The graphics, however, seem totally realistic as you are playing and you won’t notice the bizarrely proportioned characters as being weird, because you’ll be so used to them. The detail is incredible as well. You can read signs that are along the levels, you can see for miles in any direction (providing there’s nothing blocking your view like a building or something) and objects appear as detailed as the characters. Also, the objects and characters fit in seamlessly with the décor of each level. What is most impressive, though, is the weather system. TS2 hosts a vast range of weather, from normal clear skies to rain and snow. The rain and snow, however, are so wonderfully programmed that you won’t even notice because your brain has accepted it as normal. It’s a bizarre yet satisfying feeling to realise that it has been raining the whole time you were in the streets but you only notice when you come indoors and it stops. The sounds are also great. Some of the music has a worryingly similar Goldeneye/Perfect Dark feel to it, but most of it is brilliant and original. The music also suits the level, so Chicago has a jazz-style tune in the background, whereas the Wild West had a country-western sound to it. The sound effects are just as good (especially the Garrett Revolver – every shot comes complete with Wild West ricochet.) and each weapon has a sound of its own, again fitting in with the relevant time period. Best of all is the range of voice acting. All of the cut-scenes and every character in the single-player levels is voice-acted, and done so reasonably well. Obviously, in multi-player this only stretches to agonised grunts and moans, but you can’t have everything. But, like all of the world’s greatest games, the visuals and sounds only help to enhance the game itself. Probably the best feature of the game is the ridiculous amount of modes on offer. First off, there’s story mode, which you would think is your run-of-the-mill single player campaign. Oh, and there’s three difficulty levels? Well, that’ll just mean extra objectives/enemies, right? Not! The easiest difficulty gives you just a demo of the game’s missions. In normal and hard difficulty, you’ll have twice as many objectives, twice as many enemies and huge new areas, as well as new challenges to overcome. And then there’s the hundred-odd challenges and scenarios used to unlock the hundreds of multi-player characters, levels and deathmatch modes. And then there’s the mapmaker, providing infinite potential for you to use your creative, bloodthirsty minds in. Just to finish, here are a couple of warnings. Beware the fiddly dual analogue controls for the first, oooh, two hours, and the impossible frustration of the outgunned, outnumbered scenarios and missions. DO NOT RESORT TO THROWING YOUR CONTROLLER THROUGH THE TELE! But apart from that…It may sound like I’m trying to sell the game, but believe me, this is worth your money…and your years and years of game-playing time. VISUALS: Not exactly photo-realistic, but nonetheless outstanding. Weather system is incredible! 9/10 SOUNDS: Again, by no means spectacular, but very good. Reminiscent of a certain bond game. 8/10 PLAYABILITY: The dual analogue controls take a while to get used to, but once you do, you’ll become a gun-toting maniac. 8/10 LIFESPAN: Impossibly long. The amount of modes, challenges, missions, and unlockable stuff is huge. And then there’s the multi-player and mapmaker. 10/10 VERDICT: As the Cube’s second shoot-em-up, it is by far and away the best so far. It’s going to be a tough act to follow! 88% |