Cortez is back in arguably the hottest, most action-packed sequel in the Time Splitters series to date, "Time Splitters: Future Perfect." Packed with a sweet arsenal of weapons, killer next-generation graphics, a highly addictive gameplay factor, and a compelling storyline tied together over a wide span of time eras this game’s fitting to make me say something I haven’t said in a good long time: "Wow. I’m impressed!"
The year is 2401 and the human race finds it self on the losing end of a battle with a malicious alien race, known only as the "Time Splitters." Bent on the human race’s ultimate extinction, the Splitters are using advanced time travel technology to manipulate the Human Age and systematically wipe them out of existence for good. The "Resistance" forces are slowly weakening and it won’t be long before things take a turn for the worse. Seeing the end in sight, the Resistance formulates a new battle plan that if successful will erase all the events that have taken place up to this point…right before they start.
To do this the Resistance has to call on their finest soldier yet again to get the job done before they literally run out of time. We catch up with our infamous time traveling marine returning back to HQ with some very precious and essential cargo he lifted during a successful infiltration of a Time Splitter Station during a previous mission. Cortez has gotten his hands on a set on nine time crystals, the same crystals the Splitters have used to jump from one timeframe to the next. The Resistance intends to use these time crystals to power their own top secret time travel project.
With their new found tactical capabilities and a little luck, the Resistance will be able to travel back in time and stop the War of the Time Splitters before it even starts. All that’s needed now is a guinea pig or two for the final test. Poor Cortez, he just has a knack for finding himself in the right places at the right time.
This game’s packing some serious graphical fortitude, some of the best I’ve seen in a while. The great thing about the making of "Future Perfect" is that there were no boundaries or specific direction that the developers had to take in terms of presentation. Having the freedom to choose any time era they so wanted to use in the game, Free Radical and EA games have concocted easily the hottest looking sequel of the series to date.
Cortez will find himself in the most bizarre and exciting time eras, each with its own unique environmental characteristics and attributes. When you drop into a new time zone you almost immediately become engrossed by the largely immaculate and deeply immersive areas of exploration. It’s as if the world engulfs you and makes you forget about the past or future and concentrate only on the present day. You don’t think about the fact that you were just blowing the guts out of a flesh-eating Time Splitter with a highly advanced plasma autorifle on the barren sands of future earth and the fact that now you find yourself standing on the rocky shores of a remote island during the early 19th century holding a single shot pistol in your hand with random mortar shells from dog planes flying over and Navy ships off in the distance going off all around you. Any tactical advantages you may have learned in your former mission are thrown out the door and you are forced to quickly adapt to these all new surroundings. These key factors work to preserve to realism and idea of time travel making the game that much more enjoyable.
There’s something to be said about a game with such an awesome and versatile audio package. There are a vast array of sounds in the game from weapons blasts to vehicle engines all the way to battle cries and tactical commands. Every area of the game has its own unique bells and whistles and yet they all are perfectly orchestrated together over these very different time eras to make for one serious earful of an adventure.
The storyline is acted out remarkably well and the voice-overs are on point with the character animations. Even though the overall plot of the game is to be taken seriously there are quite a few moments of "comic relief" thrown in at just the right time by the starring cast to help cause a chuckle or two. You gather over time that while Cortez has this tough-as-nails exterior, he’s really this light-hearted gung-ho marine that simply loves the job he does everyday.
Saving the world is great and all and you certainly want to put an end to an otherwise doomed future but without a doubt the best feature of Future Perfect is the idea of picking up some new firepower and wreaking havoc during your travels. The Timesplitters series has always been known for its extraordinarily unique arsenal of weapons. A lot of times in most FPS games you get those kind of weapons that you really don’t care for too much but the situation is usually "life or death" so you just hold on to it and hope to find something better down the road.
Well that’s not the case in this game. Every weapon you’ll ever pick up in the game has it’s own very cool characteristics and attributes to help keep your interests peeked and more importantly you can find enough combat situations that specifically meet the needs of each weapon in your arsenal. In fact, the game almost encourages you to tap into the true potential of your arsenal using every weapon possible to complete your objective. With a very user-friendly weapon selection interface you can change your guns up on the fly and really unleash your true inner warrior. On top of all that, you can take advantage of a fully interactive environment by taking over ground turrets or even commandeering ride-able vehicles.
Outside of gaining access to new fire power, Future Perfect introduces an innovative "meet yourself" time travel aspect where players can be their own allies by teaming up with past and future versions of themselves. The ability to time travel will sometimes cause "time paradoxes" resulting in gamers meeting and assisting past and future versions of themselves. Given the right opportunity you can correct some of your mistakes made in the past or team up with past and future versions of yourself in climatic battles.
There are a ton of additional features in TimeSplitters to help increase the replay value of the game. For starters the single-player Co-op mode allows you to play with a time traveling companion throughout a very healthy "Story Mode" and the extensive "Arcade Mode" features endless hours of gameplay from mini-games to extra bonus content and challenge maps. Players can work to achieve the best rankings in "Challenge Mode" and unlock special items and brag about scores to their friends. Then there’s "Multiplayer Mode" where players can battle it out in death matches online via Xbox Live up to 16 players simultaneously. With online play gamers can create their own personal tournaments or even play in arcade leagues.
The bottomline is Time Splitters: Future Perfect is a game you simply should have in your gaming library if you’re seriously into FPS games period. No question this is a game that can stand toe-to-toe with all the big time first-person shooters out there. Spectacular graphics, superlative gameplay, solid audio, great voice-overs, and a compelling story plot rocket this new hit into gaming greatness. A full 4 + Gin gems goes out to a highly impressive game that will undoubtedly turn quite a few heads as well as the "hands of time"