TimeSplitters

TimeSplitters for PlayStation 2 is a first-person shooter developed by Free Radical Design and published by Eidos Interactive. Released in North America in October 2000 and in Europe the following month, it was one of the early games associated with the PS2 launch period. The original TimeSplitters is a PS2-exclusive entry, rather than the later cross-platform TimeSplitters 2, and introduces the series' mixture of fast shooting, wildly different historical backdrops, and alien adversaries that can interfere with events across time.

The single-player Story mode moves through nine missions set between 1935 and 2035. Its loose framework brings together a varied cast of characters, each pursuing an enemy and an important object in a different era, while the hostile TimeSplitters complicate those pursuits. A player enters each scenario in first-person view, fights through its location, obtains the mission item, and takes it to an exit portal. The changing periods give the game a deliberately broad range of settings, from period-themed locations to science-fiction environments, instead of keeping the action in one continuous campaign setting.

Story levels support three difficulty settings. Difficulty affects more than enemy pressure: harder runs can introduce additional routes or areas, giving repeat attempts a practical reason beyond simply raising the challenge. This focus on finishing levels efficiently also feeds into the game's unlock structure. Clearing the campaign opens Challenge mode, a set of timed tasks on fixed maps with objectives that differ from the main artifact-retrieval missions.

Arcade is the multiplayer centerpiece of TimeSplitters on PS2. Up to four people can compete on one console through split-screen play, while computer-controlled bots can fill out the match. Players can set up individual or team contests, choose characters, weapons, arenas, and victory conditions, then take on modes including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Bag, BagTag, Knockout, Escort, and Last Stand. The result is a flexible local multiplayer mode designed for short custom matches as well as longer sessions against a mixture of friends and AI opponents.

The PlayStation 2 release also includes MapMaker, a built-in tool for constructing multiplayer arenas from pre-made rooms and corridors. Builders can select a visual theme, arrange the available pieces into a layout, place items, and adjust lighting for individual tiles before testing a map in the game's multiplayer modes. Maps can be saved to a PS2 memory card, making this feature a natural extension of Arcade rather than a separate game mode.

TimeSplitters was Free Radical Design's first project after several key staff members from the teams behind GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark formed the Nottingham studio. That background helps explain its emphasis on immediate first-person action, configurable split-screen play, bots, and unlockable content, while the time-travel premise distinguishes its locations and character roster. The 2000 game began a three-title TimeSplitters series, followed by TimeSplitters 2 in 2002 and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect in 2005.