In all honesty, I never played the original Timesplitters. If you recall, that was back during the dreamcast when... Well, we won't get into that. It will suffice to say that Transmetal wouldn't touch a PS2 game with a ten foot lance. But now that it's sequel is on the Gamecube, its time for me to stop watching Macross and start playing videogames. What hard work this is!

Timesplitters 2 is a fast-paced first person shooter. The scenario works something like this; aliens get into a war with earth. To beat us, the good guys, they go back in time and screw things up in the past. Your job is to travel into the different time periods, beat back the alien influence, and bring a "Time Crystal" back to your time. It's fun sci fi game, whose "warp gate thingy" smacks of a Stargate rip off. But that's ok. Stargate kicked ass.

The first thing I noticed is that graphical style. I know this is getting real cliche, but they did a pretty cool job with the graphics. The cut screen at the begining of the game got me right into the scenario, and actually got me interested fairly quickly. The first level is a subtle joke of sorts. It's a level about Soviets, right? The team that made Timesplitters 2 is comprised of some of the core members who made the 007 Goldeneye game for N64, widely considered one of the most important games in the evolution of the FPS genre. At first, the controls wiereded me out. They're different than other games I've played. Once you get past that however, it's really enjoyable.

The first thing that will strike you about the graphics is how superbly animated the characters on. I don't know if its accomplished through adding a ton of extra polygons or what, but it creates an incredible theatrical feel. I haven't noticed ANY pre-rendered footage, everything is in realtime. The graphics are as smooth as silk, and as detailed as... well... they're good. The levels themselves are usually well desgined, and vary in theme. There's not much slowdown, and I can't think of much else to say. The graphics really lend a hand to the various scenarios in the game, which gives them a good grade in my book . BTW 60 fps doesn't hurt either.

I don't know if they hired professional voice actors or something, but the characters voices comes across really well. Especially considering how cinematics are important to each scenario, the voices mean alot. They lend alot of humor and atmosphere to the situations. The music varies appropriately with each level, although the music in the the last few levels isn't as interesting as the first couple. Sound effects work well. In general, the sound was well done.

There's some argument among my friends, and their opinions on Timesplitters 2's gameplay. On one hand we have those who completely enjoy the arcade approach to the FPS. On the other hand, we have those Halo fanatics who can't stand the distinctly non-Halo approach in this game. Personally, I greatly enjoy both Halo and Timesplitters 2. The only disadvantage of its arcade style gameplay is that it works well in short doses. Playing Halo for hours on end isn't difficult, with Timesplitters 2 you take breaks every half hour or so. The gameplay is fun, objective oritented, and multiplayer wise its phenomenal. Some won't enjoy it, but most will.

Controls are a little strange compared to what most console FPS verterans are used to. Since MDK2 for dreamcast, pretty much every FPS has used the same control. Not that anybody wants to give that game credit, but hey. Essentially you use the left joystick to move forward/back/ and strafe left/right, while the right joystick is used to move your viewpoint. The thing that makes it different, is the gun moves faster than the viewpoint camera. In practice is can be used to your advantage, but it will confuse those accustomed to Halo - type controls. Oh yeah, you can't jump. Oh well.

It's quite a fun game in shorter-than-Halo doses, and the multiplayer is incredible. In fact, it's reason enough to buy this game for gamecube. Just beware of it's fast wham-bam-thankyou-maam pace.

+ Story scenarios add fun / humor

+ Multiplayer

- Only good in short doses

? Anyone else notice the "No Monkeys Were Harmed In The Making of This Game" during the credits

Overall (not an average): 7.5/10
A fun arcade shooter that will appeal to those with short attention spans and lots of friends