TimeSplitters (video game)

TimeSplitters is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Free Radical Design, published by Eidos Interactive, and released in 2000 as a PlayStation 2 launch title. The game's premise focuses on players controlling a variety of different characters across different time periods over a span of 100 years, seeking to resolve a personal matter involving their own foes, which brings them into contact with an alien race known as the TimeSplitters, who seek to interfere.

Much of the gameplay bears similar aspects to previous FPS games, primarily GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark. Alongside the story mode, the game features additional game modes, including multiplayer, as well as a map maker for players to create custom maps. The game received favorable reviews upon release, and later spawned two sequels  – TimeSplitters 2 in 2002; and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect in 2005.

TimeSplitters, along with the other games in the trilogy, were rereleased on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 as a PS2 Classic in 2024, with trophy support, a rewind feature and improved loading times.

As a first-person shooter game, TimeSplitters bears several gameplay and presentational similarities to GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark, including a similar aiming system and unlockable options through quick level completions. The game features several modes for players to partake in, including story mode and multiplayer modes.

The game's story mode can be played alone or co-operatively with one additional player. Every level in story mode can be played on three difficulty settings; several aspects, such as the enemies' aggressiveness and the addition of new areas, vary with the chosen difficulty. Each story mission focuses on players seeking out an object in the level, and then bringing it back to an exit portal. Completing the story mode on the easiest difficulty unlocks "Challenge Mode", which provide certain goals on a pre-set map within the time limit.

The game's multiplayer mode, known as "Arcade", allows for up to four players and ten computer-controlled bots to compete individually, or in up to four different teams in certain modes. There are six multiplayer modes and aspects of each mode — such as the weapons and levels available, the winning condition, and managing characters — can be customized to match player preference.

A level editor in TimeSplitters, referred to as "Map Maker", allows the player to create their own level from a selection of various pre-made tiles. Light settings of the tiles can be edited individually and items can be added to the map. The map can be given any one of five themes; these themes change the interior shape of the tiles and their appearance. The player can also play and test their levels in any certain multiplayer modes, as well as saving them to their memory card.

TimeSplitters takes place across a series of nine fictional locations across a variety of time periods between 1935 and 2035. The story focuses on the efforts of 18 characters, as they conduct their own personal agenda in their respective time period, seeking to defeat a foe of theirs and recover something important. During the course of this effort, the group come across an alien mutant race called the TimeSplitters, who seek to prevent this, and ultimately impede the characters where possible.