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What do you get when you mix 2 parts GoldenEye, 1 part Vin Diesel parody? If you said Faces of Death, you're not even close, but if you said TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, then give yourself a pat on the back. TimeSplitters is that rare breed of games that is as fun as, and emulates every redeeming aspect of, the classic Goldeneye with striking resemblance. As an N64 fanboy, TimeSplitters satiated that near insatiable longing for a GoldenEye port that I've been feeling for years now, and then some. Future Perfect is, to say the least, overwhelming despite the short 6 hour single player campaign that has Cortez, the perfect Vin Diesel parody, (Stupid quips that have characters going WTF in response? Check.) jumping from decade to decade, century to century in his quest to destroy the time crystals.
The single player campaign has Cortez routinely running through worm holes and saving his own past and/or future self from death throughout the game's 13 levels. In his quest to destroy the time crystals and prevent the current war from ever taking place, Cortez travels from 1924 Scotland and its antique weapons to 2401 current time and the modern laser weapons of the day. All of these years are tied together in a trite story that seems to be designed for little more than to relay the player from level to level and give reason to some of the gameplay elements. (Such as saving yourself and revisiting past levels) Fortunately for the story, the dialogue of the many characters is actually quite humorous and will most likely evoke a laugh or two. Although quite short and linear, the single players packs a nice punch and deserves to be knocked off in a single sitting for a lazy afternoon.
Free Radical, as usual, left the better portions of TimeSplitters: Future PerfectTimeSplitters got most of my love. With the ability to play custom maps and so many online modes, I had a hard time justifying putting anything else in my Xbox. For once, rankings actually mean something: In Shrink mode, the better your online ranking, the larger your character, the smaller your opponent. Finally some incentive. The virus, capture the flag, deathmatch and other modes are just more reasons to be playing this game online, and did I mention you can play as monkeys? Or deers, robots, zombies, or whatever the hell else you want.
When it comes down to it, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is brimming with personality, and that alone puts it above most of its peers. Although not so impressive by itself, the single player modes are complimented by a slew of unlockables and challenges, but still, TimeSplitters seems to have been made with the multiplayer gaming in mind. It's fun, nerve racking, and funny and it very may well take its place besides GoldenEye as the pinnacle of mindless multiplayer fun.
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