Games

TimeSplitters is a first-person shooter known for its cartoon-styled graphics and wacky sense of humour. The games are developed by Free Radical Design and have been published by Eidos and EA.

On 15th August, 2018, Plaion (formerly Koch Media) announced that they had acquired the series from Crytek, along with Second Sight, another Free Radical Design game. They later traded the Second Sight IP with THQ Nordic which re-released the game on Steam.

Main Games

TimeSplitters

TimeSplitters 2

TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

Secret TimeSplitters Project

Story

The premise of the TimeSplitters series is the struggle of the human race to survive an onslaught of the TimeSplitters, a mysterious race that attacks humanity at various points in history. The entire span of the war is known as the TimeSplitter War. The hero of the series is Sergeant Cortez, a Space Marine sent back in time to retrieve the Time Crystals, the source of the TimeSplitters' power, along with his sidekick Corporal Hart.

In TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, Sergeant Cortez returns to Earth with the Time Crystals he retrieved in TimeSplitters 2. The General sends Cortez on another mission back in time to destroy the Time Crystals and stop the TimeSplitters from ever existing.

With the help of Anya, Cortez discovers the mastermind behind the TimeSplitters, Jacob Crow, and his mission to become immortal and rule the world. With help from numerous partners, Cortez must chase Crow's various incarnations throughout time to stop his devious plan once and for all.

Story mode is the mission-based mode that allows players to unfold the story behind the TimeSplitters.

Unofficial/Unreleased Games

There was also an aborted attempt to bring TimeSplitters to the Game Boy Advance, tentatively named "TimeSplitters Advance". TimeSplitters 4 was officially announced mid-2007.

Unofficially, a 2D top-down shooter based on Future Perfect called TimeSplitters Gold was developed for PC by TeamSplitters. That game had been handed over to anoter developer - llamaliker.

Another TimeSplitters game called TimeSplitters Mayhem was announced for beta release by Skulldust Studios, but got cancelled before release.

More recently, a fan-game called TimeSplitters Silver was released by Oblask Studios, but got cancelled in 2016.

Arcade Custom

Arcade Custom is the primary multiplayer mode for the TimeSplitters games. There are many maps, characters, and modes that can be unlocked for Arcade Custom. It allows nearly-complete customisation of your Arcade matches.

Arcade League

Arcade League is the objective-based challenge mode that unlocks a majority of the characters and other extras in TimeSplitters 2 and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. The original TimeSplitters does not have an Arcade League mode, however many of the challenges in Challenge mode follow the criteria of the sequels'.

Arcade League matches are manipulations of what is available in Arcade Custom. Each game has a specific mode, registered map, weapon set, bot set, and other settings. However, other things included in Arcade League matches are unachievable; Golem Guru is a one-on-one Elimination match where the opposing player has Stamina higher than is possible.

Also, the unobtainable Siberia and Consultant both appear in matches. It is presumed that Siberia was removed because of the small size of the map, and Consultant was removed due to the similarity with other characters, or the size of the biography/gallery screen.

Challenge

Though a Challenge mode appears in all games of the series, the original's is different to the others'.

TimeSplitters

In the original TimeSplitters, Challenge was a mixture of Arcade League matches and Challenges. Most games included a mode, and with settings achievable in Arcade Custom. However, a small minority of them are like the future games' Challenges, in which the objective can only be done in the Challenge. For example, Heist asks the player to stand on a ledge only and shoot down players of an opposite team stealing bags; the game plays like Knockout, but the scores are based upon how many bags they scored, and you have no base. Another example are Challenges in Section 1, being Behead The Undead matches like seen within future releases.

TimeSplitters 2 and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

The Challenges are similar to Arcade League challenges, but their objectives are often zanier and more humorous than those in Arcade League. Matches in Challenge have no restrictions and are missions played around sections of Arcade Maps and Story Maps that have targets.

For example, Cortez Can't Jump! is a Challenge in TimeSplitters: Future Perfect in which the player uses Cortez's Temporal Uplink's gravity ability to pick up balls and throw them into hoops, much like basketball. This takes place in the lift of Something To Crow About seen at the beginning.

Another memorable challenge is TSUG: TimeSplitters Underground. The player uses both analogue sticks to move two different turrets and the shoulder buttons to shoot down waves of Berserker Splitters.

Recurring Challenge types consist of:

Challenge Type	Description
Behead The Undead	The player knocks the heads off waves of zombies.
Cut-out Shoot-out	The player shoots cardboard objects, throughout a path or in one area waiting for them to appear.
Glass Smash	The player smashes windows and/or objects throughout an Arcade/Story level.
Melon Shooting	The player must snipe melons being carried by Monkeys (without shooting the monkeys).
TS 'Story' Classic	Like the missions of TS1, players must run, grab an object, and return it to the goal. Future Perfect is slightly different, in that many areas require the player to kill all enemies in the area to be able to pass onto the next section of the level.

Music

The TimeSplitters games are well-known for their techno and electronica-based soundtracks. The music for TimeSplitters 1 was composed entirely by Graeme Norgate, Free Radical Design's chief music man.

The music for TimeSplitters 2 was composed almost entirely by Graeme Norgate. The two exceptions are Goteki TS Remix, which was composed by Goteki, and another track (Wild West) that Norgate composed, but its guitar parts were played by Richard Parr.

TimeSplitters: Future Perfect's soundtrack was composed by Graeme Norgate and Danish musician Christian Marcussen. Ross Tregenza of UK-based electronica group Goteki has also contributed tracks to TimeSplitters: Future Perfect.