PS Plus Subscribers Can Play Some of the Wildest Multiplayer Modes Ever Devised In This New Addition
Take a step back in time.
With a paltry number of newish games available each month, PlayStation Plus has never been as good of a deal as Xbox Game Pass, even after the latter’s disastrous price increase. But while PS Plus falls short in recent releases, it makes up for it with its Classics library, a collection of older games from across PlayStation history. That collection proves its worth this month with TimeSplitters and TimeSplitters 2, a set of games that so thoroughly encapsulate early 2000’s design principles that we’ll probably never see anything like them again.
TimeSplitters is essentially PlayStation’s answer to GoldenEye 007, with similar gameplay and a fantastically chaotic multiplayer mode that completely overshadows its campaign mode. That campaign mode is still plenty of fun, thanks to its winning premise. The story follows a massive cast of characters spread across time, all chasing their own goals until a group of time-traveling aliens butt in.
Every level plays out in the same basic way, with players hunting for a particular item in the world, then bringing it to a waiting portal. It’s simplistic as hell, but aggressive enemies and the ability to play in co-op still make it a decent way to spend an afternoon. In TimeSplitters 2, level objectives get a bit more complex, though its basic mechanics remain the same. On top of that, the game’s time-hopping premise does make for a visually varied campaign. One moment you’re running through Chicago with a tommy submachine, the next you’re blasting bad guys in the Blade Runner-inspired NeoTokyo.
Three Timesplitters games are now on PS Plus, but it’s the first two that are classics.
But multiplayer is where the real action is, and the already spectacularly fun split-screen battles of TimeSplitters only got better in its sequel. While both games were great in their time, TimeSplitters 2 is a clear improvement in every way, and it’s one of the most purely fun multiplayer games of its generation. Multiplayer matches allow four players and 10 bots to duke it out, making for an incredibly chaotic contest. There’s nothing that special about the feel of TimeSplitters 2 gameplay and nothing you couldn’t find elsewhere in terms of level design. The series’ time-travel premise means there are lots of diverse weapons to choose from, including alien energy rifles and grenade launchers, but what sets TimeSplitters 2 apart from every first-person shooter before or since is its ludicrous variety of multiplayer modes.
Standard multiplayer modes like team deathmatch and capture the flag are present, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg. There are too many modes to even go into here, but here’s a sampler platter of some of the most absurdly fun options: Virus marks one player with a glowing aura, which spreads to anyone they touch — the last one not to be infected wins. Shrink is a simple deathmatch, but the lower your ranking is, the smaller and harder to hit your character gets. Gladiator makes only one player able to score points through eliminations, and defeating them marks their slayer as “it.” And the silliest of all, Monkey Assistant is another mostly normal deathmatch, except the player with the lowest score gets a gang of armed monkeys that help them by attacking other players, turning the match into absolute carnage.
TimeSplitters knows better than to take itself too seriously.
To really get the full experience, you also need to keep in mind that TimeSplitters 2’s characters are as absurdly varied as everything else. When you imagine those multiplayer modes above, make sure you’re picturing the participants in battle as giant ducks, Elvis impersonators, giant gingerbread men, and demonic clowns.
If that’s somehow not enough, players can further mix things up by creating their own levels. Both TimeSplitters games include a map editor, letting you design stages in several themes, from industrial warehouses to alien spaceships. It’s not the most advanced level editor around, but it’s all you need to ramp up the chaos of multiplayer matches by devising the wildest map you can dream up.
There’s nothing deep or sophisticated about the TimeSplitters games, and that’s exactly their appeal. Entire micro-genres have popped up in the past few years to try to recapture the simple fun of shooters from the early 2000s and earlier, and now PS Plus subscribers can play two more games that helped inspired them. If you’re looking for one of the best evenings you can have in front of your TV, round up a few friends and give TimeSplitters a shot.
