Let’s get this out of the way right now: this is a blast from the past. TimeSplitters 2 was one of my favorite games growing up,  one which I have a deep nostalgia for. I would go over my neighbors and we would play Assault on Training Grounds until we were able to run that mission in under a minute. Revisiting a game like this always gives me pause though. Have you played GoldenEye recently? It’s nowhere near as smooth as you remember. I was worried the same might be the case here. Thankfully, even in early access, that is not the case. 

TimeSplitters Rewind is a fan remake of all 3 TimeSplitters games, one that has been in development for 13 years. It’s been through development hell for quite a few reasons, chief of those being they wanted to do this right: the developers of this game got permission from the rights holders to make this, provided it was never sold for a profit. This is great for me for a few reasons, one of which being I don’t need to pay for the experience: can’t have a sunk cost if I never sink anything into it! But it’s actually beneficial to me for a more important reason: I no longer have to worry about the legality of playing a game like this. Copyright law and ownership makes determining the morality of playing some fan games very messy, but this I can play with a clear conscience, which I’m very happy about. And it bears repeating: I get to revisit an upgraded remake of games near and dear to my heart, for free! Somebody pinch me. 

If you’re not familiar with the franchise, TimeSplitters began in 2000 with its first entry of the same name. It’s about the ongoing conflict between a dying humanity and time-traveling aliens called Time Splitters, and how one Riddick knock-off turned the tide. It’s 3 games were designed by former GoldenEye and Perfect Dark developers, and the lineage shows: the games are a perfect evolution of concepts from those series. It was relatively highly acclaimed for the times – the serious gunplay but silly antics made for a winning combo full of arcade fun. The shooter landscape would look much different if it had never existed, that’s for sure. Fans clamored for a 4th entry, but due to Free Radical being acquired, it never came to be. But that didn’t stop the fans.

The entire history is on Rewind’s website, but to make a long story short, fans made a basic game, they got and kept the rightsholders’ permission to make this game, and since then hundreds of developers have volunteered their free time to make Rewind, purely out of passion. Their goal is to make a “greatest hits” version of all 3 games rolled up into one, with modern graphics and improved (but familiar) game-feel. At the time of publishing, the game is still in early access – while it’s had a long development time, in this job landscape devs can only devote so much time to a passion project that cannot pay you in the slightest. (That it’s got the amount of volunteers that it does is actually quite impressive).

Content-wise there is plenty to do, with the campaign of the first game, multiple challenge modes, and online multiplayer all being available to play. But there’s still so much more to be added. As such, this review is really just a preview, and I’ll be saving any spiritual analysis until the full release. But my enthusiasm cannot be contained, so it could not wait. Once the game is fully complete (however long that takes), expect my full, nuanced review.

Right away when reviewing something from early access, you have to remember the state of things. As consumers we’re often used to receiving things in a (relatively) polished state. I know it doesn’t always feel like it on our end, but most games do in actuality ship pretty functionally, with most things working as they should and any existing bugs being dubbed “shippable”. When you step into an early access game, you’re stepping into a work-in-progress much earlier in the process. If as a reviewer you don’t approach the game with a level of grace and understanding to that point, you are missing the forest for the trees.

All this sounds like preamble to the flaws of the game, but its not. I’m not saying this game needs no improvements, but for where it is at developmentally, and for the price point it’s at, this game is fantastic. The gunplay is fun and modernized while still retaining the touch of retro shooters, merging the best of both worlds. The graphics combined with the cartoony visuals feel like a full realization of how I pictured the landscapes and characters when I was a kid. The music is no longer restrained by any memory limits or synthesizers, and so it too is a perfect marriage of modernity with nostalgia. The game is firing on all cylinders, and though I expect it to take a while, I am certain this will be stellar once development wraps on it.

There are issues, some of which are known, and others which just have to be accepted as coming with the territory. There are your standard glitches – nothing to write home about. It can be frustrating when your game crashes for some unknown reason, but I can’t be surprised. It’s infrequent though, so my experience with the game was never hampered by it. Then there’s just features that haven’t been implemented yet. Right now, the enemy AI is relatively stupid. In the original entries, you could pump up (or down) the enemies’ intelligence in your multiplayer setup, but as that’s currently impossible, matches with bots are too easy.

Overall, TimeSplitters Rewind is absolutely worth your time; if you’re a fan, jump in now and keep the hype going. And if you’re new to the series, keep this on your radar for full release. I guarantee you, if they stay on the track they’re on, it’ll be some of the most fun multiplayer you’ll have ever experienced.

About Matt "PBnJ" Palardy