One of the things Free Radical wanted to do with
TS2 was to include a more fleshed out Story mode. While it is a big improvement over the original's 'find this item-get it back to the green circle', it still feels a tad disjointed and out of place.
Like most good time traveling epics, the game opens up in the future as a team of space marines are storming a space station held by the TimeSplitters. Just as the two marines enter the base, the last group of TimeSplitters are making their escape with the Time Crystals. From here, the game takes a very Quantum Leap type spin where the marines jump into the bodies of different people to not only fix the problems of their time period, but also retrieve the time crystals. Like in the original, each level plays out as its own episode. I'm still mixed as to whether I liked this approach or not. On one hand, it gives you a great stopping point during the game. Instead of saving mid-story and always wondering what is going to happen next, you can stop at the end of each episode. The obvious downside to this is that there is very little holding each of the stories together, resulting in a scattered story that makes very little sense.
Just as with the original, the Story mode is more of a sideshow for the real meat of the game - the Multiplayer mode. This is where the game excels, but what do you expect from the guys who brought us Goldeneye? In addition to the ability to blast up to 4 of your friends in all-out fragfests, you can also include up to 10 bots in your Multiplayer melees. Multiplayer modes range from the standard Capture the Flag and Deathmatch modes to Leech, where you gain health for inflicting damage on others. You can even choose between Chilled, Normal, and Frantic speeds for your matches. There's even the option to set your own weapons, over 150 different characters to play as (each with their own attributes and weaknesses), dozens of maps and game options, and gun toting, trigger-happy monkeys. Yeah, you hear me right, monkeys.
Creative gamers can even build their own multiplayer maps with the aide of the easy to use Map Creator tool.
As if the Story and Multiplayer modes weren't enough to keep you busy, TS2 also features tons of extras for you to unlock in the Arcade mode, a challenge mode where you gain rewards based on how well you perform certain tasks such as breaking windows or shooting the heads off of zombies. Rewards include paintball guns, big head modes, new characters, and new challenge modes.
