If you were a gamer in the early 2000s, you definitely played TimeSplitters, the ultimate console first-person shooter that took players by storm. Inspired by the competitive elements of games like GoldenEye, TimeSplitters perfected the formula, but has struggled to make a resurgence.
But now TimeSplitters fans finally have an outlet as TimeSplitters Rewind, a fan game inspired by the original games, was released on Nov. 23. Announced by social post and YouTube trailer, the release quickly went viral as fans of the dormant series piled on.
Image Credit: TimeSplitters Rewind
Combining the elements of the three original games, TimeSplitters Rewind entered into early access yesterday with some remarkable features, including 28 maps, 96 characters, and a single player adventure mode.
The release is the culmination of over a decade of work, with the first rumblings of a TimeSplitters Rewind project coming all the way back in 2013. After initial fast development, the game grinded to a halt in later 2014, with Crytek, the rightsholders of TimeSplitters eventually being sold.
In the intervening time, TimeSplitters Rewind lived on as an Unreal Engine 4 project, a Quake mod, and more. In 2021, Free Radical, the developers behind the original TimeSplitters announced work on TimeSplitters 4, but the game was eventually canceled after the 2023 game industry mass layoffs.
Image Credit: TimeSplitters Rewind
But despite all this, TimeSplitters finally has a true successor in this fan-powered game. And best of all it’s entirely free. Players can download the game on the official website, although it has been overloaded with download requests. There are also download mirrors available on ModDB.
We’ve played a few rounds, and can comfortably say, this was like going back in time, albeit with tighter controls thanks to the mouse and keyboard support. The single-player is fun, and although we’ve experienced a few crashes and bugs, we really can’t fault an early-access, fan-made, free game for having them.
However, as with any fan game, the looming pressure of potentially legal action could loom. TimeSplitters Rewind received official blessing from the games creators in 2013, but that would likely not hold up if any current rights holders decided they wanted to shut things down. We’ll hope and pray that no one decided to ruin this, but given how the games industry has traditionally operated, it’s hard to stay fully optimistic.
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Featured Image Credit: TimeSplitters Rewind
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