With their signature wacky humor, gameplay reminiscent of Perfect Dark, and amazing customization suite, the Timesplitters games captured a loyal audience eager for a loose, fun shooter experience. I fondly recall TimeSplitters as the franchise that allowed me to play as a monkey wielding a flamethrower. For me, this will always be one of gaming’s high water marks.
The TimeSplitters franchise has been absent from the market since 2005’s TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, a very serviceable game that never quite caught the imagination like the goofball funhouse of TimeSplitters 2. When it was on the ropes financially in 2009, original TimeSplitters developer Free Radical Design was acquired by Crytek. Employees from Free Radical were folded into Crytek as Crytek UK, which has been rumored to be developing TimeSplitters 4 off and on since its foundation. So far, all fans have to show for these rumors is some pretty great concept art and little else.
Nonetheless, new rumors of a TimeSplitters 4 release have begun to pop up since this year’s E3 trade show. Though there was no definitive announcement of the title at E3, it was whispered that a working build of the game was shown off to industry insiders. This bit of gossip combined with the concurrent rumor that Crytek had acquired the development kit for Microsoft’s next-generation console. Thus was born the sketchy news that Crytek was actively developing TimeSplitters 4 as an Xbox 720 release title.
Well, this appears to be one of those rumors that is far too awesome to actually be true. Not only did Crytek recently clarify that it is not working with an Xbox 720 development kit, they have come forward to shed light on their plans for the TimeSplitters franchise.
Avni Yerli, one of the Crytek’s original founders, recently stated that the company is, “. . . thinking about [TimeSplitters] but we’re trying to decide what we could do best with the IP, where we could bring it.” In an interview with Now Gamer, Yerli acknowledged Crytek’s abiding love for the TimeSplitters franchise, but also admits that the studio is unsure of how to approach another installment of the series. “There are no concrete plans yet,” Yerli concluded.
And so another exciting rumor peters out in an anticlimax. Just as Crytek’s involvement with the Xbox 720 turned out to be wind and ghosts, the fate of TimeSplitters 4 is once again left ambiguous. While Crytek’s devotion to the games is heartening, the lack of certainty about their future will come as a blow to franchise fans. At the very least, we now know that the revival of the series is some way off–if Crytek UK is still hashing out the design portion of development, it will almost certainly be a couple more years before we’ll see a finished product.
Are you an avowed fan of monkeys with flamethrowers? Does Crytek’s announcement about TimeSplitters leave you disappointed? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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Source: Now Gamer