It's a strange feeling when you don't enjoy a game highly regarded as one of the best of its kind. It's even stranger when I played the first one just fine, which is considered inferior to its succesor, and enjoyed it regardless. I thought TimeSplitters 2 would be just more fun shooting time with better graphics, sound, gameplay and imporvements overall.

But I couldn't do it. I gave this game so many oportunities, I forced myself to play it numerous times thinking to myself "Come on, it's short and everyone says it's good, just do it". But as I said I couldn't do it.

But why? Why did I enjoy the first, more archaic TimeSplitters more than the second one? For me at least, comes to the Goldeneye style aiming system which was the same for the first TS too so you must be thinking that I'm going insane. But the truth is that in the first game guns were more spammy, with higher rates of fire so aiming wasn't such a problem. Also TS 1 was simpler, you usually just ran to the end of a level and ran back to the beggining. TS 2 is similar in concept but there are more objectives to do, both main and secondary and little explaining on what to do most of the time. And finally, the worst for me, the quantity of enemies which I think in TS 2 is exagerated to the point that it's barely managable. Basically the awful aiming, slow weapons and overwhelming number of enemies made me want to quit.

You could say that all that whining like a baby was due to severe lack of hands, and I would agree but in the end video games are art, and art is subjective. You may like TS 2, and even I like TS 2, its charming aesthetics make me smile. But most important, video games are for having fun, and I wasn't having fun at all so I stopped playing.

In my humble opinion, one of the best games ever made.

In terms of just sheer variety of gameplay, story, visuals, style, it's hard to think of many games that match up with this.

There's a real magic to the way it bounces so effortlessly from 1930s gangster stuff in Chicago, to Gothic Undead Horror in 1800's Notre dame, to Sci-Fi Terminator-Future War. Each with it's own gameplay, music, visual look, array of time period correct weapons. In Chicago you'll meet an informant, bust up barrels of liquor, whereas in the robot factory you'll control laser-turret cameras, and fight a giant drill-armed machine boss. One is moody with a noir sort of jazz OST, and the other features pounding techno bass.

All this is held up with a tight responsive control scheme, a huge array of unlockable content, a side arcade league mode filled with bots to face off against, challenge mode content. But best of all a full comprehensive multiplayer, that practically never stops being fun.

I can easily return to this game whenever, it's perfect.