A Rehash of the past this is not

The wacky animated characters who shoot at eachother all night long are back in Timesplitters 2, and everyone is laughing as frag after frag takes place in the laid back universe of...well...the place you choose. This second installment features everything that a good sequal should. More maps, more characters, unlockables, more gameplay modes, and wouldn't you know it? Cutscenes. The story mode basically is a treasure hunt for the time crystal. And in order to find it you must travel down a completely linear trail of people to kill and eventually end up at the end in which you escape through a time portal. Although the story is more comprehensibal this time around with the addition of biefings and cutscenes, it is still just a way for two people to kill things in co-op. The meat of the game is the arcade mode, in which players can choose everything from the type of players, weapons, locales, and gameplay mode. Although most of the new modes are only variations of deathmatch, so most players will stick to that. The overall visual feel of the original is still here, but character models and locations have been redone to have a bit more visual pop. Character animations are also a bit more fluid. These changes are evident once the older characters and levels from the first are unlocked. Although unlocking new war zones for your little virtual gladiators in the arcade challenge can be a chore at times, it manages to give a sort of time released capsul of fun, extending the life this game has. What this game does is boil down everything to what everyone wants to do, play together. And it capitalizes on this with flare and style. Timesplitters 2 is everything that a sequal to a great game should be. Don't fix what isn't broken right? Anyone who had enjoyed the first or multiplayer addicts will deffinately want to take a good long look at this one. If you have friends and a multitap at least.