TimeSplitters: История о путешествиях во времени и незавершенном продолжении.

TimeSplitters is a series of first person shooter video games developed by Free Radical Design. The games are often considered spiritual successors to the Nintendo 64 titles GoldenEye 007 (1997) and Perfect Dark (2000), due to overlapping elements in gameplay, design, and development team. Each game features a time travelling element in which players battle across a diverse number of locations and periods in history. The series' three games were released between 2000 and 2005, with the first as an exclusive launch title for the PlayStation 2. Development on a fourth game was being undertaken by a reformed version of Free Radical, owned by Deep Silver, a subsidiary of Embracer Group, before its closure in 2023.

The first game in the series was developed by Free Radical Design and released in October 2000, alongside the launch of the PlayStation 2. The game's story focuses around a temporal war against the TimeSplitters, creatures that use time crystals to travel through time, and by doing so, are disrupting human history. Its levels take place across different time periods between the years 1935 and 2035.

The second game in the series was released in October 2002. This was the first TimeSplitters game to feature online multiplayer, which was included for the Xbox and PlayStation 2; however, this feature was omitted from the GameCube version. In the following August, Rob Yescombe, scriptwriter for the series' previous title, confirmed that "TimeSplitters 4 is happening", but stated that the game was "in the very early concept stages, and as yet it's unsigned to any publisher." Despite the previously rumoured PS3 exclusivity, Yescombe stated that no specific release platforms had been established. "I'm sure it's possible to do a control scheme that works", co creator David Doak added, when asked about his thoughts on developing a first person shooter for the Wii. Of the game's timeline, Yescombe stated that "the game's not a very long way away but it's not a very short way away either. It's somewhere in the middle." An early logo revealed for the game was a parody of the Gears of War logo, with a monkey head replacing the skull from the original. Free Radical also sent out an early teaser trailer depicting a monkey in Master Chief's combat armour from the Halo franchise. This led to expectation of "in game potshots" at those games and other gaming franchises, however, after going into administration, Free Radical was bought out by Crytek and rebranded as Crytek UK in February 2009. Following this acquisition, the TimeSplitters project was subsequently placed "on hold." In a later interview, co creator Steve Ellis confirmed that:"TimeSplitters 4 was in the very early stages of development when Free Radical went into administration A small playable demo was shown to several publishers, but it didn't attract any publishing deals. "The poor reception for Free Radical's previous game, Haze, was cited as one of the main reasons for the lack of publisher interest, alongside the lack of marketability for "a game that is based around a diverse set of characters and environments." In 2012, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli expressed desire to work on the project, but also noted concern about its possible reception. He mentioned that crowdfunding a sequel had been suggested to him, but deemed doing so to be inappropriate for a larger company such as Crytek. Yerli's comments about a possible crowdfunding campaign prompted a petition to encourage such a venture, which Yerli himself endorsed; however, as of February 2014, the petition's page had reached only approximately half of the desired 100,000 supporters. On April 27, 2012, a spokesperson from Crytek confirmed that TimeSplitters 4 was "not in development", and in June 2012, Yerli stated that:"Look, I wish we were working on it. The thing with TimeSplitters is, if we made a sequel to TimeSplitters, nobody would accept this apart from some fans, and we don't know how big the fan community is unfortunately. "In July 2013, TechRadar spoke to Ellis who, when asked if TimeSplitters 4 would ever be released on 8th generation consoles (such as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One), replied with a statement suggesting it was highly unlikely:"I don't think there's any chance that's going to happen, you always got to the point where the marketing person in the room would say 'I don't know how to sell this' because they want a character that they can put on the front of the box. Every marketing person and every publisher we spoke to [said] 'You can't have that as your selling point' and maybe the sales figures of previous games backed that up. "This prediction was made more concrete by the shutdown of Crytek UK in 2014, with the majority of the company's staff moving to Deep Silver's Dambuster Studios. In April 2018, a collection of previously unrevealed concept art for the game was made available on Reddit, showing characters from multiple time periods and locations, including Ancient Greece and 1950s United States.

On November 29, 2012, it was revealed that, partly in response to a petition for the release of an HD version of the series' original trilogy, a group of fans had been given permission by Crytek to develop a TimeSplitters mod using CryEngine 3. The project lead, Michael Hubicka, stated that:<blockquote>"TimeSplitters 4 is our ultimate goal, but first we have to convince Crytek there is sufficient demand for the series through [an] HD Collection." The team have stated that, although the engine will give Rewind more of a modern look, they "didn't plan on fixing something that isn't broken." It is expected to feature both story and multiplayer modes and to be free of charge on the PC. In January 2020, the team announced a shift in the game's intended release model, stating that they would begin by releasing a small, but "feasible" amount of content initially, followed later by further maps and content. This was followed by a further update in December 2021 which indicated that the game was entering a "second round of QA testing"; however, no release window was provided.

During an interview in 2012 about their mobile game studio, Crash Lab, former Free Radical team members Steve Ellis, Martin Wakeley and Lee Musgrave confirmed that an HD version of TimeSplitters 2 had been in development as a downloadable product during 2008; however, the product was never released before Free Radical shut down. Ellis expressed a desire to see the HD version released eventually, opining that "it could be the catalyst that is required in order to raise enough interest in TimeSplitters 4 that a publisher might want to fund it." As an easter egg within Homefront: The Revolution, developed by Dambuster Studios and released by Deep Silver in 2016, players could use an in game arcade machine to play the first two levels of TimeSplitters 2, remade in high definition. During 2021 interviews, developer Matt Phillips revealed that the game actually contained a full 4K resolution remake of the game. however, he had given it previously to a friend to "leak" in a Discord channel, which the friend had been banned for from the channel, thereby allowing Xbox principal software engineer Spencer Perreault to obtain the code several days after the interview and share it on Twitter. Dambuster only realised there was a way to unlock the full game after Homefront shipped. The item contained the following in game blurb:"It's finally coming! The iconic shooter, which has stood the test of time to join the era of modern games. "This led to speculation that the company were planning to release this remake as a genuine product; however, a spokesperson for THQ Nordic confirmed that the item was "just an innocent Easter egg" and the vendor was "a character known especially for not telling the truth." A subsequent statement from THQ stated that:"The intention behind those easter eggs was pure fun. When Koch Media and Deep Silver are ready to talk about TimeSplitters, they will make sure to get heard."

In August 2018, Koch Media, a subsidiary of THQ Nordic AB, announced that they had acquired the intellectual property and publishing rights for TimeSplitters, with the intention of publishing future games in the series via their Deep Silver publishing company. In August 2019, THQ Nordic announced in their financial report that Steve Ellis had joined the company to "help plot the future course for [the TimeSplitters] franchise." Later that month, Dambuster Studios, which includes several former Free Radical staff members, replied to a fan on Twitter, confirming that Ellis had a team "handling the next TimeSplitters product." On 20 May 2021, Deep Silver announced via Twitter that it was reforming Free Radical Design as a new Deep Silver studio (based in Nottingham, England, location of the original Free Radical headquarters) to create the next entry in the TimeSplitters franchise. It was also announced that the new Free Radical would be headed not just by Ellis, but also by Doak, marking the return of both franchise creators amongst other "key original members;" however, it did confirm that development on the new game had not yet started, and would begin "in the coming months", once the studio was fully established. In the lead up to Christmas 2023 it was announced that Free Radical had closed. Many of its employees posted goodbye messages to twitter and the official website reading "404 Company not found :(". The future of the franchise is yet again at a dead end.

Each of the TimeSplitters games are first person shooters which also feature elements of exploration and puzzle solving. The series' visual style uses character models and expressions emphasizing more caricatured, cartoon like qualities and comic book inspired design, supported by animators from traditional 2D animation backgrounds. Many of the characters represent parodies of established pop culture stereotypes, such as the aristocratic English explorer or the suave secret agent, and many aspects of the series focus on often surreal and self deprecating humor.

Each game in the series included "MapMaker": a grid based level editor in which players could create their own custom content. The first game in the series only allowed creation of multiplayer arcade mode maps, whereas TimeSplitters 2 allowed players to also create single player story levels with objectives. directors David Doak and Steve Ellis set up the company, and were then followed by director Karl Hilton, soundtrack composer Graeme Norgate, and Lee Ray. As a result of this shared development team, gameplay similarities, and occasionally overlapping settings (such as a Russian dam, as featured in TimeSplitters 2), the TimeSplitters franchise is often compared to these predecessors,

Free Radical made an agreement with Eidos Interactive in February 1999 to "work for roughly three years on a novel FPS". This included strengthening the single player mode, which had received criticism for its lack of depth in the multiplayer focused original. The game's development team felt that the questions asked by EA during the early stages of its development helped them to refine their process, providing a "fresh approach which encouraged us to focus on specific issues." Prior to the game's release, the developers expressed a desire to establish an "ongoing relationship" with EA;