It's been almost five years since Free Radical Design, free from the realm of Rare Software Ltd., introduced us to their first real first-person shooter project away from the Bond franchise. Timesplitters appeared alongside the PlayStation 2 during its launch in October 2000, and has since become a staple in the first person shooter genre, combining a thrilling time travel storyline with gameplay that suited the dual analog stick format and graphics and sound that truly made for a next generation experience. Free Radical has since followed suit with the enjoyable multiplatform release of Timesplitters 2, expanding on some ideas and improving on the multiplayer aspect.

Now we come to 2005, and the series has since fallen out of the hands of Eidos Interactive and into the more capable promotional hands of Electronic Arts, a company that knows how to boost a good franchise (Burnout 3, anyone?). Timesplitters: Future Perfect marks the latest in Free Radical's long-running series, and while it doesn't do that much in terms of being strikingly original, it remains a chaos-filled good time all the same, and first-person shooter fanatics will want to sign up for it immediately.

The game follows the adventures of Sergeant Cortez, the latest soldier who's been assigned to stop a devastating group known as the Timesplitters, terrifying creatures who have been zapped back into different time eras to disrupt the timeline and thus uncreate human existence. As Cortez proceeds, he'll battle all sorts of enemies from different timelines, from old-school soldiers and monsters to top-of-the-line robotic droids, programmed to kill. Cortez's adventure will take him through many specific time periods in the past, present, and the future, and, along the way, he may even find himself teaming up with himself from another time era, taking down enemies and laying down cover fire so you can proceed. This "inputting yourself to help yourself" idea works rather well, although that's not entirely what the game should be weighed upon.

The Story Mode sadly ends a bit too quickly, after only completing several stages. However, Free Radical has wisely kept the humor of the game intact, with a good deal of laughs and weird objects coming into play as you're assigned to new time eras. The game works in a tongue-in-cheek fashion that suits the brand just fine, especially when cat racing somehow gets involved. I won't go into exquisite detail- let's just say you'll have a field day with it when you get there.

The gameplay in Timesplitters: Future Perfect feels just like other chapters in the series, as the game runs rather smoothly and allows you to have precise aiming thanks to the use of both analog sticks. You'll have a number of weapons in your arsenal, as most of them change depending on the time era you're currently trying to clean up. The gameplay never lets up, although there are moments when you're really feeling like you're not playing anything absolutely genuine. Oh, well, if it ain't broke, why fix it, right?

Graphics-wise, Future Perfect delivers a presentation that's just as good as Timesplitters 2 was, if not a little better in some small details. The animation of the wacky characters can't be beat, as they move around like in real-life fashion and collapse to the ground in unique fashion as they're dispatched of with your gun-of-the-moment. The level design is also worthy of mention, as there are enough nooks and crannies and hidden rooms to keep you deathmatching well into the next time era. And the game loads up quickly and never loses its detail, not even during the most frantic of firefights. This game surprisingly looks the part, and looks it well.

As far as sound, it delivers where it's supposed to. The sparse comments provided in the voice acting are well delivered, if not of a Shakespearean level of any kind, and the sound effects are very good, right down to the cocking of your automatic rifle or the gunfire effects. Music selections aren't exactly the most memorable, but they do fit the game. I wouldn't go and hunt down a soundtrack in a hurry, though.

What the game lacks in terms of depth in story mode, it more than makes up for with a number of multiplayer options, both offline and on with the Xbox Live network. You can team up with a friend to mow down the opposition in a co-op mode that's rather engaging, or you can really go for the time gold and clean house in one of the game's many four player offerings, all resulting in a great shooting time for all. Your personal self doesn't really get involved enough here, but, really, we're still trying to input him into the main game where he does some more good than bad. Xbox Live support is in full swing, and connecting to a battle is a mere few clicks (and maybe a minute) away. I had no problems with a few of my sessions.

Timesplitters: Future Perfect is, well, not perfect. It suffers from the single player experience coming up so short and the lack of really stepping forward in the series, but I won't complain because it's still nothing but a good time for FPS fans, complete with a heavy load of arsenal and just enough butt to kick. While not the "perfect" game experience, Future Perfect is still a great game that would make for an ideal "future" addition to your library.