13 solid years ago, when PC Gamer global editor-in-chief Phil Savage was still grinding away as a lowly news guy, Crytek—which had purchased and rebranded Free Radical Design a few years earlier—gave a group of modders the official okay to make a “TimeSplitters CryEngine mod.” And like so many such projects, it floundered, popping up every now and then to offer continued proof of life but otherwise, well, not really adding up to much.
Nearly eight years after the last time we noticed that TimeSplitters Rewind was still twitching and drawing breath, it’s surfaced yet again, and this time it means business. A new TimeSplitters Rewind website (via PCGamesN) went live on the 25th anniversary of the original TimeSplitters’ release, we’ve got a new gameplay trailer to look at, and there’s even a countdown slowly ticking away that’s set to hit 0 on November 23.
“Sorry it’s taken us so long,” a message beneath the countdown states apologetically. “We’ve only been making the largest free content videogame ever.”
Is that true—is TimeSplitters Rewind really the “largest free content videogame ever?” I don’t know, but it sure sounds pretty big. Here’s what it’s bringing to the party:
- 28 Maps
- Online and Offline Story Mode
- 50 Arcade Leagues
- 32 Challenges
- 91 Characters
- 41 Weapons
- 20 Arcade Game Modes
- New Game Mode – Team Elimination
- Updated Game Mode – Last Stand
- Online and Offline Arcade w/Bots
- 10 Players Online
And yes, all entirely free, with no microtransactions or other “hidden costs.”
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TimeSplitters Rewind includes contributions from nearly 200 people, the website says, “some hobbyists and others AAA game developers,” who individually have poured anywhere from a few hours to thousands of hours of time into the project. The net result “is a fan project that serves as a greatest hits collection of maps, modes, leagues, challenges and story content across the original trilogy of TimeSplitters games.”
The site also includes a history of the TimeSplitters Rewind project, from the start of pre-production on TimeSplitters 4—which actually saw the light of day, in prototype form, in 2024—in 2007 to the current day. It’s a fun read, but it also sheds light on some of the turmoil that slowed development over the years, including engine swaps, developer departures, and numerous conflicts. Ironically, the onset of Covid-19 apparently gave the project a big push forward: The site says development of TimeSplitters Rewind “skyrockets” once the pandemic fully takes hold.
And five years after that, here we are: It took almost as long to make as Free Radical existed (not counting the ill-fated resurrection attempt a few years ago), but TimeSplitters Rewind is finally almost ready to go. The dev team hasn’t yet said where TimeSplitters Rewind will be available, so for now just keep an eye on timesplittersrewind.com.
andy.chalk@pcgamer.com (Andy Chalk)
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