I picked up the three games in the Timesplitters series during a PSN sale. I’d never played them before, but seeing those covers was still super nostalgic and they seemed to potentially be up my alley.

I put some time into this first game and I have some thoughts.

1. This is a FPS with maps based on different eras. There’s no story—even in the campaign mode you’re just doing a fetch quest from one end of the map to the other, shooting things en route—but the levels are timed, so there’s a competitive element, with multiple difficulty levels and unlockables.

2. Unfortunately, one of the unlockables is maps. I completed each map I could on easy mode, but I think there’s three maps I didn’t unlock. My guess is that I either need to get better times, or I need to complete the maps I do have (which is six) on Normal difficulty.

3. Normal difficulty is hard as hell. Some of that is the inherent wackiness of FPS controls from the early 2000s, but some of that is simply expecting players to die over and over to learn spawn locations and best paths through the maps. Which absolutely makes sense for a fps with limited maps and played single player. It’s just not something I personally plan on dedicating time to.

4. There are co-op modes (I didn’t try them, but I would imagine that’s the ideal way to play), as well as various game types (deathmatch, capture the flag, and such). I’m a big deathmatch fan from my OG Unreal Tournament days, so I could see myself coming back to this if the next few games don’t offer that mode, but otherwise I expect I’ll prefer whatever quality of life improvements they made in the sequels.

Anyway, I think this is a game worth loving. But there are a few caveats that create a barrier of entry to specific types of gamers, particularly those used to (and passionate about) turn-of-the-century shooters, especially those heavily influenced by 007 Goldeneye.