Assault

Assault is an Arcade mode that appears in both TimeSplitters 2 and TimeSplitters Future Perfect.

Aim

The aim of this mode depends on which team you are playing on. If on the red, or attacking, team, your aim is to progress through the level and complete set objectives within a certain time limit. If on the defending blue team, your aim is to stop the attackers from completing their objectives and to hold them back until the time limit has elapsed. This mode was only featured on a few maps on each of the two games, and in TimeSplitters 2 human players could only play on the red (attacking) team.

All of the assault matches have automatic turrets to aid defenders with their objectives.

TimeSplitters 2

In TimeSplitters 2 there are three maps with Assault modes and the player can only play on the red (attacking) team.

Training Ground

This Assault sees you moving from one base to destroy the interior of the second.

Objective 1 - Seize The Middle Ground

For the first objective you will start off in the base the blue team occupy in a Capture The Bag game. You simply have to reach the waterfall in the middle of the map to complete the objective. The major obstacles in your way are three automatic gun turrets which can hit you from a significant distance.

Objective 2 - Destroy The Fuel Supplies

For this objective, you will respawn by the waterfall and have to move up the slope to the enemy base. Around the ruined buildings are six fuel barrels which must be destroyed. In this area are another pair of automatic gun turrets which, although having shorter range than those encountered earlier in the level, can still bring your attack to a hasty end. Be careful - the gun turrets aren't easy to destroy.

Objective 3 - Destroy The Computers

You will respawn closer to the base for this final objective and must get inside the main building to destroy the many computers. There are no more gun turrets, but the many respawning enemies still present a challenge. Once every computer has been destroyed, the game is over and the attacking team has won.

Scrapyard

This Assault involves invading an underground base beneath the titular level and making your way to the control room.

Objective 1 - Breach The Airlock

For this objective, you simply have to get inside the first room of the extensive subterranean structure. There are, however, eight automatic gun turrets between the spawn points and the area you must reach. Five of these are before you even reach the structure, but all have limited range. Four of the exterior turrets fire lasergun bolts and the top-centre one lobs grenades. The airlock itself has another two lasergun turrets inside. A final grenade turret on the ceiling of the objective room completes the base's outer defences. The shear volume of automated weaponry makes the first objective very difficult to complete.

Objective 2 - Secure Cooling Towers

The second objective again involves reaching a certain point, this time considerably deeper into the complex. You will respawn by the airlock and need to get past a spiraling stairway and then a large chamber with two cooling towers to complete the objective. On the way there you will encounter another seven gun turrets, mainly in the spiral stairway and the large room at its base. On top of everything else, the later turrets launch rockets with deadly accuracy. Getting into the corridor beyond the cooling tower room will complete the second objective.

Objective 3 - Seize Control Room

The third objective requires you to get to the heart of the base. You will spawn in the cooling tower room and have to go around a passageway due to the main access door being locked. Along the way will be a pair rocket turrets, three plasma turrets and a final lasergun turret. The two rocket turrets are particularly tricky in that they are very near to the spawn point and can kill you before you've even prepared yourself for the final stage. Getting past the last lasergun turret will take you to the control room and completion of this very challenging Assault mission.

Hangar

This match requires you to sabotage a plane's take off.

Objective 1 - Destroy all the autoguns

There will be about ten to twelve autoguns spanning the area from the start till the locked door at the end. Some are on the ceiling, although most are on the floor, susceptible to S47 grenades.

Objective 2 - Open the Hangar Door

As soon as you have cleared out all of the autoguns you will have to go up a staircase to reach the door control switch. The main opposition is a final autogun (oddly not included in the first objective) and swarms of bots, often packing Rocket Launchers.

Objective 3 - Destroy the Barrels

Much like the training ground objective, destroy the three barrels next to the aircraft's landing gear. Compared to the level's opening, this is rather straightforward.

TimeSplitters Future Perfect

There are four maps to play assault on this time round, Mars Prison, VR, Vietnam and the return of Training Ground. Also, the game introduces the option to play as the defending team, adding a new challenge to the scenario. In Future Perfect, the Mapmaker can be used to design custom assault levels for the first time.

Vietnam

The first assault arena involves your team attempting to escape enemy territory.

Objective 1 – Gain Entry to the Enemy Camp

Your first task is to pass through a tunnel, the entrance to which is guarded by a pair of autoguns, to the open area beyond. Often, a quick charge will allow you to complete this initial stage with almost no resistance.

Objective 2 – Radio in a Chopper

Across the open area is a radio set and another autogun. The main challenge here, however, is the opposing team, whose members swarm the area. Also introduced here is the new feature of objects that take several seconds to fully activate, a common occurrence in the new assault levels. This means you must stand next to the object and hold the action key, leaving you exposed to incoming fire. If you die before activation is complete, you must start over with your next attempt.

Objective 3 – Get to the Extraction Point

The last phase is another straightforward dash through the next, slightly longer, tunnel. Along the way is another turret, but as with the opening objective, this is very simple to complete if the player just keeps moving.

Mars Prison

This assault involves an assassination, with the target being detained inside a well-fortified prison complex.

Objective 1 - Breach the Prison Wall

The only way to punch a hole in the thick outer wall is by detonating an explosive container that has been carelessly left sitting next to it. And the only way to detonate the container is with the Timed Mines that are sitting in front of the main gate. Six Autoguns (four autoguns that shoot Sci-Fi Handgun ammo, and two armored autoguns that shoot minigun ammo) in the guard towers either side of the gate support the prison's defenders, who are free to shoot down at attackers with relative immunity. That being said, the container itself is relatively unguarded, thus making this first stage is fairly easy to accomplish.

Objective 2 – Override Security System

Once inside the prison the attackers must activate two consoles, each of which takes a couple of seconds. For this stage the most serious threat comes from the two turrets that are positioned perfectly to cut you down while you stand defenceless at the computers. The defenders are also troublesome, as they can easily surround you. Both consoles need to be hacked to complete the objective, but the order in which that is done is not critical.

Objective 3 – Secure the Barracks

The barracks merely need to be entered to be counted as ‘secure’. On the way, several slow-opening doors hold you up, allowing the two ceiling autoguns along the route to lock on to you, and also give the defenders, who will probably be behind you, a chance to catch up.

Objective 4 – Deactivate Prison Lockdown

The next task involves navigating the first floor balconies to reach a small room containing several computers. The smallest of these controls the cell bay door. Although the room can be difficult to find, speed often ensures the console is activated before the defending team even has a chance to get within firing range.

Objective 5 – Assassinate the Prisoner

After the cells are unlocked, you must make your way through a small courtyard riddled with turrets and down into the cell block itself. One final, awkwardly placed turret guards the last doorway. The prisoner, Dozer, is in any one of the cells. Any type of damage will kill him.

VR

Unlike the name suggests, this level is radically different from the regular arcade level. The attackers have to cripple the VR's systems to destroy the main generator.

Objective 1 – Gain Entry to the Compound

The attackers initially spawn at the base of a hill topped by a pair of imposing bunkers. Each one gives the defenders a perfect line of sight down onto the switch which controls the doors in between the structures. There is also a very powerful and accurate plasma turret in each bunker, the destruction of which is almost a necessity if activation of the door switch is to be achieved.

Objective 2 – Download Security Codes

Beyond the main doorway are two ramps leading upwards, and in the area at the top are two consoles. Again, both of them must be activated in order to unlock the next door.

Objective 3 – Upload Virus to System Core

Two floor turrets protect the next area, before another wide hill leads up to the console the attackers need to reach. Another pair of turrets positioned either side of the computer hinder progress considerably, but they can be destroyed from below without fear of return fire.

Objective 4 – Destroy the Main Generator

The generator is through a narrow passage and then down a set of ramps. Normal munitions are more than sufficient to take it out. Again, if the player moves quickly, he can be assured most of the defending team will be far behind and of little or no danger.

Objective 5 – Destroy the Inner Core

Two tunnels lead back to an earlier area of the level, where a new door has now been unlocked. Beyond is the core, a giant floating monkey head, and the only way to destroy it is by throwing a Plasma Grenade into the open mouth. Although this can prove difficult for beginners, it is again more or less a case or charging in before the defenders can catch up to you. If they do, finding time to make the tricky throw whilst dispatching enemies can be very difficult indeed.

• A possible glitch is in this objective. The room before the ramp that heads up to the core, the one with unusual walls blocking a large square in the middle, is vulnerable to plasma grenades. Throw a plasma grenade into the middle of the square, and the core above is destroyed.

Training Ground

Training Ground is, with the exception of some minor changes to the positioning of the autoguns and the removal of the two manual turrets, identical to its TimeSplitters 2 incarnation, with the added option to defend as well as attack.

Defending

Defending on all of TimeSplitters Future Perfect's assault levels is, depending on how many bots the player places on the opposing team, usually one of the most frantic modes possible in any of the games. Success depends on holding the waves of attackers at key choke points in each level, such as a narrow doorway that every member of the assaulting side must pass through to reach an objective. Defence is considerably more challenging than attacking, and it is very easy to become overwhelmed, especially when respawning. However, due to its intense nature many players in fact prefer defending to attacking, if only because of its desperate Last Stand feel. However it is much of a relief that you are not going to have to put up against the turrets, unlike the attacking side as well as having a greater arsenal than the latter.