The reboot of TimeSplitters started life as a “clone” of Fortnite’s battle royale mode before becoming a remake of TimeSplitters 2, according to a former developer at recently shuttered studio Free Radical Design.
Speaking with fan wiki The Free Radical Archive - who claimed to verify the anonymous developer’s credentials via previously unseen characters models from the game - the developer claimed that the TimeSplitters reboot was developed initially as a free-to-play battle royale game. As well as a battle royale mode similar to Fortnite, the game was said to include modes familiar from the original TimeSplitters games such as deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the bag.
“Originally it was a Fortnite clone,” the developer is quoted as saying. “Nobody wanted that really, not even us, but we didn't have much of a choice for a long time.”
According to the dev, the reboot changed direction earlier this year, shifting away from its battle royale ambitions to become a straighter remake of TimeSplitters 2 - albeit with some new and modified levels, including maps pulled from the first game and sequel Future Perfect, and an alternate timeline story following Corporal Hart rather than original protagonist Cortez.
The shift in vision contributed to the lack of any marketing for the game, which was announced back in 2021, as the devs apparently worked with placeholder assets and lacked artists until the last year or so.
“Everything that's coming out now has been done over roughly the last 12 months,” the developer said, referring to pictures of concept art shared for former Free Radical staff. “The first 2 or 3 areas we started the art for were pretty much scrapped or needed redoing.”
The reboot - which was never
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