TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is a classic PlayStation 2 video game that was re-released for modern consoles in 2024. That means players have had the pleasure of blasting time traveling beasts with futuristic weapons for more than two decades. Alongside zany humor and slippery robot cats, the game has a lot of assets to keep things fresh and timeless.
In just one word, the game is fun. It’s silly, doesn’t take itself seriously, and has a unique cast of characters who add meaningful depth to its world.
Oftentimes in media, time travel mechanics lead to paradoxes and loopholes that can be very aggravating to the audience once noticed. TimeSplitters: Future Perfect avoids this problem by directly addressing and poking fun at the most common issues.
For as many compliments as can be said about the core experience, trophy hunting for TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is unfortunately not as praiseworthy. There are some issues with the game’s trophy set, which was made to be far more difficult than it had any right being.
In this post, I will share my experience with earning the platinum trophy in TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, with a focus on how you can follow in my footsteps. After reading the article, you should have a good understanding of what you’ll be getting yourself into if you decide to earn the platinum trophy for yourself.
Table of Contents
Why TimeSplitters: Future Perfect?
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is the pinnacle of the acclaimed series, blending action, humor, and intricate storytelling. Play as Sergeant Cortez, embarking on a time-bending journey across past, present, and future to thwart the sinister TimeSplitters. Explore diverse environments from ancient temples to futuristic cities, each with unique challenges and visual splendor.
— PlayStation Store
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is a game that holds a special place in my heart. Back when times were simpler, my mother used to come home from work with small surprises intended to brighten my day.
She worked long hours, so it was a very special way that she showed she cared when my little kid brain tried to argue that absence was proof of lesser love. Since I’ve been a huge nerd for video games practically my entire life, often that is exactly what I would receive.
The type of game I’d get was always a big question mark, however. I think she liked to keep me guessing. One week, it was Naughty Bear; the next, it was Call of Duty: Black Ops. Once I even got Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked for the Nintendo Wii. (Only play this if you truly want a laugh.) TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is yet another game my mother just so happened to grab for me.
When I first received TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, I’d never heard of it before. To this day, it is the only one in the series that I’ve played. I had no idea what to expect, but the cover art for the game made it seem like a cool, futuristic shooter. This isn’t exactly an incorrect assumption, but it’s not entirely sound, either.
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect does not take itself seriously. “Cool” is certainly not the word I would use to describe its themes. Really, the game is very silly, and is completely unrepentant in its humor. Going in expecting something serious almost makes it even funnier.
This title is excellent for players looking for an experience, not just a game. The gameplay is decent, and the multiplayer modes were genuinely quite fun for the time.
When TimeSplitters: Future Perfect was brought back for modern consoles with trophy support, I knew I had to dive back in. It had been more than fifteen years since I last played, so I was well primed for a nostalgic run.
That said, anytime a ghost from the past reappears in your life, you run a huge risk. Will it live up to your rosy memory, or will it be an underwhelming disappointment? TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is one of those titles where it could go either way at first glance.
The Trophy Hunt
Story Mode
The first step to the trophy hunt is straightforward: complete the story mode. TimeSplitters: Future Perfect has a bite-size campaign that can be completed in about five hours. You can do so on any difficulty that you like, however, you will eventually need to beat the final level on hard difficulty.
One of the cool things about this game is that you can play the entire story mode in splitscreen co-op. Take advantage of this boon now, as the later steps in the trophy hunt are strictly single player only.
Once you’ve beaten the story, I’d recommend going back for any level-specific achievements you may have missed along the way. There are five of these trophies:
- Groovy Space Man, Well Done: In 1969 The Russian Connection, you need to defeat the four enemies at the start of the level without being spotted. This must be done in single player, not co-op. Equip the silencer on your pistol and be patient, taking down one enemy at a time. I’d recommend using the rewind feature to find the right openings for each enemy.
- So, What Do I Win?: In 1969 The Khallos Express, you will eventually enter a train car that has a slot machine. You just need to win once to get this trophy. The machine occasionally gives the option to save a result, which makes it easier to get the required three in a row.
- Break Shot: In 1994 Mansion of Madness, you will quickly enter a room with a pool table. For this achievement, you simply need to use your Temporal Uplink ability to launch a pool ball at a zombie, killing it.
- It’s Time to Split!: Near the end of 1994 What Lies Below, there is a timed section where you must escape the laboratory. To get this trophy, you need to do so with more than a minute to spare. Just ignore all the enemies along the way. It can be annoying when you get body-blocked, but don’t worry too much; you have tons of leeway. If you fail, simply use the rewind feature to go back and try again. No need to replay the whole stage.
- Save Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself: This achievement is earned when you complete any time loop section without Past Cortez losing health. I personally liked 1994 What Lies Below for this achievement, where you must deal with zombies and ghosts in the tunnels.
League Mode
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect has a bonus mode called league mode, which consists of a significant number of missions using the game’s various multiplayer modes in creative ways. To get all the related trophies, you need to master these modes and earn high scores.
There are four trophies that can only be earned in League Mode:
- Bronze League: Earn bronze trophies for all amateur league matches
- Silver Lining the Walls: Earn silver trophies for all honorary league matches
- The Golden Standard: Earn gold trophies for all elite league matches
- You’ve Gone Platinum: Earn 10 platinum trophies in league matches
For some reason, the achievements increase in difficulty as you go. It is very easy to get bronze trophies in the amateur league matches, but it is significantly harder to get gold trophies in the elite ones. They increase both the required trophy rarity and the underlying challenge at the same time.
I won’t get into strategies for every single challenge here. If you need help, the PSN Profiles trophy guide is a good place to start. The biggest factors that will aid in your success are to use your radar, find the best weapons in each stage, and take advantage of the rewind feature as needed.
Challenge Mode
I hope you’re not tired of getting high scores. TimeSplitters: Future Perfect has a second bonus mode called challenge mode that is very similar to league mode.
Instead of focusing on specific multiplayer modes, challenge mode consists of wholly unique stages that are unlike anything you’ve seen in the game so far. That includes such mini-games as racing, target practice, and even basketball.
There may only be one trophy for th entirety of challenge mode, but do not be fooled—it is a doozy. “Challenge Accepted” is unlocked for completing every challenge match with a gold trophy. There are seven sets of three stages for a total of 21 challenges to complete with gold scores.
Once again, I won’t get into the details for every challenge. Check out the PSN Profiles trophy guide if you need some pointers.
Since this was unclear to me, I will point out that the target practice challenges are scored based on accuracy, not speed. You need to find where the weak point of each enemy is to get the most points. For example, the character below should be shot near the midpoint.
Miscellaneous Tasks
If you’ve finished everything above, then you are very close to the platinum trophy. There are only two trophies that you may still be missing.
“Mapping Out Your Future” is unlocked by creating a new map in MapMaker and playing on it. TimeSplitters: Future Perfect has a feature that allows players to create stages to be played in multiplayer, kind of like the Doom games.
This achievement is very easy to get. Access the creation feature via the main menu and add some items. Importantly, there must be a spawn point for two different teams. Save the level, then load and play it.
“The Gang’s All Here” is exactly what it sounds like: an achievement for finding every unlockable character in the game. You should have most of these by now.
The only ones you may still be missing are unlocked by getting gold trophies in all league and challenge matches. If you have bronze or silver trophies in any of these, you will need to go back and improve your scores.
Below is an image of every playable character available in the game. The game will often brag about how many there are to collect on loading screens—and it may be intimidating when they are all compiled in one image like this—but it really isn’t a big deal in practice. You’ll have no issues getting them all.
And voila! With all that said and done, the platinum trophy should be yours.
Old Game, Old Problems
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect originally released two decades ago in 2005. It’s no wonder that when viewed from a modern-day lens that the game suffers as compared to recent releases of the same genre.
Gamers nowadays are accustomed to creature comforts like frequent healing items, consistent aiming mechanics, and comprehensive tutorials. This game, sadly, misses the mark on lots of these items.
Let’s start with the biggest no-no: lack of clarity with mission directives. This fits under the “tutorials” label. Many of the arcade missions have admittedly interesting, thematic in-universe descriptions. This would be great except for the fact that the flavor text often completely forgets to tell the player what is actually needed for the relevant challenge at all.
This leads to many frustrating moments where you simply have to figure it out for yourself by loading in and hoping for the best. Take, for example, the pictured mission below. It is pretty unclear what the actual goal is, especially during moment-to-moment gameplay.
Throughout this mission, you need to interact with several switches in a way you never had to in the main game, deal with brand-new turret enemies that are hellish, and find your way to a floating Chimp Head, which can only be defeated with explosive damage.
None of this is obvious, explained, or even tangentially related to any other content in the entire game. It’s like being dropped off on the first day of school without your backpack or the name of your homeroom teacher. You’re just lost.
It is also harder than it seems to aim at enemies properly. This is no more obvious than in the league mode mission Astro Jocks. In this stage, you are only allotted a Dispersion Gun and Plasma Grenades with the express goal of getting first place within two minutes and fifteen seconds.
Trying to get headshots with the Dispersion Gun is an exercise in patience and a lesson in anger management. You absolutely need to figure it out, though, because the required time to beat is incredibly inflexible. You can rewind to try for clean headshots on every enemy, but good luck on maintaining your cool. You will quickly see how inconsistent the gun is to use.
The biggest problem I have with TimeSplitters: Future Perfect isn’t the game itself, it’s the design of its trophy set. The achievements pertaining to the arcade seem downright mean-spirited.
It feels like the developers may have designed the achievements around the rewind feature existing in this release. The RNG of where enemies spawn can be the complete pass/fail condition for many of the arcade levels, almost necessitating the use of the feature for timely success.
If the final enemy spawns cross-map and you only have ten seconds left… Well, that’s just tough luck. But if you choose to rewind a bit, there is a chance that they will spawn somewhere closer instead. Enemy spawning logic would otherwise be completely out of your control, meaning you’d need far more attempts to win a challenge without rewinding.
Personally, I think the achievement “You’ve Gone Platinum” is a good middle ground. Let players complete a specified number of missions at the desired skill level and call it a day. Requiring gold trophies for every elite league stage is absurd. It wasn’t rewarding; it just made me feel exhausted.
I think having a handful of step-up achievements would have been the better choice, like “earn 25 bronze trophies,” “earn 20 silver trophies,” “earn 15 gold trophies,” and so on.
This lets players pick their preferred challenges, while still requiring them to display mastery over the game’s mechanics at a high level. Asking players to prove themselves against RNG elements under strict constraints is never a good ask unless the game is specifically built around it.
Reflection
TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is the classic case of a game better left in the past. Too often, otherwise good titles can be soured by a poor trophy hunting experience.
While the game’s memory wasn’t ruined by my trophy hunt, there is definitely a shadow cast over it by some combination of Astro Jocks and Virtual Brutality. To be honest, you could name any annoying stage from the arcade modes and I would probably agree with you that it dampened my enjoyment of the game just as much.
I don’t regret getting the platinum trophy for TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, but I also wouldn’t recommend it to other trophy hunters either. There are too many frustrating pieces that grind the overall experience down. That said, if you are looking for a fun game to play with friends, give it a go on an alternative account or console. It’s great for something low-stakes… not so much your trophy hunting profile.
Have you ever been betrayed by a game from your childhood? This is a very common story in my trophy hunting career, unfortunately. Look no further than Naughty Bear, which is such an unassuming yet difficult trophy hunt to pursue.
Alternatively, what games from your childhood turned out to be great trophy hunts? For me, it would have to be The Legend of Dragoon. That one was incredibly satisfying to complete.
When it comes to playing games from your past, you have to weigh whether you can stomach beloved titles potentially getting sorted in the betrayal category in order to find the gems that stand the test of time. Sometimes, it’s worth it. Sometimes, you’ll be cursing your fate. That gamble is part of what it means to be a longtime trophy hunter and gamer.
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