Starting your quest in Siberia, players will immediately be struck by the influence of Goldeneye not only in the levels' style and design, but also in the on screen interface. The life bar on the left and shield bar on the right are instantly recognisable as is the in-game menu screen which, short of Q-gadget watch border is exactly the same as its older forerunner. Missions are likewise split up into primary and secondary objectives with new objectives being updated at various points in the levels. And even though the Siberia level is the only level with the James Bond 'feel' to it, the GUI and Mission structure is retained throughout.

Try to attack the game in the same vein as the original and it will immediately become apparent that this time around a bit of strategy is required to complete your objectives. Although not essential, the quiet, slow-paced stealth approach will often yield not only more enjoyment, but also make your life easier.

This isn't always the case however as each level has its own feel which affects the way in which it is played. As mentioned, Siberia is very reminiscent of the Dam level from Goldeneye; camera's, snipers and alert guards stand between you and success, meaning stealth and slow steady progress is the key. Running in guns blazing however, will get you further in the enclosed confines of the Notre Dame cathedral where mindless zombies wait for you to trigger their attentions before attacking. And the ability to fire quickly and accurately will pay dividends in the Wild West. Here your opponents are already alert to your presence and from the various store windows and their lofty positions on roofs, will attempt to gun you down as soon as you draw within firing range. Whereas the cover from buildings was used as a place to hide and snipe in Siberia, in the Wild West it is simply a place to duck into whilst you reload your guns and plan who to shoot first when the guns start blazing again. And in Neo Tokyo, using the various buildings and archways to hide from detection is important when you are forced to start out unarmed.

Fortunately the enemy are no longer as dumb as their counterparts in the first game. Free Radical has taken it upon themselves to improve the enemy AI, and though not brilliant, it is sufficient enough to keep you from diving headfirst into most missions. Now enemies will 'hear' players who move within earshot without care, they will detect when a comrade falls nearby and move towards any loud gunfire. Some of your smarter opponents will also duck, roll along the floor and use their environment to provide cover. But don't expect them to call for backup or run away when outgunned, once you figure out their routines, taking care of them will become substantially easier.

In keeping with its new found stealth approach the Temporal scanner is a superb addition to your arsenal. Detailing the layout of buildings, enemies' positions and the sweeps of nearby security cameras it is an essential tool with which to make silent kills and your life easier. In addition to the scanner TS2 boasts a huge range of weaponry, over 30 guns with which to dispose of your opponents and most with secondary functions.

Multiplayer makes up the majority of content in Timesplitters 2 with the Co-op, Arcade and Challenge modes and it is here that the game really shines. The co-operation mode is self explanatory, allowing two players to follow the games storyline working in unison to achieve the same objectives.

Arcade mode is broken up into two parts Arcade League and Arcade Custom. League play consists of sections of short games which are played against various bots under different game conditions. Each game requires that you meet certain criteria, such as kill 10 bots in 30 seconds, to complete the task. Do this well and you will receive a platinum, gold, silver or bronze medal with gold and silver medals unlocking new levels, game modes and characters to use and play against. Platinum medals allowing you to gloat at beating the current record and Bronze meaning you're not quite playing hard enough.

The Arcade custom mode allows you to put together a multiplayer game against both computer bots and human players. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Bag and Bag Tag are available from the outset, with many other modes to be unlocked later, such as Assault, where one team has to achieve a set of three objectives before the time limit is up whilst the other team has to halt their progress. A similar mode can be found in Unreal Tournament on the PC. To its own advantage not only is this mode very easy to quickly setup so that you can immediately leap straight into the action, it is also vastly customizable and time spent exploring the options available will reap its own rewards.

Multiplayer in Timesplitters 2 is fast paced and furious, especially during mixed human - bot games where fire fights become huge sprawling affairs resulting in high body counts for all involved. Simple deathmatches inevitably become a race to reach the best weapon, but the fun is in trying to wrestle these from your opponents and powerful guns such as the minigun all have weaknesses to be exploited, whether it's overheating, slow reload or little ammo to play with. Each character also has their own statistics that affect their performance which you can turn on or off, providing the age old "well your character was better than mine" excuse.

Last up is the challenge mode, again medals are awarded for completion of tasks meeting set criteria. Here levels aren't deathmatch orientated and bar a few games, tend to be time based challenges. The medal system serves to bring you back time and again to shave valuable seconds off your run through the task.

Should you become bored with all of the available challenges, Timesplitters 2 provides a function no other console FPS to date has. Usually the mainstay of PC FPS games, the Mapmaker allows you to create maps of your own using various tile sets, enemy characters and objects. Putting together a basic map is very straightforward and simple. Maps are made up of tiles, objects and logic switches. Each tile represents a room or corridor and these are placed on a large 2D grid and linked together. Objects such as enemies, guns, ammo and starting points can then be placed to form the basis for a simple multiplayer or blast-a-thon map. Use of logic switches - make enemy appear here, if player stands here - can be used for those who want to produce a Story mode map and the option is there to type in your own mission briefing. The Mapmaker has beginner and expert modes, but even the expert mode can be picked up with relative ease. Time and patience spent can produce some interesting and enjoyable results which can be saved to the memory card for future use.

Graphics are excellent, though simplistic with a cartoon style, there are plenty of detailed touches; snow flakes which fall against the camera and gradually fade, reflective puddles, rain drops drizzling against the screen. The characters themselves are very well animated, there's a sadistic fun to be had in intentionally shooting your enemies in the foot to watch them jump around a bit or seeing your opponents body slump into a seated position after a silent shot in the head. Equally impressive to watch are the rolls and ducks characters make to avoid your gunfire. Cut scenes use the ingame engine and stick to being short and sweet; they work well in conveying the traits of each controllable character through comic movements and facial animations. One visible flaw is the slow running animations of player controlled character which can look strange in the co-op and mp modes. Slowdown also appears during split-screen games with all bots enabled, on the levels set outdoors. Fortunately it's not substantial enough to impact upon the game, but it is noticeable. Slowdown aside, Free Radical has also managed to shorten loading times which is always a bonus when you're keen to get a game started.

The music during the single player mode is also very good, with each track fitting into the scenario that the player finds themselves in. There aren't any stand-out tracks that will stick in your head to hum throughout the day, but the music does set the scene and mood for each level. However, as with most FPS games you'll find that most of the music is ignored during multiplayer sessions due to the frantic gameplay. The music is good enough that you won't need to switch it off, but you probably wont notice it too much whilst on, which is no bad thing. Each character and weapon has their own sound effects and the usual sounds of ricochets, bullets whizzing and explosions are all there and crystal clear in quality.

An FPS game lives and dies by its control methods and TS2 doesn't disappoint, even though controls are awkward at first they become second nature as the game progresses. All functions can be remapped as the player pleases and there is even a button spare to start with. Most player gripes will be due to the aiming via the control stick being overly sensitive which is bad for sniping. The strangely positioned Z button may feel useless as the alternate fire button to some and there may also be complaints about the soft feel to the shoulder buttons. But, as with all FPS games most players will find there is something they will want to change straight away, even if only to change the invert for looking up and down.

The single player mode in TS2 makes up less than a third of the games content and as such this title is geared more towards the multiplayer aspect. Demonstrated by the wealth of extra modes, characters and levels made available throughout the game. This isn't however, to say that the single player mode isn't any good; it is at least as competent as its console predecessors Goldeneye and Perfect Dark.

TS2 takes itself less seriously than the majority of FPS games available and this is borne out by the characters available, in their actions and the short stories for some of the challenges and arcade games. TS2's beauty is in its comic style characters and well realised multiplayer modes.

Imagine if you will a deathmatch mode for Halo where a player starts off on fire and has to run around tagging other players who then run around screaming whilst on fire. It would seem a bit tasteless wouldn't it? However imagine the same thing with the less realistic but more comic characters of Timesplitters 2, now throw flaming monkeys into the mix (don't ask) and this game mode is pulled off with aplomb. In fact, it is genuinely one of the funniest things you will see in a game. And no, I'm not making this up; Flaming Tag is a deathmatch mode for TS2.

If there was one fault that could be picked out above all others, it would be the lack of a system link up option for the GC. Bearing in mind that the Broadband Adaptor was intended for the Gamecube it's hard to see why its release wasn't accounted for. That said, there aren't too many gamers who will be willing to get together more than a couple of Gamecube's and television's for which the vanilla split-screen mode would suffice on a decent sized television.

This is one of the best console FPS titles available, it stands up to our friend Halo, but on its own terms, taking the best of Goldeneye's stealthy single player action and Quake 3's fast and furious style multiplayer gaming. And thanks to the arcade and challenge modes there is a huge replay value that will keep you returning to this title time and again.