[quote name='Scorch']
Unfortunately, the single-player game is super short. It's easier than the other two games in the series, and it never delivers the feeling, that gut feeling, that you've just played something unbelievable. It's over in about six or seven hours on the medium difficulty level which, needless to say, is disappointing. To be totally honest, the TimeSplitters series has never offered up much of a story, and though this iteration probably delivers the most of the three, that's still not saying much. The first game was nothing more than capture the flag against an onslaught of AI enemies, and the second game was just a crazy fetch-quest for the slippery time crystals, just like this one.
Time out.
IGN reviews games, right? Games have stories, and most have bonuses like multiplayer. You can have multiplayer all the live long day, but without a solid story, it deserves a low score. Halo 2 deserved less than what it got, but at least it was competent. This.. they call it short, has no "oompf", "basic" level designs, "substantially stutters" when there's four or more people on the screen and/or an explosion, and non-interactive backgrounds. At this late in the game, EVERY game should have FULLY INTERACTIVE BACKGROUNDS, and they should ALL have ragdoll physics. There's no excuse.
It's completely lame. The game's rated 9 despite its extremely obvious flaws. Unbelievable. IGN needs to get their head out of EA's ass.
"Reader Average -> 7.3".. that sounds about the right area, maybe a high six.[/quote]
I don't really disagree, but, one of your points is that multiplayer is a bonus. Its not a bonus. Its an integral part of the game. For some games, it is the game. The game is the multiplayer and the single player is a bonus. That is not to say that you can't have just one, some are single player only and some are multiplayer only, and thats just fine. But its not a bonus anymore, just as story isn't a bonus.
How hard is it, compared with everything else that goes into making a videogame, to make a good story, and to make good levels to flesh out that story? I mean, you have the graphics, the AI, all the other stuff you have to do, and you can't get a good single player game in there? Unbelievable. Tons and tons of games are guilty of this.
OXM gave it a 7.9, which is probably closer to what it deserves.