David Doak would rather see Second Sight revived.
With Timesplitters seemingly poised for a rebirth, series creator David Doak has spoken about his first-person shooter franchise’s presumed comeback.
In an interview with Videogamer, Doak spoke of the problem the much-loved franchise would have upon returning: “The easy thing for people to say [of a new Timesplitters game] is, ‘Oh yeah it’s not as good…’ It’s really hard to surprise somebody with that,” he said.
That’s not to say he’s not in favour, however. “When I saw [the IP acquisition], he explains in a separate article, “I was really pleased because I just didn’t like the idea of there never being anything done with it.”
Doak started his game development career at Rare, where he built his first-person shooter chops working on classics Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark, before founding Free Radical Design. At Free Radical, he created three Timesplitters games and released Second Sight to middling reviews in between the second and third Timesplitters games.
Doak believes Second Sight may be a better fit for a new game, and believes by just applying some technical improvements to the existing game, a developer could produce a successful remake:
“I think with Second Sight, even if you just remade [it] and fixed all the shonky physics and the controls and stuff, people would still go, ‘that’s great.'”
While a proposed Timesplitters sequel may be no closer to happening today than it was in 2004, Koch Media acquired the Timesplitters license earlier this month, and a new release seems likely. Doak says he’s sent those involved in the acquisition an email to say good luck.
Timesplitters last showed up as a Homefront: The Revolution Easter egg seen in the above video. Homefront: The Revolution was developed by the Koch-owned Dambuster Studios, which is the studio formerly known as Free Radical Design (and includes some of the original designers among its staff).
Nick Santangelo is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia. He loves video games and sports, but not sports video games. Follow him on Twitter.