In a nutshell: Remember TimeSplitters, the excellent FPS series released between 2000 and 2005? After being stuck in development hell for an unbelievable 13 years, TimeSplitters Rewind, a fan-made remake of the original trilogy, is now available for free.
TimeSplitters Rewind, which you can download free of charge from the website, is described as a greatest hits collection of maps, modes, leagues, challenges and story content from the originals. The Unreal Engine-powered remake isn't three separate games, but a single title that attempts to capture the spirit of the trilogy.
In its current early access release, players can enjoy the first game's entire story campaign, which can be experienced both offline and online in co-op mode. It boasts 28 maps, 91 characters, 40+ weapons, 20 arcade game modes, and support for 10-player online multiplayer matches.
This launch has been a very long time in the making. In 2013, Crytek, which acquired original developer Free Radical Design and all of its IPs in 2009, gave its official blessing for a fan-developed project involving the TimeSplitters IP and even provided the original games' assets.
But the development ground to halt a year later as the remake lost all its programmers and leadership. The project lead left in 2015, the same year that the team was forced to rebuild the game in Unreal Engine 4 after discovering that using Unreal Tournament as a base was a violation of Epic's development terms.
There were more setbacks over the years, including the whole thing almost being scrapped on more than one occasion. You can check out all the details of the very long and event-packed history of the 13-year development here.
But the developers never gave up. Now, thanks to the efforts of more than 200 contributors who have committed hours to the project, along with some hobbyists and other AAA game developers, we can finally try what is being called the largest amount of free content ever provided in a video game without monetized elements.
Unsurprisingly, the minimum system requirements are about as potato-like as you'd imagine. It asks for a GTX 760, 8GB of RAM, and an Intel Atom C2750 @2.40 GHz – though you will need 35 GB of free disk space.