Very few discoveries are as special to a player as finding bonus content within a video game as an Easter egg. In the past, arcade games have made their way into existing titles such as the Yakuza series as a way for players to immerse themselves within the world the video game sets. Another example of this was the bonus Crash Bandicoot level at the beginning of Uncharted 4, played through Nathan Drake's television set.
When it was discovered in 2016 that Dambuster Studios' Homefront: The Revolution had hidden two playable levels of the cult classic FPS TimeSplitters 2, many fans were impressed by the developers' lengths to include such an Easter egg. Other players at the time wondered if Homefront: The Revolution included the entirety of TimeSplitters 2 at the time, however, years later fans have forgotten about the Easter egg.
Coincidentally enough, the Easter holiday was enough to bring up the discussion of a potential TimeSplitters 2 port hidden within Homefront: The Revolution, with developer Matt Phillips admitting that the code was lost. Several days later after the confirmation that the entirety of TimeSplitters 2 was buried inside Homefront: The Revolution, fans have uncovered the codes the developer once thought were gone forever.
Not only did the codes unlock the entirety of story mode for TimeSplitters 2, but also the arcade and challenge modes. Initially, the codes were discovered for the Xbox and PlayStation versions, but codes for the PC version soon followed, giving players a chance to play TimeSplitters 2 in 4K on PC for the first time without the usage of emulation. The player has to play through Homefront: The Revolution for a good part of the story to unlock the arcade cabinet to play TimeSplitters 2, but PC players can download a save to grant access to the arcade cabinet with minimum effort.
The success of the TimeSplitters series began as early as the success of Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark as several members of Rare had left the company to create their own company, Free Radical. TimeSplitters in itself was considered a spiritual successor to the two Rare shooters, in turn, receiving praise for the story, gameplay, and especially the multiplayer. Eventually Free Radical would become Crytek UK, working on the Crysis series starting with Crysis 2 until it became Dambuster Studios under the Deep Silver company.
TimeSplitters' last entry was in 2005 with TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, over 16 years ago, much to the frustration of fans who continue to ask for a TimeSplitters 4. In the past, THQ Nordic had teased the possibility of a fourth entry in the series but has since claimed the teases were nothing more than a joke. The legacy of TimeSplitters 2 among its fans led to the increase in positive reviews of Homefront: The Revolution on Steam, with almost all of its recent positive reviews referring to TimeSplitters 2 rather than Homefront itself.
Homefront: The Revolution is available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
