TimeSplitters Rewind has arrived in early access more than a decade after its initial reveal, marking the end of a long and often uncertain development path. The fan-driven project was first announced nearly 13 years ago, and its team has repeatedly grappled with the realities of building a large-scale, volunteer-made game. Despite earlier statements committing to a November release, it’s still notable that the project has finally been made available to download, given its turbulent history.
Rewind occupies an unusual space in the broader landscape of community-led game preservation. It blends elements of a remake, a compilation, and a spiritual successor to the original TimeSplitters trilogy, aiming to serve both returning fans and players who may have missed the series during its early-2000s run. The team describes it as a broad collection of maps, modes, leagues, challenges, and story content drawn from the first three games. While the long-term ambition is to include nearly everything from the trilogy, the early access version represents only a portion of that plan.
The current build features 28 maps, 91 playable characters, 41 weapons, and support for 10-player competitive multiplayer across 20 arcade-style modes. It also includes the full TimeSplitters 1 campaign with co-op, making this more than a simple proof of concept. The developers have been transparent about the state of the release, openly acknowledging that its substantial amount of content comes with a comparable number of bugs. Given the game’s protracted development and shifting technical foundations, early instability is not unexpected.
Rewind’s journey has been unusually complex—even by fan-project standards. After Crytek, the then-owner of Free Radical Design, granted permission for the mod’s creation, the volunteer group known as Pantheonyx began building the project in CryEngine. From there, the effort became a long chain of false starts and technical resets. One of the more striking examples occurred when the team briefly pivoted to Unreal Engine 4 using Unreal Tournament as a base, only to discover this approach violated Epic’s development terms. The build had to be abandoned entirely, and another engine transition followed before the team settled on UE4 in 2018.
Development regained momentum around 2020, when the project’s de facto art lead released an internal update video that doubled as a call for new contributors. The response significantly expanded the team, allowing production to accelerate after years of stalled progress. Even so, bringing TimeSplitters Rewind to early access required sustained community coordination and a willingness to rebuild major components multiple times.
Whether the project succeeds in recapturing the appeal of the original games remains to be seen. The TimeSplitters series was admired for its offbeat premise and for helping translate fast-paced shooter design to early consoles, but modern players may find aspects of its structure dated. Still, a careful reworking of assets and systems has the potential to underline what made the trilogy notable in the first place. This early access release gives the public its first substantial opportunity to gauge how effectively the Rewind team has balanced authenticity with modernization.
