Nottingham, UK-codeshop Free Radical is readying this good-looking first-person shooter that exudes a welcome sense of humor.

Players complained that the original TimeSplitters for the PS2 awkwardly bundled a robust multiplayer mode with a thin single-player adventure. This time around, Free Radical is going all-out to fashion a deep single-player adventure.

The story has various characters chasing zombies and other troublemakers through nine colorful historical eras. These include medieval Paris, the wild wild west of 1851, 1930s Chicago gang wars, 1990 Siberia and a robot factory set in a Blade Runner-like futuristic Japan.

Like their fellow countrymen at Rare, the blokes at Free Radical like to leaven straight-ahead action with daft bits of humor. While extinguished enemies in most first-person shooters lie down and quietly fade away, the enemies in TimeSplitters 2 writhe and groan like so many bad actors playing the final act of Hamlet. In Chicago, you're charged with protecting a bookkeeper so nebbishy he makes Carrot Top look like Russell Crowe. Other clever touches include ricocheting bullets and remote-controlled guns and lasers.