At first glance, Section 8 is initially in danger of looking like another generic super-soldier shooter. Citing inspiration from the likes of Starship Troopers, the developer has without a doubt made a halo-esque title. However, one need only look beneath the surface to see a game that not only improves on old FPS conventions, but also adds in some unique points that give it its own solid feel. On closer inspection, this has involved borrowing elements from other franchises, but who doesn’t these days? The pit of any new IP would be to feel like more of the same, which is unlikely to happen here.
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| Standard kit jetpacks allow you to jump really, really high. | What better way to augment your armoured suite by getting into an even bigger armoured suite. |
One of the first things that strikes you about Section 8 is its customizability. Following a similar class-based system like in Call of Duty, you can actually customize your ‘load outs’ straight from the off, without having to wait to unlock better weapons. Not only can you choose between main and secondary weapons – assault rifles, missile launchers, shotgun, etc... But you can also equip special gear to your suit as well. Whether this is a shoulder mounted mortar pack, a stealth system, or even just a handy knife, it widens the customizability options from player to player. The true subtlety of the customization isn’t realised however until you start fiddling around with the ‘passive modules’. Simply put, these are modifiers that you can equip to enhance various stats or attributes.
What you do here will undoubtedly be affected by your style of play. For example, sniper rifles in this game take several hits, (even if it’s a head shot) to actually land a kill. Equipping weapon boosters however will change that. On the other hand, those who like leading from the front and getting up close and personal will probably want to equip shield and health boosters so that you can survive longer, and so it goes on. Whilst there isn’t a truck load of options to play with, there are enough to ensure a decent level of diversity amongst the players, and to keep people constantly on their toes.
And this is all before you even enter the game. The second thing about Section 8 that strikes you is the spawning system. Whilst developers over the years have tried to be creative about how a player spawns, there’s only so much you can do, and they all eventually fall into the same pitfalls like spawn camping. Not with Section 8 however: In a system that was first seen in Medal of Honour Vanguard and Airborne, players latterly ‘hot-drop’ onto the battlefield from an orbiting spaceship. In a World War II setting this mechanic might have been new and even interesting for a time, but in Section 8’s high-tech future, it serves as a means to deliver fast-past, dynamic and continually evolving action.
Forget frontlines: the ability to drop literally anywhere on the map means that the battlefield is in constant flux. A place you thought secure a second ago could be retaken by an enemy in almost an instant, and you will often find yourself being ambushed from the rear and sides as people spawn in behind you. The typical structure of a map revolves around several ‘bases’ and installations that need capturing. These in turn generate victory points, and the first person to achieve the set amount of points wins. You can imagine then how hard it might to defend your existing points whilst trying to take others when the enemy doesn’t even have to go through you to get to your bases. Things are made slightly easier with the existence of fixed structures inside each base. Anti-Air torrents keep the enemy from dropping right onto a base you control, whilst rocket launchers and chain guns try to defend the entry points.
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| The action can be fast and furious, not to mention filled with beams of light. | Not only does it look quite cool, but is actually pretty snazzy to control. |
Combat really starts to get dynamic however with the requisition point system. Kill enough enemies and you will earn the right to deploy your own equipment anywhere on the battlefield. Supply modules will heal and repair you, as well as allowing you change load outs. Anti-personal or anti-vehicle (yes, there are vehicles) turrets can be deployed either to fortify a base, or form a kill zone elsewhere. You can even deploy your own Anti-air turrets to limit the areas where your enemy can deploy, as hot-dropping into an area protected by AA fire is a recipe for instant death.
The final coups de grace to a typical multiplayer map are the DCMS, or Dynamic Combat Missions. These are small ‘side-quests’ that you can unlock and activate during a match by performing certain feats. These can range from protecting an AI controlled VIP, to escorting a convoy, to planting a bomb in an enemy base. DCM’s can be triggered at anytime, anywhere, in any order, and multiple times if provided conditions are met, and should you complete them you get rewarded with extra victory points. The enemy also gets points if they thwart one of your missions, and vice versa.
Add all of these different elements together, and you may just be looking at one of the more interesting new IP’s to arrive this fall. It may not be revolutionary, it may not be ‘amazing’, but it’s good enough, and sometimes that’s all that counts. TimeGate are being ambitious with this project as they want to try and squeeze as many people into one game as possible. Provided you find a dedicated enough server, PC players could be playing matches with up to 64 people, whilst console players could be having a maximum of 32. Gaps in matches are filled by bots, which actually do a decent job. They may lack the finesse, subtly and ultimate creativity that human players have, but they sure know how to make things tough.
Unfortunately we’re unable to preview the single-player campaign at this time, but Section 8 seems geared for multiplayer anyway. The story follows a member of the 8th Armoured Recon unit in their war against the ‘Arm of Orion’ faction, and from what information is available at the moment, the story is going to serve as one long introduction to full on multiplayer, again, not necessarily a bad thing. In this sense the game really is trying to capture some of Halo’s charm in putting you in command of a faceless solider (even though you technically see his face).
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| Bases are captured by ‘hacking’ its central computer. | You can choose your load out, your squad, and where to drop whenever you die. |
It’s a shame, because even though a release date set at the end of August will give this game a head start, it will probably be quickly overshadowed by Halo: ODST and Modern Warfare 2, neither of which necessarily tries any more new things than Section 8. Still, with any luck this game will do as well as it deserves to do, and provided nothing drastic goes wrong between now and release, this should do fine. There are some niggles with the game: a lack of a standard mêlée option, graphics could do with a little bit of work, among other things, but this game should still prove interesting enough to hold its own.
Section 8 is due out on August 28th on Xbox 360 and PC. US & Canada Fileplanet members may participate in a free open beta, whilst a European beta is scheduled to begin shortly.
