Section 8 is about a war between two factions, the 8th Armored and the Arm of Orion. Playing as Alex Cord of Section 8 of the 8th Armored, Alex is a paratrooper with super-advanced armor that is capable of doing any number of feats, from being a walking tank to the perfect soldier to a stealth spy. How is this possible? The armor is completely customizable, along with the weapons and equipment you take into battle.
From both a single player and multiplayer perspective, the game is all about customization. Making your soldier the best that he is for you personally. The preselected defaults, such as infantry, engineer, and stealth are fine in their own right, but obviously the selection everything customizable will not be up to your standards. Nor should they be.
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| lSection 8 is all about two things: using awesome power armor to take on the enemy, and... |
...dropping out of the sky from wherever you want, to cause the most havoc possible. |
While information on weapons and equipment are light (we know there are a ton of both, such as assault rifles, pistols, grenades of all kinds, and more), the real meat is in the "Passive Modules", which is the customization of the armor you wear. A select number of modules, the number of which is subject to change, are points that can be assigned to specific attributes, such as jet-pack strength, shield strength, running speed, and many more. Each attribute has four levels and there are ten attributes in all, so your gameplay style will have as much as an effect on the game as your choice in attributes.
And because you are a paratrooper, every level begins from the sky. Select where you want to be dropped from, and that's where you'll go. Anti-aircraft guns lay in wait near bases and elsewhere, so not every zone is a safe drop zone, but it's impossible to not appreciate the spawn system. Every spawn is another drop from on high, and another chance to get somewhere you weren't before. Not only that, if you find that your current drop zone is no longer safe en route, change your direction on your way down, or speed up or slow down the decent.
Because of the drop anywhere attitude, maps are also fairly large, so "Overdrive" is another key feature to Section 8. Overdrive gives players the ability to make their armor suddenly become a high-speed tank. No shooting, no special tricks, just high-speed running across the plains of whatever level you are on. It also means you can stroll over anyone in your way that isn't bigger and heavier than you.
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| Combat is explosive, so all power armor comes with shields and a set of upgrades for players to choose. |
Are you ready to drop into battle? You'd better be. |
Besides overdrive, all players have access to a jetpack, and there is no ledge too high to reach. All players are awarded points when completing objectives or "Feats", which are special objectives that appear on every map. Feats are a unique gameplay element that spices up every match, sort of like an in-game achievement for doing something special. What kind of feats will be available is still unknown.
However, upon completing feats, more combat missions will become available, and more money will be earned.
Money in Section 8 is used to purchase items, such as vehicles and turrets, which are literally dropped in the same way you arrived; wide eyed and screaming from the sky. These items can be dropped anywhere you can see, including inside the enemy base. They are all also destructible, so don't be careless with them.
The defenses inside bases, however, are indestructible. That's not to say they can't be damaged though. Every base starts with anti-aircraft batteries, so the missions don't end abruptly when everyone drops in on a base, along with other defenses. Once incapacitated, two repair drones will come out to repair it, and those of course can be destroyed, but more will come with enough time. But because of the drop-in items, there are so many excellent strategies to perform that, well, we can't wait to try some out for ourselves. One such strategy is going into the enemy base, disabling their anti-air defenses, and dropping in an anti-armor turret to continue firing at it and the repair drones so it will never be repaired.
Multiplayer can have 16 players (or 32 players if on a dedicated server (on the 360 as well!), and while the kinks are still being worked out, our playtest has been very fun. As far as the single player campaign, we're waiting for the fall release to shed some light on it.
Section 8 will release this fall for the PC and 360.
