Section 8 1
Written by Eric Yee Friday, 25 September 2009 16:07
Section 8 was built from the ground up with multiplayer in mind. Where some games add on a multiplayer feature to compliment their single player, Section 8 focuses entirely on online play. The result is a game that caters to the preferences of individual players and stresses the importance of teamwork to succeed in any multiplayer endeavor.
One of the highlighting features that sets Section 8 apart from other console shooters is the ability to choose where you respawn on map via a drop ship. You will have the ability to choose an area on the map that you want to launch down onto from a spaceship above the planet. The animation of your character shooting towards the planet is pretty cool, especially when you get closer and can see your teammates waging war below. You can literally drop anywhere on the map, which is especially useful when your team needs help. When you get closer to the planet you will be prompted to hit your brakes or risk crashing down too quickly and dying. The brakes let you finesse your landing location, allowing you to be so precise you can even land directly on another player and kill them. The only area where your drop is limited is by an enemy controlled base with anti-air weaponry. If you drop too close to one of these zones you will be blasted out of the sky.
These control points are the main objective of Section 8’s multiplayer. On each map there will be a series of bases and control points that each team will battle over for control. Controlling these points will give a team points. The first team to reach the allotted goal amount of points wins the round. To gain control of a base, someone must access a terminal and hack it. This will start the capture process and once completed the base will be under control. All of the base’s turrets will be friendly to the captured team and hostile to the other.
Another way to score points will be to complete secondary objectives that will routinely appear. Completing them will help you win the game faster but could also prove to be a futile distraction if one of your bases is taken over while you are trying to complete a side objective. Some of the side objectives involve disarming bombs the enemy may have placed, escorting a friendly convoy, activating a beacon, and defending other bases.
Plenty of decisions will have to be made on how to win the game, with a team’s success largely depending on how well they work together. Another large decision will be how to customize your loadouts to fit your playing style. Section 8 will not force players into a narrow class system like some other shooters. Instead you will be free to customize all the facets of your character except for his appearance. You can choose from the preset classes available but being able to mix and match what you like about each will satisfy a lot of people. The variations of loadouts seem endless and you can save several presets for different situations. You can make a full on assault type with an assault rifle and a rocket launcher for base turrets and vehicles, armed with a repair tool to heal yourself and team mates. A sneaky sniper who could evade detection by enemy radar and sneak up behind them with a knife would also be possible. Section 8 really puts the power in the hands of the player.
Performing actions that compliment your chosen playing style with result in cash which can then be used to order drops from your ship above. You can choose from a small assortment of items and where they should be dropped. Each item ranges in price, with the highlights being the automatic turret, the mech suit, and even a large multi-person tank. The tank, which is the most expensive item to buy is also terribly hard to control. The developers should have modeled the tank controls after those in Halo because the only way to accurately pilot this tank is to drive it slowly and re-correct every error in movement.
While most multiplayer games on the Xbox support 16 players max per match, Section 8 doubles this with 32 player support. Granted most players will not be able to host 32 player games but I did manage to participate in several and they are a lot of fun. The game’s scale seems to completely change once you get into a 32 player room. My most memorable time with Section 8 took place in a 32 player server, a few members of our team where defending a base while the rest attempted to capture others. While defending, someone on the other team disabled out anti air turrets and a dozen enemies dropped right in front of us. Needless to say we did not last very long but it was a really cool moment. Coordinating players to perform these actions can be very difficult, especially in a hectic 32 player sever.
Section 8 replaces the traditional jump feature with a jetpack, allowing you to scale over walls and approach the enemy from any direction. The jetpack isn’t unlimited and does need time to recharge after being used. Overdrive is another feature allowing you to sprint quickly across the map. Holding down the overdrive button will pull the camera back into a third person view and you will begin running very fast. There is also a lock on feature that will enable you to lock onto a target for a few seconds, which can help when an enemy is using their jetpack to evade you.
The weapons of Section 8 are pretty standard as far as the shooter genre goes, ranging from the long range sniper rifle to the up close and personal combat knife. The problem I have with the weapons is that they are unbalanced and feel like they do not do much damage. The splash damage on the rocket launcher is almost non-existent and the shot gun feels underpowered. Most players will fall back on the machine gun or assault rifle because of their power and range. This coupled with the fact that the controls feel “off” or imprecise resulted in shooting at an enemy while watching their health bar, hoping it will decrease. A lot of the features like the jetpack and overdrive and really polished but the core shooter control mechanics are not as tight as other shooters released this generation.
The graphics are also not on par with those of other shooters recently released, but the selling points for Section 8 are the customizable loadouts and the grand scale battles that are possible. The game’s sound effects are also nothing to note as they do not add any significant value to game.
There is also a single player mode which amounts to nothing more than being a tutorial for multiplayer. It is reminiscent of the single player mode used in the Unreal games, where the levels are multiplayer maps with the enemy AI being the same bots you will encounter in multiplayer, and the objectives of the single player levels and multiplayer being very similar. There is a weak story told through cut scenes, the main character is undeveloped and by the end of the game the audience will not care nor remember him. The single player won’t win any awards and no one will want to buy it based solely on the single player. The multiplayer is the heart of Section 8 and its main selling point.
Section 8 offers full bot support online and offline, with the bots actually being decent. They will call in supply drops, hack consoles, kill enemies, repair players and vehicles, and complete both primary and secondary objectives. Section wasn’t meant to be played by yourself offline but if you really want to the developers have you covered.
Bottom Line
Section 8 is a solid online shooter that offers a lot of customization and large scale battles but suffers from imprecise controls. If you can get past the controls there is a lot of wealth to experience in the online modes, the single player is almost non-existent but helps facilitate the fundamental game mechanics before you jump online. It is hard to recommend buying Section 8 simply because there were not a lot of people playing it at the time of review. Since the game is focused on catering to multiplayer, the lack of players will hurt it. I don’t expect the amount of people playing it to increase with the release of Halo: ODST and Modern Warfare 2 in the coming months.
