Section 8 Multiplayer Part 2

24 Jul 2009 at 11:34:35 by Tim McDonald

As with Battlefield, the majority of your time is spent capturing or defending particular sections of the map. Each of these periodically provide your team with victory points, but this isn't the way to win the game. Doing various things – destroying defenses, killing enemies with a heavy machine gun, starting the capture of an enemy base – rewards your team with resources that let you create Dynamic Combat Missions, or DCMs. Perhaps you'll select the option which spawns a convoy that you must defend. Maybe you'll start up a mission that sends a ridiculously tough commando in to attack an enemy point. Either way, your team will get a heads-up about the mission and can then head over to try and complete it, but so too will the enemy, and as completion of the mission results in a whole load of victory points it's in their best interests to stop you. In our preview, this tended to create a variety of objectives and choices for players of all types – do you go for the enemy VIP, or do you maintain the assault on Point 1? Point 4's coming under attack, too; someone needs to go back there, but you could always wait until you die and then respawn, hurtling towards Point 4 like a comet. A comet with a gun. Which is brilliant.

Teams are broken up into squads, which makes organising all of this a whole lot easier, but that's far from everything in terms of strategy – you've also got money that can be used to airdrop in anything from gun turrets to tanks. Want to knock out the AA turret on an enemy base and replace it with one of your own to prevent them dropping in reinforcements when you try to capture it? Go for it. Maybe drop a minigun turret next to that capture point to keep it defended once you succeed? Sure. Want to just drop in a mech suit and go stomping? I'd recommend it.

So far, I'm sure most people suspect this sounds a fair bit like Tribes 2 (well, most smart and gorgeous people, like those who played Tribes) but there are a few key differences. First and foremost is the weapons. While Tribes 2 didn't have much in the way of hitscan weapons, generally relying instead on working out where your opponent was going to be by the time your shot reached them, Section 8 significantly tones that down with the majority of weapons seeming to be instant hits. While this is sure to disappoint a number of people, it's likely to make Section 8 a lot more accessible to those used to more conventional shooters like Halo (which, admittedly, it also feels somewhat akin to) and games with a whole mess of players running around are astonishingly good fun, so it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Further concessions come in the form of the lock-on. Assuming that your quarry isn't using a sensor jammer, switching to the iron sights of your weapon and holding down a key locks your crosshairs on them, seemingly assuring you of hits regardless of lag. Considering armour upgrades, the long time it takes to recharge and the general amount of firepower it takes to kill someone, it's far from a game-breaker, but it makes sure that everyone can actually assist regardless of skill. It will also, I suspect, play a far more important role in the console version in which pinpoint accuracy will be a lot harder than with a mouse and keyboard, but that's pure speculation at this stage.

There were a few disappointments in the preview build – weapons lack the kind of definitive punch I tend to enjoy, and the general assault rifle/sniper rifle/pistol/missile launcher setup lacks imagination, but they all have their individual uses and are well served. Likewise, the jetpacks don't quite have the power or length of boost I'd like, even when you pump a load of modules into them, but then combining it with a sprint did allow me to leap halfway across the map. Anyway: while this isn't Tribes, it's got a hell of a lot in common and the mix of accessibility with the potential for grand, sweeping strategies makes it – say it with me – one to watch, even in this multiplayer-only test.

Well, that, and there's just something unbelievably brilliant about respawning by hurtling towards the ground at ludicrous speeds.

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