Section 8 Review Page 2

14 Sep 2009 at 17:43:08 by Tim McDonald
Systems used to review this title: (360, PC)

All of these trade off against each other, and the biggest trade-off is with the weapons. The weapons are disappointingly boring in design – you've got a sniper rifle, an assault rifle, a machine gun, a shotgun, a rocket launcher, and the rest of the usual suspects – but in this game environment they're all tweaked sufficiently that they have very specific uses that rely on other classes and counterparts. The sniper rifle isn't a one-hit one-kill weapon; it might do that level of damage to armour, but shielded opponents will take a good four or five hits to down. By the time you've fired off your second shot, there's a good chance they'll be making a beeline for you. In the event that you kill them, they can always respawn directly above you, meaning that camping is – in part – out. This is a good thing.

This is what happens unless you're supported, anyway. Having a few buddies around with assault rifles can bring down shields quickly and draw enemy fire, leaving you to pop off the killing shots. Even that depends on the range, though, as at close range a lot of weapons have the “piercing” characteristic in that they completely ignore shields and go straight for the opponent's armour. If you're at long range, you'll want to put points into the more powerful shields; if you're planning on getting up close and personal with your foes you'll want to boost your armour as shields may be completely pointless. Either way it'll take you a surprisingly long time to kill anybody on your own, making Section 8 reasonably slow-paced despite the ability to sprint, and despite the burn-in respawn feature. All of this and the teamwork it draws on are supported by the Squad function, which dumps you into Battlefield-style groups.

And this, y'see, is the thing. Section 8 is a teamwork-oriented game. Playing it in a lone-wolf style is a bit dull, and as such playing Instant Action with the bots gets old quite quickly, as while they're capable, if you want teamwork you have to play by their rules. You can't really order them about, and you can't expect them to come to your aid when you need it.

This is highlighted further by the DCMs, which are missions created as you acquire points of various types. Some are generated by capturing objectives, while others come from kills of various types. These missions appear for both teams, as it were – if one team activates a Convoy mission, which will spawn large vehicles that need to be protected, the other team will be able to see where they are and will almost certainly move to intercept because completing DCMs is the best way of getting the game-winning points. It's the first to 1,000, and ignoring your opponents' DCMs is a surefire way to lose.

And then, oh, there's everything else. You get cash in each game for kills and the like, and this can be spent on deployable turrets and resupply stations as well as vehicles, which are far more lumbering than your sprinting, jetpacking marines, but pack a lot more health and a lot more firepower into their space.

I actually have to congratulate whoever designed the user interface. It's rarely confusing and provides all the information you need at a glance, while still having enough little touches that are unnecessary for casual players but very helpful when you notice them, like the way the crosshairs change to indicate you're in piercing range, and while the game itself may be a tad confusing initially, you can always find something to do to help out.

There are still countless other things to talk about, but – with luck – you've already got an idea as to whether you're going to like it or not. Section 8's emphasis on teamwork is both its greatest boon and its biggest curse; casually dropping into games means that you'll probably get more bad games than you will good, but when you do find a good one, it's intelligent and enjoyable. Whether it's going to pick up the kind of players it needs to sustain and make good on its promise of a deep remains to be seen, but for now, it's a tempered recommendation – if you want a team-based FPS, with “team” in bold and underlined six times, you'll doubtless get some enjoyment out of this.

As one final note, I've had the privilege of playing on both Xbox 360 and on PC, and if it comes down to the two the PC version wins hands down. While the PC version has a somewhat clunky server browser through Games for Windows LIVE, the 360 version feels like a clunkier game in general, with – no matter how I tweaked the sensitivity – more sluggish turning and aiming, which made the aerial combat far more of a chore, even with the temporary lock-on ability present in both versions. It's still an enjoyable game, but if you have the choice, PC is the way to go.

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