Section 8 Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 30th September 2009

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We get sent to Section 8.

Section 8 Details:

	First Person Shooter
	PC/Xbox 360
	TimeGate Studios
	SouthPeak

16+

Out Now

1-32

Most of the shooters or action games I've played lately seem to have focused heavily on their single player campaigns whilst putting multiplayer on the back burner, or simply not bothering with a multiplayer aspect at all. However, with Section 8 TimeGate Studios have decided to put the emphasis on multiplayer action, but does it make for a more intriguing game?

If you’ve ever played Unreal Tournament 3 then Section 8 may feel a little familiar to you, the game obviously uses the Unreal 3 engine but just like Epic’s game has a heavy focus on multiplayer rather then delivering an immersive and epic single player experience. The games campaign mode is testament to this as objectives are similar to those you would expect to undertake in a multiplayer session. For example missions in the game require you to capture various checkpoints, control them and then defend them before attacking your enemy’s main base and so on. With TimeGate’s main focus obviously being on the games multiplayer, the single player campaign does seem to have suffered, it’s one of the shortest I’ve ever played in a first person shooter, and the games story is a little absent throughout. The games campaign is entitled Corde’s Story and follows the exploits of one member of the 8th Armoured Infantry as they do battle with Arm of Orion across various alien worlds. It’s a little vague but generally you follow Corde as he tries to exact revenge for his squad being wiped out and stop the Arm Commander Soren.

Despite these flaws Section 8 is not a total disappointment. The game manages to serve up some interesting additions to the gameplay. Firstly instead of having set spawn points, each time you re-enter a game you drop in from your orbiting ship to your desired location. This is a welcome addition to a heavily focused multiplayer game as it eliminates spawn camping and allows you to enter a game in an area free of enemy presence. It also serves to give you an over view of the game map. Most of which are quite varied, being made up of varying terrain such as forests, deserts and remote islands. Most maps in the game also feature complex building systems all of which can be entered allowing you to fight in closed quarters.

Visually the games environments aren’t the greatest in the world but they serve their purpose and most of the time you’ll be to busy to notice as the games action is pretty intense. This is due to another standout factor. The games A.I! A.I in Section 8 is probably some, if not the most competitive I’ve come up against in a first person shooter, it really gives a sense of wanting to stop you at all costs which in turn creates intensity to the gameplay I’ve not experienced in a long time. The games A.I however, poses more of a challenge in its online mode. The multiplayer aspect of the game supports up to 32 players 16 each team, however if not enough players enter the game then bots make up the short fall, these online bots in general pose a whole new challenge to the ones you encounter in the single player campaign as they are extremely unforgiving, harder to kill and even more determined to kill you. This of course gives the games multiplayer component a whole new dimension but sadly makes it ultimately less accessible then other titles, due to the fact most games are only made up of a handful human players and these super tough bots make playing Section 8 online a daunting task and a game that will only really appeal to hardcore shooter fans.

Other relatively unique features of Section 8 include the ability to jetpack for short periods of time to high ledges allowing you to take battles to new heights! Also the ability to sprint around the game map at high speed comes in extremely useful as you are quickly able to reinforce squad mates and so on. Entering this sprint mode switches the game to a third person view allowing you to see your heavily armoured character in his full glory. Character models in the game are flawless and animated brilliantly. However, despite having general good looks the games visual department isn’t perfect as it seems to have some technical issues. During intense fire fights the frame can quite often plummet to a snails pace, sadly this ruins these intense fights as this is one of the biggest appeals of Section 8, so the fact the games frame rate can’t seem to keep up is a major set back for the game.

On of the best features of Section 8 is the ability to call in deployable support items, such as vehicles, turrets and supply depots once you have acquired enough credits. All of these come in useful during the course of battle but none more so then supply depots which allows customising of several preinstalled load outs, this is a great feature that give you access to all the weapons and passive modules in the game allowing you to enhance your character to suit your playing style.

Sound wise there’s nothing really that’s stands out in Section 8, voice acting and sound effects are all pretty much standard and exactly what you would expect in a first person shooter. The games soundtrack has been scored by Jason Graves who did a brilliant job with EA’s Dead Space however despite the score for Section 8 fitting in well it is generally instantly forgettable once you stop playing.

Section 8 for me is something of a mixed bag, technically it’s a pretty solid title with some of the best A.I I’ve ever encountered However, it’s heavy focus on multiplayer action means that those looking for an immersive single player campaign will have to look else where and only the most hardcore multiplayer gamers will want to stick with the game for any length of time due to the super tough A.I bots.