Section 8 is an innovative shooter that combines familiar FPS multiplayer elements with a few twists to create a unique, engaging multiplayer shooter. If Starsiege: Tribes and Battlefield 2 had a love child, it would be something like Section 8.
Tribes re-incarnated?
When I wrote about the 'death' and impending resurrection of Starsiege: Tribes, I didn't realize I'd get to see Tribes both resurrected (through Playtribes) and, to some degree, re-incarnated. Section 8 clearly draws some inspiration from Starsiege:Tribes, but also makes its own mark on the team-based multiplayer genre. While it doesn't re-write the genre and could benefit from more maps and game modes, Section 8 offers enough unique elements and solid game play to be worth a spot on your game shelf. It's great looking, too.
Get ready to burn in
The first -- and perhaps biggest -- difference between Section 8 and others of its ilk is how you re-spawn -- also called 'burning in'. At the beginning of a match -- and any time you respawn -- you select where on the map you'd like to land -- and then you're blasted out of an orbiting ship like a human cannonball.
If you choose to engage your 'air brakes' during the 
burn-in, you'll slow your descent a little and you can steer yourself to where you'd like to land. Alternately, you can forgo your 'air brakes' and hit the ground faster, but it takes a little longer for you to recover from the impact and start fighting.
The burn-in concept makes respawning feel like less of a wait, because you're actually doing something during the waiting period. It also ensures that you never have to respawn endlessly in an area where some jackass just spawn-kills you over and over -- granted it's less of a problem in most FPS shooters these days, but Section 8's solution is pretty fun (certainly more interesting than just watching a countdown timer). And the burn-in also serves as a tactical tool.
In addition to burning-in, you have two movement modes that ensure you never have to spend long getting to where the action is. The first movement mode is your jetpack, which lets you jump-fly around the battlefield in short bursts (sadly, there is no 'skiing' like there was in Tribes). Although the flying and aerial combat isn't quite the same as long-range, timing-based dogfight that was Tribes' hallmark, it still compliments the ground-pounding action well.
You can also hold down SHIFT to sprint, and after a few seconds you will go into overdrive mode, which blasts you run across the battlefield at superspeed. Both flying and overdrive deplete your energy, which replenishes over time fairly quickly. And combined together, you can run at high speed and jump-fly great distances to cover ground quicky.
Armor up
Also like Tribes, Section 8 offers various armor types and a large array of different weapon loadouts. Six are available that you can just select and run with if you're in a hurry -- but you can also completely customize your armor and weapon loadouts, mixing and matching virtually any combination of weapons and support gear (like repair tools, sensor jammers, and the like). You can even customize your armor's characteristics, allocating a handful of points amongst speed, stealth, defense, shields, and others. This lets you make a tank of a heavyweight armor with high-powered weapons like the rocket launcher, or you can create a sensor-jamming, stealthy suit designed for the up-close and personal kill -- or virtually anything in between.
Section 8 also features a Zoom and Lock-on mode to help you aim. Zero in on a target long enough to enable lock-on, then let them have it from a distance. This is a vital skill to racking up kills and staying alive, but you have to use the lock-on feature wisely because it takes time to recharge after it has been used.
Weapons are the fairly typical assortment consisting of a chaingun, assault rifle, sniper rifle, shotgun, rocket launcher, and even a knife for melee. None of the weapons are particularly innovative, although all of them feel pretty solid and reasonably balanced.
Dynamic objectives change the game
Unlike other FPS multiplayer games, Section 8 really only has one type of game mode, and it currently offers 8 maps. Each match, however, begins as a basic capture and hold game, and then begins spawning a variety of different objectives for both teams.
The goal of each match is to be the first team to score 1000 victory points. Victory points are acquired by defeating enemy players, capturing control points on the map, and successfully completing the spontaneous in-game objectives that occur. These objectives can be any/all of the following during the course of a game:
- VIP: Escort a VIP to a friendly control point
- Commando: Escort an NPC to the enemy base to attack it.
- Outpost:Deploy an outpost to a map location and defend it.
- Intelligence: Steal enemy intel and return it to base (CTF type objective, basically)
- Bomb: Use a bomb to destroy the base defenses at an enemy control point.
- Convoy: Drive and defend a convoy to a secure location.
You begin the game by burning-in and immediately capturing one or more control points (while your enemy does the same). This doesn't take very long, so once all the initial points are captured, you must capture other control points and defend yours. In addition, each side will have dynamically 'spawned' missions they can complete to earn more victory points.
As your team acquires kills and points, you'll also be able to start buying in-game items such as defensive turrets, sensor arrays to detect enemy troops, and AA guns (to protect areas from enemy troops burning-in on your location), to name just a few. You can also purchase vehicles like tanks and a very cool, heavily armored mech with loads of firepower (and the unfortunate side-effect of being a rocket-magnet for the enemy.)
The variety and dynamic gameplay modes ensure that the combat is fast and furious. As a general rule, you won't find camping snipers, spawn-killers, and other ass-hattery that can sometimes kill the fun in multiplayer shooters.
However, I would have prefered some 'single-mode' maps. As much as I appreciate the dynamic, ever-changing missions, they also never quite capture the thrill of a good, straight-forward capture-the-flag, deathmatch, or other more focused game mode. And while the dynamic mission objectives keep the game interesting, none of them are anything that hasn't been done before -- the only difference here is that any/all of them can occur at any time in a game of Section 8.
Last -- but not least -- the single-player game is adequate but not really the game's selling point. Buy Section 8 for the multiplayer.
Overall
Section 8 is a great looking and a great playing shooter. It probably won't tear you away from Team Fortress 2 or Left 4 Dead for an extended period, but it still offers plenty of solid action that is a nice diversion from other shooters, and just innovative enough to put its own stamp on the multiplayer shooter genre.
Related Articles
Video: Section 8 dynamic mission developer commentary
[All screens and pictures used with permission from Southpeak Interactive]
Comments