Not since the game Tribes has a
multiplayer, jetpack jumping, armor wearing, free-for-all game been unleashed on
the PC has there been this much carnage and mayhem. Not that you have stumbled
on the greatest thing since the USB port, but there is a certain itch that is
scratched with this title. Using all the skills you may have honed over the last
several years playing online FPS games, Section 8 brings back the almost
overwhelming and freakish enjoyment of placing yourself squarely in a combat
zone wearing powered armor and carrying enough firepower to permanently wipe
Namibia off the map.
Ok, so the story goes that you are
hovering some 15,000 feet up in a mobile delivery system, and way below you a
battle is raging. You launch yourself down through the atmosphere/stratosphere
and choose with some sort of control where you want to land and instantly begin
engaging the enemy. This is about as simple as the game gets. For once you hit
the ground, this first-person shooter can be somewhat overcomplicated and trust
me, this battlefield is not where you want to be learning the ropes. Yes this
game has a steep learning curve but if you can tough it out, there is some fun
to be had.
"Is that a Quake II character?"
It starts with a pretty cool
load-out scenario where you can choose what kind of weapons/armaments you want.
What makes this a bit more interesting as compared to other games, you can swap
them quickly should you die. There is no real re-spawn countdown, just you
freefalling to Earth. So before you go, knowing what you know about the battle
below, you can change to better suit the situation. A novel idea for a game of
this type, swapping the heavy machine guns for a mobile repair kit to keep
captured turrets fixed and functioning; or quickly dumping your rocket launcher
in order to become a more armored and shielded player. For those of us with
multiple personalities banging around in our heads, switching roles several
times in the course of a match feels good.
Of course, there are some standards
regardless of what kind of player you want to be and the big one is the fact
that you move around most efficiently with the jetpack on your character.
Learning how to control the game is one of those things that will probably
infuriate you as you aren’t much more then target practice for other players who
could care less that you are playing for the first time and just want another
kill. Did I mention that this is a mostly online multiplayer style game? Well it
is, and when you find a game thats really humming, you can count on dying … a
lot.
"Nice screenshot, eh? Too bad its concept
art."
Now that steep learning curve I
spoke about revolves around the learning of how to properly navigate the
jetpacks, the sprinting (powered by armor), the effectiveness and range of the
weapons, the host server randomly dumping a giant robot in the middle of the
battle that shoots at any and everything and the slew of onscreen information
that your suit and HUD provides. Yes, this is what we call a tough game and one
more designed for the hardcore players. How do you know if you are hardcore?
Well if you have to think about that question than you probably don’t belong in
this game. On screen maps, damage icon, health, ammunition, onscreen text,
mission information, its all a bit much for the kind of pace and craziness this
game features.
Sadly, the weapons selection is not
very varied or balanced. Handguns and other weapons of skill are pretty much
useless as the heavy weapons dominate most playing fields. I was kind of
disappointed in the sniper rifle and rocket launcher.
Now for a relatively newer game, the
graphics are a bit behind, this was purposely done so that the widest possible
gamer base could purchase the game. But with that thought comes the idea that
there isn’t too much originality in how everything looks. The character suits
all look way too familiar and could be referenced back to any other number of
titles from three years ago. The level design isn’t particularly striking and
there just isn’t enough innovation in the way it appears. Well, almost, I like
the way the drop looks when you come screaming down from the atmosphere. Other
then that, its all too familiar.
"Dangit! It never fails, you spend
two hours waxing this thing and some fool goes and shoots it."
And if the looks of the game fail to
impress, then the sound will do even less. For a game with incredibly large body
counts and explosions, turrets, rocket fire and such, the sound effects are
played really low key. Maybe the developers did it on purpose so that teenagers
who are staying up late to play on school nights wouldn’t wake their folks and
get in trouble. Or, maybe they didn’t mean to make the sound effect underpowered
and just dropped the ball. Either way, there isn’t much to get excited about.
So there is a single-player campaign
that does give you a chance to familiarize yourself with the workings of the
game and it is pretty much the same game as multiplayer but only the A.I. takes
over for the real life competition. It works but only in a remedial way. A.I.
still has a long way to go to compete with how well people can play and
strategize. Sooooo, to paraphrase, the single-player campaign is really only
good for familiarizing yourself with how everything works. Playing it will only
help you minimally when you finally join a live battle. So it’s really best to
just consider this game an online-only title since the single player truly feels
tacked on.
Gameplay: 7.5
Like I said, the game is for hardcore gamers with its insane pace, tough
learning curve, controls and insane online competition. If you have what it
takes though, it can be rewarding.
Graphics: 6.8
They are dated, but like I said, because they want the widest possible market
audience. Things look very familiar.
Sound: 6.0
Its just not a well-scored game and the sound effects are not dazzling, either.
Difficulty: Hard
Not only because the game is tough to get a handle on, but because this game was
made for and played by the hardcore gamer.
Concept: 8.0
The switching of character types and weapons/armor loadouts is pretty cool, so
is dropping in on the battle from three miles up.
Multiplayer: 8.4
It is essentially an online game, the servers work well and finding a good game
isn’t that difficult.
Overall: 7.0
It is good game, not a great game; fortunately the sum of its parts don’t equal
the end product. If you can get by the remedial graphics and sound, you could
have some hardcore gaming in store.
