Nukezilla Review: Section 8 (PS3)

Section 8, originally released at retail last year for the Xbox 360 and PC, has now arrived on the Playstation Network. In most respects, it’s a traditional first person shooter with brief campaign mode and competitive multiplayer. Section 8′s central concept is that each player is blasted from space on to the battlefield. Equipped with a jetpack and a variety of different weapons, they must fight for control of various points on each multiplayer map.

A class system is present with players choosing from a number of pre-set archetypes (sniper, assault etc.) or customising their own loadout. As well as choosing different weapons and gadgets, the player can assign points to different aspects of their character. One player might create a glass cannon, armed with a rocket launcher and machine gun with all their points geared towards boosting damage. Another might create a tougher soldier with additional armour and a repair tool to heal themselves and others on their team.

I generally gravitate towards team deathmatch when I pick up a multiplayer shooter. On rare occasions I’ll play around with more focused, objective based modes but most of the time, I just want to hop in and kill other people. Section 8 doesn’t offer that opportunity and is entirely based around capturing and holding points on the map. I’ll admit here that I found this disappointing. Unless I’ve got a team of people that I know and trust, I don’t want to rely on complete strangers to co-ordinate and strategise. For me, this need for co-operation is where Section 8‘s reach exceeds its grasp.

Part of the problem is the ease of constructing highly effective defences. Performing various actions during combat rewards the player with in-game currency. This currency can be used to call down turrets and vehicles to aid in attacking and defending the objectives. The end result is that a co-ordinated team can pepper an objective with sensors, machine guns, rocket launchers and anti-aircraft turrets. Not only can they stop the attackers from dropping near to an objective, they can put up a very effective defence against anyone approaching on foot. Attacking vehicles, namely a tank and a mech suit, can be purchased to counter these defenses. However, the extra cost and unwieldy controls seemed to repel most players.

My lack of satisfaction with the over-arching structure of the matches contrasted with my enjoyment of the moment-to-moment combat experience. When I encountered an opponent out in the open, without any turrets to spoil the fun, the ensuing duels were very enjoyable. Zipping over a play with my jetpack and unleashing a mortar strike on them from above was very entertaining. The option to modify your abilities adds an additional layer of depth without being unbalanced by having to go through any kind of unlock system. At its base level, Section 8 is a fun shooter.

Ironically, I took more enjoyment from Section 8‘s brief campaign than I did from its multiplayer. Divorced of the need to work with other players, I could enjoy the combat by itself. Unfortunately, everything surrounding the combat wasn’t particularly impressive. The game has a bland, lifeless presentation with dull, barren environments. The missions teach the mechanics of multiplayer fairly well but the end result is that most campaign objectives consist of running up to an object and hitting X.

Most of my complaints with the multiplayer mode could be made irrelevant by a determined community of players. I can imagine dedicated teams spending hours honing their skills with the result being a tense, dynamic battlefield. Unfortunately, those dedicated individuals probably aren’t playing Section 8 and if we’re being honest, neither are you. In a saturated market, merely having potential and some solid mechanics isn’t enough. Taken on its own merits and experienced in a vacuum, Section 8 would be an easy recommendation at its budget price of £19.99. In the hyper-competitive FPS genre, it just doesn’t do enough to justify moving away from countless other games.