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Posted on: Sep 02, 2009
Section 8
WORDS BY: Mikel Reparaz
Back in the day, there was a series called Starsiege: Tribes — a PC shooter that gamers still revere today for its ahead-of-its time online gameplay that featured vehicles to scoot around in, elaborate bases to defend, and jetpacks for, well, jetpacking. Among other things, Section 8 attempts to recapture that glory for a modern audience, and while it never quite reaches that lofty goal, it still manages to be a great, jetpack-centric multiplayer shooter in its own right.
Sure, there’s a single-player campaign, but it’s not what we’re meant to judge Section 8 by; this is clearly a multiplayer game first and foremost. But with that said, the single-player action — which follows a soldier named Corde as he carries out objective-based attacks against a sinister-looking army called the Arm of Orion — is surprisingly meaty, despite lasting only a few hours. And its smartly rendered cutscenes serve as a decent introduction to Section 8’s grim, disappointingly generic spacemarine setting.
Ignoring that too-familiar setup, three things keep Section 8 from being just another Halo knockoff. The first is your jetpack, which is always with you and enables short, flying hops across the map or onto high ledges. The second is your armor’s “overdrive,” a sort of super-sprint that kicks in after you’ve been running for a few seconds, and is invaluable for getting across the game’s giant maps. The third, meanwhile, is one of the single best things about Section 8: every time you respawn, you do so high above the map. Because your suit is built to withstand the force of an orbital drop, you can either plummet straight down like a stone, or hit the air-brakes and glide to any spot on the map (while still damaging whatever you land on).
The rest is pretty straightforward shooter stuff, with up to 32 players battling over control points across eight ginormous maps (or 18 maps, if you count all the pared-down versions for smaller matches). Aside from the standard kill-and-capture-control-points action, you usually have one or two dynamic objectives (kill a VIP, destroy a convoy) active at any time to keep things moving briskly, and these go a long way toward making online matches feel like active battlefields instead of brainless skirmishes.
Section 8 also offers a lot of customization options, with players able to tweak their weapon loadouts, tools (like healing abilities and various flavors of explosive), and even a whole slew of buffs and perks called “passive modules.” Best of all, racking up kills nets you points that you can use to buy deployable gun turrets, hard-to-drive tanks, or hulking mech suits.
Granted, none of this stuff makes Section 8 the next Tribes, but if all you want is to blast other players and capture bases across vast, beautiful alien worlds, then this is absolutely worth your time.
On Xbox 360
- Huge multiplayer battles built for short attention spans.
- Whistling up turrets and tanks for instant delivery is cool.
- Space-marine theme is generic, underdeveloped, and dull.
- Why does the jetpack have to run out of fuel so quickly?
Sun, 10/18/2009 - 13:41
Posted by wickland
I agree with the review, space marines are getting old. Halo owns that type of game now.
Thu, 09/10/2009 - 15:58
Posted by Ling Ling
Were you asking me if I had bought the game, or someone else? Oh well, either way I'm proud to admit that I did buy it!
Mon, 09/07/2009 - 16:41
Posted by Tommybomb
@Tymigie: you know, it's funny...I thought your comment explaining what you said to me was Ling Ling's! (you addressed me in a similar way). My bad.
As for what you said, I mostly agree except for what you said about Fight Night. Sorry, but if I wasn't a fan of the genre then I wouldn't be reviewing the game in the first place. It would be like if someone who was a fan of hip-hop reviewed a classic rock album. Otherwise, you sounded good
Sun, 09/06/2009 - 22:37
Posted by Spybreak
I played the Tribes franchise and have had many great memories with those games. If you guys are looking into this I recommend trying out Fallen Empire:Legions on Instant Action. I like the premise of this game but it never felt like it lived up to it.
Sun, 09/06/2009 - 16:49
Posted by Tommybomb
I couldn't agree more! It could be even worse when a fundamentally broken game gets a good score, then the idiots are like, "but so-and-so gave it this score, so it's a good game!"
Since this is supposed to be about Section 8, I was wondering if you (or anyone else, for that matter) played the demo or bought the game? Sorry if you said, I wasn't paying attention
Sun, 09/06/2009 - 16:48
Posted by Tommybomb
I couldn't agree more! It could be even worse when a fundamentally broken game gets a good score, then the idiots are like, "but so-and-so gave it this score, so it's a good game!"
Since this is supposed to be about Section 8, I was wondering if you (or anyone else, for that matter) played the demo or bought the game? Sorry if you said, I wasn't paying attention
Sun, 09/06/2009 - 14:04
Posted by Tymiegie
Oh yeah and I also was reacting to the idea that if a game gets a higher score than another game that somehow takes away from the lower-scoring game. OXM gave the Godfather II a 7.5. I agree with that score and I also happen to love the game. See, I am sick of the idea that games have to get a high score so that people who enjoy the game feel validated that they picked the "good game." If someone enjoys a game that is almost universally hated then good for them. They don't have to attack the reviewer for their different opinion. The reveiwer probably plays more games and as such expects more out of what they play.
Sun, 09/06/2009 - 13:57
Posted by Tymiegie
@Tommybomb: I wasn't responding to what you said at all. What you said made sense. You thought Fight Night had a higher score than you would have given it(I am inclined to agree since I am not a fan of the genre) and you said it was wierd the reiview wasn't up yet. I agree with that, too. I was trying to make the point that when people play a game they will have different opinions about it than other people. Like Ling Ling, I was reacting more to the idea that OXM wasn't going to review Arkham Asylum, excellent game by the way, because it was on the PS3 and it had the Joker in it. The notion is ridiculous.
Fri, 09/04/2009 - 03:14
Posted by Ling Ling
Tommybomb- My comment was more directed at Broheimer rather than you, the key difference being that he both demanded it be posted and continued on to say that OXM are xbox fan boys for not posting a game's review (which is a bit silly and a lot ignorant), where as you were just wondering why they hadn't posted it yet.
OXM are proffesionals. They get paid to review Xbox games, along with other Xbox related tasks. To speculate that a magazine hasn't made a review public BECAUSE (and this is where Broheimer's sillines begins) the game is also on the PS3 and OXM are fanboys, is a ridiculous thing to say.
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 20:12
Posted by Tommybomb
@Tymigie: Don't take what I said the wrong way. If anything, I agree with you - but I'm entitled to my opinion, too.
@ Ling Ling: You're right, they don't have to put their reviews online. I was only going on the apparent past courtesy of OXM putting their reviews up if the game comes out before the magazine hits newsstands. That's just an assumption on my part, though. Personally, it wouldn't affect my decision to buy the magazine
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 18:55
Posted by Ling Ling
Loved the game, and despite my inability to love it anymore, I very much agree with this review. This game definitely has a niche, but I'm afraid it is comparatively small one due to it's steep learning curve when coming from much more popular FPS games like Halo and CoD. Also, it's graphics aren't quite up to par (which I personally couldn't care less about) and the demo gave off a bad impression with hard to find matches and poor connections (which is the exact opposite of the retail game with dedicated servers.) I'm only a little bit disappointed at no mention of the X-Servers and their role in making that 32 player count.
Oh, and Broheimer? Next time we decided to pick a fight, why don't we try using facts and simple reasoning skills instead of the overwhelming logic of "well, OXM that gets most of it's money from selling MAGAZINES is keeping an article until the said MAGAZINE comes out so they must be Xbox 360 fanboys that don't like a game on the Xbox because its on the PS3..." As a mainly print based organization, OXM doesn't need to churn out it's reviews online a day after the games come out, in fact they don't really need to churn any out at all. Go pick up their magazine when it comes out if you really want their opinion, I can almost guarantee that it will be in there.
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 18:47
Posted by Tymiegie
OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! People have different opinions about things!!!!! When the fuck did this happen? I thought we were all supposed to think the same way and that all reviews are written by people that have the same opinion about everything; almost like a robot with no soul. Giving a game a higher score doesn't really mean that the game is better than the other. It is an entertainment medium! It isn't something concrete that you can fact check. It is something put together by people for other people to enjoy and some will enjoy it more than others. If both reviews are written by the same person than that person probably does think the other game is better, but a review is just someone's opinion about a game. Read it and if you agree with it great. If you don't that is fine too. Arkham Asylum is a big game so I guess OXM wants to put it in their magazine before the internet. I don't think their call makes sense, but it isn't because the PS3 has the Joker in the challenge maps.
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 17:44
Posted by Tommybomb
Broheimer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHysmKGGLA8
Cart00nstrip: yeah, I was wondering about the Batman review - especially since the game is out already (see, Broheimer? I used a hyphen!)
Personally, I never judge the score of a game without playing more than the demo first. I'm on my second playthrough of Mass Effect, and yes, Broheimer, the story really is a big friggin deal - maybe you don't care because you're illiterate, but even then, you're still getting a decent experience. I think that the 10 for Fight Night Round 3 was a little extreme, though.
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 14:24
Posted by cart00nstrip
@broheimer: Yup, OXM has NEVER given a 3rd party game a 10 - unless you count EA's Fight Night 3, the very FIRST game OXM ever gave a 10 to. I find it's better to be well-informed about a subject before one attempts to insult said subject. This reduces the chance of the insulter looking like a complete moron. Also, when said insult is in a written format, I find that spelling and good grammar go a LONG way towards making the writer look like he knows what the f**k he's talking about.
However, you DO bring up a good subject, the glaring omission of OXM's Batman:AA review. I know it's gonna be in the next magazine, but why not place it up here in the interim? It's not like a month old review is gonna make a difference in a shopper's mind as to whether or not they should pick up a copy on the newstands...
gt: cart00nstrip
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 11:01
Posted by amoranda23
Congratulations, Broheimer. You just figured out how to cram 30 sentences into one! Now that's credibility for you!
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 07:51
Posted by Broheimer
Yeah i figured i would get someone like you to say something because you try to act cool online and your not I was just saying games they gave 10's are 360 exclusives for the most part or once were and GTA 4 the game that i thought was much better than gears of war which got a 10 but GTA 4 gets a 9.5 and then mass effect gets a 10 despite it having a bunch of glitches and bugs and bad frame rate who cares if it has a good story seriously the problems should definately have affected the score
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 07:05
Posted by ezilylost13
Wow, Mikel reviewing for a print magazine, and an Xbox one for that matter. Aren't you affraid that your bias will get in the way? This review carries with it the faint scent of day old pizza, wonder why?
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 06:58
Posted by ezilylost13
Thanks, Broheimer, I wasn't sure if I would get my daily fill of "stupid" today, and now I'm overflowing with it. All thanks to you.
Wed, 09/02/2009 - 22:37
Posted by Broheimer
this game was not that fun when i played it also can i say something where is the batman arkham asylum review seriously that game has been out for over a week this game just came out what is oxmonline not going to review it because they are bias and if something is better on the ps3 they dont review it and if they do they give it bad score seriously. also just fyi i only have a 360 not a ps3 fanboy but still just wondering