Top 1 Xbox 360 Site

Section 8 is a large-scale, futuristic first person shooter that brings strategy and tactics to the first-person shooter genre in a game where players can modify the battlefield on the fly.

The game’s name refers to the super elite squad of powered armor infantry that serve as the focus of the single-player content. The squad’s nickname is because of its penchant for taking on suicide missions that no one else will tackle.

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Publisher: SouthPeak Games

Developer: TimeGate

Online Play: 32 Versus

Local Play:

September 8, 2009 –
Barreling down from the sky toward the field of battle with fire on all sides is how every life of Section 8 starts. A multiplayer-focused shooter from TimeGate Studios, known for its Kohan PC-only real-time strategy titles and the Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate expansions to Monolith’s F.E.A.R., the heart of Section 8 is in the right place. Not only is it far more entertaining than watching a respawn timer to come screaming down from above after you’re killed, but it’s a mechanic that lets you pick and choose exactly where you want to fall and even gives you a degree of control beyond that since you can hit the brakes as you near the ground to allow for a more precise landing. Maybe you’ll need to use it because your initial drop put you in the direct line of fire of an enemy’s anti-air fire, or maybe you’ll want to adjust so you can land directly on top of an enemy convoy, or in the midst of your fellow teammates. It’s all about versatility in Section 8, and if it weren’t for some drawbacks when it comes to combat and presentation, this would have been a real standout experience.

As it is, the game, like most good first-person shooters, lets you fall into a real rhythm when it comes to movement. Every soldier in the game gets a Tribes-style jetpack with a limited burn. Use it to launch up onto rooftops or, better yet, in combination with your overdrive run. Since the maps tend to be fairly large, traversing the terrain is made easier by shifting out from first to third-person view once you’ve sprinted enough to fill a gauge, called overdrive. Once it’s engaged you blast across the ground, can cause damage to those you run into, and can spark your jetpack at your higher rate of speed, allowing easy access into enemy territory as you rocket skyward, pick out an enemy, and engage your weapon’s temporary lock-on ability to score a kill.

Base Hacking

The ultimate goal of any multiplayer match is capturing and holding a series of points in what’s called Conquest mode, reminiscent of a game of Battlefield. Hack one to start the capture process, capture more and hold them to score points for your team, protect them so the enemy doesn’t hack and capture. If your team’s coordinated or lucky or both you’ll hit the required win total at which point you can smile and eat another chip out of the bag that’s been sitting open and untouched on the coffee table the whole match. It’s not exactly a revolutionary setup, but it works, and the multitude of variables whirring about on the battlefield keeps things interesting beyond the killing of individual troops.

Loadouts can be customized before you bomb down into the fight. A range of pre-built classes are available, but your best bet is to go in and pick whatever weapons you want, add in your tools, and then lock in your passive modifiers. Do you take the machine gun to put up a blistering wall of gunfire against opponents at short-range? The rocket launcher to take out turrets and enemy vehicles? The repair tool to keep your captured point’s gun and rocket and sensor towers intact, as well as healing teammates and yourself? Do you want to boost your regenerative shields and armor, or focus more on a stealthy approach to infiltrate a hostile compound hidden from sensors until you can plant a knife in the back of whoever’s standing watch?

It’s a system that anyone interested in frequently changing their role during a match should appreciate, since you can even do it on the fly if you interface with the proper structures without having to wait for a death to swap gear. While it doesn’t afford for styles of play as scream-at-your-screen surprising as Team Fortress 2’s Spy, it’s still a nice mix. Snipers, heavy weapons aficionados, and those who like to hang back to heal and repair are all well catered too with a nice assortment of tools and modifiable skills. Regardless of which path you choose, you’re rewarded, and with the accumulated points from successful battle actions you can bring down from the sky anti-air guns, minigun turrets, bipedal mechanized suits, tanks and more. Just be sure you’re not summoning in the midst of hostile anti-air