No I’m not talking about crazy military people or low income housing. Since it’s me you should have guessed that Section 8 is the name for a video game. (Some gagdet would also have been an acceptable, but incorrect, answer.) I like all kinds of video games. About the only genres I don’t get into are sports and Japanese-RPGs. Probably the most popular genre is the First Person Shooter (FPS). Call of Duty and Halo are the two most well-known series in that genre.
As a mature genre (all the way back to DOOM and beyond 16 years ago) FPSs have a wide variety of subgenres. For me, I like a little strategy and thinking in my FPS and not so much of a reliance on reflexes. So Section 8′s gameplay is something I can really see interesting me.
Section 8 takes the standard team based and class based multiplayer subgenre and adds some new mechanics to streamline the experience. There’s perhaps to many to explain in detail so I’ll sum up:
- The role you play in battle is defined by your loadout. The combination of weapons, gear, and passive powerups makes for a wide variety of customization.
- Instead of spawning in to predetermined locations you “burn in” dropping onto most anywhere on the playing field from 15,000 feet up. Anti-air turrets block off areas, but it’s quite fun landing on the head of an enemy.
- Dynamic combat missions are semi-random missions that break away from the defend/attack the waypoints style.
- Deployable support allows you to set up defenses anywhere on the map.
- All players can move at vehicle speeds, which means no more camping the plane ala Battlefield.
If all that sounds interesting to you I’d recommend getting the demo from Xbox Live (no PC demo) or reading the interview on Tom Chick’s gaming blog. I prefer mouse and keyboard so I’m playing the PC not the X360 version. Perhaps I’ll see you online?