Section 8: Prejudice Screens And Info

The crew over at TimeGate was awesome enough to send us some screens and bullet points on their upcoming early 2011 downloadable title Section 8: Prejudice. Figured I'd share'em.

The original Section 8 was a winner, in my opinion. It combined a lot of my favorite features found across the FPS genre (Armored Suit combat, drop troopers, on the field objective adjustment and requisitioning), and served it all up in a nice little multiplayer package. Problem was, Section 8 had a pithy single player, with a cookie cutter protagonist and goals I just didn't care about. The game play was solid enough to hold it up as a great Xbox Live staple, but I just didn't feel the community, or the world enough to keep it in my disc drive.

Now, Section 8: Prejudice is looking to be one of the most intelligent sequels I've seen in a while. They've made the game download only, with an attractive 1200 point ($15 dollars) price tag. They've touted a five-hour single player with that...fully trouncing any shooter available over XBLA for the same money (Breach, Blacklight: Tango Down). It looks like all the feedback came in for Section 8, and they hit each nail on the head. It's a multi-player focused game and a damn good one; It's nice to see the game being developed and chiseled for a release platform that will really let it soar. And that's just the beginning. Here's a copy-paste of the feature list from the press release, let's break it down:

Game Features

• Play as Alex Corde and discover the sinister series of betrayals that now threaten humanity's survival in a 5-hour single-player campaign. (Worst part of last game, let's see if they pulled it together. I'd be more interested in Corde's survival if they could make a local story more interesting than a world-spanning one.)

• Compete in various multiplayer modes with up to 32 players (40 on PC) in the strategic play of "Conquest." (That's a lot of people, and Conquest is a genuinely interesting game type)

• Team up in the new 4-player co-op "Swarm" game mode where FPS gaming meets Tower Defense. (Someone dipped their Monday Night Combat in my Section 8. Even if this is a glorified Horde/Firefight mode...glorifying is what those modes needed.)

• Strategically drop-spawn anywhere on the battlefield in real-time to assist allies or ambush enemies. (My favorite part of this entire series. It's exciting!)

• Customize loadout weapons, ammo, and equipment to suit your play style. (Yawner. But it's nice to be able to choose. The problem is it unbalances the experience sometimes yadda-yadda I whine a lot then play Halo. Isn't there another way to make being a soldier interesting on a subjective level without doing this? I miss the counterstrike model: buy your guns and ammo on the fly.)

• Call in deployables and vehicles when and where you need them to gain tactical advantages. (Hell yes. I say "tank" you give me "tank". I can work with this.)

• Master true mobility with dropping, overdrive, and jetpacks to outmaneuver opponents. (The range of movements available to you in Section 8 was really refreshing. Jetpack here, overdrive there...you feel like Chapter 1, Page 1 of Robert Heinlien's Starship Troopers novel.)

• Complete a variety of Dynamic Combat Missions - from launching aerial strikes against fortified positions to securing crucial intel. (This could have been folded into the "Conquest is a game type!" feature, imo...but this is what makes the actual battles interesting...cycling, player-triggered objectives.)

• Advance in rank and skill to access a devastating arsenal of over 60 weapon, equipment, and upgrade variants. (Nice, thick arsenal. Pun heavily intended).

I'll be playing Section 8: Prejudice at GDC next week. I'll let you know how it goes!