Section 8

There's an old joke, and it's still valid for most online games, that the longer it takes you to walk someplace, the quicker you'll die once you get there. A long trek across a large level will most likely end with a shotgun blast to the face a moment later, and the walk begins again. Section 8: Prejudice fights this trend by giving every player the ability to run double-speed across the map by holding down the sprint button for a few seconds, until the view goes to third-person and you bolt across the map.
This is a $15 game, and there are enough good ideas and neat twists to justify that cost a few times over. A low price is not enough to justify the existence of a game—time is still the most expensive part of playing for many people—but Prejudiceis both inexpensive and fun, with a few neat gimmicks to boot.

Out of the sky, into the battle

Instead of a standard spawning system, Prejudice spits you out of the belly of a dropship, and you guide your soldier into battle. Red sections of the minimap show you where anti-aircraft fire will shoot you out of the sky, and the other team can limit your options by deploying more AA guns around the map. If you're already on the ground and want your squad to be able to spawn in and help you out, you'll want to take the AA guns out. It's an interesting dynamic, and makes the fight for the skies a major part of the battles. And yes, with a little skill you can land directly on an opponent's head for a one-hit kill.
Every player gets a jetpack, and the game often feels like one-third Tribes and two-thirds Halo. All the expected weapons are here, and you can pick your class or make a custom loadout with weapons and gear including different types of grenades, or a tool that repairs your teammates or their hardware. You can bring a knife into battle, but it's going to take up a slot, so not everyone will have one. Battles between players can take awhile, as your weapons first have to deplete their shields, and then their health. By playing online on ranked servers you can gain experience, and as you level up you get access to new weapons and powers. After an hour or two of play you'll have some solid choices when it comes to what you bring into battle with you.

There is a single-player campaign, but it's merely functional. It works as a good way to introduce you to some tactics and weapons, and you can unlock some upgrades by playing it, but it's more of a value-added section of the game than a main event. Much better is the four-player Swarm co-op mode, where you team up with your buddies to defend your base against wave after wave of bad guys. You'll earn money by killing the opposing side, and with that money you can call down defensive turrets and even mechs to pilot into battle. It's a fun mode, and the smattering of tower-defense style strategy mixes things up nicely.
The real meat of the game is the Conquest mode, where up to 32 players split into two teams and fight for control of a number of strategically placed bases spread around the maps. You have to hack a terminal to control a base, and then it's up to you to defend that base while your opponents try to take it back. Just to make things interesting, the game throws secondary missions at both sides, asking you to escort VIPs safely to a base, or to call down and then defend an outpost, or just to collect multiple pieces of wreckage. One epically fun mission has your team trying to kill everyone on the other team at least once. This changes the way you play, because if you're the last person the other team needs to kill to get their points, you're going to be defended by your team and you must play very conservatively.
With the dynamic missions, the turrets and vehicles you can buy to defend your bases or attack theirs, and enemies and friends raining from the sky as they spawn into the battle, things get hectic. This isn't a simple game, and there is some strategy in how you play,  defend, and (certainly) how you attack. The mechanics are satisfying enough to belong in a much more expensive game.
Which is depressing, because any small shortcomings of the game—and among those I include the fact that it's a Games for Windows Live title—can be forgiven due to the low price. There may be only four maps, although they can be broken up into pieces for smaller games, but I've already put a significant amount of time playing and I can't wait to play more. With many $60 games only lasting six hours or so, a $15 game that offers this many modes, options, and unlockables is a surreal value. It's a good game on the Xbox 360, and it's available now on that platform as well, but it's even better on the PC.
It's hard to really capture the feel of a game, and reviews such as this can sometimes read like a list of features, but if you're playing with friends who all have headsets, this is an enjoyable, high-class shooter. We're promised more content in the coming days, so hopefully the game will remain fresh, but even with only the 10 or so hours I've put into the game I've more than justified the cost. If you like killing things online, you need to download this.

Posted in: Entertainment News