Written by: PlayDevil.com Staff

 

 

 

How do you fancy travelling at terminal velocity towards a bullet-ridden battlefield? Plummeting head first through the atmosphere until you collide with the ground, dodging flak cannons and sniper rounds. If that sounds like your cup of tea, suit up, put down your tea, and leap into "Section 8: Prejudice".

 

Or let me do it on your behalf. The sequel to 09’s Section 8 is due for release in Q1 2011 and I recently ran my grubby hands all over it in a subterranean Soho bunker.

 

 

If you’ve played the original game, and not many have, you’ll be instantly familiar with the new version. Sci-fi FPS hooks remain in place, with crisp movement and responsive controls also on tap.

 

Returning, too, are the features which made Section 8 stand out from the crowd. Multiplayer games are all about defending and capturing locations. By sneaking or bashing your way into an opponent’s base, you can hack a series of control panels and convert them to your cause. All of this will boost your points total and bring you closer and closer to victory.

 

To spice things up a little, Dynamic Combat Missions appear periodically to add ancillary objectives. A member of your team may suddenly become a VIP, hunted by the opposing players. If you can protect him for long enough, you’ll get a sizeable boost to your points total. While this is all happening you still need to worry about those pesky control points.

 

There are 9 different missions in Prejudice and no rhyme or reason to how they pop up. So although the core of every multiplayer match is constant, the addition of randomly located DCMs means that no two matches will play out exactly the same.

 

 

Jumping into the game’s Conquest mode for the first time was an overwhelming experience. The Dropspawn mechanic can land you anywhere on the battlefield, although areas directly around enemy controlled bases will pepper you with anti-air fire if you attempt to deploy there.

 

In addition to worrying about which control points to attack and how to do it, not to mention the active DCM, you’ll also be earning cash as you play. Money can be spent to drop turrets or vehicles onto the map. It’s a heady cocktail that makes Section 8: Prejudice one of those most complex and intriguing upcoming online shooters.

 

 

Many of these features have been refined, rather than redesigned, following the original Section 8. The number of DCMs has increased from 8 to 9, with a couple dropped and some altered from the old selection. The tower-defence turrets remain as they were, with only one new vehicle added to the list. The bike allows players to zip around the map with unparalleled speed, but look out for rocket launchers aimed in your direction.

 

There are plenty of tweaks to the movement in Prejudice, but most of them are subtle under-the-hood improvements. Every player still has a jet-pack, allowing them to burst into the air for a limited period of time, or run super-fast across large open maps. The graphics have also been given a new lick of paint.

 

 

Perhaps the most notable multiplayer upgrade is the new weapon unlock system. Completing objectives and murdering your opponents grants you can increase your level, granting you access to a roster of new firearms and deployables. Developers TimeGate report that the number of weapons you begin the game with in Prejudice matches the total amount of firepower in Section 8.

 

Loadouts are fully customizable, right down to the type of ammo used in each gun. Here again, Prejudice pushes some innovative boundaries. Included in the ammo options is an Automation Mod, which switches from shield blasting ammo to armour piercing rounds depending on how far you are from the target.

 

On the multiplayer front, Prejudice also features a Swarm mode, in which the player is tasked with fending off ever stronger waves of enemy forces. This can be attempted with up to 4 people co-operatively.

 

 

If all this multiplayer depth doesn’t convince players to stick around, perhaps clans, stats, and dedicated servers will do the trick. TimeGate will operate a site that collects and collates information about everyone who plays the game. The dev team have promised to support this platform beyond the game’s release, with the potential for tournaments and contests as the game picks up steam.

 

Clan registration will be monitored and approved, with each clan given its own unique webspace. From here, head honchos can manage their team’s roster and publicise their squad. Competitive players will also be excited about Prejudice’s dedicated server support, which is available on both PC and consoles. By slotting in a USB keyboard, 360 and PS3 users can access admin commands and host custom games for up to 40 players. If you don’t have enough friends, you can include a few of Prejudice’s impressive looking bots. It’s enough to say that my fellow journalists and I weren’t totally sure if we were playing against real people or digitised simulacrums.

 

 

By all accounts, the campaign in the original Section 8 was a bit lacking. It formed little more than a tutorial for the multiplayer component. TimeGate have taken those criticisms to heart and turned out a 5 hour sci-fi epic, complete with civil war, nasty robots, and explosions. It remains to be seen if the full vista can live up to the strong multiplayer component, but early signs are promising.

 

 

Section 8 was an acquired taste. One for FPS purists who value mechanical variation over slickness. Rather than diversifying, Prejudice looks to be pushing that angle even harder, adding support for clans and dedicated servers. Although the newly fleshed out campaign may tempt in more casual punters, the focus is still clearly on the competitive customer.

 

 

Section 8: Prejudice is due for release during Q1 2011 on XBLA, PSN, and PC, priced at $14.99 (1200 points).

 

 

Keep your eyes on PlayDevil for more coverage of the game as it approaches release.

Click here for an interview with TimeGate President Adel Chaveleh and Design Director, Brett Norton.