His Review with Ian

Hmmmm. What does the world need? A) Love sweet love? B) Creativity and innovation for all? Or C) Another first person shooter set in a sci-fi future with soldiers, fancy suits and all the tired clichés that have already been tried, tested and bored us to death? The answer, according to TimeGate Studios is C and the result is Section 8: Prejudice (personally I’d have taken a punt on B and the world and the game could have been little bit more interesting) on Xbox Live Arcade.

On offer for your pleasure and delight is, wait for it...

A 5hr single player campaign – oooooooh says the crowd, and there’s also not one, but two – that’s right TWO, online multiplayer adventures entitled Swarm and Siege (two badly named Gladiator’s who didn’t get past the audition stage) where you try to hold your post from onrushing hordes of impatient, nano suit wearing, steroid munching wall flowers.

On the single campaign there’s a first level tutorial, which sets the tone for the rest of the campaign as a dull, repetitive encounter with a stupid AI who cannot provide a smidge of originality or interesting gameplay. All you do is meander around the badly designed maps killing enemies with a joke of a story and if you die part way through a save point, you have to keep seeing the same cut scene again and again and again and that gets irksome.

The multiplayer modes, offer you the chance to be thrust from space into a spawn place of your choice – oooooooh says the crowd – this showpiece entrance is dazzling at first, but if you decide to risk it and fly into enemy territory, you’re likely to be killed on impact by bots or one of the other 31 online players who take an instant disliking to you and then it’s groundhog day again thrusting through space, wasting time when you’re choosing your destination point. Two teams fight for control of various points across a map by hacking a terminal at the centre of their opponent’s control point. Once hacked, players guard the area as nearby automated turrets and sensors slowly start to work for their team instead of the enemy. Even if you like filling your opponents with slugs, the controls and aim are, even with your special lock-on ability, unfocussed at best and adds to the general irritation of proceedings.

If you’ve a few friends with an hour to kill and you’ve bled every other games multiplayer shooty activity dry, you may want to try the Swarm multiplayer mode. As an arcade title, it looks like it’s punching above its weight, but beyond the dated graphics and quantity (not quality) of content, it leaves me wanting to play any other title.

Her Review with Tracey

Woah and woah again there Ian! Let me start by saying I disagree with almost every point Ian had made in his review and think Section 8: Prejudice is a fabulous title that stands out against at lot of what else is on offer in the XBL arcade. Sure, it’s not going to appeal to everyone but fans of the original Section 8 game plus those with a hunger for engaging, progressive first person shooters will love this! Not that I’m a huge fan of FPS games but there was plenty here to keep me happy.

First of all, Captain Alex Corde is back in the armoured power suit, uncovering a huge conspiracy as he investigates how the Arm of Orion could have inflicted such enormous damage during the Outer Rim War and he’s not too annoying as he just gets on with it. Sure, some of his colleagues feel a bit stereotypical and are either bland or overtly macho (with a particular mention to the Sergeant Neil Matthews who’s attempt at cool and collected only comes across as smug whilst he sounds like he’s reading lines off the page) but there’s no messy jargon, no cringe worthy attempts at humour and it doesn’t get overly emotional. Overall the dialogue is economical but there are a couple of welcome moments that lighten the mood as members of the squad declare that they “hate turrets” right after you’ve spent an entire level dealing with them whilst elsewhere they observe that there are no females around… With a clever line or two, you’re pulled back into the section and feel encouraged to relentlessly battle on. I also think I prefer the shorter single campaign element compared to the lengthy missions of bigger FPS games like Call Of Duty. I’m not a solider and I don’t want to spend hours of my life pretending to be one either. 5 hours? Yes please.

There are some tasty weapons on offer like shotguns and pulse cannons and grenades but the main deal is with the super suit which looks good, allows you to drop in, run around at super fast speeds, leap over buildings and then blast your way out - job done! Am curious as to how a knife can be so incredible it can pierce a suit that would otherwise withstand the frozen wastelands of Boreas or the blistering volcanic temperatures of Prometheus but overall, the suit is a great weapon in itself. Hurtling towards the surface as you ‘Burn In’ and spawn anywhere you like looks cool and dangerous. Timing your landing is the key and trying to land on your mate’s head in Multiplayer is fun.

For the record, there are now three online multiplayer modes – which when you’re against 31 other players is carnage unless you’re a sneaky sniper like moi. To celebrate online players carrying out ten million kills (who used their Dr. Evil voice there?) in just two weeks, TimeGate studios, as part of their promise to support the game long term, released free downloadable content. You can now play Assault mode which is a team Vs team capture all the points in the fastest time then defend your butts off kind of affair. Sure it’s not breaking the mould except that it’s FREE because TimeGate love you and it’s not as if Section 8: Prejudice is expensive in the first place!

Overall, this is a great value sci-fi shooter that has moments of fabulousness combined with some mega multiplayer action.
Section 8: Prejudice is available now on Xbox Live Arcade for 1200MP or on PC for £9.99