Section 8

Rating: T

Score: 7.5/10

With big titles in the online First Person Shooter world like Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Team Fortress 2, and Halo ODST, it's surprising that every single other game doesn't rip off those games. In reality, most of them do, subtly or with their own twist (most of the time anyway). But there will come a game that dares to rip them all off, yet still be very fun and have great original concepts, and few people will hate it for ripping off those games so much. Well, that day has arrived. Welcome to Section 8. This game is available for Xbox 360 and PC, and maybe Playstation 3 in the future(they haven't confirmed anything yet for Playstation 3, other than they're trying).

"Sometime in the distant future, people will wear full body armor and run around killing aliens all the time" basically summarizes Section 8's story. Much like another game...an overrated game that has a similar story... cough(Halo)cough...sorry, just a small cold. There is more of a story, but it's so bland and forgettable that it doesn't even matter. So, the game focuses on its multiplayer, how about that?

You start off by shooting from space down to the battlefield thousands of feet below! Easily the best way to be able to spawn ever in a video game. With this method, you can choose where EXACTLY on the battlefield you want to drop down. You can drop down right in the middle of a fire fight, or land miles away from the fight.

Once you've landed, you'll find the game is centred around a deathmatch/territory control first person shooter with multiple classes roaming the area. Much like another game very similar to it...cough(TeamFortress2)cough... Oh, the cold is harsh this year. Anyways, each class has different weapons and specialities. If they don't suit you, you can create your own with your own guns, special equipment like a wristband that shoots a transparent beam that can heal others (but can it make you bulletproof?) and heal turrets, and attributes that can increase your base stats by making you run faster, giving you a better shield, or having you do more damage. Much like another popular game where you can create a class with special attributes...cough(CallOfDuty)cough.... Arg, the cold medicine does nothing!

So, once you dropped into this battlefield, you'll find it's an immense battlefield. You'll need to find where the fight is going on. It's not long after this you'll find that you can run, and after running for about 8 seconds you put away your gun and go into "overdrive" and you'll sprint across the battlefield at mach speed. You can't attack in this state, but it is original and quite humorous first time activating it.

Once you find the fight, you'll see it's likely at one of the control points you either need to protect or destroy. This is where those classes become a part of the game because, depending on what you have, that will decide how you'll play out. You can be a Medic, a Spy, a Scout- oh wait, I mean a healer, a sneaky knifing mercenary, and a hit-and-run character, or any other of the thousands of other possibilities.

Playing with bots and playing with other humans is often a very similar experience, because of the very intelligent A.I. (artificial intelligence) that is always a challenge on the right difficulty. Playing with friends is more enjoyable just because it always is, they're your friends, but it's nice to know bots can also be a nice alternative.

After each kill, you get money. This money can be used to spawn portable turrets, dispens- I mean resupply outpost, and tanks. Tanks are awkward to control, and thus is why they are rarely effective in combat. Turrets and resupply outpost can be very effective if you can get them alive, and thus is more often bought.

Overall, it's similar to if you put an original but bland game in a blender with other popular titles to make one game. When you're not running around mach speed or flying around with a jetpack, you're probably doing something already done in another, better game. For what's here, it's a good overall game, but it's not entirely its own game.