Gamers are becoming game designers. This isn't a new phenomenon, but it's something that's become increasingly apparent this generation. College students who spent their time playing Half-Life, Tribes, and Counter Strike are the new producers, creating the games that they wanted to play. Section 8 feels like a game made from the heart, and is filled with good ideas that will hopefully lead to great gameplay. After seeing the game in action, I'm hopeful that this might be the case., but not entirely convinced.

Don't get me wrong - it looks great, but a few things have to happen for the game to be a success. Namely, people need to play it. It has a singleplayer campaign, but it's not meant to be played alone. Timegate Studios didn't put in 16 player multiplayer (with the option to set up 32 player dedicated servers using a PC connection) so players could focus on the short singleplayer experience. It's more of a training ground for the online play, and has players going through what amounts to a story-driven excuse to test out the game's weapons, vehicles, and gameplay modes. After finishing up Alex Cord's journey, the game expects players to stick around for dessert.




And what a dessert it looks to be. The multiplayer offerings of Section 8 are robust, and take some of the better aspects of the era's great shooters and mix them together in ways that should be exciting to PC shooter veterans. Features of Tribes are present in the character design, which features bulky, armored soldiers who use jetpacks and vehicles to wage epic battles, and the commander aspect of Battlefield is present as every player has requisition points that can be spent to drop in turrets, sensors, supply depots and vehicles. It's a much different shooter than most gamers are likely accustomed to, since it's more about epic duels than lucky shots. Some might be upset that a headshot with a sniper rifle isn't rewarded with an instant kill, but that's not what this game is about. It's about shooting someone in the head, hitting them with a few rocket blasts, and finishing them off with a well-placed turret. They're wearing giant suits of armor for a reason.

Some of the game's other gimmicks, like being able to "burn in" anywhere on the map, should lead to interesting gamplay mechanics. Players can choose nearly any point on the map to drop in at, and literally fall from the sky in a drop ship that smashes into the ground, releasing them to any location they wish. Snipers might choose to drop onto a cliff, giving them an ideal location to fire, and heavy-weapon wielders may choose to, instead, drop into the heart of battle. During the descent, players can choose, at any time, to change their direction, manually controlling their free-fall. It should help keep things ever-changing, creating an epic feel for the already large battles.

The multiplayer look very similar to Killzone 2's, continuing Section 8's record of looking like a "best of" list of shooters released in the past ten years. There isn't any one, but instead a constantly changing objective, changing the flow of battle by introducing new modes and missions as they're completed. That's not to say it isn't original, there are plenty of things that Section 8 do that look fairly unique, it's just that none really stuck out while watching the game be played in a small room at E3. More will likely uncover itself or prove to be a bit deeper once it's released, but so far it feels a lot like the game is trying to capitalize off of other shooters' success, which isn't a bad idea at all. Hopefully, when mixed with the ability to choose customizable load-outs and different perks, it means there is plenty to look forward to when the game is released on the Xbox 360 and PC.

Like I said before, the game's biggest test will be its ability to maintain an online community. From what I saw it definitely has what it takes to be a popular competitive shooter, but gamers are picky and fickle, and better looking games have been ignored.
Hopefully it ends up being good enough to keep them around, because it should fill a gap in the market that otherwise is fairly loose. Tribes players need to do something until a new Tribes is released, and this might be it.