Section 8 demo review

This demo is good for one reason.  It is a live multiplayer demo.  Other wise the controls are frustrating and the game aiming very impercise.  The visuals on the one map that is playable is just ok and the character design is fairly original.  The demo is a little incomplete feeling but is a full game of mulitplayer online which is more than many demos offer.  The better demo for online is GRID.  But this demo does have some positives.  It does not feature the full game content or items and has an abundance of different classes and turrets etc that a player can deploy. 

The ultimate playablilty of this game comes from rockets and frag launchers but are missiing a key element.  Being readily able to hit a target that you are aiming at.  This impercision plagues the game and the odd running and sprinting system and placement of LB as the jump button makes the game feel like it was made by Capcom. 

Being dropped out of the sky and hitting mid air brakes is neat but the best element of the technology invovled is the story behind the title.  Basically you are a futuristic version of USA's elite and super secret military unit, Section 8.  You are a master chief style ass kicker and can like wise take a lot of shit before dying.  Well actually jumping around won't hurt you but there are times when someone somehow manages to rock you out with a little graze shot or lucky bounce of the bigger boom guns. 

It is a toss up whether the HUD of your first person shooter view is a plus or an odd minus.  But it at least factors in your mech/suit/armor and helmet.  The game is not smooth but is also no as glitchy as many other demos.  For this fact alone gets the demo an extra edge over other reviews. 

Control issues aside the game is large in the fact that it is up to 32 players in a online match but small in that the demo is a minor fraction of what this game is ultimmately suppossed to bring to the table.  Who knows what will happen with the full release version of the game.  But the game recieves a 2.98 out of 5.  If the aiming system was better it would have easily been a 3.5 out of 5.  But no dice folks.  See it for yourself.  Hopefully there will be more than six players in your match because the map is big enough that if you know where to go you can complete objectives unseen from the few opponents on the map.