Section 8: Prejudice

Posted 2 years ago By - Marko Djordjevic

In the views of many, myself included, the shooter genre is heavily saturated. All too frequently we get shoveled releases that are completely overlooked because they don’t manage to offer something different in order to stand out. TimeGate Studios is hoping that their sequel to Section 8, entitled Section 8: Prejudice can shine among the masses. In order to accomplish this, they are leaning heavily on a favorable price point and plenty of content. While not perfect, Prejudice might be an enjoyable romp...for the right crowd...

Prejudice puts you back in the role of Corde, a member of the titular Section 8, as he - along with other members of the USIF - try to hunt down a key member of the Arm of Orion, who was broken free from captivity. The Arm of Orion seem to be developing a weapon that could devastate everything and because of that, Section 8 will need to move fast in order to prevent this from happening.

Overall, Prejudice’s story is pretty short and not entirely impressive. Mission structures are extremely linear; you’ll always move from point A to point B and try to dispose of enemy forces in order to advance. The gameplay does mix it up a bit by having you hack items, protect areas from waves of foes and a few vehicular combat spots, but in general, it’s a pretty basic affair. On the game’s medium setting, most seasoned FPS players should blow through the campaign in about 3-5 hours. Because of this, some may want to begin the game on the hardest difficulty for a real challenge, or at least to lengthen the experience a bit.

On the battlefield, most missions have you work with fellow squad members in order to reach the next objective. Unfortunately, the AI can be extremely wonky. Enemy AI is smart enough to use cover and will attempt to flank you, but your allies will often do some very questionable maneuvers. The most prevalent is that they absolutely love to get into your line of fire. On numerous occasions, I would have a teammate literally walk in front of me as I was shooting. It would be one thing if I was shooting blindly, but when targeted in on a specific enemy, them getting in the way as bullets are flying can be very annoying.

One of the standouts in combat is the endless amount of loadout options available. As you progress through the story, new weapons and ammo variants are introduced and the ability to combine and customize to your liking opens the door to some interesting results. Your held weapons vary from standard assault rifles to rocket launchers and each has more than one different ammunition type that is effective for specific situations. Even your projectile weapons are quite varied, with my favorite being the crash mortar - which is excellent when enemies are bunched together. The loadouts aren’t just a joy to customize in single-player as even the multiplayer modes allow for tweaking.

There are two multiplayer modes offered in Prejudice. Conquest is your standard “capture waypoints and control for as long as possible” game type, where the team scoring the most points is crowned victorious. Swarm is a time-based mode where you, along with three other partners, need to keep control of a certain section until time runs out. A cool aspect to both modes are the addition of side-objectives. You will always be tasked with completing these within a set-time frame and their success or failure can turn the tide of victory. Both multiplayer modes have four primary maps, while in Conquest, each map has three variants which technically boosts that number to 16 (across both modes).

Visually, the game stands up fairly well, but isn’t as remarkable as many may hoped. While there is some nice variety within the level design, it’s hampered by the linear movements and “off-limits” areas. Early on, there are some graphical glitches that are extremely evident, both up close and in the distance. For close-up objects, there are a few instances where textures will appear and disappear right in front of your eyes. This same issue is also present with some of the landscape objects, specifically mountain ranges that will alter depending on how you look at them.

On the audio end, the game’s soundtrack and voice work is well done with a nice delivery by the cast and a lot of familiar voices that video game fans will recognize. As for the sound effects and orchestral score, they also do a fine job in adding atmosphere to each section you traverse.

Again, the biggest selling point for Section 8: Prejudice is the amount of content versus the cost. Even with a relatively short campaign, when you combine the multiplayer options, you can easily justify the fifteen dollar price-tag. An interesting aspect is that while navigating the game’s main menu, there seems to be additional content planned somewhere down the road. We don’t know what it could be - my hope is for a co-op campaign option - but if it’s offered at a reasonable price-tag (or better yet, free), then the value of Prejudice increases exponentially.

Conclusion

If Prejudice was only a multiplayer or a single-player affair, it wouldn’t be much to talk about, especially considering the short campaign. The fact that it offers both does give some solace, coupled by the more-than-reasonable fifteen dollar asking price. For those craving some FPS action at a time where the release schedule is bare, then Section 8: Prejudice will fill the void.