Section 8 – to buy or not to buy

I’m thinking right now whether to buy Section 8 or not.

As always, there’s not only good points, but also flaws.

As with all those shitty PC and Console games, it’s menu is so console.

As a PC gamer especially liking efficiency, where the heck is the intuitive menu with number keys for fast access?

Developer Walkthough:

Developer Walkthrough part 1

Developer Walkthrough part 2

Developer Walkthrough part 3

I especially like the drop-in system, spawning in where you want.

The customizable classes with 2 weapons, 2 items and choosable upgrades makes it a great game for team- and clan-matches (although I probably won’t get enough of my clan people to play it anyway).

The drop-in allows you to sneak in from the back and attack at different spots.

But that could also make it annoying, when the enemy is doing just that.

But it allows, again speaking about team-matches, to quickly switch tactics and make it a really fast-tactic game where you, at any time, have to be right at it.

Watching the developer walkthroughs above I also wondered, selfkill and drop-in should be faster for most cases, even if it’s just behind the next base.

Didn’t try that in the open beta I’m in though…

Also, I didn’t get the dynamic mission yet.

But pretty much is unexplained in the open beta, being said to be, of course, explained in the retail version.

The system with shields and armour (is armour the same as health?) is quite interesting,

but I didn’t get the pierce-through distances yet.

W:ET did it great. Less damage over a distance, not dying for just one shot.

Skill and tactic over pure luck (hello CS).

But I wonder if Section 8 is overdoing it.

Also, some issues came up with Section 8 in the official forums.

It does not have Linux Servers?

WTF?

That’s a no-go.

I even hate Windows becoming more and more of a monopoly with games.

Linux is such a great platform and OpenGL allows for great engines as well.

Seeing even ID software dropping Linux support even when using an OpenGL engine… That’s so sad.

But hey, it’s just 34€.

When games are almost always at 45€ (and rising, which (the ones more expensive) I won’t buy anyway), that’s a really good price for a great game.

I have enough games already anyway and not enough time to play many games anyway…

Though I will and want to support developers making great games.

But I hate those flaws coming with parallel console development.

At least technically it’s running great though.

We’ve seen the worst in that area, but they didn’t fail.

But that’s probably just the Unreal Engine, which was like that.

But thanks for not breaking it.

I’m gonna have to check the features…

I miss a good page listing features…

They suddenly added a swarm-mode to the beta, really interesting one (although I didn’t find a server with enough ppl. We were 3 once, but that was not enough.), so I wonder if there’s more.

Oh, and being spoiled by other great games, I just checked if there were config files.

There’s a ton of ini files, most or many seem pretty much useless for customization.

And I can’t even find the classes one creates in-game.

So it probably is not really customizable with config files. 🙁

SDK was said to be released later after release I think.

Another must-do these days (just like linux servers *cough*).

Release is 11. (UK) / 18. (EU) September.

Update:

I’d still have to pay 38€ there to get the game…

English import on okaysoft for 37€.