Don the big metal boots of a superhero space marine in Timegate’s upcoming sci-fi shooter.

If you’ve been following Section 8 at all, and have either savoured the gameplay demos or marvelled at the Hollywood-calibre intro movie, then you’re probably going to want to experience four things as soon as you get your hands on the game: 1) Perform a “burn-in” skydive, 2) Run really, really fast, 3) Jump super-high, and 4. Run then jump. Just as Timeshift invited you to manipulate time and Dark Sector centred its action around the Krull-inspired Glaive, Section 8’s chief “gimmick” is that it places you in a high-tech power suit so darn spiffy that somewhere behind that MJOLNIR Mark IV helmet the Master Chief is turning green with envy.

Though Section 8’s setting and costume design are definitely reminiscent of the Halo trilogy, what distinguishes Southpeak Interactive and Timegate Studio’s first-person shooter from that revered franchise is that the power suits in question actually augment your characters abilities beyond the usual FPS conventions. In all fairness, apart from an impressive melee and a superhuman vertical leap, the Master Chief didn’t offer players anything that his human counterparts in other first-person shooters did.

Timegate Studio, whose previous work includes the F.E.A.R. expansions, are attempting to build upon the style of shooter introduced in Tribes and Planetside, with Section 8’s fast-paced 32 player (with optional bots filling in the vacancies) deathmatch offerings.  Players join the fight of either the human defence force Section 8 or the ambiguous and mysterious Arm of Orion; though in all fairness the two factions are barely distinguishable but for a palette swap. The Beta we played had two large maps: the Utah Crash Site, with its prominent satellite dish, and the parched Orbital Relay.