Section 8: Prejudice: the 185th best team player in the world
One of the modern FPS mechanics Section 8: Prejudice uses is unlocks through advancement. Don’t get too worked up about it though, since all of the weapons and almost all of the equipment and armor mods are available at level one. You start out with the basic tools to get the job done but as you advance up you get more tools in the toolbox to specialize, surprise, and more closely match your style of play.
After the jump, unlock-o-rama by the numbers
Fortunately there’s three paths to unlocking. For each mission you complete in the campaign or offline/unranked swarm or conquest missions you gain stars. One for easy, two for medium, and three for hard difficulty. By clearing all the missions on hard you unlock 60 stars which takes you quite far into the unlocks. But to collect ’em all, you need to play ranked matches. As your ranked level goes up you gain unlocks in tandem with your stars you run out of stars before you run out of levels (las unlock occurs at level 85, max level is 100). The third way to unlock is through achievements. It’s nice to have achievements give you an in game boost and not just gamerscore.
Oh, I forgot the fourth way you get unlocks. You pay for them. TimeGate has gone on record to say there will be paid and free DLC and as of this writing you can buy the blitz pack which gives you a handful of ammo unlocks and a new armor skin (with no game effect). I know I’ve mentioned it before but for $15 for the base game, it won’t kill you to throw a few more bucks their way if you want some more content. You know they’re going to fill in the fourth gametype with something interesting.
But honestly unlocks aren’t required to be effective. The tools you’re given even from level one make you and effective combatant, able to hold your own and fight effectively especially if you fight with your squad and team.
How effective? Well you can look for yourself as all of your stats and the aggregate stats of clans and the population as a whole are online in the Section 8 stats portal. Did you know as of this writing over 37% of all players in matches are using the stock Assault loadout consisting of Knife, Assault Rifle, Pistol, and Grenade? Over 32% of all battlefield purchases are minigun turrets. The #1 ranked player’s weapon of choice is a machinegun with incendiary rounds. He’s already reached level 100 so all the unlocks are open to him.
I’m a measly 23rd level. Not even the highest in the Quarter to Three clan. But I am 185th in the world for Teamwork score in a mission with 149 points. My record of 107 combat points only gets me 414th place. Hmmm, still seems like people are preferring to shoot each other than work together. Such is the way of the FPS, but as I’ve mentioned all throughout these game diaries Section 8: Prejudice rewards all activities that advance your team and win the map.
Digging further into the stats portal or the leaderboards and you see the feats that earn you bonus XP in ranked matches. These per match mini-achievements are excellent for earning extra XP and advancing quicker. You can also infer a person’s playstyle from the feats. My looking at my stats you see that I favor repair (13 matches with 3+ repairs), sensor jammers (17 matches with a jammer within 50m of an enemy sensor), machine guns (13 matches with 3+ machine gun kills) and scanners (9 matches with 8+ scans of enemies). The feats and badges encourage additional gameplay much as achievements have done for gaming in general. Don’t be afraid to go achievement, badge, or feat hunting. You may find something you like and expand your gameplay.
This spring is a great time for FPSs that break the mold from the mainstream. I hope this game diary got you at least a little interested in one of those games that may have flown under your radar. Or is that dropped through your airspace too quickly? See you all online!
Click here for the previous Section 8 entry.
Paul “Rorschach” Tobia is a big fan of games. When he’s not taking care of his family or day job he runs websites about games, podcasts about games, and occasionally plays games.
