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Section 8 Prejudice offers one of the most impressive feature lists ever seen in a downloadable title: a 5 hour campaign, 32 player competitive multiplayer, the 4 player cooperative 'Swarm' mode, dedicated server support and a suite of persistent stat tracking, clan management and unlocks. The original was reasonably well received critically but many fans felt the game was under appreciated. Has Timegate managed to do enough to improve upon the series to warrant a sequel?

The game puts you into the shoes of Captain Alex Corde, a member of an elite squad of soldiers who're well known to take on extremely dangerous missions and come out alive. It kicks off with a fairly simple but useful tutorial which does a pretty solid job of running you by the basic mechanics, which you'll need to know when jumping into both online and offline play. Initially the aiming may not feel as snappy as many gamers are used to from other genre defining titles such as Call of Duty, however with a little bump in sensitivity and some adjustment you'll be smoothly jetpacking around and blasting enemies away in no time. 

The campaign itself took me roughly around 4-5 hours on the Hard difficulty to complete. The story itself feels relatively dull and uninspiring but still serves as a reason to move through each of the games levels. Whereas in the original Section 8 I had an overwhelming feeling that the campaign was a series of glorified bot matches, Prejudice's encounters are entertaining and enjoyable to participate in. Throughout the 5 hour experience I always felt compelled to keep playing, and generally had a pretty good time. The pacing is fairly steady, mixing things up with vehicular and escort sections here and there. Timegate have done a significantly superior job this time around at creating a campaign which actually feels like the shooter campaign which you've come to expect in modern years. Although it never really steps out of the box to provide something spectacular, it serves as an enjoyable romp through a variety of interesting environments allowing the player to familiarise themselves with the games mechanics, weapons and vehicles.

The meat of the game however lies in the multiplayer experience. Here 32 players can duke it out on 4 different full sized maps, along with multiple smaller sectioned off variants for lower player amounts. Although at the time of writing prior to the games launch I (understandably) had some trouble finding human players, the game features full bot support with 4 levels of difficulty which provide a good amount of competition. Prejudice follows a similar gameplay style to that seen in the Battlefield series. Players must capture and hold multiple points across the map. However where things differ here are with the DCM's - Dynamic Combat Missions. These are random objectives thrown out to everyone at any given time on the battlefield and provide a point boost for the entire team, edging you ever so closer to victory. They can vary from defending a drop point of an AI controlled VIP and then having to escort him to a given point in the map, to controlling a convoy APC. The opposing team will also be given a bonus for stopping these tasks from being completed. It really spices the gameplay up, causing for huge battles to break out anywhere on the map rather than just around the set capture point locations. Dedicated servers guarantee a smooth online experience. Prejudice even offers server admins remote administration from the games pause menu, allowing them to change various server side settings whilst in the middle of a game! It's also worth noting System Link play is supported.

Each helpful act you commit will gain you money to spend on vehicle and turret drops. In the vehicle department you'll have access to the Spectre Hover Bike, Ares Assault Mech or the Marauder Heavy Tank. You'll also be able to drop in a Supply Depot, Sensor Array, Minigun Turret, Missile Turret and an Anti Air Turret. These add a ton to the strategic nature of the gameplay, and go a long way in promoting team work. A good squad (yes Prejudice fully supports squads) will lock down a capture point with turrets and supply depots to provide both defensive damage, plus healing to the turrets, players and access to ammo. Also repair tools can be used to heal players, vehicles and turrets. When an area is sealed down a reliable strategy is to then focus your attention on the DCM's to provide extra points for your team towards getting that win. A team with a couple of smart squads will undoubtedly destroy one without.

Section 8 Prejudice also offers a 'drop-in' spawning mechanic. Rather than spawning at a set location, players are granted the ability to spawn anywhere on the map. After selecting a location you'll plummet from a ship high in the sky. After reaching a certain height you'll be able to initiate your airbreak, granting you the ability to skydive in, giving you further control over your landing position. However you'll have to be weary of AA turrets, either placed by players or as part of one of the games capture points - these have the ability to shoot you right out the sky, but thankfully their range is displayed on the map so you shouldn't have too much trouble avoiding them. When you're on the ground after sprinting for a few seconds you'll engage 'Overdrive' - the camera pans into third person, your soldier puts his gun on his back and enters a state of super speed, it's pretty neat. Dropping in really is an exhilarating sight with the camera shaking around in third person as you see your super soldier fly down through the clouds into the battlefield, there's nothing else quite like it out there, and it genuinely adds a unique dynamic to the gameplay.

The game also features a wide array of customisation options - 6 loadouts are provided which can be tweaked and named as you see fit. You'll be able to choose from a standard array of weapons such as an Assault Rifle, Rocket Launcher, Machine Gun, Sniper Rifle, Pistol, Shotgun and a Pulse Cannon. Along with a range of equipment such as Grenades, Knives, Detpacks, Beacons, Mortars and Tools. As you complete objectives, help your team and gain kills you'll gain experience points. With experience points your overall level will increase - as this happens at various milestones you'll earn around 46 different types of weapon mods, new pieces of armour and new stat customisation options. The upgrades screen grants you a set number of points (which can be raised ever so slightly with unlocked armour sets) to spend on tweaking your stats. Fancy creating a Scout class, then go ahead and increase your run speed, jetpack recharge, and stealth. Or how about a beefy tank, just spend your points on boosting your armour and shields. Not to mention as you progress you'll unlock various weapon mods, allowing you to further specialise your equipment. These range from options such as EMP rounds which do heavy shield damage but low armour damage, incendiary rounds, a life stealing knife, napalm grenades/mortars, and even sniper bullets which do damage over time and tag the enemy. The whole system allows you to truly tweak your character loadouts to your playstyle, it's fantastic and rewarding. It's also worth noting owners of the original Section 8 will get a couple of unique unlock bonuses including an awesome looking armour set.

Timegate have promised full stat tracking via an extremely intriguing stats portal online. Although I was only able to view a preview of this feature at the time of writing, it promises to allow players to link their gamertags to a Timegate Account on the website, thanks to a unique player specific code given in the 'Dropship' section of the menus. The stats portal will then track absolutely everything you do in-game, even down to the precise usage time of specific weapons. You'll also be able to view the leaderboards across all platforms, and see statistics such as the top 10 players in the world. Not only that but gamers will be able to create and manage clans online - allowing for your own logo, clan tag, messaging, invites, and even the ability to see the top clans in the world based on their total kills/scores. To top it off Timegate have included the ability to get data API's for yourself, allowing players to create custom images which display their stats. This promises to be a wonderful addition to an already feature packed experience.

The games Swarm mode pits you and 3 buddies (or bots) against waves of oncoming enemies. This mode combines the cooperative defensive gameplay of that seen in games such as Gears of War's Horde Mode, mixed with a dose of Tower Defense. Players must defend a set point from waves and waves of increasingly difficult enemies and vehicles. Just like in multiplayer players can call in turrets to help them with this task. Communication and teamwork is absolute key, especially in the higher difficulty levels. Swarm features 4 maps which can all be played on easy, medium, hard or insane difficulties. Thankfully I was able to play this mode with a couple of human teammates and ended up having an absolute blast.

Visually Prejudice looks pretty good. It won't exactly wow you graphically, but there are some neat touches such as the frosting on your visor during the ice levels, along with some light snow visible on both your armour and weapons. Spawning into the map however looks wonderful, although there's some minor noticeable pop-in it doesn't detract from what is otherwise an exciting visual feast. That said when writing about the games visuals, thanks to the sheer ambition of the title, it's impossible to not be comparing these to a retail game - in the context of downloadable games Section 8 Prejudice looks damn good. The music is mostly forgettable but fits in suitably, and the voice acting is solid albeit nothing special. Although it must be said that hearing Michael Mcconnohie, who did the Agency voiceover from Crackdown, make an appearance as General Stone in both the campaign and multiplayer is downright cool. The weapons sound solid, and the sense of speed and power when dropping in thanks to the audio feels awesome.

Overall Section 8 Prejudice is a genuine milestone release for shooters on the Xbox Live Arcade. Granted the game has a fairly generic visual style, the actual game mechanics are extremely refreshing. The feature list is absolutely mind boggling, towering above a large chunk of retail titles. The gameplay is just as solid as its predecessor, with some brilliant and well needed tweaks to make the experience even more enjoyable. Although it would have been nice to see a few more maps in multiplayer and Swarm, the promise of DLC will hopefully continue to breath new life into the game. Timegate have even included a menu section which just outright states 'Coming Soon' (click it and we're told "New Game Modes coming soon"). It's worth noting however that I did have my console completely hardfreeze twice during my multiplayer play time, hopefully this won't become a big issue. At 1200msp there is simply no excuse not to pick up this title. The campaign is of a decent length, and the competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes are an absolute blast. Prejudice is a huge game, both in it's ambitious scope and content. Put simply - this is how downloadable shooters should be done.

Section 8: Prejudice Gets An Official Game-Pad: 9.4/10