Review - Section 13... Actions Redacted.

 
Image Credit: Ocean Drive Studio, Inc.

Action. Check. Horror. Check. Scifi. Check. Fantasy. Well... sort of. Hell, might as well check that too.

    Section 13 is a different breed of game from Ocean Drive Studio. They have definitely left a mark on me with Lost Eidolons and Veil of the Witch, and due to that I was more than willing to give this twinstick shooter a try.

    This roguelite is a lot different from anything else Ocean Drive has done because of its setting and combat style, but that doesn't mean that Section 13 is anything to skip over. The company has shown their chops with medieval swordplay and tactical strategy, but you can tell that they had a lot of fun with this revamp of the Blackout Protocol title. By incorporating roguelite elements into the story, Section 13 forces its employees to discover just how far they can push themselves when having to delve deeper and farther into the bowels of a science facility to find out exactly what has transpired there.

    We start in the parking lot of the facility where it's more than clear that something pretty sh!tty has gone down. As Agent Red, it is up to us to find Agents Boy Scout, Beaker, and Scalpel in order to find out more about this catastrophe and how to rectify it. Each of the four characters comes with their own back stories that intertwine with one another to produce some lore that gives a bit of grounding to everyone and everything surrounding the facility and its nefarious deeds.

The Good

Let's start off with what everyone wants to hear about in a twinstick.

    The combat.

    It's pretty d*mn fun. While simple, Section 13 has found ways to make dodging, shooting, weapon switching, melee, and specials all flow together to produce some fun battles. This is true no matter what. Whether you're using the slower and ham-fisted Agent Boy Scout, or super fast firing and reloading capabilities of Agent Red, there is something to enjoy from doing a run with any of the characters.

    The story is also a surprising plus here. I say surprising, but it really shouldn't be. Ocean Drive Studio is already at my top tier for more independent level gaming studios, and a major part of that has to do with their narrative abilities. They just know how to tell a good story. Red, Boy Scout, Beaker, and Scalpel all have their individual motivations and characteristics that distinguish them as more than just archetypes. The fact that they all have a past with the shadowy S2P, the company behind all the goings-on at Section 13 as well as any other "Section" in the world, also plays into the overall lore and connective tissue between the characters.

    Voice acting is also on solid display for Section 13. Nearly every single character line is voiced, in addition to recordings gathered by unlocks, and they are all performed with a perfect blend of sincerity and humor. Section 13 knows not to take itself too seriously. And I think Ocean Drive does a great job at delivering a story while also inserting some levity here and there.

The Bad

Not much is necessarily bad in Section 13, although there might be some who are disappointed with the overall run time. While the difficulty can be scaled up after the first successful run, it won't add much in terms of replayability. At that point, you'll likely have already unlocked most of the story elements and really just be throwing yourself back into the fray for a bit of harsher punishment from spongier enemies.

    While I did enjoy the narrative and character exploration, I do have to say that I finished the "true ending" after completing the first run through. I did not find this ending all that much more compelling than the original "ending" you'll experience after one. That was probably my one and only disappointment.

The Glory

After a bit of deliberation on my end, I have decided that this game still falls into the glorious category. While there may be a couple of 7/10 aspects, it pushes the boundaries enough to land solidly as an 8/10 overall. Will it redefine the twinstick genre? No. But it will give you a solid 20+ hours of roguelite fun as you step into the seedy world of S2P and their secret government projects.

8/10

Glorious