Section 13 (PS5) | REVIEW | It's Goundhog's Day at Area 51 ... er, I Mean Section 13!!!

Enter Katherine (aka Red), an overly anxious employee of a secret agency not unlike that of Area 51. That agency being Section 13 of S2P, as the title suggests. Getting a call from HQ Katherine is urged to get to work fast as there's been an incident, and she is needed for the job. Looking forward to climbing the corporate ladder Katherine heads out to Arizona to do her duty in service of her employer in hopes of getting a better paying position. What she doesn't know is that she's already caught up in the incident in a sort of Groundhog's Day phenomenon in which every death has the involved employees returning to the scene to deal with a threat. That threat being a Nephilim, and the army of mutated workers plagued by it's presence.

Armed with an assault weapon, a sidearm, grenades, a melee attack, and a special skill on cooldown Katherine, and her two other comrades must traverse the interior maze of the Section 13 building in order to hunt down, and put a stop to the Nephilim. Guided by an AI assistant named Violet, Katherine and her crew must make use of in-facility tech to stand a chance against the insurmountable odds that are stacked against them. This includes making use of weapon mods, temporary character mods, permanent passive upgrades, and temporary Nethercube enhancements randomly generated at locations along the way. Some of which requires special blueprints or items dropped by enemies and found through environmental set pieces.

 It is with this arsenal that you must survive until your final confrontation with the incident's cause without dying. Even in the event death though all is not over as death restarts the characters at a base hub wherein they will continue to relaunch their efforts time, and time again utilizing both the safe house and main hub vendor options as a means to permanently, and passively upgrade/enhance themselves and their arsenals. 

At it's core, Section 13, is an action RPG with roguelike elements. It plays out in an isometric point of view wherein you control one of three characters starting with Katherine. Initially as Katherine you'll follow the lead of AI assistant Violet as she shows you the ins and outs of gameplay, explaining away such things as the enhancements, mods, and upgrade systems alongside the codex (bestiary), and overall compendium for in-game info that requires USBs to unlock. 

The first several deaths or runs under the guidance of Violet will get you familiar with the various safe house and main hub stations as well as the in-facility combat scenarios you'll often encounter. You'll be taught how to quickly change between the main gun, sidearm, and grenades using the DPad directions along with the R1 and L1 features tied to melee and character skill, respectively. This and the ability to dodge roll via CIRCLE will be the means in which you deal with the encroaching and ever-chasing zombie-like mobs. Reloading is a must master mechanic as well as guns do not infinitely fire ammo in Section 13. 

You'll also learn of RNG based Nethercube enhancements, in the early tutorials, which effect weapon and character stats along with the temporarily tacked on character mods that come with a positive and negative passive buff related to performance per run, randomly. All of which takes it's own blueprint that will allow you to improve upon each playthrough build until you eventually make it to the end. Leaving the permanent upgrades that costs the nodes and agent caps you collect to make it easier to survive the overwhelming assault that is nearly impossible to beat early on, if not impossible. There are even shop locations that offer up weapons and wares for the gold coins that you earn through killing enemies.

With each failed run your progress including time played, permanent items, passives, and enhancements carry over onto an end tally employee report screen before you rinse and repeat in an attempt to finally make it to the end. It ultimately has you going through combat sections, facing wave after wave of enemies, taking out bosses, and making use of the safe houses between to fine tune your character's build. All in order to eventually unlock the other characters, and their stories told through follow-up gameplay of a similar fashion. 

The game, right now, is a solo experience only making the trek from beginning to end a super slow go that constantly repeats from the start, but co-op is scheduled to be patched in later to help assist struggling players. For the time being the constant mobs of enemies, and bullet sponge baddies as well as bosses take your full arsenal to deal with, and can easily become overwhelming due to the RNG nature of enhancements/mods, and the few and far between health kit refills. Combat can definitely become complicated in a similar way as the quick swap feature isn't so efficient in comparison to other ARPGs, especially in a game that demands quick responses to quickly approaching waves of enemies. In particular swapping between the four main sources of damage output takes a momentary pause leaving you vulnerable to enemy attack. 

The Presentation ...

The Section 13 developers go all in, in offering all the modern graphics sliders and scaling options of a 4K friendly console. You can opt for 60fps, full 4K UHD resolution, and even increase graphics slider intensity to Highest. The catch being that unless you are playing on a PS5 Pro these higher settings can cause graphical hiccups that could impact progress. Does it look good though? Yes, having tested it at max settings the game has that modern flair even though the given art style didn't make full use of it.

Audibly the voice casting, and characters in Section 13 serve as a complimentary side to the onscreen action breathing life into the dying husk of a world you wreak havoc in. Things like the utilization of dark areas to impact a fear response as an incentive for lucrative gain and effects driven mental afflictions that further impacts their ability to fight adds a bonus visual and functional aesthetic that enhances the urgency of the action. The innards of Section 13's HQ, itself, is a ruinous maze of dilapidated destruction and gated passageways meant to harbor both waves of enemies and bosses alike. That and the safe houses that allow for a brief reprieve from the chaos. It is a true labyrinth of horrors.

The Verdict ...

While I can see what the team was going for I don't think Section 13 is truly solo friendly, yet. It leans too far into the grind for permanent upgrades while stifling progress through mandatory deaths, and repeated playthroughs. The slow progression caused by the overwhelming force of the enemy waves, and the lack of proper synergistic builds based on complimentary mods and enhancements does not make progression easier unless you get really lucky. It's more of an RNG gamble as to whether or not you'll make it to the end, eventually. 

The added fact that health refills are a scarce commodity equally does nothing to help the almost guaranteed loss of limited life in each run. I could see co-op remedying this problem, but in doing so it only serves to magnify the game's glaring issues. An ARPG roguelike where progression is so slowly paced, and incremental does not equate to a fun time. It turns said fun into a chore, and I think these reasons warrant a wait and see approach when it comes to a potential purchase. With patches and updates the game can be made better. It's up to the developers though how much they want to invest in this title. It has potential, but definitely needs balance.