Section 13 Review | In Good Company
The Respawn Station team is back from winter break, so it’s time to catch up on what we’ve missed. I will admit that I spent more of my vacation with my eReader rather than my consoles, which was a nice change of pace, but there are a few games that I played that I want to talk about, starting with a game well outside my usual rotation.
Section 13 from Ocean Drive Studio is a roguelite twin-stick shooter that has you playing as an agent of the S2P Corporation. After an Omega-level containment breach causes the company’s top secret location to go on lockdown, you enter the site to investigate the anomaly. In typical roguelite fashion, your investigation requires dying. Over and over and over again. The good thing is, S2P’s Death Nulification System can always bring you back in one piece.
While you start off with the boisterous Agent Red, through exploration, you unlock Boy Scout, Beaker, and Scalpel as playable characters. If you have friends, you can even dive into Section 13 with a party of four players. There is no crossplay, but there is couch co-op to make up for it. I played the game entirely solo with the biomedical researcher, Beaker, as my main agent.
When you enter a run, you can bring two weapons and a piece of equipment with you. More weapons and equipment can be unlocked with rare STAR pins acquired during your run, though these can also be used to unlock more permanent upgrade slots, so you have to spend them wisely. On your run, you will also find Credits and Data Nugs. Credits are spent in the run itself to purchase items and weapons, while Data Nugs are used back at base on persistent Synaptic Enhancements.
In between each level of your run, there are Safe Rooms. These contain Body Modifiers and Weapon Benches. These use Mod Permits you pick up along your way to unlock temporary upgrades. The Body Modifiers let you increase stats like health, while the Weapon Benches do the same for your weapon.
Then there are the Nethercubes, which can be found scattered around the levels or at the end of mini dungeon rooms as rewards. These unlock provisional alterations for your current run that are reset after death. What they offer can vary from a simple stat boost to a significant change to the in-game economy, such as the “Valued Customer” upgrade that reduces item costs by fifty percent.
Apart from just looks, the agent you pick determines the abilities you have during your run. For example, Red’s special ability is Overtime, which temporarily increases reload speed and rate of fire. Similarly, Beaker’s ability lets her heal herself, and when paired with a Nethercube upgrade that lowers ability cooldown, she becomes the perfect agent for a single-player god run.
If you’re looking for character depth, you’ll have to seek it out at your own pace. Back at base, you can spend Dongles you pick up to unlock character casefiles that detail backstories. It’s important to note that each character has their own style of Dongle, and you only pick up their respective Dongles by playing as them during your run. These documents are extensive and provide a lot of context, but there’s really not much incentive to go through them other than personal interest.
There is a story here about a multiversal villain, and it’s interesting enough to pay attention to, but doesn’t require your undivided attention. In other words, it’s worth tuning in for the cutscenes and major story beats, especially for the standout voice acting that injects a lot of personality into the stagnant character illustrations; however, Section 13 functions fittingly as a podcast game.
When it comes to actually playing the game, the minute-to-minute gameplay is great. Which makes even solo play enjoyable. I do think the design of Section 13, the facility, makes it hard to play repeated runs in one sitting, but it’s fun to drop in for a run when you have some time and see how far you can make it or what secrets you can find. The twin-stick shooting is responsive and easy to learn. Which is good because when you’re being swarmed by enemies, the last thing you want is to fumble over the controls.
Like any enjoyable roguelite, though, Section 13 is at its best when all those elements are working together. Going deeper and deeper into the facility, knowing you equipped the right loadout at the start, and then realizing that the RNG gods are giving you just the right combination of upgrades is thrilling. And revisiting an area you previously lost a run to and clearing it with ease is a fun cherry on top.
When it comes to looks, Section 13 is decent. It’s envirnoments aren’t overly detailed, but good lighting effects and environmental depth help bolster the atmosphere. It doesn’t look bad, but due to the repetitive gameplay loop, the game rarely surprises with stunning visuals. Similar things can be said about sound. The sound design is immersive enough to keep me involved, but the score rarely left a mark.
That all being said, Section 13 is still a solid action roguelite. It does have a lot of items to pick up and upgrades to manage, but these mechanics are spread out enough to not be overwhelming. You’re rarely stuck staring at menus for a long time in the middle of a run. What it lacks in emotional depth and engaging narrative, it makes up for with fast and fun gameplay. And in traditional roguelite fashion, there’s enough to bring you back for more even after you roll credits. Section 13 is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. A review code was provided by the publisher.
