The story of Section 13 has been a wild ride. Originally called Blackout Protocol and released into early access back around May 2023. After lots of player feedback, Blackout Protocol went through significant transformations to become Section 13. Ocean Drive Studios’ twin stick isometric roguelike shooter. So, grab your key card and put HR on speed dial because things are about to get weird.
First Day on the Job
Our first introduction to Section 13 is through a voice machine message from an employee telling her dad how excited she was to finally be getting some field work. She has hired a car and is heading to the office.
Upon reaching your destination, you get out of the car, not knowing where you are or how you got there. Then you hear a voice in your head. She calls herself Violet and gives you instructions to enter the facility.
The story is told through dialogue between characters. The are no cutscenes, just still images of the different characters. The art style is really cool and has an almost Batman: The Animated Series feel to it. Section 13 is fully voice-acted, and voice-acted well. Which adds to its charm.
Upon taking control of Agent Red (fitting name, I suppose), you get a quick run-down of controls. I played the demo of Section 13 on the Xbox but moved over to PC for the full release. Thankfully, Section 13 has full controller support. I’m not sure how a twin stick shooter would work on mouse and keyboard, thankfully, we don’t have to find out.
Death. Again?
As you progress through the first area, which you will become very familiar with, you are met by another Agent and the Ancient Evil that is causing some very weird things to happen. You take control of the other agent and fight. This is a fight you are not supposed to win. In fact, it introduces you to the main loop of Section 13. Die, Enhance, Try again.
Once you lose the fight, you stroll into the base of operations without a care in the world.
You work for a mysterious company called the S2P Corporation. It’s your job to be sent to deal with anomalies. Unfortunately, this one’s happening in your own home.
Before you start, you must equip your agent with some weapons to fight off the infected. Everything is locked from the start, except an assault rifle and a pistol. More weapons can be unlocked by returning with Star Tokens.
During each run, you will come across 5 different types of currency that are dropped randomly from enemies. Star Tokens and Data Nugs are kept on death and used to upgrade your agents and unlock different weapons. You will also get gold to spend at shops through your runs. Finally, there are body modification and weapon modification tickets. These can be used to temporarily enhance you and your weapons during runs. Unfortunately, all upgrades and unused tickets are lost on death.
Synaptic Enhancement
The roguelike elements in Section 13 are split into 4 separate areas.
Your Agent skills are permanent upgrades that include things like more health, starting with more cash, not getting scared so easily. Basic upgrades.
Synaptic Enhancements are collected from containers scattered through the maps that house wildly inconsistent upgrades that are lost on death. Currently, there are 108 different enhancements that can lead to some seriously broken builds. You only have access to a few at the start, and more can be unlocked by spending those hard-earned Star Tokens. A standout for me was the ability to randomly drop a grenade whenever I rolled. With no roll cooldown, this became extremely effective. Downside, there is friendly fire, so I ended up killing myself with them.
The Body modification tickets can be used in safe rooms and give you one random positive and negative trait to your stats, like crit damage, health, fear, or recoil. These are temporary and are lost on death. If the negative trait is far worse than the positive one, you can discard it, losing your ticket.
The weapon tickets can be used to temporarily upgrade your weapons with elemental damage, bigger magazines, and can even completely change your weapon. Like the Synaptic Enhancements, there are only a few to choose from at the start, but you will find more from playing.
Try, Try, and Try Again
The only negative thing to say, and I feel like I’m nitpicking to find something I didn’t enjoy about Section 13, is the lack of variation each attempt has. At the start, you might make it through the first area, die a few times, and then get further the next run. This is fine, it’s like 10 or 15 minutes an attempt, but the further you get, the longer it takes. My first time getting to the boss took me 90ish minutes. I died almost instantly. Which was devastating. There are no shortcuts to help either. You have to pass through the same areas each attempt. In the same order. The first couple of areas have a couple of different tile sets, but the further you get, the less variation there is.
This also goes as far as weapons. There are a dozen or so weapons but most of them felt useless solo. Especially the bigger chain guns that take so long to reload you just don’t get a chance. They are definitely made to be bought along as a backup during Co-op play so you can get a chance to reload when the agro isn’t on you.
Section 13 can be played Solo or Co-op. I’m reviewing this before release so there is almost no one online, and playing solo is extremely unforgiving. You can have an incredibly powerful build and just die. I have only managed to team up with one other player. We did in fact get my first clear, which was an amazing feeling.
Performance
Playing on PC, I had zero problems; everything played and felt how it was supposed to. I did have a few connection issues during online play, but I think that’s down to it not being released yet. Solo, I didn’t have any issues.
Verdict
Section 13 is a lot of fun. I was not expecting to get much in the way of story, but I was mistaken, and I was even more impressed that it was voice-acted so well.
The immense amount of customization that can be found in each run leads to some frustrating deaths and some weird combinations.
Section 13 feels like it is made to be played co-op, and I felt an extreme disadvantage playing solo. With this being said, it’s one of the best roguelikes I have played this year, and I highly recommend fans of co-op shooters and roguelikes to give it a go.
I’m really excited to see where Ocean Drive Studios takes Section 13.
Gamer Social Club was supplied a copy of Section 13 for this review.
Reviewed on PC via Steam.
Section 13 will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam on the 26th of May
There is a demo for Section 13 available on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111870/Section_13/
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