Stomping around and blowing stuff up as a space marine is not an original idea. From Aliens to Starship Troopers via numerous other movies, the theme has been used so often it's become a cliché. Wherever the phrase pops up, you know what to expect: big, gruff, manly men (usually in some form of powered armour or other) effortlessly lugging around obscenely big weapons with which to blast a lot of new holes into alien scum.

It's not just Hollywood that's fixated on such a subject either. Videogames have focused on interstellar soldiers fighting for survival since the industry's early days. From Doom to Dead Space and Quake to Killzone, the genre has been tweaked and perfected over the course of decades.

Section 8 is, of course, a space marine game. In such a saturated and refined market, what new ideas does it bring to the table Will they be innovative enough to compete with the likes of Gears of War and Halo?

Things start off promisingly, with the opening cinematic depicting a soldier's orbital drop into battle blending live action and smooth, shiny CGI seamlessly and stylishly, showcasing what's on offer. The main menu greets you with three games modes, the multiplayer mode being conversely more prominent than the single player experience, and so it should: Section 8 is a mostly multiplayer game, which is both a good and bad thing.

Most games nowadays like to hold your hand for the first few hours and guide you through their initial missions before letting you go solo. Not Section 8. After you've dropped into the battlefield, you're thrust into the action, a cross between Battlefront and Enemy Territory, alone. Sure, you'll have tutorials talked at you as you enter the foray, but you won't be able to concentrate on them with the constant barrage of information you'll need to assimilate: enemy troops jetpacking over you whilst tossing frag grenades; friendly support dropping from the skies; the announcement of mini-missions (such as convoy and VIP escorts) beginning being barked over orders to secure an enemy base. There's a lot to contend with on the battlefield and new players may experience sensory overload on their first attempt, not helped by the largely unintuitive control scheme.

They may also experience a degree of frustration as well. The guns may be hefty, with massive clips (seriously, the machine gun can fire off about 400 rounds in one go), but enemies are hard to see and even harder to hit. New players will also notice the speed with which their marine moves: they're slow. It'll seem like an age will pass while your marine hoofs it from one side of a building to the other. That's when the funky overdrive system kicks in: sprint for long enough and the boosters on your suit will activate, propelling you at insanely fast speeds in the direction you're travelling. It's a neat addition, allowing you to get from one side of the map to the other quickly as well as helping you dodge enemy fire, making up for the general sluggishness of normal movement.

Things get better once you get used to the combat system and it won't be long before you'll find yourself picking off enemies with a greater degree of ease, rushing from base to base and between mini-mission objectives quickly and efficiently. You'll be calling in support and defending outposts effectively alongside dropping into the battle (which is a superb addition, guiding yourself to the perfect position from which to assault an enemy base) capably and cogently. Sure, the action can get repetitive, but who cares when you're the MVP of a multiplayer match (even if it is a sparsely populated one)?

Incidentally, the multiplayer modes are where you'll be spending most of your time with the title. Be it with other players, bots or a combination of the two, the emphasis of Section 8's enjoyment rests on its network capabilities. As such, the one-player story mode is negligible, its forgettable characters and mostly unimpressive locations in the eight-level long tale meaning you won't miss anything if you avoid it all together.

The problem with Section 8 is that, while playing a few games now and then can be entertaining, there's nothing of any great depth present to retain your interest. The main gameplay quickly gets repetitive and, while TimeGate does its utmost to keep events from going stale, things just get too samey. Yes, there is a large number of maps, but they're not varied enough to stop things from getting monotonous. Unlike other multiplayer-heavy titles on offer, there are precious few customisation options (changing a weapon loadout counts, right?), only reinforcing the title's repetitious nature. It's a shame, because with a more engaging storyline and more thought put into how to sustain the player's interest, things could have been so much better.

Section 8 lies paradoxically somewhere between innovation and mundanity: it has its moments (zipping around the battlefield in overdrive mode is a good laugh and the orbital drops are simply awesome) but for all its good intentions, it simply can't overcome its eventually-boring gunplay. There are greater multiplayer and far greater single player experiences out there, making it hard to recommend this over other more pedigree titles. If you love space marines, you'll like this: otherwise this will be discharged from your system sooner rather than later.

Reviewed by Michael Slevin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).