I like Roguelite games, I like twin-stick shooters. Section 13 is a Roguelite, twin-stick shooter from Developer/publisher Ocean Drive Studio, Inc. and publisher Kakao Games. Sounds exactly like the sort of title I would enjoy, but did I?

“Unravel a thrilling sci-fi mystery in this action-packed twin-stick roguelite shooter. Select your load-out, stack up temporary and persistent upgrades, and delve into the depths of a subterranean base, either alone or in a group of up to 3 players.”

Rather interestingly, this game began life as Blackout Protocol, a slow-paced, tactical shooter. I never played it then, but I did look at some of the Steam reviews for research and… they’re not good. There are a lot of people saying that Blackout Protocol was a far superior game and that now it has changed to Section 13 and become a more action-based Roguelite, twin-stick shooter over the  slow-paced, tactical shooter that it once was, that the game is just not worth playing. As someone who never played Blackout Protocol and who has only played Section 13, I can honestly say that I quite enjoyed it.

I’m not going to waste your time by telling you what a Roguelite is or how the sub-genre works. You already know the basics that you will die a lot and make little advancements that will slowly build your skills to help you progress. So, how does Section 13 play? It’s all rather standard fare, but games don’t need to reinvent the wheel to be good. Section 13 is exactly what you think t is, if you are familiar with the Roguelite genre. You play as one of three characters and you are stuck in a time loop (kind of). Play, die, repeat.

The story is pretty basic stuff and there are no real surprises. Where Section 13 does stand out a tad is it’s upgrades… there are lots of them. Not just upgrades for characters, but the weapons too. You have upgrades that will only last for the run that you are on, and there are permanent upgrades that will stay with you even when you die… and you will… a lot. The action is frantic and with a wide variety of enemies that will try to end you as they swarm and rush towards you.

Honestly, Section 13 isn’t a very big game. There are alternate routes to take to the end, even if only slightly. But, there are only two boss fights and it’s all over. However, once you do finish the story, you are tasked to finishing it in different dimensions (difficulty settings). The first difficulty is way too easy and won’t pose much of a challenge of you are familiar with the genre. The next difficulty is only slightly tougher, but still won’t trouble you too much. It is only when you get to the third difficulty when things really begin to feel like a real challenge. Even so, by then, you would’ve unlocked most of the upgrades and weapons, and it all balances out. The game get’s harder, but the unlocks make that difficulty much more bearable.

For me personally, I would’ve preferred to have been allowed to start on a harder difficulty from the off. But no, you have to play through on easy first before you can get to normal and then the harder settings. As I say, by then, you’ve unlocked most of the upgrades and weapons and even the hardest setting feels easier, but not outright easy. As the game is not very big, runs to the end tend to be over in about an hour or so, once you get used to the maps.

A strike against Section 13 is that though there is some slight deviation with different routes, they never really go far enough. As a result, you will be forced to play the same few maps over and over. There’s no procedurally generated levels… save for a few minor instances. So things will start to get repetitive very fast, especially with this being such a short game anyway and its Roguelite nature means that you will play those same few levels over and over and over and over. But generally speaking, Section 13 is a decent entry to the Roguelite genre. It’s not a great game, but it’s far from being a bad one either. It’s good, but it could’ve been really fantastic with some more variety to the levels, more expansive alternate routes and if things had been more random with some bigger procedural generation to keep thing feeling more fresh.