MAG

I originally decided not to write and publish a review for MAG till the full game comes out but after reading some misleading reviews I thought I have to do it before it’s too late. Having played a good share in each of the last 3 private and open beta stages I see a lot of potential in this game and I’m hoping it gets what it deserves. You already guessed it right! I loved it! In my opinion it was by far the best multiplayer war game ever made for consoles even though not all the features were available in the beta stage.

For people who are not familiar with the title, MAG or Massive Action Game is an upcoming first person shooter video game being released in North America on Jan. 26th 2010, developed by Zipper Interactive. It is a PS3 exclusive title and is the first game ever to support up to 256 players online. The game gives you 3 team choices; Valor, S.V.E.R. and Raven, each with their own base, weapons and outfit. The neat thing in the game is that there is no choice for classes. You all start as a soldier and earn skill points which you can spend on upgrades and equipments. If you get a medical kit you can be a medic. Carry a repair kit and you’re an engineer. You can even carry both! You have a limited size to carry stuff so you may have to sacrifice not carrying smoke grenades or wear lighter armour to be able to carry certain items. Before the game you set different equipment sets that you can switch between them when you’re respawning. For example, you make one with assault rifle, rocket launcher and heavy armour. Another with a machine gun, medical kit, repaid kit and hand grenade and one more set with sniper rifle, smoke grenade and light armour. Keep in mind the size of things you carry combined will affect your speed and ability to sprint. Now based on different situations you switch to your different predefined sets when you die. For example you switch to a profile with rocket launcher when the enemy has control of a gun turret and switch to a profile with repair kit when your vehicles are under attack and there is nobody to repair them!

I have to say when the game was first announced at Sony E3 2008, I was so sceptical about it because supporting 256 players online in a battlefield introduces an ocean of things that can go wrong. To be honest I didn’t even think PS3 can handle such busy scenes and even if it could the network connection would be the bottle-neck. My first assumption was that the game has to sacrifice a lot of details to be able to handle this many players. My first try was a big surprise! The gameplay and online experience was probably the smoothest experience I’ve ever experienced even comparing to well-known 30-40 player games. No lags, no problem finding teammates, no connection terminations and no who-is-who-and-what-should-I-do situations. The only thing scaled-down was the frame-rate which was 30 as opposed to 60 in a lot of new video games. Off course there were bugs but that’s what the beta was for and thankfully they were mostly resolved in later updates.

To deal with such massive teams, the game divides players in squads and platoons and handles their objectives and voice communications accordingly. You can talk to your squad members and squad leaders can talk to each other through a separate channel. You can even spy on the opposite team players if you’re close to them, so you may hear what they are planning against your team and let your teammates know of their evil plan before they get the chance to do it!

The gameplay is fun but not an everyday normal shooter. After I spent the entire of the first game lying on the ground and waiting to respawn back to get sniped again, I learned this is not a run-n-gun game and there is much more into it! There is a simple rule here; you stick to your squad and you have a chance to survive, you go on your own and you’ll soon end up dead and since you’re not with your squad members there is no medic to heal you.

The game is highly tied to its ranking system. A solder follows orders, a squad leader issues Fragos (Fragmentation Order), boosts the nearby solders boost in abilities and call for certain strikes, a platoon leader has its own buffs and strike abilities, etc.You are not eligible to become a squad leader until you reach certain rank (Level 15) and then you start earning leader points to climb your way up to becoming platoon leader and the same way to become OIC. (Officer in Charge)

There are also tons of upgrades and equipments you can buy with your skill points which can go a long way and usually pay off quickly.

For me it’s a “definitely buy” game! I would highly advise against renting it because the game gets more fun by ranking up, earning skill points, buying upgrades and eventually joining a clan which needs more time than what is usually allowed by renting a game unless you play 12 hours a day!

If you’re planning to play the game for the first time, make sure to read the article “How to enjoy playing MAG”

UPDATE (Jan. 26th 2010): After playing the full game I can confirm that, this game is officially on top of my favorite list. There is only one drawback I can tell and that is the lack of ability to create multiple profiles in the game! Once you made the team choice, you’re almost stuck with it, unless you decide to delete it and create a new one!

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