Game review: MAG - Playstation 3

MAG (or Massive Action Game as it was originally known), was promised to feature epic battles of up to 256 players, blowing the hell out of each other all at one go. So the big question was, does it deliver on its ambitious promises?

It has got to be said that Zipper Interactive have done quite an impressive job with getting MAG to work well, especially when you consider that the servers are coping with up to 256 players at a time. Unlike other battle games out there there’s no lag or delay, and everything runs rather smoothly which begs the question what are other games doing wrong?

Well, with this case it could be a possibility of the corners cut to enable MAG to run so smoothly.

Graphically, the game is not particularly breathtaking. That’s not to say it’s bad, but it’s just not that great either.

There is a nice amount of detail within the vast environments, but corners have obviously been cut on some of the more demanding aspects of its visual presentation.

Animation can be a little stiff at times and the some of the texturing can look a little clumsy – this is quite apparent when witnessing explosions through a sniper scope. Clipping appears quite regularly and can at times be a little distracting.

As far as the plot goes, it’s all a little vague.

The game is set in the year 2025, in a globalized world where a nation’s individual military services are no longer permitted to leave their own borders.

An attempt to provide world peace is reached through an agreement called the “Millennium Accord”. As a result, this leads to the rise of independent private military companies offering their services. From here, the 3 remaining factions try to undercut each and off each other in a conflict known as “The Shadow War”

The 3 factions consist of S.V.E.R, Raven Industries and Valor Company.

Each one has their own backstory, depending on where in the world they are from and how they came together, with Zipper Interactive going even further into the world by publishing 3 viral websites (sver-services.com/, www.raven-gmbh.de/ and www.valor-co.com/)

It’s just a shame the game itself doesn’t do a great job in telling you what on earth is going on. As far as you’re concerned there’s a war on – grab a gun and go fight.

If you are an addict of the Call of Duty series, you will probably find the controls a little complicated at first as everything is a bit back to front.

Whoever decided that the crouch action should be assigned to the triangle button obviously has a sense of humour, and the fact that you have to sift through you weaponry with both L2 and R2 further exacerbates the handling of the game.

When you want to throw a grenade it can take up to 3 clicks to get to the desired inventory menu, by which point you could be dead.

MAG is essentially a team game and when everyone in your squad is working towards the same objective that’s when it works best.

Unfortunately it can be quite hard to find another 100-odd individual players who all want to play on your side of the court.

Many will wander off to explore the maps, and who can blame them? they are massive after all – but as a result the game suffers, and when your team refuse play as a team they begin to lose and it gets boring, quite fast.

Putting aside the training mode, there are four different online game modes in total.

Suppression is a basic deathmatch consisting of 64 players, with 32 per team. Set out as a training exercise, all players are from the same faction.

Sabotage is a 64-player match that involves two factions, with one team attacking outposts A and B, while the team defends them. Once the attacking side acquired both points they must plant a bomb at a third.

Acquisition consists of 128 players, with one team attempting to steal two prototype enemy vehicles, along with attempting to destroy an enemy bunker.

Domination is the most ambitious of the four modes, consisting of 256 players, when there are 8 command points that must be taken.

One unique feature of the game is the ability to command your squad. This is enabled once you reach Level 15. However, it is only given to you if you’re the highest level player and you display an interest in undertaking it.

Unfortunately the points system can feel a bit lacklustre at times. Where other multiplayer first person shooters reward you with an endless amount of choice when it comes to weaponry, MAG can sometimes feel a bit stingy.

Also it isn’t until you reach level 8 that domination is unlocked.

Another drawback is the fact that you can only have one character, so if you were to join S.V.E.R and your mate was to buy the game and join Valor Company, one of you would have to re-customise their character. Wouldn’t it just be easier if you could have multiple character files?

On the audio side of things the game is quite impressive when presented in 5.1 surround sound. While it is nothing spectacular, it does do it the job well.

The voiceovers do get a bit repetitive, however, especially when you find yourself dying quite a bit – there’s only so many times you can hear someone shout out “I can’t go on anymore” without rolling your eyes.

Ultimately MAG is a very bold step for Zipper, but I can’t help but feel the gaming experience suffers a little bit from its ambitions. Considering how much MAG prides itself on having up to 256 players online, at times it just doesn’t feel that epic, and you could be forgiven for thinking that you are playing just another online first person shooter.

Verdict: 7 out of 10

The Good

Massive maps
Immense battles
Good emphasis on team work

The Bad

Maps are automatically selected and hardly vary
Not much fun when on the losing side