MAG preview
This one’s a little late coming, but better late then never, eh?
Santa Clause was busy so sent in some help to drop presents off to the kids
Recently the boys of Shoryuken took to the road and got to check out Sony’s new online MMO-style shooter, MAG. MAG stands for “Massive Action Game”, and it’s not kidding when they talk about massive. 256 online players in the same map environment shooting each other via three factions split into various squads. This is huge…. or, well, massive.
We were given a mission briefing by Zipper Interactive’s Ed Byrne – an Irishman with an American accent. And yes, this is the same Zipper Interactive behind the brilliant SOCOM series.
A closed BETA is currently underway with players worldwide jumping online to murder each other on a large scale. We got a chance to play the game, as well as give the BETA a go from the comfort of our own homes.
Despite the game being online, it puts the war into context by declaring its timeframe in the “not too distant” future. Probably taking a que from Metal Gear Solid 4, MAG’s factions are different Private Military Corporations (PMCs). Raven, Valor and SVER are the three PMCs in the game, and you choose which one you belong to at the beginning of the game. Battles take place in order to win contracts for your PMC, which begins a “shadow war”. This war is like an active cold war effect, where each PMC is only fighting each other for no reason then to undermine their ability to get big contracts and stay afloat. Recession beating stuff…
What this vague story does is facilitate a reason to have 256 people bludgeon each other to death with a variety of typical shooter weapons that look vaguely familiar to any FPS fan. The massive scale cannot be comprehended until played. Entire sections of maps can be fought for and battled for for huge amounts of time, as round after round of enemy spawn and die before your eyes, only letting you gain small amounts of territory to win the game. A well-organised team can really clean up, as long as they utilise the rank-based communication system (commander can talk to squad leaders, who can then talk to squad members, etc.). This chat system stops a huge amount of pointless natter on comms, and if used properly is really useful. Granted, I haven’t seen that much yet, but what I have heard on comms isn’t what you usually hear in halo; i.e. I’ve yet to be described as a homosexual African-American gentleman. Not yet, anyway.
Graphically this game will probably come into the category of under-whelming. At times the textures and lack of dynamics in there can make it look a lot like last-generation stuff. This is until you realise the scale on which you are fighting. Undoubtedly there are times in which you’ll fight for hours in the same group and not once come across the same people.
Occasionally it's best to stop burst-firing and just blaze your way through - you're bound to hit someone
Gameplay is typical online FPS stuff. The player count can be scaled back to ease the pressure and make a more competitive game occur, but the game only really shines when you’re in a massive battle. The gameplay draws real comparisons to Battlefield, which is the games number one competitor it seems. This is due out “Q1″ next year, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is out in the first week of February 2010. This could lead to, ironically, conflict in the ranks as two similar games touting online battle get released together. Of course BF doesn’t tout 256 online players, but it does pack a fair punch itself.
So who will this game cater to? Well, ideally people who like a little dash of MMO with a large pinch of FPS. It has elements from various genres packed in here, and with a lengthy BETA period going on the developers are keen to ensure this game hits shelves with nothing wrong – and a community-driven game that’ll suck you in relentlessly. Of course I would recommend it to anyone just to try parachuting into a battle, trying to aim at enemies as you glide down in the middle of a killzone undoubtedly to your death but with that slight glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe you’ll manage to murder everyone. But no – you’re not rambo. You’ll never be rambo…. except in a rambo game, maybe.
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