MAG Hands-on
- Posted June 5th, 2009 at 22:51 EDT by Eric Blattberg
- 75 Comments
MAG, or Massive Action Game, stunned the masses when it was revealed at E3 2008. The game promised intense 256-player battles – not just skirmishes, but full-out wars. When the first MAG gameplay was revealed, however -- I’m not going to lie -- I was a bit underwhelmed. Sure, the fact that it ran at all was miraculous, but I was skeptical that the gameplay would be enjoyable. Now, however, I’ve had hands-on time with the game, and Zipper Interactive has convinced me that MAG will be magnificent when it arrives this fall.
The first thing to know about MAG is that, as the title implies, it is a massive experience. The war-torn, semi-urban map I played on with 255 others felt like an area from an MMO, not an online shooter. When you switch to the overhead map and view the buildings and terrain Google-earth style, the scale of the battle is astounding. That’s what MAG is all about: scale. From the basic soldiers to the eight-person squad leaders to the four-squad platoon leaders to the four-platoon company commander, everyone plays a role; some are simply more essential than others.
But I digress, for scale means very little without great gameplay. Zipper has quite a record of solid tactical gameplay with the SOCOM series, and the studio hasn’t disappointed here. That basic, fundamental satisfaction that comes by besting others in great shooters is present in MAG. Each time I got a kill and “+5 XP” popped up on screen, I felt an immediate sense of gratification. That is due to the tight, Call of Duty style aiming mechanics in conjunction with the massive arsenal of weapons spread across the three factions.
The factions are S.V.E.R., Raven, and Valor. S.V.E.R. (pronounced Sever) is composed of rogues who scrounge up whatever they can get their hands on, Raven is a high-tech, futuristic fighting force, and Valor -- the faction I joined -- is similar to the U.S. army. All factions have their own strengths and weaknesses, but I didn’t spend enough time with the game to really see that in action. I was promised, however, that no faction will be inherently “better” than another; all will be meticulously balanced – the MAG beta should help with that.
With such mammoth maps, foot soldiers and handheld guns can only do so much. There are a bevy of vehicles at players’ disposal, like jeeps, tanks, and helicopters. Additionally, once a team secures a particular point on the map, the team’s commander acquires the ability to call in airstrikes, which can really strike an opposing team’s weak point for massive damage.
At any given time, there are several team objectives on-screen, such as capturing a certain point, or, adversely, repelling the enemy. In a game as immense as MAG, communication and teamwork are integral to success. Of course, as you and Zipper both know, gamers aren’t always the most cooperative people. To generate that elusive cooperative environment, Zipper rewards squads that do work together and communicate to complete objectives with additional XP, as opposed to punishing players who don’t work alongside their team.
Visually, MAG is no Killzone 2, but to expect that level of graphical fidelity from a game eight times the players (of Killzone 2's 32 players) online is unreasonable. In the E3 build, I experienced some framerate drops when the action got heavy, and witnessed an animation bug or two upon death, but for an unfinished game with 256 players, it looks quite nice. Zipper will continue to work on the game over the coming months, and should be able to release a polished product at launch. I also expect heavy post-launch support, as it is an online-only game.
MAG is a quality experience, even at this early stage. Don’t worry – I’m not simply being magnanimous. From the half-hour I spent with the game, I’m confident that it will be a dominant force in Sony’s 2009 line-up, and will be played for many months -- if not years -- to come.
Comments
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BoyBettaKnow |
Lymphatikz and Ghanja- 11:06pm BST - June 5th, 2009
- 6
Sounding good. I was extremely skeptical to begin with.
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Endless_Echo |
Endless_Echo- 11:13pm BST - June 5th, 2009
- 10
I'm Xcited with a big X to show my excitement :D
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TekkenLord |
HitMan00- 11:14pm BST - June 5th, 2009
- 11
Really don't like FPS, but after seeing this game in motion and hear what some people are saying. My hype train is a GO!!!! Looking forward to sniping some people. watch out for HitMan00
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restored_lost |
Restored_lost- 11:28pm BST - June 5th, 2009
- 12
eh i want beta before i decide on this game. too early to make up my mind already
on a side note my lee will challenge you tekkenlord on t6 online lol
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EvilGamingEmpire |
EVILEMPIRE377- 11:43pm BST - June 5th, 2009
- 15
@3
same here, it looks good but id rather get other games ........ 256 players just doesnt catch my interest as much as Uncharted 2 or Modern Warfare 2........ but who knows, that could change
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viking805fan
- 11:49pm BST - June 5th, 2009
- 16
I'll probably, i always buy ps3 exclusives made by 1st parties to support sony.
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bracomadar |
bracomadar- 12:37am BST - June 6th, 2009
- 23
I'm guessing there will be a fee, so how much will it be monthly to play this?
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Lefein |
Lefein- 2:05am BST - June 6th, 2009
- 27
After they showed off Uncharted 2, I was worried that the E3 keynote was going to be one of those "Ah-HAH! We have your attention now, time to lose it!" type of conferences.. BOY was I wrong! When they showed off MAG, my jaw just hit the floor again!
I seriously cannot wait to get my grubby paws on this game!
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residentevilrocks91 |
videogameman6- 2:11am BST - June 6th, 2009
- 28
doesnt look like a game i could get into...due to the fact i like single player games as well @ 8 wow dude you are so wrong mw2 will be way better
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edward_moffet |
edd- 2:50am BST - June 6th, 2009
- 31
from the screens and videos i've seen it looks about call of duty 4 level graphics which is very impressive considering the scale, this game just looks awesome and the recent hands on time the press has got with it pretty much confirmed what i already thought, i mean come on this is zipper we're talking about, they are THE online shooter dev.
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BenY0shir0
- 2:57am BST - June 6th, 2009
- 32
Oh my lord...that looks amazing...on my list for sure...I wonder how many weapons there will be..
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Hyourinmaru |
DAT1AZNPAN- 5:52am BST - June 6th, 2009
- 36
the trailor on e3 looks just meh i'll choose MW2 over this anyday unless they show some more of this game and it impresses me i will not be picking this up at launch
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chomperbull
- 6:15am BST - June 6th, 2009
- 39
the gameplay looked crapy i can see myself spawning only to immediately be killed off by an airstrike
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Acid-Hippie2007 |
Acid-Hippie2007- 6:50am BST - June 6th, 2009
- 40
Wow, after reading that I had to clean myself up !! I can't wait for that .
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radgamer420 |
mistercrow- 9:55am BST - June 6th, 2009
- 44
Boy thats an ugly game. But I guess to get 256 players online they had to dumb down the graphics.
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kazeen
- 12:09pm BST - June 6th, 2009
- 47
excited when i heard about it last e3, pretty sure they already confirmed their would be no fee to play it. How do i get into the beta and when? :P Now if i can find 254 people to play with that can work together online already have one. That is my main concern people are gonna ruin the game most likely
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Empty_Cans |
Empty_Cans- 12:44pm BST - June 6th, 2009
- 49
So many games, and so little money, what's a girls to do.
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god_of_all_games
- 1:27pm BST - June 6th, 2009
- 50
it will be probably (f u c k e d)up if they make it too realistic like battlefield `Armour can stop bullet...` so it needs like 30 shots to kill a person!
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