MAG Preview
So is MAG'a new kind of war - as its official website describes or is it just another seemingly good idea poorly executed?
Through a slew of upgrades, players can equip and use med kits, resuscitation devices, rocket launchers, poison gas grenades, motion sensors, radar jammers, heavy machine guns, and many other forms of weaponry and support items in order to fight the good fight out on the field. This character customization has become something to be expected in almost any new FPS, and in MAG, it adds a lot of variety to the gameplay. For example, you may run into an enemy squad equipped mostly with heavy machine guns, sniper rifles, and advanced electronics capable of detecting and killing you from far away only to then encounter another squad bearing SMGs, shotguns, and med kits capable of reviving one another, making a long range fight tedious as they bring each other back into the fight over and over again. As is the case in similar FPSs, it is this leveling aspect and character customization that will keep you and your friends playing. The leveling is quick and doesn’t stack up as much as other similar titles. It always seems like just one more match until that next great upgrade.
Each of the game’s three mercenary factions have a set of very distinct environments.
Upon reaching level 10, players are able to take part in the Domination game type. Domination is a huge scale 256-player gametype comprised of two teams of 4 platoons each containing 4 squads of 8 individual players (if I did my math right). I would try to further explain what exactly the squads and platoons are assigned to do, but honestly, I couldn’t tell you based on my gameplay experiences. Throughout every match of Domination I played, my squad mates and I were not only dying endlessly, only to respawn leagues away from the action, run for two minutes towards the gunfire, and then be gunned down again, but we were endlessly debating which objectives we were supposed to be attacking/defending/whatever. There were about 8 objective icons at the top of the screen but in addition to this there were also towers, satellite arrays, APC vehicles capable of spawning enemies as well as ourselves, doors on which charges could be placed to destroy them, and areas that we captured simply by being in them for long enough. It was absolute chaos and it was extremely frustrating. So frustrating in fact, that I found myself accompanying my friends back down to the Sabotage games where we were rewarded with the ability to be squad leaders due to our higher level. After about 5 matches of the endless kill-fest that was Domination, I never went back, deciding instead to stick with the solid and strategic Sabotage game type which had the grandeur promised by MAG with very few of the negatives.
Domination, a 256-player game mode, is comprised mostly of chaos and confusion, rather than strategy and communication.
In the end, the MAG public beta failed to nurture my excitement, instead slowly picking away at it with fits of lag, muddy visuals, a lackluster UI, and an upsettingly chaotic 256-player experience. While there is still much to love in this futuristic battlefield, the bad, including the possibility of the game only having a single enjoyable gametype, gets so close to tipping the balance that it makes pondering a purchase all the more bothersome. Unfortunately, the public beta was so short that if you weren’t able to play it last week than you missed your chance to get a hands-on before launch. Hopefully a lot of the problems discovered in MAG will be alleviated in the full retail release, but with the beta ending so close to the game’s launch, it’s hard to see how much work could be done before the discs have to be pressed. Zipper Interactive’s MAG hits the PS3 on January 26, 2010 in North America and January 29, 2010 in Europe. Stay tuned for our full review sometime in the near future.
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