MAG

Within seconds of starting up _MAG_ for the first time, I was asked to make a decision that would dictate the course of many hours of gameplay: only no-one told me. It would have been nice to know the importance of this decision, but _MAG_ doesn’t really help you very much with these things.

I’m talking about the choice of ‘Private Military Company’ that the game forces you to stand by until you either sod it and delete your character or reach level 60 (that’s a very, very long time). Set in the near future, _MAG_ follows the progress of a ‘shadow war’ between three huge PMCs; Raven’s futuristic tech, Valor’s experienced American and British troops and S.V.E.R with their iron will to win. These distinctions are fairly arbitrary, most of the weapon sets and tasks you’ll face are the same regardless of who you choose to fight with. The importance of the decision, however, is that you’re going to be stuck fighting alongside the same people for a fair old while. On the one hand, this is quite an intelligent move from developer Zipper, as you do develop an affinity with your fellow soldiers that you might not have given the freedom to chop and change your fighting force.

That flimsy background would mean next to nothing in a normal online shooter, however. What sets this game apart is the sheer scale of its ambition, and a 256-player online battle is quite some scale. When it’s on form, this aspect of _MAG_ really makes you feel part of something – a community of players all working together towards the same ends. But to reduce _MAG_ to just a gimmicky sense of scale would be unfair, because Zipper have gone to great lengths to make sure that the scale works. On its own, a 256-man war would be absolute madness: full of constant re-spawning and inexplicable death. Granted, _MAG_ isn’t entirely without that, but it’s kept to an impressive minimum. Firstly, the battles are normally divided up into a few fronts so the action makes more sense on a more manageable scale. This might seem like a bit of a dodge from the 256-player ‘back of the box’ statement, but it really is the only way it could work. Added to that, the game implements a simple, but efficient, command structure which rewards hardcore gamers with the chance of increased responsibility. Leaders are then able to set objectives, hand out perks and make decisions that can change the face of a battle. This doesn’t ever degenerate into players becoming bossy or resented, because completing objectives set by superior officers provides additional experience points: a handy incentive which keeps the system ticking over. All in all, it makes for an online experience unlike any other – Zipper must be commended for their success in this regard.

Arguably, it’s impressive that _MAG_ works at all. Upon entering a queue for a battle, I rarely waited for longer than two minutes to get involved. After a beta-test that was alleged to leave players sitting for half an hour while the matches were pieced together, that’s a massive improvement. Even the spawning points and the timing of respawns are cleverly managed, with respawns coming at intervals as a means of keeping the squad together. There are also few things more satisfying than parachuting into a battle with 255 other real people. Games don’t suffer from lag either; the worst you get are the odd corpses that stand bolt upright or float in the air. All the while, as 256 of us do battle, the game keeps pumping out the same decent frame-rate of 30fps.

The maps, too, are huge and well-designed. On the whole, they lead to tight, exciting games. There are a couple of balancing issues, particularly on the maps defended by S.V.E.R which can be a tough ask for any attacking side (though the advantage is usually with the defender anyway). The maps are few, however, and as you can’t change character there are a couple of maps that you may never see. I did also experience a problem where, in spite of having played the same game type for nearly two hours, I was never able to stray from the same map: this made for quite a repetitive experience to say the least.

This issue of repetition, it must be said, was much more of a problem for me when I first started playing: that’s where the majority of _MAG’s_ issues present themselves. The game just isn’t particularly accessible. If you’re going to enjoy _MAG_ then you’d best be prepared to put a lot of time into it. If you’re planning on picking it up every now and then, then please don’t buy this game. In its early stages, when you’re a lower level soldier forced in at the deep end, no-one tells you that you’ll benefit more from following objectives than going lone-wolf as you would in _Call of Duty_. On top of that, you’re stuck in a complete mismatch. Your higher-level opponents will have more health, speed, experience and better weapons: playing it was like being asked to fight Rambo armed only with your manhood. As I progressed, the game reminded me a lot of going paintballing: constantly questioning whether I was having a good time, nursing my wounds, and hoping with all my hoping-organs that no-one who knew what they were doing would show up. Simply (and, yes, cruelly) put, the early stages of _MAG_ aren’t fun; if it wasn’t for having to write this review then I honestly would not have played for longer than two hours. Once you get into it, _MAG_ can be a great game, but is any game good enough to ask you to invest hours of your life proving yourself worthy of enjoying it?

I’d have forgiven that had a few other pre-requisites been met, but the presentation of _MAG_ doesn’t match up well to what’s out on the current generation of consoles. The environments are grainy and bland, explosions weak and character models generic. I fully understand that other technical constraints brought this about (generating 256 players and a half-decent frame-rate is a tricky balancing act) but there’s no denying that there are other shooters out there that look and sound a lot better. Similarly, the controls are flimsy and lack the intuitiveness of a _Call of Duty_ or _Killzone_. As a shooter, by normal standards, _MAG_ is therefore quite a way off the competition.

We must not just judge _MAG_ by normal standards, though. Zipper have tried to do something genuinely new with it (given the success of _Modern Warfare 2_, who can blame them?) and they’ve produced a decent game. The sheer scale of its battles can hardly be overstated and the sensible maps and command structure streamline the experience into a thoroughly enjoyable package. It may well be flawed but it’s an example for other shooters to follow in their approach to online gaming. The sad irony of _MAG_, however, is that in spite of its attempts to be inclusive and create a vast, new, gaming community, the hard slog it puts you through just to get involved (you can’t even play full 256-player matches until level 8) will inevitably put people off: like many other online games it may end up restricted to hardcore loyalists before too long.

For now, then, _MAG_ is definitely not the revolution in online gaming that it makes out to be but there’s an important caveat to remember. Games of this type are only a patch away from greatness. To those interested in _MAG_, my advice would be to wait until the price comes down, follow any patch releases online and give it a quick google to see if the online community is still flourishing. If it is, then in a few short months this could be a bargain.