Zipper’s new online-only shooter boasts plenty of scale, but does having more players really make for more enjoyment?
Format: PS3 Dev: Zipper Interactive Pub: Sony Out: 29/01/10 Players: 2-256 online
MAG (or ‘Massive Action Game’ as it was once known) is an online-only first-person shooter, released exclusively for PlayStation 3. The game is set in the year 2025, a time in which full-scale armies have been reduced to lower costs. As a result of this, PMC’s (Private Military Companies) took the place of the conventional military. In time, the competition between PMC’s became fierce and covert battles began to take place that were dubbed the ‘Shadow War’.
There are three PMC’s involved in the Shadow War: SVER, Valor and Raven. SVER are a guerrilla faction composed of fighters from China, India and Russia. Valor represent the USA and Raven are comprised of soldiers from Western Europe.
Upon launching the game the player is faced with deciding which of the aforementioned three PMC’s they would like to join. Personally, I went for SVER, mainly due to the fact that they struck me as being the underdogs and I always like to back the underdog. Subsequently to choosing your faction, it is time to customise your fighter. There is a handful of different clothing, weapons and equipment to choose from and, depending on which faction you chose, different items will be available.
As a SVER operative, as you find yourself wielding an AK-47, a handgun, a rocket launcher and some grenades. After completing a training exercise to become familiar with the controls, Suppression is the first competitive game mode you have the chance to participate in. It is pretty much your standard team deathmatch – apart from the fact that there is a maximum of 64 players in the game. This is what sets MAG apart from other multiplayer first-person shooters; the sheer scale of the games. The maximum amount of players in the more advanced game modes that are unlocked as the player levels up is 256 – now that is massive, epic even.
Other game modes that you eventually have access too are Sabotage, Acquisition and Domination. Fans of the Call of Duty franchise may recognise the names of some of these modes, but they are in no way the same. Sabotage involves one team defending two objectives, with the other team attempting to capture them. If the attacking team captures the first two objectives, the defenders fall back to a third objective to make a last stand. Personally, this was my preferred game mode.
Acquisition has attackers and defenders once again. The objectives here though are more in quantity, and include bunkers that must be destroyed and vehicles that are required to be obtained and driven to a certain destination. This mode I found most confusing, the scale of it was definitely daunting to a newcomer. Finally, Domination entails the attacking team attempting to destroy their enemies’ oil facility in three phases: destroying two burn-off towers, followed by destroying two cooling towers and finally seizing control of the oil pump controls and destroying the whole facility.
In summary, MAG is very different to conventional online first-person shooters for two main reasons: the size of the games and the fact that it is ultimately in your squad’s interest to work as a team. The incentive is there to level up. Also you are given the chance to command a squad once you reach level 14. Although it may not seem that there is a vast quantity of game modes available, each mode has a lot to offer the player and does not get boring quickly.
Andy King
Tags: mag, multiplayer, shooter, sony
