Massively Aggravating Games
MAG is here. MAG is glorious. MAG is a reinvention of the FPS. MAG. Will. Piss. You. Off. It will also give you something you've never experienced before. Unfortunately, both are inevitable.
Published: February 12, 2010
MAG is an undulating mass of possibilities, and when they're guided, it creates waves. When the game is at its best, those waves crash, creating an incredible test of organization, of raw shooting skill and of the ability to scoot out and revive players to fight again. Orbs of influence, pure ability to shoot targets, sneaky missions behind enemy lines to blow up emplacements... These are the experiences in broad strokes of what MAG offers. They all pale in comparison to what happens when you're dropped into the actual experience.
And it should be mentioned that there are far less chaotic versions. Domination is the 256 player... mass, but Acquistion is "just" 128 people in map. Sabotage is lighter still at just 64 troops on the ground and there's always the 16-per-side skirmishes of Suppression to whet your appetite. The latter is actually the only mode you can opt into until you start leveling up, with everything eventually opening up for play when you hit level 8 (probably just a few hours if you're a newcomer, and significantly shorter if you were part of the beta and already know how to play). The down side to all this is that there's only a single map per PMC per mode, leading to a feeling of burnout if you end up getting dropped into the same conflicts over and over again.
Regardless of mode or faction, each map has its own unique tone that fits the aesthetics of the individual PMCs; Raven is cool and littered with high-tech emplacements. SVER is rich in oranges and reds with a bootstrapped feeling to their operations. Valor ditches SVER's MacGuyvered equipment and broken-down machinery in favor of heavily wooded areas with plenty of raw militaristic might. Each presents its own ambience that helps define the mood of a particular fight beyond all the ambient gunfire (which, it should be mentioned, is delivered solely by the players in the map; gunfire, explosions, all of it is actual combat, not just canned loops of effects).
This look and feel extends to both the in-match HUD and the general aesthetic of the menus when getting into games or pouring skill points into new weapons and abilities. Coupled with the various accents voicing the pre-skirmish loading screens and drop-ins to the queue, each PMC really does come off feeling different, even if the actual stats for weapons are only marginally separate from each other (I'm talking a single point here and there for each weapon class).
Despite the sheer size of things, though, it all looks rather impressive. The framerate rarely bogs down even in the heat of things (and when it does, it seems to be a server side issue rather than the PS3 struggling), and the texture work on most objects in the sprawling maps is fantastic, with plenty of detail even up close. Even things like individual reload animations are slick. All this really means, of course, is that you'll have the odd chance to stop and appreciate some of the detail in the level designs before getting gunned down in the back. The pacing of MAG is such that there's not much time to stop and check things out in the thick of it, but it's nice to know the visuals don't suffer under close scrutiny.
One could easily say the same for the audio too, which as already mentioned dynamically affects the soundscape in any given match. SMGs sound like speedy little pea shooters, sniper rifles offer a fantastic clap that echoes out over the landscape and assault rifle or heavy gun rat-tat-tats are all meaty and varied from one PMC to the next. Explosions, automatic chatter from other troops and so on are handled with aplomb. Hell, Zipper even came up with a slick little option to have all your squad chatter happen in your ear while comments from the higher-ups come out of your TV speakers. Very slick. Oh, and it should be mentioned that Apocalyptica's metal-infused bits of rock that pipe in during the pre-match menus and when you go on a kill streak are all great and actually feel different for each faction.
In the end, though, it really does come down to how fun it is to shoot at something. MAG is not your typical shooter, and if played like its contemporaries, you'll find something missing. That something is MAG's actual gameplay, which is metered, focused and entirely dependent on the other guys in your squad. So long as you can hold up your end of the eight person equation and trust that your squadmates will do the same, MAG is the most collaborative, intense and downright addictive shooter to come along in ages. Just be prepared to have a weak link or three in that chain every few games to remind you of just how fragile that pitch-perfect dream game you had previously can be.
