Zipper Interactive’s PS3 exclusive, MAG, proves that being a brick in the wall can be fun. While I haven’t gotten my “character” to level 60, I did get to level 25 with about 20 hours of total game time. Out of three factions, I went with Western European founded Raven Industries, which for whatever reason was based in South America. I settled on Raven because they focus on “technology” and seemed like the least popular faction, which to me translated to shorter queue times. What’s really interesting is, short of making a new account or something, your character is basically married to the faction you choose. When your character reaches level 60 you can then make an “alt[ernate]” character in a different faction. Please forgive all the MMO terminology in this article for I assure you it’s quite apt despite MAG not having a monthly fee.
I think I’m probably in the minority, but I really like the setting and visual design of MAG. Conceptually, I think putting the focus on private military companies (PMCs) was a really smart decision on the part of Zipper. While there are, of course, nations in proximity to where the different companies are operating, there are no actual ties that the player gets stuck in. It’s pretty interesting hearing French, British, and Polish speaking players in a game that is based in our world but transcends current geopolitical issues; this works as every character is effectively a mercenary. Unique aesthetic then, of which each PMC can claim, can be more influential in drawing a player than nationality or ideology. At the same time, MAG can sidestep any potential controversy because the soldiers are removed from any real-world conflicts and are instead killing other mercenaries.
I went ahead and recorded a load of video for MAG and decided to try and narrate one round of the 256 player game-mode, which lasts for about 30 minutes on average. The first part of this narration can be seen below, and the other three parts can be found as video responses. If you just want to see some of the game-play, watch the first part until you get bored. But if you’d like to see what makes MAG really unique, watch most of the whole thing.
Zipper’s approach to the player-character is probably one of MAG’s biggest limitations, and it’s really strange given the actual setting of the game. If every character is a mercenary: why isn’t quitting one employer and taking your collected experience to another faction that your friend is playing on an option in MAG? Creating a new character from scratch is almost painful too as there is so much character progression in the game, to the point that all weapons outside of the standard issue sniper rifle, assault rifle, machine gun, and pistol are unlocked with skill points. By the time you have enough experience to obtain a final tier rifle with a good scope and some kind of stabilizer you don’t really want to give it up. Add leadership points to the equation, which are earned by leading squads and are essential to assume command over greater units of men in the larger battles, and clearly it’s not a contractual obligation or love of a faction that ties a player to it but artificial limitation. Admittedly though, after all this build up and explication, if you’re a lone wolf like me none of this really matters because you can join a faction and play on with no conflicts.
What is a problem to me though is a player’s role in the battles, which feel like actual warzones thanks to the sounds, level designs, air strikes and mortar shells coming down on your head, and players parachuting onto the field in the distance. My predilection in most first-person shooters is to adopt the role of a sniper as I love picking off guys at extreme range. This works really well when trying to protect an objective like a control point where players have to stop, drop their weapons, and pull out some kind of PDA for a few seconds. Where it doesn’t work is trying to take an objective, particularly in a building that is being defended vivaciously by the opposing team.
Each character gets five load-outs that they can save and edit as they see fit, and when respawning can select a different load-out, so in theory it’s possible to change your role on the fly. Starting weapons though are just that, and it’s hard to compete against somebody (or multiple enemies) who are specialized, or spec’d, for a combat role your character is not. As a result, I had to make the decision to respec my character from a sniper to a “rapid assault,” automatic rifle-toting soldier. Given the fact that my assault rifle is pretty accurate at range, I can sometimes out-shoot snipers, which is kind of depressing in just how much more versatile my current character is. Being at the front line now, there are plenty of easier and unobstructed shots (something that makes finding good sniper spots difficult), objectives to take, and plenty of other guys to revive for effortless experience. As I already have the best available assault rifle at level 25, I’m sure that I could get the top sniper rifle before 60, but now I’m not sure that I’d want to since aside from extreme range lethality, the sniper role just doesn’t really have anything to offer me.
As a sniper though, there were more than a few times when I got killed at significant distance by somebody, usually a SVER soldier, with a heavy machinegun. This continues to happen after the most recent patch. Obviously, I think Zipper still has some balancing work to do.
The maps, particularly the 256-player ones, are pretty good. Each one feels lived in with natural looking places to take cover. There are plenty of things to fight over, like motorcades that spawn vehicles, or anti-aircraft guns that prevent planes from flying overhead or helicopters moving in. As a result, the strategy of battle can fluctuate from instance to instance, which is nice because sometimes it’s possible to capture burnoff towers while ignoring the bunkers where enemies spawn from, while in other games said towers are the focus and the bunker becomes a good lynchpin for the attackers to take out. This variability in tactics is good because the 12 maps or so that are in MAG do start to feel worn out. A common subject of discussion in the game chatter is whether or not new maps or coming, and speculation on just how committed Zipper is the future of MAG, which is a bit disconcerting to hear so early in the game’s lifespan.
Rolling off the subject of chatter, I really like the MAG community. There are, as always, the occasional jackasses to be found, but the squad can actually vote troublemakers out of the game. Admittedly, the lack of an included headset with the PS3 probably helps weed out most of the jerks who advertise their defective personal nature out of simple convenience otherwise. I suspect the design of MAG has something to do with this too. There is always an objective to attack or defend, and in the bigger games if you are screwing around odds are good that a decent number of enemies will seize the opportunity to drop you. Instead of wasting time corpse humping a downed player, the more prudent action is to quickly shoot them in the head or knife them so that they can’t be resuscitated, which will after a certain number of times actually assign the player with a trophy called “angel of mercy.” MAG is constantly challenging and rewarding players for actually playing the game, and as such most players are focused, on task, and not an annoyance.
I would be remiss to not mention the few glitches I’ve encountered in MAG. The most common I experienced was shooting and seemingly having my bullets blocked by invisible walls between rails. Aside from this and some ragdoll corpses fritzing out, I didn’t really experience any significant problems until I turned my PVR on and started recording. Since the new patch I’ve been getting dropped from servers quite a bit without losing my internet or PSN connections. By far the worst error was getting revived into a piece of geometry with no means to get out. If I had a grenade perhaps I could have performed a suicide as solution to the problem, but I didn’t and instead had to wait for an enemy to come and finish me off. I couldn’t have asked a teammate to do me in as team-killing results in lost experience points, which under normal circumstances is a very good thing. All in all though, this was a nasty glitch that’s only come up once, and otherwise MAG has been a fairly stable experience.
I’m really enjoying MAG, but it’s a bitter-sweet prospect. I paid $60 for it, but I have no idea how long the servers hosting these huge games will be up for. Given that Zipper has already announced SOCOM 4 and with no future plans revealed for MAG, it’s hard not to feel like they’re ready to just move on. With no single-player, the online play is all MAG has to offer, which is disheartening because the game-play is so fun. If MAG were a PC game with the option for third-party servers this would be a non-issue, and I can’t really figure out why MAG is on the PS3 to begin with except that Sony wanted it. 256 players in a map, even with the map being instanced to an extent, is a pretty ambitious undertaking for a video game, let alone for something spinning in a console. But Zipper somehow managed to make it work, and they designed a system of play that puts PC MMOs to shame frankly. Nobody has to bark about “DKP Minus” because all of the tasks are clear and achievable. If something isn’t working stubborn leaders can be booted out, and if things go really bad the games only last between 20-30 min. depending on game-type. It’s really weird to be typing this out, but MAG actually makes raiding fun, which is something I’ve never felt about any other massively multiplayer game.
UPDATE: After writing this review but before I could get it published Zipper recently announced that free DLC in the form of 3 new guns is coming. Awesome: I’m thrilled to see that there will be some support from Zipper yet!
I think I’m probably in the minority, but I really like the setting and visual design of MAG. Conceptually, I think putting the focus on private military companies (PMCs) was a really smart decision on the part of Zipper. While there are, of course, nations in proximity to where the different companies are operating, there are no actual ties that the player gets stuck in. It’s pretty interesting hearing French, British, and Polish speaking players in a game that is based in our world but transcends current geopolitical issues; this works as every character is effectively a mercenary. Unique aesthetic then, of which each PMC can claim, can be more influential in drawing a player than nationality or ideology. At the same time, MAG can sidestep any potential controversy because the soldiers are removed from any real-world conflicts and are instead killing other mercenaries.
I went ahead and recorded a load of video for MAG and decided to try and narrate one round of the 256 player game-mode, which lasts for about 30 minutes on average. The first part of this narration can be seen below, and the other three parts can be found as video responses. If you just want to see some of the game-play, watch the first part until you get bored. But if you’d like to see what makes MAG really unique, watch most of the whole thing.
Let's Play MAG
Zipper’s approach to the player-character is probably one of MAG’s biggest limitations, and it’s really strange given the actual setting of the game. If every character is a mercenary: why isn’t quitting one employer and taking your collected experience to another faction that your friend is playing on an option in MAG? Creating a new character from scratch is almost painful too as there is so much character progression in the game, to the point that all weapons outside of the standard issue sniper rifle, assault rifle, machine gun, and pistol are unlocked with skill points. By the time you have enough experience to obtain a final tier rifle with a good scope and some kind of stabilizer you don’t really want to give it up. Add leadership points to the equation, which are earned by leading squads and are essential to assume command over greater units of men in the larger battles, and clearly it’s not a contractual obligation or love of a faction that ties a player to it but artificial limitation. Admittedly though, after all this build up and explication, if you’re a lone wolf like me none of this really matters because you can join a faction and play on with no conflicts.
What is a problem to me though is a player’s role in the battles, which feel like actual warzones thanks to the sounds, level designs, air strikes and mortar shells coming down on your head, and players parachuting onto the field in the distance. My predilection in most first-person shooters is to adopt the role of a sniper as I love picking off guys at extreme range. This works really well when trying to protect an objective like a control point where players have to stop, drop their weapons, and pull out some kind of PDA for a few seconds. Where it doesn’t work is trying to take an objective, particularly in a building that is being defended vivaciously by the opposing team.
Each character gets five load-outs that they can save and edit as they see fit, and when respawning can select a different load-out, so in theory it’s possible to change your role on the fly. Starting weapons though are just that, and it’s hard to compete against somebody (or multiple enemies) who are specialized, or spec’d, for a combat role your character is not. As a result, I had to make the decision to respec my character from a sniper to a “rapid assault,” automatic rifle-toting soldier. Given the fact that my assault rifle is pretty accurate at range, I can sometimes out-shoot snipers, which is kind of depressing in just how much more versatile my current character is. Being at the front line now, there are plenty of easier and unobstructed shots (something that makes finding good sniper spots difficult), objectives to take, and plenty of other guys to revive for effortless experience. As I already have the best available assault rifle at level 25, I’m sure that I could get the top sniper rifle before 60, but now I’m not sure that I’d want to since aside from extreme range lethality, the sniper role just doesn’t really have anything to offer me.
As a sniper though, there were more than a few times when I got killed at significant distance by somebody, usually a SVER soldier, with a heavy machinegun. This continues to happen after the most recent patch. Obviously, I think Zipper still has some balancing work to do.
The maps, particularly the 256-player ones, are pretty good. Each one feels lived in with natural looking places to take cover. There are plenty of things to fight over, like motorcades that spawn vehicles, or anti-aircraft guns that prevent planes from flying overhead or helicopters moving in. As a result, the strategy of battle can fluctuate from instance to instance, which is nice because sometimes it’s possible to capture burnoff towers while ignoring the bunkers where enemies spawn from, while in other games said towers are the focus and the bunker becomes a good lynchpin for the attackers to take out. This variability in tactics is good because the 12 maps or so that are in MAG do start to feel worn out. A common subject of discussion in the game chatter is whether or not new maps or coming, and speculation on just how committed Zipper is the future of MAG, which is a bit disconcerting to hear so early in the game’s lifespan.
Rolling off the subject of chatter, I really like the MAG community. There are, as always, the occasional jackasses to be found, but the squad can actually vote troublemakers out of the game. Admittedly, the lack of an included headset with the PS3 probably helps weed out most of the jerks who advertise their defective personal nature out of simple convenience otherwise. I suspect the design of MAG has something to do with this too. There is always an objective to attack or defend, and in the bigger games if you are screwing around odds are good that a decent number of enemies will seize the opportunity to drop you. Instead of wasting time corpse humping a downed player, the more prudent action is to quickly shoot them in the head or knife them so that they can’t be resuscitated, which will after a certain number of times actually assign the player with a trophy called “angel of mercy.” MAG is constantly challenging and rewarding players for actually playing the game, and as such most players are focused, on task, and not an annoyance.
I would be remiss to not mention the few glitches I’ve encountered in MAG. The most common I experienced was shooting and seemingly having my bullets blocked by invisible walls between rails. Aside from this and some ragdoll corpses fritzing out, I didn’t really experience any significant problems until I turned my PVR on and started recording. Since the new patch I’ve been getting dropped from servers quite a bit without losing my internet or PSN connections. By far the worst error was getting revived into a piece of geometry with no means to get out. If I had a grenade perhaps I could have performed a suicide as solution to the problem, but I didn’t and instead had to wait for an enemy to come and finish me off. I couldn’t have asked a teammate to do me in as team-killing results in lost experience points, which under normal circumstances is a very good thing. All in all though, this was a nasty glitch that’s only come up once, and otherwise MAG has been a fairly stable experience.
Unexplained disconnects are terrible...
...but getting stuck in level geometry is worse.
UPDATE: After writing this review but before I could get it published Zipper recently announced that free DLC in the form of 3 new guns is coming. Awesome: I’m thrilled to see that there will be some support from Zipper yet!
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