PS3 Game Review - MAG

MAG is the biggest online multiplayer shooter ever. A single battle can contain 256 players at once. That's four times the amount in the biggest match in Battlefield 2. That is an amazing technical achievement, and certainly the main draw of the game. That number is so important, that, game review, it changes the fundamentals of online shooter gameplay. Thankfully,, game review, Zipper still had enough resources after working that out, game review, to create an interesting persistent world behind your battles and give the player customization choices, game review, to make, so this bold technical experiment makes a really fantastic game.



What's interesting about creating, game review, an online shooter with 256 players is that winning a game requires a totally different group of skillsets than what you use to play Modern Warfare 2 online. Sure, accuracy, reflexes, and a low-scale tactical mind are still extremely helpful on the individual level, but for a team to win a match, they have to be organized, game review, . As an individual combatant, you, game review, simply cannot be good enough to influence the battle on your own.



When you are randomly placed in a squad, you can immediately tell if this match is going, game review, to be fun for you or not by seeing how cohesive it is. If everyone in the squad just fans out and forgets about one another, you will almost certainly lose. If your squad leader, game review, orchestrates, game review, united, game review, attacks, if medics are cautious and sensible in reviving their allies, and if everyone covers everyone else's back, you will likely win. The game is more like a real battle in that organization is more important than the skill of individuals.



In MAG, there are three private military companies fighting the "Shadow War" against, game review, one another: Raven (hi-tech Europeans), S.V.E.R. (low-tech Russians and Asians), and Valor (rednecks, basically). There are four game sizes, starting at a 64-player wargame and moving up to, game review, the complex objectives of the 256-player matches. Each PMC has their own map for each game size, so the objectives you're fighting over will depend somewhat on which PMC you decide to represent, game review, .



Your character gains experience points in battle and gains a skill point every time he levels up. Those skill points are applied to an interesting upgrade tree that includes everything from increased sprint time to new guns to gun attachments, etc.



As you level, game review, up, eventually you can apply for leadership positions, which allow you better chatting options for team organization (you should buy, game review, a headset for this game if you don't have one already) and give you some area-effect bombing abilities, and other bonuses like that.



As a leader, you carry a heavy assumed responsibility to make sure your troops keep together, and your ability to lead them will have a huge factor on how that game is going to go.



MAG doesn't have a single-player campaign and may not be quite as pretty to look at as Battlefield 2 would be on the PS3 today, and there are some frustrating moments when you find yourself dying without much cause, but that's true of most online shooters. In fact, in MAG, it's a bit easier to get away with having lackluster reflexes, just because you're not exactly dueling other players one on one, usually.



It will be extremely interesting over the coming weeks and months to see if the current chaos of battle gets regulated and if squad tactics actually become more commonplace than they've ever been before. And if multiplayer shooters start requiring more thinking, I'm all for that.