It's our first post here at Teh Reviewer's Video Game Review Crew, and we've got the MAG Beta. Remember that HUGE open First-person shooter that Sony unveiled at last year's E3? Well here's the first look and we're telling you what we think.
Imagine a world where a battle was taking a place on your TV in which you were a leader of a 8 man platoon that was part of a larger 32 man squad that was part of a larger 128 man army. Imagine now your are the leader of this 128 man army directing your squad leaders to various points, defending your areas, calling in air strikes and advancing your forces into enemy territory. Now imagine that on the other side there was another 128 man unit at the same time doing the exact same time.
Previously games like this were overhead views and you just directed bot forces and they did your bidding…MAG developers said that is old school style we want real live players doing a massive battle. To achieve this the developers could not use any run of the mill engine, they could not use the unreal engine most all game run on, they had to create their own! They also needed the mother off all server infrastructure to handle all of these people playing at one time. I for one hate all the lag in games and would believe with 256 people playing online in one battle the it would be laggy. The Zipper interactive team that developed MAG built the server structure specifically to handle all this. They also allow people to drop out of the game without the game freezing, so people can quit and new people can come in and there is no down time. Impressive to say the least but how is the gameplay?
The system is first person shooter based and will mostly remind you of a Call of Duty/ SOCOM experience when you first pick it up. As a initial player you start out as a foot soldier getting your commands from the leader of your eight man platoon. He/She gets orders to defend a area or attack area from another commander. You will engage in firefights in various areas of the large map space. The map space is set 20 years in the future with various gun improvements and a city that has been ravaged by war. You have a option when you first start to pick a waring faction that you want to play as either the Raven(Sleek and High Tech), Serv (Burly camo covered squad) or the Valor(a ragtag makeshift army force). Each of these forces has their own unique look so during the massive battle you can tell foe from friend. Each force also has their unique qualities, some will be better at air strikes some better on the ground, and some will be better at sneaking around and more covert ops.
The style of play is not for the run and gun style of gamer, in a battle this large you will be picked off rather quickly if you do not manage your squad or platoon intricately. The team must be organized and move together in a strategic manner to efficiently win the battle. The battle has goals the a team must achieve in order to win either controlling a certain area or getting in to enemy territory and stealing some armored tanks. If you are killed during battle you parachute back to drop point that has to be defended by you squad. The main Army commander declares this drop point and places snipers around it to ensure that the area is controlled and that your respawned soldiers come in unharmed.
So will MAG live up to the hype surrounding it or will it be a bust? From what we played it looks like it has the potential to be a blockbuster online title joining the PS3's already large array of a great gaming library. But only time will tell if the kinks have been worked out and MAG is as good as it promises.