Hey, an FPS review. Those go over well!
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MAG stands for Massive Action Game, and this game is certainly massive and contains lots of action, so I like it already. Now those of you in the know would know that this review might be a little premature, since the game isn't actually out yet, but SCREW the rules, I'm going to review it now because I'm a rebel on the edge! Also because I played the Beta, so natch.
The game's selling point is that it is a multi-player FPS of a scope far greater than anything beforehand. Whilst most games boast 16-player or 32-player deathmatches, this game LAUGHS at them, mocking them for their impotence by providing avenue for over 200 players to shoot at each other in whiz-bang war games fun. There are several multi-player modes that consist of doing the exact same thing, so for the sake of clarity, I'm going to just lump them all together. Since there is no single-player option, the game is going to sell itself on whether it functions as a massively multiplayer killfest and in this regard it more or less succeeds.
You pick one of three factions (there are differences between them, but the most noticeable you will notice is that if you don't pick the S.V.E.R. faction you will LOSE) and then go to war to further your faction's ambiguous goals. There's a plot, of sorts, and a setting and backstory behind all of these, but none of that matters a hoot, so I won't bother explaining it. A typical match has you randomly assigned to a squad, which is part of a division or battalion. Your squad has a primary target, which differs depending on whether you are attacking or defending. Attacking singles out a specific enemy base or cooling tower (mostly these) or bunker that you must seek out and capture/destroy, and defending is like this, but the opposite, where you have one chosen location to defend, and the enemies will throw themselves at you like rabid lemmings.
The selling point of "all human all the time" is certainly true. Every gunshot you hear, every bomb that goes off, and every air strike that rains death on your position can be traced back to an actual person, so your shameful performance on the battlefield is known to all. The battlefields themselves are very large and somewhat varied, though the beta really offers only a choice between "Industrial facility" and "random mishmash of wilderness and bunkers", and there's little coherence between locations. Each map offers different obstacles--one has a huge underground network of tunnels, another has a bunch of bridges that can be destroyed or repaired at convenience, another has buildings on higher levels than others...despite the limited number of playable locations, they are at least fairly varied, though none are particularly memorable, and your goal is ALWAYS the same.
The controls are mostly based off of Call of Duty, which is nice, though some issues persist. First of all, you have a health bar instead of regenerating health, which I'm not entirely sure works as well. Secondly, to throw a grenade, you have to cycle through your ENTIRE set of weapons (past your rifle, pistol, first-aid injection and right before your rocket launcher), which is near impossible in a heated fire-fight. The controls also don't seem as responsive as I'd like, which might just be a result of the beta rather than an indication of the final game.
The game IS fun. I quibble here and there, but if you have nothing better to do than throw down half-an-hour to shoot people on the internet, this is likely the best way you could do it. The sheer number of people is staggering, and if you have voice chat, you might actually be able to coordinate your squad and give orders and the like. An XP system makes even defeat sweet, since you get ranked individually on your own accomplishments--so if you went on a ten-man kill streak, but still lost the battle, you'll still be rewarded with new powerups and gear to unlock. Since this game is an MMO, I suppose some kind of leveling system was neccessary, though I honestly don't like it. I don't play a first person shooter to level up, I play first person shooters to SHOOT PEOPLE, and if the game is limiting my ability to do so until I've played it for hours and hours on end, it is sort of missing the point. As it stands, the beta is unbalanced and sort of bland--the sheer number of people is a cool novelty at first, but since the majority of them do NOT have voice-chat, you are mostly just part of a faceless, voiceless herd of digital people, possessing no personality outside of their usernames. Sure, I know that I'm playing with people, but to be honest, I could get a much better experience just playing Modern Warfare 2's single-player, where at least I could feel as though I was doing something more bad ass than capturing a COOLING TOWER for the 80th goddamn time.
The final game is out in late January, and I'm certain this beta will smooth out a lot of issues, but if you ask me, the concept's novelty isn't enough to overcome its bland missions and boring weapons.
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MAG stands for Massive Action Game, and this game is certainly massive and contains lots of action, so I like it already. Now those of you in the know would know that this review might be a little premature, since the game isn't actually out yet, but SCREW the rules, I'm going to review it now because I'm a rebel on the edge! Also because I played the Beta, so natch.
The game's selling point is that it is a multi-player FPS of a scope far greater than anything beforehand. Whilst most games boast 16-player or 32-player deathmatches, this game LAUGHS at them, mocking them for their impotence by providing avenue for over 200 players to shoot at each other in whiz-bang war games fun. There are several multi-player modes that consist of doing the exact same thing, so for the sake of clarity, I'm going to just lump them all together. Since there is no single-player option, the game is going to sell itself on whether it functions as a massively multiplayer killfest and in this regard it more or less succeeds.
You pick one of three factions (there are differences between them, but the most noticeable you will notice is that if you don't pick the S.V.E.R. faction you will LOSE) and then go to war to further your faction's ambiguous goals. There's a plot, of sorts, and a setting and backstory behind all of these, but none of that matters a hoot, so I won't bother explaining it. A typical match has you randomly assigned to a squad, which is part of a division or battalion. Your squad has a primary target, which differs depending on whether you are attacking or defending. Attacking singles out a specific enemy base or cooling tower (mostly these) or bunker that you must seek out and capture/destroy, and defending is like this, but the opposite, where you have one chosen location to defend, and the enemies will throw themselves at you like rabid lemmings.
The selling point of "all human all the time" is certainly true. Every gunshot you hear, every bomb that goes off, and every air strike that rains death on your position can be traced back to an actual person, so your shameful performance on the battlefield is known to all. The battlefields themselves are very large and somewhat varied, though the beta really offers only a choice between "Industrial facility" and "random mishmash of wilderness and bunkers", and there's little coherence between locations. Each map offers different obstacles--one has a huge underground network of tunnels, another has a bunch of bridges that can be destroyed or repaired at convenience, another has buildings on higher levels than others...despite the limited number of playable locations, they are at least fairly varied, though none are particularly memorable, and your goal is ALWAYS the same.
The controls are mostly based off of Call of Duty, which is nice, though some issues persist. First of all, you have a health bar instead of regenerating health, which I'm not entirely sure works as well. Secondly, to throw a grenade, you have to cycle through your ENTIRE set of weapons (past your rifle, pistol, first-aid injection and right before your rocket launcher), which is near impossible in a heated fire-fight. The controls also don't seem as responsive as I'd like, which might just be a result of the beta rather than an indication of the final game.
The game IS fun. I quibble here and there, but if you have nothing better to do than throw down half-an-hour to shoot people on the internet, this is likely the best way you could do it. The sheer number of people is staggering, and if you have voice chat, you might actually be able to coordinate your squad and give orders and the like. An XP system makes even defeat sweet, since you get ranked individually on your own accomplishments--so if you went on a ten-man kill streak, but still lost the battle, you'll still be rewarded with new powerups and gear to unlock. Since this game is an MMO, I suppose some kind of leveling system was neccessary, though I honestly don't like it. I don't play a first person shooter to level up, I play first person shooters to SHOOT PEOPLE, and if the game is limiting my ability to do so until I've played it for hours and hours on end, it is sort of missing the point. As it stands, the beta is unbalanced and sort of bland--the sheer number of people is a cool novelty at first, but since the majority of them do NOT have voice-chat, you are mostly just part of a faceless, voiceless herd of digital people, possessing no personality outside of their usernames. Sure, I know that I'm playing with people, but to be honest, I could get a much better experience just playing Modern Warfare 2's single-player, where at least I could feel as though I was doing something more bad ass than capturing a COOLING TOWER for the 80th goddamn time.
The final game is out in late January, and I'm certain this beta will smooth out a lot of issues, but if you ask me, the concept's novelty isn't enough to overcome its bland missions and boring weapons.
