NIDZUMI+

Hype is a curious beast. Live up to the expectations and you’re onto a winner, fail to come close and you’ll find your game the target of a witch-hunt. Back in 2008, Sony debuted the multiplayer only FPS, MAG, to instant acclaim and subsequent hype. It was an ambitious project to say the least and the project as a whole was definitely a risk on Sony’s part. So why is it that a game that took so many risks, feels so generically safe?

The biggest risk they took with MAG was trying to include a whopping two hundred and fifty-six players into one server. So to quickly get all these players into one match without even a hint of latency or a long wait beforehand is impressive. Unfortunately with the amount of players in a server, you never get to know anyone, you never get to forge vendettas and you never really feel like you’re up against other people. Which is either very flattering for the standards of AI or very insulting towards the MAG community, I can’t decide which.

MAG is further let down by the fact that it never truly satisfies either. Granted, you’ll have the odd moment of Superman-esque proportions before tripping over a stray satchel charge but you’ll always feel like a bit-part player no matter how good you are.

The problem is that no matter how good the match making is you’ll never get 255 players at the same level. So, no matter how good you are, they’ll be literally hundreds better. On top of this the weaponry never feels reliable enough and unless you’re a steady aim with a sniper rifle, you’ll rarely clock up any long-range efforts.

You never feel like you’re playing other people, which is either very flattering for the standards of AI or very insulting towards the MAG community, I can’t decide which.

It has to be said though; the game’s sense of scope is impressive. So while you’ll rarely be able to kill anyone from a long distance, you’ll still be able to see them all scamper across the vast battlefields. Unfortunately the game doesn’t look particularly stunning but it’s a multiplayer focused game, so this is acceptably bad. However, while you can give the game a green card for having understandably average visuals, that doesn’t excuse the boring generic tone of the whole experience.

With a name like MAG – Massive Action Game – you would be excused for thinking that it could be a satirical take on the blandness and predictability of online first person shooters, unfortunately only the bland and predictable parts are evident. The game’s clichéd near-future reality merely serves as an excuse rather something you’ll care or becoming invested in.

To be honest the story is irrelevant – it’s an online-only game after all – all you need to know is that there are three factions, S.V.E.R, Raven Industries and Valor. Each have their own unique look, although not unique to this game, along with specific weapon and skill trees. Choose wisely though, you won’t be able to switch factions until you hit the level cap and even then you’ll lose all your progress. I can understand the reasoning of making you feel connected to a specific faction but if a friend made the wrong pick, you’ll be stuck as enemies.

When in the heat of battle you don’t want clumsy controls to do more damage than your opponents

Once you’ve signed up to your faction of choice you can jump straight into basic training, which for anyone who has played anything like MAG before, will be a complete waste of time. It will however introduce you to some of the game’s outdated control quirks. There are enough buttons on a controller to designate one specifically to grenades, MAG opts to go against the flow and forces you to switch to it as if it was a weapon. I know this has been done before and I know this was the norm – back in 2004 – but in the heat of battle when you’re looking to survive, you don’t want the clumsy controls to do more damage than your opponents.

The rest of the game is purely multiplayer only with a smartly limited five game modes to pick from – only one of which supports the 256-player cap. Choose from Suppression, Sabotage, Acquisition, Domination and Directives, which are respectively disguised codewords for team deathmatch, assault, capture the flag, an eight-point variant on traditional domination modes and a mix of the previous four.

Only Domination lets you join another 255 people on the battlefield but because the map is splintered over eight control points, you’ll rarely feel like you’re against 128 other people. In actuality, even when a server is at its fullest, it tends to feel like seven completely separate games are happening near by. It’s not a bad way to deal with what would otherwise be complete and utter chaos but it feels like it’s not capitalising on the game’s strongest selling point, the high player cap.

While they might have pushed these technical limitations to another level, they didn’t even come close to pushing the genre further. Nevertheless MAG will reward those who stand by it and if you don’t mind a few clumsy design choices dotted around the place then MAG might be worth looking into.