MAG (Massive Action Game) Beta Review: GAG would be a better acronym
MAG is an online shooter being developed by American developer Zipper Interactive, creator of the SOCOM franchise. Back in 2002 the first SOCOM game was released and it was one of the first games to utilize the PS2 network adapter. I remember buying the game and the adapter and being super excited to play it online against real players; it didn't disappoint. Now we are about to get MAG.
MAG was first teased at Sony's press conference during E3 2008. The video they showed that day was actually pretty impressive with tanks and troops running around everywhere. The big draw for the game was that the servers would be able to support games of up to 256 players. That's huge. Currently Resistance 2 allows for 60 players and that's the most on any console game. So you get the idea.
Now fast forward to 2009. The initial hype has since waned quite a bit and coupled with the lackluster presentation of the game at 2009's E3, I really don't know if anyone is actually looking forward to the game's release in January of 2010. At first the 256 player limit was exciting because not much other information was released. But now that the game has been showed in it's almost entirety it looks...well..generic. Where initially the 256 players seemed to be one bullet point to the innovations of the game, it has now become the only bullet point. Just being massive in scale isn't going to be able to conceal the lack of anything new.
So, if you didn't catch "beta" in the title, you may be asking how I can even make a judgment call if the game hasn't been released yet. Well I applied for the beta and got accepted a few weeks ago. After the initial few hour hassle of getting the game installed, updated and running I was finally able to play it. And when I got into the game I was hit with a wave of deja vu. Like I'd played this game before. Oh that's right. It feels exactly like SOCOM. While the SOCOM franchise isn't bad per se the formula hasn't changed much over the years. The environments even look similar. Although the game touts the fact that it will have squads complete with squad leaders, in the beta it was just pretty much free for all. There was no teamwork and this could be an issue exclusive to the beta but I find it unlikely. People who play online shooters generally aren't the type up for coordinating tactics, it's just not the type of game for it.
After wandering around the grey-brown virtual world of bombed out buildings for 40 minutes or so I was beginning to get bored with the whole thing. There are shooters with better aesthetics and mechanics out there that I would rather be playing. Just when I was about to log off of my own freewill the game stripped me of it by crashing. It's a beta so it's understandable. I played a few subsequent times for literally periods of 5-10 minutes hoping there was something fun I had previously missed, there wasn't. I mean there are vehicles but there's nothing unique about them. The aircrafts in the game didn't go anywhere, they were literally stationary. Hopefully that's just a beta problem.
There's some leveling up system that unlocks new weapons but it's none too rewarding. There's also 3 different factions in the game but I honestly couldn't distinguish the unique abilities of each besides the color of the uniform. The one good thing is that there was no lag, which is impressive. But that's the only good thing I could find in this game. To be fair there was only one game mode that was playable, which was a variation of capture and hold the point seen in other shooters.
Alright now maybe it's not fair to form an opinion on a game based on the beta alone. But I feel like when they have a beta open to normal people (not professional testers), a company feels like the game is near completion and ready for the average gamer to play. So I feel that betas are a pretty good representation of the final product. In the case of MAG there isn't anything fundamentally wrong with the game. It functions as a shooter. But it's bland and uninspired. Simply put there are better games of this genre out there already. It really says something when the time you've felt like playing the game for is less than the time it took to install in the first place. For MAG to be even remotely worth buying the devs are gonna need to do a lot of work between now and January. But I wouldn't hold my breath. What you see now is probably what you're going to get.
If you haven't figured out what the acronym I gave the game stands for, besides what playing it makes me feel like doing, it stands for Generic Action Game, which I think describes the game far better than it's current title.
MAG was first teased at Sony's press conference during E3 2008. The video they showed that day was actually pretty impressive with tanks and troops running around everywhere. The big draw for the game was that the servers would be able to support games of up to 256 players. That's huge. Currently Resistance 2 allows for 60 players and that's the most on any console game. So you get the idea.
Now fast forward to 2009. The initial hype has since waned quite a bit and coupled with the lackluster presentation of the game at 2009's E3, I really don't know if anyone is actually looking forward to the game's release in January of 2010. At first the 256 player limit was exciting because not much other information was released. But now that the game has been showed in it's almost entirety it looks...well..generic. Where initially the 256 players seemed to be one bullet point to the innovations of the game, it has now become the only bullet point. Just being massive in scale isn't going to be able to conceal the lack of anything new.
So, if you didn't catch "beta" in the title, you may be asking how I can even make a judgment call if the game hasn't been released yet. Well I applied for the beta and got accepted a few weeks ago. After the initial few hour hassle of getting the game installed, updated and running I was finally able to play it. And when I got into the game I was hit with a wave of deja vu. Like I'd played this game before. Oh that's right. It feels exactly like SOCOM. While the SOCOM franchise isn't bad per se the formula hasn't changed much over the years. The environments even look similar. Although the game touts the fact that it will have squads complete with squad leaders, in the beta it was just pretty much free for all. There was no teamwork and this could be an issue exclusive to the beta but I find it unlikely. People who play online shooters generally aren't the type up for coordinating tactics, it's just not the type of game for it.
After wandering around the grey-brown virtual world of bombed out buildings for 40 minutes or so I was beginning to get bored with the whole thing. There are shooters with better aesthetics and mechanics out there that I would rather be playing. Just when I was about to log off of my own freewill the game stripped me of it by crashing. It's a beta so it's understandable. I played a few subsequent times for literally periods of 5-10 minutes hoping there was something fun I had previously missed, there wasn't. I mean there are vehicles but there's nothing unique about them. The aircrafts in the game didn't go anywhere, they were literally stationary. Hopefully that's just a beta problem.
There's some leveling up system that unlocks new weapons but it's none too rewarding. There's also 3 different factions in the game but I honestly couldn't distinguish the unique abilities of each besides the color of the uniform. The one good thing is that there was no lag, which is impressive. But that's the only good thing I could find in this game. To be fair there was only one game mode that was playable, which was a variation of capture and hold the point seen in other shooters.
Alright now maybe it's not fair to form an opinion on a game based on the beta alone. But I feel like when they have a beta open to normal people (not professional testers), a company feels like the game is near completion and ready for the average gamer to play. So I feel that betas are a pretty good representation of the final product. In the case of MAG there isn't anything fundamentally wrong with the game. It functions as a shooter. But it's bland and uninspired. Simply put there are better games of this genre out there already. It really says something when the time you've felt like playing the game for is less than the time it took to install in the first place. For MAG to be even remotely worth buying the devs are gonna need to do a lot of work between now and January. But I wouldn't hold my breath. What you see now is probably what you're going to get.
If you haven't figured out what the acronym I gave the game stands for, besides what playing it makes me feel like doing, it stands for Generic Action Game, which I think describes the game far better than it's current title.
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