MAG

By Christian Donlan Published 22 January, 2010

Army of Two-Fifty-Six.

It's a MAG press event just off Baker Street. PS3s and huge HD screens are lined up in a subterranean hall, waitresses move through the crowds with bullet-studded belts, nobody during a presentation ever misses an opportunity to refer to the assembled gaming press as 'operatives' or exclaim 'Let's DO IT!' and a nice Sony PR lady has just taken to the stage to set things rolling.

"I'm going to call people to the demo pods in waves," she says. "So if you've been assigned a number lower than 39 - that's lower than 39 - please make your way over to the play area immediately. I'm going to--"

Actually, we never find out what she's going to do, as everyone in the room has just started heading over to the demo pods, quickly resulting in the kind of charming pile-up Sony probably hoped to avoid. This isn't necessarily because people are unusually excited to get their hands on Zipper's massively-multiplayer FPS - although there is a quiet buzz about the room, actually - but because crowds don't generally listen to orders. They hear "demo pods" and "make your way over" and then they make their way over to the demo pods. It's astonishing that we ever got to the moon, really.

Here, then, is MAG's biggest potential pitfall writ large: when you've got 256 players - actually, there's only half that here, the rest will be joining us online - how do you get them to all play nicely?

'MAG' Screenshot 1

MAG's maps are pretty rather than excessively detailed.

You've probably read quite a bit about MAG by now - Dan Whitehead's recent beta hands-on is pretty thorough, and even finds the room to include the terms "boom-bang-a-bang" and "bongwater", so should have pretty much everything you need - and you might also have had a chance to play the beta as well.

If you haven't, though, or if you've just dipped in and out for a few rounds, you may still be wondering how such a gigantic online crowd will behave when it all gets together on the first day of release. Will it obey the rules, form clans, and use headsets mainly for organising pincer movements or will it - y'know - just make its way over to the demo pods?

Stampede to one side, Sony's recent London event gave a real taster of what to expect. In many ways, it was almost an idealised version of how MAG will feel online: everyone had a headset, nobody could ditch out if things didn't go their way, and if you couldn't find the jump button there was probably someone from Zipper nearby to point it out to you and provide you with a potted history of the control mappings. It was slightly artificial, in other words, but there was still plenty of opportunity to get a real feel for the game lurking behind the big numbers.

'MAG' Screenshot 2

Weapon-balancing will almost certainly be in order at some point - supposedly close-range guns are still a little too effective over long distances.

We've described the structure of MAG before - the PMCs you can join, the ranks you can earn, the experience points, the skill trees, the unfolding hierarchies and emerging weapon combinations - but it's worth remembering that, even if you aren't going into it for the love of the stats and the long-term picture, Zipper's game is still a pretty good online shooter. The basic untweaked weapon loadouts are simple and effective, the audio conveys the zing of bullets and the rumble of distant explosions with brutal clarity, and the DualShock's dead zone seems to be largely missing in action.

On top of that, regardless of the population of any map, most of the time people will play along. Not only has Zipper been smart with its detailing - you get bonus experience for following orders and perks for staying near your commander and not breaking up the squad - but the objectives are suitably basic most of the time to allow for a core group of daredevils to do all the tricky stuff, while a gaggle of more casual players can either hang back and snipe, or dash about and go nuts with assault rifles.

(The only casualty, in fact, may be the casualties, because for an awful lot of the six-hour event people were ignoring the game's bleed-out mechanic and failing to revive wounded team-mates. This may be because people who write about games for a living are all are bastards, but it may also be down to the fact that MAG's maps, although large, are suitably busy that stopping to help a colleague generally ends up with you both getting shot. Who wants that, eh?)

If anything, however, for the most part the game's focus actually sharpens as the player-cap increases. Of the four modes available, ranging from limited-headcount tutorial missions all the way through to Domination, the 256-man beast in all its glory, it was invariably the smaller games which gave way to aimlessness and stalemates, largely because, the more fixed the objectives, the more likely it is that bottlenecks will be created around capture points.

Once the numbers start to get bigger, and you're moving between small squad objectives to larger battles requiring input from the whole fighting force, your mission orders are moving from one target to the next with a pleasant speed, keeping the whole of the map in play without ever leaving you dizzy or confused.

And when MAG really gets going, it's like nothing else on a console. To see a battle raging all around you and to feel a part of it is quite an achievement, especially when the interface is kept so simple that you have a pretty good chance of actually understanding the role you're playing as well.

'MAG' Screenshot 3

MAG's HUD is, thankfully, extremely easy to get your head around.

But that's the thing: if the cliché is that an overwhelming majority of games like to give you the role of a god or a monster - when they drop you into the shoes of a soldier, it's either one of the super- variety, or a plucky grunt given a deadly secret mission - MAG takes the bold move of making you a nobody.

For your first few levels at least, you're a cog in a machine, shooting and dying for some rather ordinary objectives, and any moments of glory stand a good chance of being lost in the crowd. That's hopefully where the metagame will kick in, allowing the hardier, cannier players to rise through the ranks until they lead the armies rather than simply belonging to them.

The feeling I was left with after the final bullet had been fired was that MAG's name might be quietly inappropriate. There's a massive scope, certainly, but this action game feels far more interesting than a generic crowd-pleaser tailored to prove suitably inoffensive to as large an audience as possible. It seems like a bold move rather than an easy blockbuster, and will perhaps latch onto a smaller following but then grip them very hard indeed. Consoles may well be all the richer for it.

MAG is due out next Friday, 29th January. We'll be reviewing from retail code on retail servers in time for release.

Picture of Christian.

About Christian Donlan

Chris Donlan writes about games for Eurogamer and some magazines. His heroes include Eugene Jarvis, Errol Morris, and Linus Van Pelt.

Read more articles from Christian by visiting the Christian Donlan archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (62) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • cianchristopher #1 2 years ago

    Well, here's my comment:

    This sounds quite cool! It's ambitious, and I hope it's a success! Nice to see Sony publishing as broad a spectrum of games as it currently does - they're covering all bases with regards to their first-party line-up...
    Edited by 2 at 22/01/10 @ 14:24

  • Fab4 #2 2 years ago

    "his may be because people who write about games for a living are all are bastards, but it may also be down to the fact that MAG's maps, although large, are suitably busy that stopping to help a colleague generally ends up with you both getting shot. Who wants that, eh?)"

    Isnt there a Medic class?

  • Eraysor #3 2 years ago

    I hope this gets a good review as it may tempt me to get a PS3 now, rather than waiting for glorious Heavy Rain.

    Edit: Thanks for the mini-review below!
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 14:37

  • Daharvester #4 2 years ago

    Fab4: There isn't specifically a medic class, but once you have acquired enough skill points levelling up, you can purchase something called 'Resucitation' which allows you to revive downed teammates and heal them whilst they're up and about. It's very useful and gets you a lot of XP after a while.

    Eraysor: I would give MAG an excellent review. Considering it's a 256 MMOFPS, that is revolutionary...and the server runs pretty smoothly too. At 30 fps, it still creates a feeling of a battlefield and that the command structure makes you feel that you are part of something big, especially during Domination game mode...other smaller game modes make you feel even more specialised. Oh, and talking about specialised, your character can spec...i.e: Sniper, Field Support, Direct Action, Commando (Default)...trust me when I say it is an awseome game and it's worth buying a PS3 to play it.

    Edit: Glad to help Eraysor. If there's anything else you wanna know, give me a shout :D
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 23:52

  • kangarootoo #5 2 years ago

    "Actually, we never find out what she's going to do, as everyone in the room has just started heading over to the demo pods, quickly resulting in the kind of charming pile-up Sony probably hoped to avoid. This isn't necessarily because people are unusually excited to get their hands on Zipper's massively-multiplayer FPS - although there is a quiet buzz about the room, actually - but because crowds don't generally listen to orders. They hear "demo pods" and "make your way over" and then they make their way over to the demo pods. It's astonishing that we ever got to the moon, really."

    That is rather a long winded way of saying the room was full of idiots ;)

  • mingster #6 2 years ago

    I didn't find the HUD and objectives very easy to follow at all.
    Infact it was very hard to work out what you were supposed to be doing.

  • charliemouse #7 2 years ago

    @ Fab4 Anyone can be medic with the relevant skills unlocked. Should've bunged a smoke 'nade out before going out (and the medic gun has a larger reach than you'd expect).

    So when are the servers turned on? Review embargo's till Monday so hopefully before then.

    Edit: beaten to it.
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 14:31

  • Lunastra78 #8 2 years ago

    There aren't really any classes, but as you gain experience and levels you get skill points which are traded for athletic skills,heavy weapon skills etc. You start out with a syringe that you can heal yourself with but as you put more skill points into the healing skills you will be able to heal teammates, heal faster and revive teammates. Equipment and weapons are also assigned skill points so you're making the character as you level up.

  • Fab4 #9 2 years ago

    So you can get a loadout with smoke? I don't see why they didnt use it, either. That's what they do in CoD3.

  • symmetry #10 2 years ago

    Damn you good games on PS3! Stop it!

    I just don't have the spare cash for another console right now.

  • KayJay #11 2 years ago

    "you get bonus experience for following orders and perks for staying near your commander and not breaking up the squad"

    This is a good idea and should promote teamwork.

  • Murton #12 2 years ago

    The skill system is the best bit about MAG in my opinion. Rather than selecting a couple of active perks or cementing yourself into a set class you can pick and choose skills from your PMC's skill tree. There are plenty of combinations you can put together, during the short beta I knew I wouldn't get the chance to earn too many levels so I gave myself medical skills to keep my side in the fight and put another few points upgrading my assault skill and eventually getting a better assault rifle. It's this ability to mix and match skills that will make MAG stand out in my opinion, customisation has always been a winner in any genre.

    Seriously looking forward to this coming out, only a couple of weeks left to wait.

  • ps3owner #13 2 years ago

    when's the review due ? sounds very interesting indeed.

  • mrfodder #14 2 years ago

    So looking forward to this game.

    In the beta I found that players tended to follow orders as it gave them the most points and the best chance of winner to get even more points. The customise options were very extensive and give great oppurtunity to create the class you want.

  • AaronTurner #15 2 years ago

    Is there anything like this on PC?

  • Fab4 #16 2 years ago

    What are the controls like? Can you customise them? Is there any noticeable controller/bullet lag?

  • evilrobot #17 2 years ago

    You can't get 4 people to work together on l4d let alone this many and imagine the lag c'mon.

  • Miths #18 2 years ago

    Has performance been improved through the last stages of beta? I played briefly around six weeks or so ago (ie. late in closed beta), and while there was no network lag to speak of (getting into a match could take several minutes though), the framerate definitely felt a bit shaky on particularly the largest map. Definitely not a rock solid 30 fps, and I estimate the worst drops were probably down to the low 20s or so.

    I had sort of made my mind up to wait for Bad Company 2, but this article - particularly this part:

    "but the objectives are suitably basic most of the time to allow for a core group of daredevils to do all the tricky stuff, while a gaggle of more casual players can either hang back and snipe, or dash about and go nuts with assault rifles"

    has made me think I should perhaps give MAG a try after all.
    I'm a casual player with no intention of getting a headset (but all intention of muting any morons who are unbearable to listen to, which tends to be most of the players with headsets in online shooters), but maybe there will actually be some enjoyment to be found for players like me in this game, and not just for the hardcore clan players?

  • KayJay #19 2 years ago

    "imagine the lag c'mon."
    I think Its been widely reported by EG and most other "Hands On" articles that lag has rarely been a major issue.
    Edited by 2 at 22/01/10 @ 15:29

  • M_of_the_sys #20 2 years ago

    @Miths

    "but the objectives are suitably basic most of the time to allow for a core group of daredevils to do all the tricky stuff, while a gaggle of more casual players can either hang back and snipe, or dash about and go nuts with assault rifles"

    You should have noticed this from the beta.

  • drxym #21 2 years ago

    Bottlenecks are what typically kill massive online play. I remember one RTCW map called mp_arnhem which allowed 50 players and you could spend forever getting blown to bits and shot in just one small section of the map. Zipper might have something special if they can intelligently maintain the flow of battle without the feel of being in a meatgrinder.

  • chubster2010 #22 2 years ago

    From my experience with the Beta, the lag was minimal/hardly noticeable/non existent.

    I was actually quite impressed - was expecting a stuttering mess while they ironed out the problems - this wasn't the case.

  • jambo74 #23 2 years ago

    Codename LAG?

    -42, going for a record here!
    Edited by 1 at 25/01/10 @ 10:04

  • mainaman #24 2 years ago

    The BETA was meh,the weapons had very little recoil and damage and the whole experience felt arcadey.If they could make MW2 with 256 players it would be much better than this overhyped shooter.

  • venum #25 2 years ago

    I was really surprised in the public beta, there no lag in 64 or 256 players match. I did play many multiplayer game, this one is increadibly strong. The dedicated server for this game look's to work fine.

  • charliemouse #26 2 years ago

    And MW2 isn't arcadey in the slightest right?

  • mainaman #27 2 years ago

    "And MW2 isn't arcadey in the slightest right?"

    Not as much as MAG even in non-hardcore mode.
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 15:33

  • NunianVonFuch #28 2 years ago

    "people are unusually excited to get their hands on Zipper's massively-"
    Ooo-er!

  • tobsen #29 2 years ago

    I just realized that for some strange reason, many EG articles are easier to digest for me when I read them paragraph by paragraph starting with the last one. Anyone else who has the same weird habit?

  • Drpwnage #30 2 years ago

    "I would give MAG an excellent review. Considering it's a 256 MMOFPS, that is revolutionary...and the server runs pretty smoothly too"

    Errr not heard of Planetside? an online MMOFPS that supported 1000's of players at once and that came out nearly 7 years ago. I guess it is a step forward on Consoles though, sounds like it will need a PCesque game community around it to really blossom.

  • M_of_the_sys #31 2 years ago

    "I guess it is a step forward on Consoles though, sounds like it will need a PCesque game community around it to really blossom."

    Wow. You really do come across as a pompous git.

  • Drpwnage #32 2 years ago

    If it doesn't have an active community around it the game will be no more than a large scale spam-fest, where players don't bother with coordination, don't speak or just scream abuse at each other. MAG seems to have potential but only if people can be bothered to invest the time to play it properly, it might not really shine until the player core reduces down several months after release.

  • M_of_the_sys #33 2 years ago

    ^ ^
    Now this I agree with. I think this is very much what will happen. Although, it depends who forks out the money for it.

  • dbranchevans #34 2 years ago

    Objectives wise you get squad leader at level ten and then go from there but it works fairly well as you and the team both get xp if you take your objectives and there is the ability to assign right up to XO. I'm normally very blase about this stuff but there is quite a thrill to being a squad leader and hearing from the platoon commander asking you to attack something else and vice versa. There are definitely no classes, you can go with any gun/ any equipment, the only thing holding you back is weight.

    Its an amazing achievement and my main problem when I played it was how well the maps suited the defenders. It reached the stage where I just wussed out if I was attacking as it became an exercise really in piling up enough bodies to finally get through which was a bit of a shame. Ended up indecisive at the end of the beta, was already a little bored of the three maps but one of the mission types wasn't unlocked. If they fix the balancing it'll certainly be a damn sight better than MW2's twitch fest but better than BC2? I'm not so sure...
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 16:33

  • Derblington #35 2 years ago

    You'll have no idea where the bullets are coming from with so many playing.
    They have a HUD system that shows you exactly that.

  • Anthony_UK #36 2 years ago

    The Bad Company 2 demo comes out on or around the release of this. If people compare the two, especially off first impressions BC2 could well give the sales of MAG a massive kick in the ballls!

    That said, after my initial dissapointment after playing a few rounds, I'm prepared to give MAG another go.

  • onezeonx #37 2 years ago

    I enjoyed the beta after playing it alot...but with battlefield bc2 demo out so soon then I think I'll leave this for now.

    It's a decent game but I don't have time for 2/3 online shooters so I've got to pick battlefield as the beta was class(if limited)

  • FogHeart #38 2 years ago

    Perhaps, for us, the arrow of time is reversed.

    I thought it was just me!

    Yes, me too!

    "I just realized that for some strange reason, many EG articles are easier to digest for me when I read them paragraph by paragraph starting with the last one. Anyone else who has the same weird habit? "

    @tobsen

  • Miths #39 2 years ago

    @M_of_the_sys
    "'but the objectives are suitably basic most of the time to allow for a core group of daredevils to do all the tricky stuff, while a gaggle of more casual players can either hang back and snipe, or dash about and go nuts with assault rifles'

    You should have noticed this from the beta."

    Pretty much all of the ten matches or so I played felt like disorganized clusterfucks, so I never really managed to get a decent impression of whether it could work as the quote from the article suggested.

  • Ged42 #40 2 years ago

    Well done EG, you managed to write an article on MAG without mentioning how much WE WHOOPED IGN'S ARSE.

    I'll be playing this once the servers go up (strokes free copy of MAG)

    I think MAG will be complete chaos for the first month or so, but once people start getting into the roles they assign themselves, I think it'll become really good. The lag was much less noticable compared to MW2, impressive considering the insanity going on onscreen when battling the developers, so we couldn't blame that for our defeat.

    One gripe for me was that the grenades and medic/repair kits have to be equipped rather than just pressing R2 say to lob a greanade.

  • icematt12 #41 2 years ago

    Considering thousands of people have played some sort of beta for this you would expect a lot of people to already have some understanding of how to play. But, for the love of god, if you are Squad Leader use abilities and set objectives. That was my major annoyance of 256.
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 17:32

  • ThatGuyOverThere #42 2 years ago

    I'm in two minds over how this will play out but I'm giving MAG the benefit of the doubt. Battlefield BC2 will rock the casbah if the trailers are anything to go by, but I like to think there is room in this universe for more than one type of multi-player shooter.

    MAG will probably require more effort from those involved, but I'm hopeful there will be enough motivated people out there to make it work.

    So, I won't be there at the start, but I'm keeping an eye on it for future reference.

  • Daharvester #43 2 years ago

    To continue on from my last comment, just to get squal leaders etc right, you QUALIFY for a squad leader at level 15, but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll be one in the battle. You also lead 8 men including yourself. I think they're randomly selected. After earning 100 leadership points playing as a squad leader, you qualify as a platoon leader, leading 32 men including yourself. You have new abilities and your role is more difficult and you also have to be more aware of your team rather than just yourself. Finally, you have to earn a further 250 leadership points to be Officer in Charge (O.I.C.). Now this is where the fun starts happening, but it ain't an easy task.
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 22:10

  • dfish #44 2 years ago

    Battlefield BC2 looks dazzling but its not doing anything revolutionary. It suffers from irritating aliasing, which to be honest i dont think is a massive issue with the artstyle and scope of the levels, but compared to MAG's buttery smooth IP its difficult going back.
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 20:01

  • CaptCastle #45 2 years ago

    Quick question to those in the know:

    Does the UI rely on red/green to differentiate enemies/friendlies?

    Ta

  • Emmit_Assassin #46 2 years ago

    I hate PS3 owners. Because a lot will be playing this. And I won't. Bastards. I might just have to sell my soul and get a PS3.
    I love the idea of being a small part of a bigger machine. The whole plucky grunt/super soldier/the only one who can save mankind is getting old real quick.
    Watching the battle unfold around you with a real human shouting orders at you would be awesome. The camaraderie that would spring up when you get with regs must be a real buzz.
    Bugger....anyone wanna buy a 1998 Civic /slightly used shed /mother-in-law? Or swapsies? Anyone? No?

    Aw, -2 already? I'll take that as a definite no then. Wankers, all of you!
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 21:03

  • sarcasmoidosis #47 2 years ago

    Posting pictures smaller than the display of a small phone is kinda useless. Is there an NDA on those or what?

    Edit: Sounds really interesting. But, coming from Warhammer's mass PvP, I know there's a fine line between the nobody that feels important and the nobody who is just cannon fodder. I'm really interested how this will play out when it goes live, from a stability and latency point of view. It must be hell to cover all the angles in QA.
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 21:08

  • El-Dev #48 2 years ago

    Gettin a free copy of this next week. Can't wait.

  • ardamillo #49 2 years ago

    So next Friday, an exclusive online shooter is released for PS3 and exclusive RPG is relased for 360. Has the world gone crazy?

  • coolbritannia #50 2 years ago

    I don't own a PS3, in fact for the last 5 years I've not really been tempted by anything on a Sony console, but all the bellend 360 fanboys in here marking down all the positive comments is just pathetic.

    MAG looks like a game changer, and deserves all the praise it gets. I don't think the PS3 will really do it justice (not many mics on PSN, coming a bit late into the consoles life to really capture the publics imagination when the 360 is probably seen as the FPS console of choice) but I think over the next few years we'll see a lot of MAG's ideas nicked for future titles from rival publishers.

    I'm gutted this isn't on 360, I'm just about done with MW2 now, after about 15 hours online it just grates on me. I want more tactics dammit, less run n gun.

  • dfish #51 2 years ago

    @captcastle
    from what i can remember enemies are always in red. Actually friendly identification is less of an issue in this game since you are encouraged to pick a team (PMC) and stick with it all the way. as opposed to the random team selection in warhawk etc.

  • tobot #52 2 years ago

    any chance of posting the video we saw at the uk event , it made me lol and i'd like to show it to my freinds

    shoot them in the face!
    Edited by 1 at 23/01/10 @ 09:48

  • ThatGuyOverThere #53 2 years ago

    For CaptCastle, I'm pretty sure enemies are red and friendlies are blue.

  • neems #54 2 years ago

    I'm really curious about this game, but I'm worried that my complete lack of aiming ability with an analogue stick is going to cripple me (too many years of pc shooters). I foolishly bought Battlefield 1943, and I suck at it so much that I just can't bear to play it.

    Still, I'm tempted to get this just to gawp at the chaos, possibly while running around as a medic / conscientious objector.

  • cristoflanga #55 2 years ago

    I'm fairly casual with online shooters, but this idea of being not-so-important for the greater good seems really interesting. It probably will make being bad less embarrassing, and will greatly reward consistent play. Hope to see you online (gotta get a headset).

  • Zappa #56 2 years ago

    lol eg. people couldnt help bleedouts because you need upgrades to revive...duh

  • dfish #57 2 years ago

    @neems
    I have trouble aiming close range in Battlefield 1943 too, sometimes it can be the game not the controller try Modern Warfare before declaring yourself unfit for analogue duty. The 60 fps guarantees low controller latency and facilitates easy aiming.

  • DeveloperPump #58 2 years ago

    256? WT FF++

  • neems #59 2 years ago

    Ah, cheers dfish.

    Sadly I already have MW2 (and 1 for that matter) on PC, so that would be unlikely to end well. I'll give MAG a rental first, as I do like being part of a chaotic warzone - I still attempt to play BF1943, just for the feeling you get when you're slap bang in the middle of a pitched battle and everything is going to hell around you.

  • irrelevanthuman #60 2 years ago

    Looking forward to picking this up when ME2 is completed.Financial restraints means it maybe a couple of months down the line though.Love that feeling of being in an unscripted,chaotic,emergent,videogame battlefield-hope this delivers the ingredients for that.Wonder if they have devised anyways of mitigating aberrant player behaviour?Heh.

  • Daharvester #61 2 years ago

    @Irrelevanthuman

    Yes they have. If you get a certain number of friendly fire kills, then your team votes whether or not you should stay. So in MAG it's what the team say in stead of an automated kick from the game after getting, say, 5 team kills.

  • costa_k #62 2 years ago

    This game is a joke,unless the one coming out is a different thing from the beta I played.NEVER,not for one second,I felt (or saw) I was playing with another 127 persons.Not even a single vehicle,I should add.
    Someone here compared it with Battlefield 1942.Wrong!!!BF has planes,tanks,cars etc,and most importantly,you get the feeling of taking parrt in a major battle.This is just a piss poor gunfight.
    MAG at its best is a Call of Duty wannabe with slightly bigger maps and a lot less polish.