Hype is the double-edged sword that has propelled video games to success and damned them to failure. The proper marketing of a hyped game gets potential customers excited, mesmerizing them with flashy screen shots and strategically edited trailers. If the game is received positively by critics, gamers rejoice, sales inevitably surge and the game’s developers. Publishers immediately begin planning a sequel.
If the reviews indicate that the hyped video game is anything short of the second coming of Christ, however, the system breaks down and all hell breaks loose.
Gamers begin to riot on message boards. Pre-orders are canceled. And, eventually, the game eventually becomes consigned to the bargain bin. It’s one or the other, win or lose. There’s no in between.
Which is why MAG, Sony’s latest pet project, finds itself in a perilous predicament.
It’s been touted for years as being the first-person shooter to revolutionize the genre. But, now that it’s here, a sizable amount of the reviews claim that that isn’t necessarily the case. MAG has allegedly failed to fully live up to the massive amounts of hype surrounding its release. IGN gave it a 7, Eurogamer also gave it a 7 and EDGE magazine gave it a 6.
Hardly the 9s and 10s most would expect from a hyped, potentially triple-A exclusive. In fact, as anyone familiar with the fundamentally flawed, numerical rating system that governs most video game reviews, prospective customers tend to see 7’s and 6’s not as average, but abysmally horrible.
But while MAG may not be the next evolution in video games, it’s hardly the disappointment that the low scores seem to suggest. It may not be perfect, but its plethora of shining qualities are being buried beneath the shards of broken expectations. It’s a victim of its own hype and being criminally underrated.
Here are five reasons why.
5. Experience war without leaving the sofa
Though my background with war is limited to watching movies like Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan, MAG does an amazing job of creating the sort of frenetically evolving chaos one would imagine finding on a real battleground. Airplanes zoom by overhead, dropping bombs sporadically across the map. Geysers of embers and scorched dirt erupt into the air, machine gun bullet tracers rip through the air and the anguished cries of the wounded echo in your ears as you hunch behind cover, waiting for the enemy to advance.
The graphics may not be as realistic as Modern Warfare 2. That said, the sum of MAG’s unique parts make for an immersive, explosive atmosphere. It genuinely makes you feel like you’re not only part of an army, but a participant in a massive war.
Whether you’re sprinting across no man’s land, sniping in the bushes or locking down an objective with your squad, MAG recreates war on a scale and intensity not seen since the days of Battlefield 2.
4. Actually requires teamwork and communication
In shooters like Modern Warfare 2 and Halo, having a competent, communicative team is definitely gives you an edge. But teamwork is by no means necessary.
That’s hardly the case in MAG. If you’re not wearing a blue tooth headset, and actively keeping your team informed of changes on the battlefield, you’re missing out in half the experience.
Whether you’re playing in 64, 128 or 256 player matches, having a solid plan and the effective leadership to execute it will make the difference between victory or defeat. Whether it’s calling for a medic to revive you, telling your army’s leader where you need an air strike, or allocating forces to secure certain objectives, functioning as a unit rather than dozens of individual players makes a huge difference.
You can still be a lone wolf and try and run and gun your way to success, but when most competent players are moving in packs rather than running around alone, the odds of survival diminish quickly. MAG places an inordinate amount of emphasis on cooperation, and honestly, it’s a nice change of pace from the free for all, run-and-gun tactics commonly found in other shooters.
3. A MMO experience
A lot of shooters have claimed to be a massively multiplayer online experience. So far, MAG is one of the few to actually deliver. From the beginning of the game, you choose a faction (the high-tech Raven, the ragtag S.V.E.R or the conventional Valor) that you’ll be stuck with for the rest of the game.
Though some may see this is restrictive, being placed in an army also creates a unique feeling of identity and community. You look different, your armaments are slightly different than other factions and you’ll periodically bump into the same teammates, especially in large scale battles.
Some argue that only having one character file is a bit of a bummer when you want to play with friends. But in a sense, it’s not that dissimilar from playing World of Warcraft and finding out your friend plays Horde instead of Alliance. If being in the same army as your friend is really that important to you, you’ll just have to re-roll and start over.
2. It’s the RPG of online First-Person Shooters
As you earn experience points and level up, you earn skill points that unlock new weapons and new abilities. However, unlike Modern Warfare 2, it quickly becomes apparent that you won’t be able to unlock everything any time soon. Instead, you’ll have to carefully decide where you want to invest these points in order to fit your play style.
If you want to become an expert sniper, be warned you won’t be as proficient with a machine gun. If you want to be an advanced medic, you may not be able to unlock the shotgun or sub machine gun. Though you can still create numerous layouts if you want to be a machine gunner one round and a sniper the next, you’ll have to be very specific about which perks and upgrades you choose to purchase.
It feels very much like like a MMORPG, complete with the ability to respect if you either screw up your talent tree or become bored with the one you’re currently playing. It takes some getting used to, particularly if you’re used to being a jack-of-all-trades in other video games, but the ability to specialize in a certain field reinforces that sense of individuality.
1. Holy crap, 256 players?
There’s really no overstating what an enormous technical achievement Zipper Interactive has managed to pull off with this one. Now days, gamers are lucky if a game’s multiplayer mode supports 32 players. In MAG, 64 players is the bare minimum. When there’s 256 (or even just 128) gamers waging war amidst explosions, raucous gunfire and wailing alarms, MAG has the ability to absorb you and not let go until the match is over.
Granted, due to the way the squad system is designed, you’ll rarely see 256 players trying to shoot one another in the face simultaneously. Still, it’s not at all uncommon to see squads of fighting it out or seeing a dozen enemy soldiers come over a hill and assault your bunker. Like previously mentioned, MAG makes war come to life and a large part of this is owed to the game’s massive player cap.
The first time you see six of your teammates get mowed down by a machine gun tower or watch as a swarm of paratroopers fall into the middle of a town Red Dawn style, you’ll feel an exhilarating rush that only MAG’s technical prowess is capable of inspiring. Few games can deliver the same level of intensity and excitement, and for this alone MAG needs to be played.
Final Verdict
MAG will not be for everyone. It’s not very friendly to casual gamers, due to its restrictive faction system, class customization and inflexible demand for teamwork and coordination. There are also balance issues and glitches that will hopefully be addressed by patches. Finally, the controls, admittedly, could have definitely been designed better.
Still, for the most part, Sony and Zipper Interactive lives up to the hype. I’m not saying that the criticism being directed at MAG isn’t valid. Instead, I’m suggesting that you at least try MAG before dismissing it merely because it’s not receiving the stellar reviews fans anticipated.
At the end of the day, MAG doesn’t just give players a video game. It gives them a unique experience seldom few have seen before.
