MAG (PS3) Beta review

MAG is a completely multiplayer/online based video game, exclusively to PlayStation 3, developed by Zipper Interactive. The reason why this game stands out is that you can play online with 256 players from all over the world.

When you start the beta of MAG you will have to choose one of the three factions in the game. You can either choose to join the "S.V.E.R", which gives added firepower, "Raven Industries", which gives added accuracy, or "Valor", which will balance out both firepower and accuracy. I chose "Raven" because they seemed more "High Tech" than the other factions, they have the coolest and the latest weapons on the market. Then you have to create your character, you can change the head, body and the voice, but you will probably have more settings to change in the Blu-ray version. You can also customize your own class, main weapon, side weapon, grenades and armor. MAG utilizes a loadout system in which you choose a class that will determine your role in the fight, such as medic, sniper, and so on. MAG also has an experience system much like Call of Duty, so that adds some replay value and that keeps you playing even more. All of this is organized very well in the main menu and barracks menu.

To understand the basics of gameplay in MAG, you need to think of a hierarchy. As you play you move your way up the ranks, gaining more power as you go. The top rank, Officer, has the most power on the field. He orders four platoon leaders under him, who order four squad leaders, who order eight grunts. It may sound confusing, but it does run pretty smooth.

I tried the two game modes that were available in the beta. One of them are "Sabotage", with 64 players (32 per faction), where the attacker tries to secure two satellite uplinks, in which a final objective is activated. To play the other game mode "Domination", with 256 players (128 per faction), you have to get to level 10 first before you can test it, which I did, although is took awhile. In "Domination" the attacking team has to capture three tiers of objectives in order to win. This mode has bombing runs, mortar attacks, APCs/Hummers, helicopters (spawn points, you can't fly them though you can use the machine gun), hard to kill bunkers and more. When everyone is fighting for the last level of objectives in the middle of the map it gets hectic and you feel like you're in a war zone.

Some things I thought were cool, is that when your team leads, you will spawn with a parachute from a plane. It's pretty cool to glide down, in third person view, from the air then land on the ground in first person view. The other thing is that when you get shot and dies you don't get to the spawning point right away, you will be on the ground bleeding, now you have a choice, either you can press "bleed out" and you'll go to the spawning point, or you can wait for a medic to revive you, but they can't take too long, because you'll only have 10-20 seconds before you bleed out, and you'll spawn automatically. You can also heal yourself with a needle or a medic can heal you during the game. I like that you can heal each other and that you don't die right away, you get a better tempo and a feeling of vulnerability.

I think the graphic is really good, considering that there are so many players in the map at the same time. However I think the Blu-ray version will have a little better graphics. The sound is also good, with great explosions and background noise. I think the weapon sound is pretty weak, especially the gun. I want more powerful sound, like the Killzone 2 weapons.

The maps are huge, but not too big, you don't have to walk far before the action comes. I tested about 5 maps and all of them were cool with different environments. Although the maps are really big, it doesn't effect the game's performance. I didn't experience any lag or other problems during the game, it ran smoothly all the way.

Overall: MAG is a really great and fun online multiplayer video game, that has huge maps where you can play with up to 256 players. Fun game modes that you want to play again and again. This was just the beta of MAG, but what I've seen so far is a video game that has a good potential to be an awesome game that everyone wants to play.

Review: MAG (PS3) Beta XXXX [4/5].