MAG (or Massive Action Game to give the game its full title) is an online only first person shooter where the aim isn’t simply killing the opposition but to beat them in warfare. Essentially there is a giant war going on between three factions SVER (my choice), VALOUR and RAVEN. Each faction has it’s own weapons/abilities and every battle you play through affects the picture of control in the overall war. It’s an interesting concept – essentially a never ending online war which will, no doubt, swing between the factions as time passes.

Likewise the concept of levelling up/ranks is also innovative. With the bigger battles featuring 128 v 128 online players the sides are organised into squads of 8. Once you level up enough you can take control of a squad and eventually handle several squads at once. MAG is a game that requires your time. This isn’t like Modern Warfare 2 where you can level up and unlocks lots of stuff in a short time frame – you do unlock things in MAG but it’s much slower paced. And the stroke of genius that keeps you coming back is that you don’t get all the game modes to start with. If you want to take part in the biggest battles you’ll need to accrue the necessary level.

This also combats the potential problem of having a lot of trash talking idiots involved. Most of those guys won’t want to put in 7/8 hours just to unlock the biggest games. The actual gameplay is good, I still prefer Battlefield BC2, and once you start getting into the mindset of sticking with your squad and doing objectives it is a rewarding experience.

A few gripes though, firstly body armour is a bit excessive – sometimes an entire round to the body isn’t enough to kill someone – and the combat knife seems ridiculously overpowered. It’s usually a one hit kill and when you combine the above it can be frustrating to unload a clip into an oncoming enemy which not only doesn’t kill them but they then kill you in one hit with the knife.

I’ve yet to experience any lag but have lost the connection to the server a few times but I suppose is inevitable when dealing with this many players online? Overall MAG is a great accompaniment to Modern Warfare 2 or Battlefield BC 2 – I don’t think it will be my FPS of choice but it offers something different and is a change of pace to other FPS games. For that reason I can see myself investing time in MAG.

Reprinted with permission from GregHorrorShow