GamesRelay

Name: MAG

256 players in an online game is not unheard of, but to have 256 players in an online first-person shooter on the PlayStation 3, is, that is, until now. MAG is Zipper Interactive's newest online shooter, for those who haven't heard of them before, Zipper Interactive are the masters behind the great SOCOM series (barring the new ones) which were a huge success on each of the PlayStation platforms they were released on.

MAG encompasses three private military factions from which you get to choose from, as a solider you must declare your allegiance to only one of them, your choice includes the high tech Raven who spare no expense with their equipment, Valor who encompass veteran soldiers with more standardized equipment, and S.V.E.R (pronounced "Sever") who are a bunch of rag-tag mercenaries which seem more like a terrorist group than a military force. You can only choose one group to go with which is quite disappointing, for those readers who use our forums, you may remember the great faction forum battle we all participated in, which basically boiled down to throwing insults at each of the factions until we all decided which one to go with as the official GamesRelay team, unfortunately a decision was never reached but Raven and S.V.E.R were the two main choices. So if you have a group of friends wanting to play then it's best to decide which faction to go with before you all start, however, once you reach the rank cap of 60 you can have a character in another faction as well, but it's far from ideal, especially for the casual players who will most likely never even reach rank 60.

Each faction is given its own introduction video to lure you in, more a recruitment video than a teaser but overall each faction has the same skill progression tree with varying weapons and equipment which don't differ too much. The whole reasoning behind sticking with one faction is to build loyalty to that particular military group, the game modes and maps are tailored to suit each faction, you'll never attack your own territory for instance, you'll just defend it. It's these small things which add up to the bigger picture in the so called Shadow War which you're fighting in. When you do choose your faction and begin your career you're given the option to run through a brief tutorial on how to use the controls, completing this will net you some experience and boost you to rank two, so it's well worth doing and it only takes a few minutes to complete.

The whole experience is divided down into ten maps set over four game modes, these are: Suppression, which is basically a classic team deathmatch within your own faction and is a 64-player game mode. Sabotage is objective based, taking and holding the first two points which then ultimately unlocks the third and final point to which you must destroy, while you attack enemy territories in this game mode they can take back the objectives so you can't just push to the third, it's all about defending as well, this again is a 64-player game mode. Acquisition places you in the larger games which are up to 128 players, this is where the game really starts to shine, in Acquisition the attacking faction will try to steal a vehicle from the side of the map you're defending and take it back to their insertion point. The fourth and final mode is Domination, in domination the attackers have to take various objectives so that they can access the capture points usually around the central area of the map, once taken they have to defend these capture points from all angles as well as the previously taken objectives long enough to win the game, sounds fairly simple right? Wrong. Domination is where MAG lives up to its sales pitch, 256 players all on one map, all attacking and defending, it can get very hectic as platoons and squads fight in their designated areas on the map, however these areas don't hold players in, anyone is free to go wherever they like, that's if you survive long enough. You'll also have access to everything the game offers on the Domination maps, vehicles, mounted turrets, sensor arrays, mortars, and a plethora of other battlefield type abilities which can be used to swing the battle in your factions favour.

The 256 player battles really are that, and it's difficult to believe having that amount of players all shooting at each other on one map without any noticeable lag for the average Joe. While you can certainly see the amount of players in game it never really feels like a huge army that you would expect to see in a movie, since your platoon is broken down into smaller squads the game tries to keep you and your team moving and fighting in its own specific area of the map, as such, you don't really feel the scope of the battle. You know it's there and that players are all around you, but you never really get to see it since the maps are huge, which to be fair they have to be to support so many players.