Two hundred and fifty six simultaneous players. It sounds ridiculous in a world where most multiplayer action video games top off at 16-32, but Sony won't hear it. Nor will Zipper Interactive, the developer behind MAG (Massive Action Game), one of the most ambitious project to ever hit PlayStation 3. If both parties succeed, this'll be a monumental achievement that'll forever change the console landscape. The team, armed with the accolades of creating the critically acclaimed SOCOM franchise, knows that failure is not an option.
MAG takes place 20 years into the future when countries can no longer support armies overseas. To deal with international conflicts, these nations contract with three Private Military Companies (PMCs). Since each PMC wants as many contracts as possible, they'll do anything to get them, even if it means slaughtering the competition. That is where you come in. After choosing a PMC (Zipper revealed two, the sci-fi inspired Raven and the less sophisticated but adaptable SVER), you meet up with seven other squad mates. Eventually, four squads join up to form a platoon and four platoons merge to create a company. With squad leaders, platoon leaders and the granddaddy of them all, the OIC (Officer in Charge), you set out to complete primary and secondary objectives that not only result in scores of casualties, but also earn you and your buddies valuable experience points to level up.
In Domination Mode, for example, the attacking team begins the match spread out across the outer edges of a map. Meanwhile, the defenders fortify their base and prepare for the onslaught. The goal, on the attackers' side, is to take the base by any means necessary. If they manage to eliminate the outer defenses (gun turrets, bunkers), they can launch air strikes and UAV drones to reveal enemy locations. Meanwhile, all sorts of secondary objectives may pop up, such as destroying a bridge or strapping C4 to some other key object. You gain experience for everything you do (save dying), so it's in your best interest to not only kill opposing players, but to also heal comrades, save them from attack and perform other good deeds on the battlefield. Successfully cripple the enemy's base (this also involves destroying radar sensors that the other team can repair) before time expires and you win. Winning earns your PMC the contract, which in turn grants you access to additional perks including new weapons. Lose the contract, and all that stuff goes to the rival PMC.
In addition to Domination Mode, MAG also comes with Acquisition, Sabotage and Suppression. The 128-person Acquisition Mode challenges one team to steal two armored transports and then return them to an extraction point. Sabotage, on the other hand, tasks your team with taking control of two points on a map. Once you complete that mission, you must then blow up a specific target to win. Finally, Suppression is your standard team deathmatch, but with support for a whopping 64 players.
Similar to other first person shooters, you have the option of customizing your soldier before battle, altering its face and armor. Each player can carry a primary weapon, sidearm, melee weapon and three perks (grenades and med kits, for instance). Even better, you have the option of creating and saving three different weapon load outs that you can swap while re-spawning; this prevents you from getting stuck with a weapon unsuited for the objective.
While all of this sounds incredible, oru first concerns starts with cheaters. A first person shooter is only fun until someone exploits it to gain an unfair advantage. Thankfully, that's something Zipper hopes to eliminate, thanks to proprietary technology that automatically searches for anomalies. And since it built MAG using its own network code, Zipper hopes to carefully monitor games to make sure players don't run amok.
That said, there's no algorithm to find morons. We'll enjoy MAG when gamers play by the rules and actually work as a team, but we also expect plenty of trash talking idiots to go off on their own, shoot us in our backs and botch missions. If that happens, we doubt MAG will succeed. Besides, what are the odds of joining a 128-person clan comprised of upstanding individuals? We don't even know 128 PlayStation 3 owners.
That said, the possibility of playing a multiplayer match alongside 255 gun-toting combatants has us itching to play this game, perhaps even make sweet love to it. For now, however, MAG is one of the PlayStation 3's most anticipated games and a potential system seller. We can't wait get our hands on it.
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