A sleeper hit that sneaked up on me but turned out to be a great game
MAG is, when it comes down to it, a fairly by-the-numbers FPS shooter. If you put Call of Duty and MAG next to each other, in reality, you could count the differences on one hand. Yet some of the finer and more broad details of the game separate it from the crowd, and make it an entertaining and engrossing game.
The thing everyone has been hearing about MAG is most likely the 256 multiplayer feature, where 256 people can duke it out in a single game. Well, sure, that game mode is quite fun, but can be slightly hectic at times, and lord knows how hard it is for the player commanders to direct their soldiers around. The mode I'm in love with currently is Sabotage, a 128 player mode that is hectic enough to make the game seem like a warzone, yet there's usually enough breathing room if you need it. The game really made me feel like I was part of my squad, and there are 3 others in the game. Alpha and Bravo take the defensive, Charlie and Delta take the offense. I felt like I was contributing when I killed an enemy, and I felt that my suppressing fire was more than just random spraying. My squadmates constantly went to our assigned objective, for the most part never straying off to the other squads objective. So unlike Call of Duty, where Domination and other game types are usually objectified Team Deathmatches, MAG's Sabotage is just that; a game about either sabotaging or defending the objective. I don't really know what to attribute this to; all I know is that I never felt like I was playing a rehash of COD. The maps are huge, and I like this game a bit more than Battlefield Bad Company 2 now that I think about it. In Bad Company, the guns are a little too realistic, for better or worse, and you'll usually be killing something extremely quick or be dying extremely fast. In MAG, although it might be a tad unrealistic, (but aren't all games) even a heavy machine gun will take around 8-10 bullets minimum to kill. Newcomers might gawk at this proposal, yet when you think about it, the system makes sense. No one wants to die from a camper who just sits near the objective 24/7, gunning someone down immediately with no retaliation. In MAG, you'll actually have a slight chance to defend yourself, and hopefully get the kill in the process.
Moving on from the structure of the game, the graphics are pretty amazing. Even more so when you consider the game is running at a very high framerate while still keeping the fps high. The sound design is nothing special, and you won't find amazing weapon sounds, but the game is THX certified, which tells me that someone with an amazing speaker setup won't be dissapointed.
In terms of details and polish, MAG is full of it. You get to choose from three different PMC's. At first, this choice may seem fruitless and a waste of time; however, it will affect what weapons you unlock and where you fight, so choose wisely. On my first character, I chose Raven, and so far, I'm enjoying it. The weapons seem futuristic, while the SVER weapons are Russian, and Valor's are all-american. Next, you'll be thrust into training, then wargames, then you'll be all set to play in Sabotage. Once you get to level 8, you can participate in the 256 player game mode. Throughout battles, you'll earn skill points, which you can spend on upgrades to your equipment. While most are very effective and cannot be considered wastes, the Resuscitating medical device, which lets you heal others when they're bleeding out, is probably the most important in the game, at least for your squad's sake.
Some last notes: If I could choose 1 strong suite for this game, it would be the teamwork. My teammates dashed across battlelines to revive me, so I could contribute to the fight. The leader knew what he was doing, and even though most of us didn't have mics, we still followed his orders, and in one particularly cool instance, half our squad flanked the objective while the other half were diversionaries, and we obliterated what defensive structure the enemy had in place. If I had a shot of whiskey nearby, I woulda drunk it.
In conclusion, MAG is a great game, worth renting for sure, and I would say worth buying, but since I haven't bought it myself yet I can't really give out that advice honestly. If you're looking for a game similar to COD in some aspects, but enhanced gameplay and structural mechanics, consider picking up MAG.