Lets get one thing straight right off the bat, I am a military first person shooter fan. Call of Duty MW, MW2, WAW, Battlefield MC, Bad Company, Americas Army, the Rainbow Six franchise- you name it, Ive played it. That being said, MAG IS ECSTASY ON A DISC!
The main game people like to compare this to is MW2 even though they are completely different experiences. As a guy who patiently waited for MW2 on the midnight launch and missed many days of school thereafter, I feel I can give an unbiased opinion on mag while contrasting it to MW2.
MAG clearly loses to MW2 in the sound and graphics department- it stands to reason that if you are attempting to run 256 people in one game, you are going to have to make a tradeoff. However, during the week I have been playing MAG, I have been dropped from a game only one time and experienced lag only one or twice. When playing MW2- I get dropped or lag at least 50% of the time. Its hilarious to me that MAG can run 256 people without issues but COD cant do 16 without having a s*** conniption. Although MAG is not without hiccups, it is far more polished than COD- for example, you wont get shot around corners, like in COD when you are standing in a doorway and see someone pop out to shoot at you and even though you step sideways and get out of the way of the bullets and the wall in front of you fills your screen, you watch the kill cam only to find you where killed by magic invisible rounds that were several feet away from you. This brings me to my next point, MAG is more realistic than MW2. I understand that no game is realistic to a certain degree but MW2 has you calling in nukes, getting sniped by 1887 shotguns, and people running around knifing and unstoppable(yep, thats real modern warfare)- not to mention MW2 has glitches galore such as when people were running around with the javelin and it would shoot automatically when they died killing everything in a 100yd radius. In MAG, you are a grunt, just as expendable as the guy next to you. My one complaint is MAG sometimes takes too many bullets to kill(headshots with an assault rifle sometimes take 2-3 shots). THis is more of an effort to balance the game, not a mistake- if everyone died with a realistic amount of bullets, everyone would be dead very quickly into the match and nobody would be defending the objectives making games very short and unsatisfying. Teamwork is also essential to MAG, if you dont communicate or plan with your squad/platoon, you will lose. End of story. This can be good and bad. Bad that internet anonymity often leads people to be d-bags and some people approach MAG with a lone wolf philosophy. Good because when your team works like a well oiled machine, there is no other gaming experience quite as satisfying and those who do have a team mentality often are the victors. Also, choosing your faction, unlocking new equip, and developing your character into a specialty (ie sniping, field support, medic, etc, and reaching) is just as deep and rewarding as MW2.
The bottom line is this, if you are a lone wolf run and gun type of gamer or a call of duty fanboy, you always will be- this game wont change you or your opinion on tactical shooters. If you are willing to get past the subpar graphics and sound, then you will be rewarded with a really fun, challenging, and satisfying gameplay. MAG, to me, is a 5 star game and is essential to any shooter fans collection.
S.V.E.R FOREVER!!!