The Monitoring Season 1 relaunch gives fans plenty of reasons to be excited. Desperate for a new hero to learn? You're all set, as 1 Tank, 2 Supports and 2 Damage characters are released on February 10th. Looking for cool new cosmetics to grind for? There's a battle pass full of lore-heavy costumes, a Mercy mythic to hunt, and a Hi Kitty team up to spend some hard-earned money on. Looking for a shake-up of the core mechanics? Then the new hero sub-roles are for you, with each role giving the characters in them a new passive ability. Add in a UI revamp, the return of post-match hero cards in Season 2, and a greater focus on story than ever before, and it really feels like Monitoring has never been better. And yet, I'm most excited about a feature that has flown under the radar: Conquest.
Described as a five-week meta event, Conquest kicks off with players choosing to align with the heroic Overwatch or villainous Talon. Once they've decided, they must complete lore-focused challenges involving existing characters, with each completed challenge (reducing damage, winning games, etc.) earning them points for their faction. These points will contribute to the faction meter, which players can see increase and decrease in real time as Monitoring fans around the world contribute. Each week a winning team will be chosen, with exclusive rewards for the victorious faction. These rewards include:
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75 Base Lootboxes
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12 Epic Lootboxes
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7 legendary Lootboxes
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9 new voice lines
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31 2D cosmetics
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2 weapon charms
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1 of 2 faction-themed legendary Echo skins
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Exclusive new Rare, Epic and Legendary titles (and a secret hidden one)
With the Echo skin likely only being given to the side that turns out to be the winner of the entire five-week competition, this event has some decent stakes, and sounds like a fun motivation to play as often as possible. While the five extra heroes will likely get a lot of players in the door, this event that gives them rewards (if they pick the right side) could be what keeps them invested. And to me, it's more than just a great new approach to Monitoring event, as it's a concept that calls back to a niche PS3 game I loved: MAG.
Blizzard confirmed that players can be double agents and switch sides when completing the current week's faction pass. However, this means that they have already helped the team they are leaving, ensuring that players should think carefully about when to switch sides.
Conquest Has Me Nostalgic For MAG, a game that was way ahead of its time
For those who don't know MAG (short for Massive Action Game, a fitting label), it was an online-only PlayStation 3 exclusive that went offline for good back in 2014. But even though I haven't played it in over a decade, it's a game that's forever stuck in my mind as one of the coolest multiplayer experiences I've ever had. The premise of the game was simple enough: choose one of three private militaries and fight for them in a relentless “Shadow War” where the story constantly unfolded based on which faction had the most success. All three factions were distinct; there was Raven (my team of choice), which relied on precision and high-tech equipment, SVER, a group of rebels who embraced guerilla tactics, and Valor, which had a modern military vibe.
The faction votes for Monitorings new event feels exactly like the clan concept from MAGand it reminded me how much I loved that game. It has unfortunately been forgotten over the years, but it cannot be understated how unique it was. Not only did players choose and fight for three factions with distinct visual styles, weapons and personalities, but they did so on incredibly large battlefields. MAGThe big selling point wasn't the faction selection, it was the fact that matches of Domination featured 256 players in a single match. Not only did this set a record when the game debuted, but it's something that even modern large-scale FPS games don't accomplish. Battlefield 2042for example, featured only 128 players, but its maps were considered huge by many. IN MAG's Domination, there were 128 players on each team.
MAG introduced a 3v3 game mode via DLC called Escalation, which saw all three factions battle it out in a 96-player match. Other game modes supported 64 players and 128 players, ensuring a healthy variety of competitive multiplayer matches.
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It cannot be emphasized enough how epic MAG was at the time, because it's unbelievable that 256-player matches were even possible on the PlayStation 3. I'm not going to pretend that MAG was perfect; its gunplay was only decent, as the shooting mechanics were far from the smoothness of a game that Call of Duty. And while cool in theory, the Shadow War wasn't developed clearly enough in-game, with players having to seek out faction videos and recaps online to keep up to date on the story. Unbalanced lobbies meant match quality was hit-or-miss, but those who hit were unlike anything else in gaming. I really think that if MAG launched in 2026, with all the live service bells and whistles like seasonal story updates, battle passes and a free-to-play format, it would be the next best thing. Unfortunately, the Zipper Interactive-developed title feels destined to fade further into obscurity with each passing year despite its conceptual brilliance.
MAG may be dead, but Overwatch's Conquest is a fun spiritual successor
Considering how different MAG was from a hero shooter, and how old the game is, I'm well aware that there are some similarities between its Shadow War and Monitoring The Season 1 event is almost certainly unintentional. However, that doesn't make the event any less exciting for me. It's a concept I've always dreamed of in live service games, and looking back on MAGI know why now. Every time I've hoped for Fortnite to make a Marvel vs. DC or PlayStation vs. Xbox event with all its co-op characters, I've basically been hoping for a game to do something like this MAG did without realizing it. So, while Monitoring might not have 256-player matches, it's ticking off player-influenced faction vs. faction events that I've been dying to see in another shooter. For me, that's the most exciting part of a content-packed Season 1 relaunch, which turns out Monitoring remove the 2 from the name and all new heroes. And who knows? If this event turns out to be a big hit, maybe a developer will be inspired to create a game built entirely around factional warfare more akin to the forgotten PS3 gem I spent dozens of hours playing.
- Released
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August 10, 2023
- ESRB
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T for Teens // Blood, mild language, tobacco use, violence
