Brink is a game that I've been waiting to spend some extended time with. I'm talking about having the itch; sitting in a corner, rocking back and forth, mumbling incoherently, and scratching my neck. Something about a fast-paced arcade shooter that puts heavy emphasis on parkour seemed to tickle my fancy. The game impressed in short preview sessions, and was heavily marketed to have a nice pre-release buzz, though it seems as if some quality assurance blues put a damper on Brink's attempt at revolutionizing the genre.
Overview
Brink follows the tale of a once Utopian city at sea called The Ark. These days the Ark has become more of a war zone, as Resistance soldiers fight to leave the island and Security forces battle to quell the uprising, and keep everyone from ever seeing the outside world. The story is below par, to be frank. Complete objectives to either escape the Ark, or prevent your enemy from escaping. The uninspired narrative is told during loading screens and with cut scenes - that are sometimes interrupted for host migration purposes - before every match.
Gameplay
Right at the start of things, you can play through the storyline, hit free play, or tackle a set of four challenge rooms. Each of these modes can be played either online or off, and each have varying levels of successful implementation when being played online. You will want to start by immediately completing the challenges, as they unlock useful weapon upgrades to be used across the other modes. That is, if you're able to get into a properly functioning game.
;)
It appears Brink may have been rushed out the door without having gone through the proper QA steps, as the game is a little buggy, and extremely laggy. Of the games I've gotten into, I've had to quit out of at least 35% of them due to extreme lag that is no condition to play in. Though to be fair, as of writing this (after a full week of playing), the lag has improved tremendously. Since the game is enjoyed best when played with others, it was frustrating to have little luck playing with a friend of mine. Attempts to join each others games often led to random failures sandwiched between success. Also, the lack of a party system makes finding and traveling between games with friends more of a process than it should be.
The dedicated campaign mode, consisting of a two sided story (a campaign for each faction), can and probably should be played online, unless you want the underwhelming experience of playing an arena match with a group of frustrating AI controlled bots. I thought we left this sad style of single player with Unreal Tournament, but apparently not. There aren't many thrills to be found in campaign; you complete the objectives and move on to the next stage to further the story. Why is it even an option? Why not create something that can wow you with cinematics like Killzone 3, or keep you drawn in with incredible writing and delivery like Portal 2? Why not sculpt a grand storyline that can also be played with friends, and leave the large online battles to free play mode? I feel the idea of multiplayer integrated with campaign, while potentially a great idea, misses the mark by a wide margin.
;)
Brink is very much about working as a team to accomplish goals, which means class balance is key, as well as each class pulling his own weight. Friendly bots seem to do little more than kill the enemy, often failing at their objective when they try to be a hero. For a game that relies so heavily teamwork, it would have been nice to have some way to control the bots on your team, be it a command system, or even something as simple as taking the key item from their hands. The human brain can think a better plan out, instead of watching the AI charge blindly forward and attempt to complete the objective, only to be shot full of holes and have the enemy return the key item to its origin. Dummies.
The SMART system gives your characters a very nice feeling of being agile and hostile, provided you choose a medium or light body type. Heavy bodies can do little more than soak up damage. Of course the problem here is that it feels like you're on rollerskates once you toggle SMART on, with a single keystroke. Stamina is unlimited, so you can run and react to terrain for as long as you want, as long as you don't need pinpoint control. I think I would have preferred tighter control in SMART, though maybe it was purposely made loose to prevent abuse.
Free play options are limited to change of parameters only, as Brink is nothing but team-based objectives on different maps. There are no game modes such as team deathmatch, capture the flag, territories, and so on. It's all mashed into one big team game, which is a bit of a bummer if you wanted to seek a change of pace. That said, when playing with a solid team that is both proficient with the trigger and the mic, Brink is a hooting and hollering blast.
;)
Art Design
Unlike the technical mishaps, the art of Brink is actually very pleasing. There are plenty of customization choices for both player and weapon to keep things interesting. One problem I noticed though, is that the customization choices don't always make it into the game. When I'm completing an objective, Sense of Perspective kicks in, switching to a third person view. It's here I see that most of the time, my character looks nothing like I set him to. And the same can be said for other players; when questioning a stylistically inclined friend's haphazard outfit choices, he was quick to point those were not his chosen specifications. Not sure why this happens, but seems to negate the purpose of customization in the first place.
Though still, the characters are unique looking, long faces and all. I wish there were more sliders to get more fine-tuned control over your characters face, but alas, the ugliness will have to be covered up by masks and goggles and such. The maps are varied and nicely laid out for the most part, allowing players to utilize the SMART system to its full extent.
As great as it looks to see a teammate or enemy navigating tricky terrain through a series of vaults, wall jumps, and slides, it's an unfortunate waste for Brink not to implement some sort of replay or kill-cam system. I would like to see the fruits of my customized labor skilling and killing in high style from a detached perspective.
Sound Design
The music, where applicable, is a successful blend of Eastern and Western instruments and theories. Good listening during intermissions, load screens, and when you're menu surfing. The selection of voices you're able to assign to your character grind a bit, as some of their lines are hideously written and delivered. Why anyone would shout "I'm an engineer!" after switching classes is beyond me. Also the constant voice of Brother Chen, which is always with you if you're playing on the side of the Resistance, is murderous. The way he creepily urges his on "brothers" sounds more fit for a sex offender than a revolutionary leader.
;)
The sounds of gunfire and explosions fit well in the world. It's confoundingly perfect when your character begins to deafen after being shot a few times, or being caught on the perimeter of a frag blast. On more than a few instances, there was dreadful audio tearing and distortion when firing an SMG or AR. It seemed to happen randomly, and was enough to detach me from the game experience, as well as make my ears bleed.
Conclusion
Pre-launch, I had very high hopes for Brink that have since been grounded. Fortunately, updates can be quickly and easily applied by Splash Damage, and they are committed to straightening out the ills that were shipped along with their lofty shooter. I'm led to believe the lag issue should be fully resolved soon. Hopefully the devs look into weapon balance next, as it seems that shotguns and SMGs make pistols, sniper rifles, and assault rifles seem like Nerf weapons. We can expect plenty of support for extra content; free DLC maps have already been confirmed for early summer, and hopefully we'll see more free customization DLC as well. Brink aimed high and came up quite a bit short, however there is still a chance for the game to right its wrongs through instant apply patches and downloadables.
Buy it if: You're a fan of fast paced, arcade style shooters like Halo and Crysis, play online, can patiently wait through a game's growing pains
Dont buy it if: You're more of a Call of Duty or Homefront fan, you don't play online, you expect perfection from day 1
The Score: 7 outta 10 Blasters!
