Now when I heard that Bethesda, Splash damage and Id were collaborating to make a class based shooter that was supposed to be a serious competitor to TF2 I didn't really know what to think. I mean Id and Splash damage are 2 of the greatest devs in the shooting world and Bethesda of course being responsible for many modern wonders such as Fallout 3 and TES:Oblivion. But then it hit me...."a serious competitor to TF2"......I mean there is courageous and then there is downright stupid. With TF2 being the best rated and best selling class based shooter on the planet, having a newcomer such as Brink made me chuckle a little bit.
Unlike TF2, Brink has a story to it, The seas have risen and earth is flooded, enormous floating cities named Arks are formed and the rich are selected to live on it. However outsiders named the resistance have decided to attempt to set up camp attached to the Ark. This has set off a civil war between the Resistance and the Arks security forces. each team has their respective colour Red resistance and Blue security. The story is a loose one that is there to form some kind of plot to the madness that ensues in matches that can often span the best part of an hour if your teammates are up to scratch. Brink's single player campaign is multiplayer maps with the cheesy story tacked on and teamates replaced with retarded bots whereas multiplayer is the same maps without the cutscenes, making Brink a very repetitive experience.
The games AI makes me question...where did Fallouts fairly intelligent AI go? The enemy team never capture or defend, they just bugger around in the general area of the objective and so do your own teamates...except they don't even fire their guns, leaving the entire thing down to you. Thefore online is the only reason to play Brink, however seeing as the game had very poor sales and most people who bought it quickly traded it in next to noone plays Brink online. When there isn't enough players for a full team the game implements AI to fill the empty spaces (usually all spaces bar 1 or 2) which makes the gameplay almost as tedious as the single players.
There are 4 classes to choose compared to TF2's 9 classes. These are: Soldier which can supply the team with additional ammo and can use molotov cocktails, Medic which can heal teamates and buff teamates health, Engineer which can build turrets and mines plus buff teamates weapons and finally the Operative which can disguise as members of the enemy team. All objectives require a different class to complete it however you can change classes at any command post making the game needlessly easy. All classes use the same weapons which range from SMG's to Assault rifles.....actually that's it bar a grenade launcher, 1 shotgun and 1 minigun. There are also 3 body types to choose from which are light, medium and heavy. Each has varying health and manoeuvrability options.
Brinks main lure was the SMART system, this stands for Smooth Movement Across Rough Terrain. one button controls the sprint function but as you come into contact with a wall, depending on your body type, you will be able to manoeuvre over it in a parkour style making the game fast and fluid. However if you prefer a heavy with lots of health, you'll only be able to sprint and slowly at that whereas a light will be bounding off walls like Spiderman but take a measly 4 or 5 bullets to be incapacitated. Which reminds me, no one ever plays as medic and yet your teammates are dropping faster than victims in the saw films making you run out of revive syringes and considering that you drop as fast as well with no self revive system makes the game stupidly frustrating. Many of the perks need to be purchased and 90% of which are vital to being able to distinguish each class fro another and most upgrades are useless unless you get the top one which requires spending points on all the previous ones.
In all Brink is a pretty pointless buy unless you like laying on the floor, however yes i may be being harsh on a game I particularly enjoy, it can be very fun at times. the game requires are real think before you act and teamwork type of gameplay which is uncommon in games of today and the shooting is handled very well. Only buy Brink if your a class based shooter fan but not a fan of TF2 as your getting a much better incantation for nothing with that.
Brink: 4/10
+Interesting Concept
-Pretty Much Everything Else
