| Author | Review |
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Worhammer
170,644
TA Score for this game: 2,132
Posted on 11 May 11 at 03:01, Edited on 04 August 11 at 23:15 |
This review has 70 positive votes and 33 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
***UPDATED after DLC & lag patch 4 Aug. 2011***
Brink is a very interesting and unique game that tries to do quite a bit of new things, and succeeds only at some. It's a first person shooter that tries to mix in the parkour craze with a little mandatory cover - while providing no snap-to cover mechanics.
The biggest feature I saw advertised about Brink was the deep levels of customization - however, immediately upon starting the game, I found this to be severely lacking.
Sure, you can change the color of your outfit, but only with preset colors. Sure, you can change your face, but you only get 10 or 15 preset options to choose from, and you can't mix and match facial features. Not to mention the fact that once you do choose your face and voice type you're stuck with what you choose. The voice options are also sadly lacking. Speaking of the voice acting, it's acceptable, but not stellar. It's mostly used to communicate objectives to team mates during play. Sometimes it's over the top, and sometimes it doesn't really make sense. Especially when you buff a team mate and they respond with "Thanks awfully" - I often wondered if they were thanking me, or being sarcastic.
On the other hand, there are quite a few options for your outfit. You can choose between various bits of facial hair, helmets, hats, hair styles, jackets, shirts, and pants. There are some tattoos, but almost all of them look retarded - especially the facial tattoos. If you want to look like a cholo, you're set cause there's plenty of that. You can also have different face paints on top of it all, but most of those are ugly as well.
The gun customization is an extremely welcome addition to the game, and can be extremely helpful in making your character more suited to the highly objective-based gameplay. This is probably where the customization that they so widely advertised shines most. You have different sights, muzzles, grips, and other things that will increase your accuracy, decrease gun shake / bloom, allow you to reload faster or switch weapons faster, and many, many other options.
The "matchmaking" system, if it could be called that, is incredibly retarded. I tried to play with a friend who was only 1 rank higher than me (the game is broken down into ranks and levels, every 5 levels being a rank) and he simply could not join my game, even when set to a private game with matchmaking options set as "My rank or higher." He was always told "Your level is too high to play on this server." However, I could join his game, so that makes up for it (sort of.)
In addition to this, there is no matchmaking lobby, so you are forced into joining a game in progress, then hoping there's room and inviting team mates, if you want to play campaign with your friends but open it up to other randoms. There was a lag patch released shortly after launch. If you get a bad host, it will slow you down a bit, but it's now barely noticeable unless you have a very poor host.
The graphics in the game are probably one of the best parts. The unique art style suits the game well, and provides a good mood for the style of action that accompanies play.
The controls take some getting used to, especially the parkour, but once you have it down they work very smoothly. I found this only to be troubling when attempting the parkour challenges, as often I would want to go up and stop, and instead would go up and over - off the edge of a high platform, forced to circumnavigate my way back around the map to where I fell from.
The gameplay itself is really targeted for multiplayer. The campaign isn't really much of a campaign, more like a string of multiplayer objective matches hastily stitched together by a few 30 - 45 second cutscenes. The AI was tuned up quite a bit in a patch a few days after the game was released, and the game is easy to beat alone on Easy. However, it's pretty boring as it often involves a good deal of camping and shooting the endless waves of enemy bots that run in. Even on Hard I found the AI to be significantly improved on your side, but don't expect it to be fun without some friends.
The storyline in the game is laughable. Even after beating the game several times on both sides, I'm still not sure what went on. The missions don't really seem to go together other than "go here, stop this, do that, catch this guy" - there are explanations, they're just not very engaging. With no stand out characters, I found myself not caring whether I won or lost, other than the fact that I want to win because winning is good.
If you're looking for a good time, your best bet is to get a few friends together and go through the campaign (which will take you no more than 3 hours per side) and have some fun laughing about how lame the storyline is.
The difference between classes is minimal. Each class has a specialty, but other than that they all shoot the same. The medic can heal and revive, the engineer can buff and drop turrets, the operative hacks stuff, and the soldier will probably steal the show with his better grenades and ability to share ammo.
With a few minor exceptions, the achievements are all easy. The most difficult will be the 3 stars, and even that will be somewhat easy once you figure out how to trick the enemy AI into leaving you alone while you complete the objectives.
All in all, despite it's quite numerous flaws, the game is fun. It has quite a bit of replay value, assuming people can suffer through the lag until it's fixed. Play it with friends, and you'll have a blast.
Overview:
Visual: 4 / 5
Graphics are unique, and the scenery is varied and has lots good fun touches. The ability to make your character look (mostly) how you want is a great bonus here.
Controls: 3 / 5
Responsive, but the parkour needs some work.
Sound: 3 / 5
Voice acting could be better. Music unimpressive.
Achievements: 4 / 5
Time consuming, but easy. Don't expect anything to keep you from getting the full 1K if you want it. Time to 1K: 20 - 25hrs. Less, if you boost them all (every achievement in the game is boostable except the campaign achievements & the audio logs.) With boosting, if you get a group of 6 or 8 friends to blast through Tough As Nails, you could probably do it in 10 or 15.
Fun Factor & Replay: 3 / 5
Don't expect to enjoy it without some friends. However, with friends, it's a really good game.
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Current Future
111,109
TA Score for this game: 1,673
Posted on 16 May 11 at 16:34, Edited on 17 May 11 at 09:15 |
This review has 21 positive votes and 9 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
I'll be the first to admit I'm biased when it comes to multiplayer - it seems that 80% or more of players either: don't know what they are doing or think they can beat the enemy without help regardless of how many times they die. My negative view of mutiplayer seems to have increased since my stroke last summer which has, in my opinion, made me little more than a bullet sponge in MP shooters.
I bought this game because since I love Bethesda's Fallout games (even though Fallout NV can be buggier than an ant hill it still captures my interest.) But this game has taught me to not let blind devotion be the sole cause for buying a game.
To say the AI on your side is usless is an understatment. The "friendly" AI asipires to be useless. Right after you spawn, or just start the match the bots seem to know what class they are, but in the thick of it they apparently forget their classes. I've seen so many medics run right by me on the ground, I switch to the cortex bomb to "self-destruct" (only available to the Operative class at least rank 4) or opt to re-spawn with the re-inforcements.
Playing with humans based on what I've seen is not much better. Medics will still run by, rather than revive, all classes will run over mines I've spotted for defusal or try to blow them up instead of disarming them. All classes and both human and AI will walk right in front of where you are firing and then yell at you for friendly fire.
The game relies on objectives, which is a great idea, so that at all times your team should be focused on specfic number of tasks, however the AI will try to capture a far off supply post rather than help hold you current objective. Playing with people, again it isn't that much different. For example: let's say there's a minute left on the clock that your team has to defend an object or area. Both teams can see how much time is left. A good teammate helps hold that ground because even an idiot should realize the enitre opposing team is going to attack you there to take what you're holding, because that's their only chance to win. Only the "friendly" AI will send off a few soldiers to complete an unnecessary objective or some human players will do the same too because you get more XP from building an MG nest or capturing a command post than you get for defending a location.
What I hate most is when you're trying to complete the final primary objective, or what I like to call the winning objective. If your team needs to return an specific object to an area, whoever is carrying that item will run off like that object makes them invincible. Both human or AI will run to the "goal" as if their own their own team is the enemy instead on gathering escorts to take it back to a location en masse. The staging area or re-spawn point for the defense also appears to be on or steps away from the "end zone." Making it so that you have to eliminate the enitre team again to win. (Making it all the more frustrating when one guy tries to go against the whole team with seconds left.)
Anyway, I'm giving this game 3 stars because 2 stars seemed too low for a game I did have some fun with. Add to that seemingly infinite customization options both for your wardrobe and your weapons, I just wish that at least half of the effort put into all the customization options was put into the AI. If playing with humans would solve all of my problems with this game I would have rated if higher, however 3 stars is more than generous.
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Vinchucca
136,948
TA Score for this game: 2,132
Posted on 27 June 11 at 18:12, Edited on 28 June 11 at 10:12 |
This review has 16 positive votes and 4 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
I've been thinking about this review for quite a while now. Brink is a game I've been anticipating pretty much since it was first announced. I liked the idea of a class-based, objective-oriented FPS for the consoles (especially since I suck so much at Team Fortress 2 on my PC).
But Brink isn't an easy game to formulate an opinion on. If you break it down to it's individual parts it's hardly special. It even fails at some of it's basic goals. Yet somehow the end product is more than the sum of it parts. And still it manages to not feel as great as it should've been. It's a game that reached for the stars, but found itself standing on a wonky ladder. (How's that for an analogy eh?).
Brink seems to be conceived around 3 'pillars' being customization, classes and parkour.
Let's start by talking about customization. Well, to be brief: there's a ton of it. There's lots of ways to customize your character. From tattoos, to scars, to different clothes in all sorts of wacky colours. For some reason I really enjoy this sort of thing (maybe I have a secretly suppressed urge to dress up Barbie dolls or something I don't know) and Brink doesn’t disappoint here. Weapons aren't safe from Brink's customization-craze either with add-able scopes, different kinds of magazines, grenade-launchers etc... This customization is even more fun because of the games pleasing and refreshing aestethic. All the characters seem elongated, which creates a somewhat cartoony effect I really welcomed as a nice diversion from all the gritty realism in FPS's these days. So that's a “+1” for Brink then? Yeah sure, but unfortunately it immediately loses this point again because although customization is great, it won't allow you to identify the different classes on the battlefield, since anybody can look like whatever. That's a big problem! If you want to defend an objective against say...soldiers, how are you going to do that if you can't tell who's a soldier and who isn't!?
Which brings us quite neatly to the classes. There's 4 in total: soldier, medic, engineer and operative. Most of which seem to come right out of Team Fortress 2. Also quite a weird choice on the designer's part is why on earth do I need to unlock the class-related stuff?! Like the turret for the engineer and the EMP-grenades for the operative? This class-specific stuff should be available right off the bat! Now for the first five levels or so I'm stuck with four almost identical classes and play-styles. Why I ask?! What were they thinking?!
The HUD is a mess as well. There's so many icons, indicators and other crap going on it leaves me confused and lost. I can understand they wanted to show as much intel as possible but come on this is madness! I had to force my eyes to keep tracking the enemy instead of objectives, ammo counters, weapon equipments, supply-pips, health, command stations, xp-indications, class-icons and grenade-cool-down-diagrams to name but a few!
Speaking of aestethics and grafix, on the technical side of things it isn't as pleasing. Textures take forever to load in and even then they look blurry and vague. It shows the game is based on the engine that ran Enemy Territory Quake Wars back in 2007. Which was in turn an upgraded engine from Quake IV, which was an updated engine from Doom³ from 2004! Even with these low-res grafixs the game still jitters at times and never seems to consistently hit a decent amount of frames per second. There's really no excuse for this engine to be around still after all these years and it only gives me the nagging feeling that I'd really, really, really like to see this game were it made with the Frostbite engine! Luckily though the sound is pretty decent and the weapons all have a good tactile feeling to them, which matters more in a shooter I guess than fancy grafixs.
The last pillar is parkour (you know – running around vaulting and mantling over crap like you're an ADHD-monkey with jack-all to do all day). The extend to which you can partake in this however is limited to your body type. As you can imagine the light body types can run faster and climb and jump over pretty much anything, but they're vulnerable and can only wield light machine-guns and pistols. The heavies on the other hand can only vault over low objects, but have far more hitpoints and can wield massive p*nis-extensions like gatlingguns. But to be frank there's really not much point to it all. Sure there's a crate scattered on the ground here and there, but nowhere does this parkour give you a tactical advantage. Even when there's some boxes stacked up like a makeshift staircase the actual staircase is usually right next to it, begging the question why you'd bother with the whole parkour thing? There's a fun slide-move though, that can get you out of a pickle or knock an enemy off his feet, so I suppose it's not all for nought.
I'm running way to long here (nobody likes to stare at a wall of text) so I'm going to wrap it up. Brink is a game that’s not good. But still I kept playing it and I honestly can't tell you why. Maybe it's because I'm so tired of the dual-wielding-shotgun noobs in Modern Warfare? Or all the no-scope-headshot-no-lifers in Halo Reach? I don't know but fact of the matter is I played this game long after I got all the achievements (which aren't that hard by the way) and maxed my character at level 20. I'm even going to start a second character later tonight. So although you'll see a 3/5 star rating at the bottom of this review, know that it's really only a 2,5 but since I somehow still enjoyed myself I felt inclined to round it off to a 3.
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Kienamaru
84,585
TA Score for this game: 2,132
Posted on 25 April 12 at 14:51 |
This review has 15 positive votes and 3 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Let's talk about BRINK for a moment. This game has many flaws but also many strongpoints. I'll keep it simple, and sectioned with PRO, CON, and summary. Review number 3...
PROS
Something Different- This game is not your typical run of the mill, shoot em dead kind of game. As a matter of fact there is no deathmatch mode at all. It focuses on objective based gameplay which is a welcome step in a new direction. Hopefully Bethesda learns from this fames mistakes and releases a BRINK 2 someday.
Customization- I have never played a game that has such a large focus on character creation other than sports or fighting titles. This game has everything you could want in an FPS aside of women. (would look horrible given their art style) You get clothing for nearly all parts of the body, multiple layers, tattoos, body types, face types, skin color, voices, multiple classes, lots of weapons and tons of attachments for weapons, and abilities. The chances of running into someone who has all the same choices as you are likely one in however many people play BRINK.
Sound Effects- The gun sounds vary greatly and many are insanely crisp or over the top. Grenades aren't so great at first but become alright with upgrades.
SMART system- Instead of saying what SMART stands for I'll explain how it works. Holding RB allows you to move over, under, across, and around nearly anything in your way. This makes navigating maps tons easier and quite enjoyable. It uses the same button as sprinting which may confuse some. To sprint simply press and don't hold the button.
Custom Controls- You can set each action to any button of your choice allowing you to be as comfortable as you like.
Music- Aside of menu music I have only noticed music a few times on rare occassions. However the theme is catchy and fits the customization, which is what you'll be doing if you happen to listen to it.
Class Variety- The class you pick will greatly affect how you play the game, assuming you play skillfully. The four classes are...
Medic= As the name implies medics use medicine for buffing, reviving, granting temporary bonuses etc. Best if not used on the frontlines.
Soldier= Frontline units. They get extra ammo, stronger explosives, extra equipment, and double as the Demo men.
Operative= A more behind the scenes role. Operatives can disguise as enemies, reveal enemy locations on the HUD, spot mines, reprogram turrets, and hack objectives or shortcuts. Goes well with light body type and suppressed weaponry. Gets special grenade types suitable for trapping locations, sentry bots for scouting, and a special dead man bomb, giving you a chance to kill someone after death using your corpse.
Engineer= The mega class. Engineers can buff weapons, buff armor, set mines, defuse enemy mines, place turrets, defuse enemy charges, repair objectives, repair turrets, repair bots, and remove sticky grenades before they detonate. Engineers are effective in front line or anywhere else really.
Level Design- There aren't very many levels, but every one is enjoyable on each side. They are generally seperated into attack and defense sides, each with different segments for objectives, varying in difficulty. The levels are creative, multi tiered, and bring the Ark to life. Your body type will affect what paths and shortcuts are open to you, and your class can alter some of them to help allies or hinder opponents.
Challenge Mode- A quick diversion that I would recommend playing before the story or Mp which is generally the same. These mini missions work as in game training modes, each utilizing different implemented features. They reward you with special weapons and unlocks.
Audio Logs- Much of the game's story lies in the files you recover after missions. They help to flesh out the game for those who care, and can be ignored by those who don't. The game never forces them on you.
CONS
Story mode- This game features a double sided campaign which is a fine idea. There is little to no story telling however, so reading loading screens, and listening to your briefing is the only way to truly understand everything.
DLC- The dlc was at one time free, now it costs 800msp. This includes 2 new maps, a few weapon attachments, some clothing, and an increased level cap along with new abilities.
Story Mode is MP- This is not horrible by any means, but sometimes you want your multiplayer experience to be different than your single player.
MP setup- You can freely customize your search or host options, however people of a higher rank than you can not join your game. Even worse than that, is that there are no lobbies whatsoever, mic chat is normally set to off, and finding friends to play with is highly unlikely unless you force it.
MP challenges- You can do challenges on mp, but it does not unlock the rewards earned for single player.
Faster Audio Logs- For some reason you acquire logs faster by playing in mp, this allows someone to shave off hours of time to get them all just by playing through multiplayer. Single player will take twice as long.
Bad AI- The worst feature of this game is the AI. Most noticably on Hard. The enemy AI will be unrelenting Marskmen all armed with Shotguns, Revolvers, and a Kross smg every now and then. Your team AI has a problem avoiding mines, prioritizing targets, helping in escorts, scoring objectives, reviving you, resupplying you, aiming, defending objectives, and trying to complete primary objectives. They always go for secondary.
OVERALL
BRINK isn't a bad game, I find it very enjoyable being tired of Halo or CoD type games. Good sound effects, graphics, and gameplay. A solid customization feature, and near genius level design, coupled with classes and objective based gameplaynoffers a new kind of shooter experience. The only real downsides lie in the offline gameplay, and trying to play online with random people.
If I've forgotten anything let me know and I'll update gladly.
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TheDarKnyht
132,809
TA Score for this game: 1,033
Posted on 16 September 12 at 16:26 |
This review has 8 positive votes and 0 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Brink is a first person shooter game by Splash Damage and published by Bethesda Softworks. I picked this game up because it is also one of the few T rated shooters on the Xbox that is somewhat recent. (I recently decided to move away from M rated games since I have small children in the house).
Story: The basic plot is that someone decided that Waterworld was a great movie and it would be really fun to make a game set in a Waterworld. There are two factions, cops and terrorists (yes they are named different in the game). The terrorist group wants to be free to leave their island refuge and go.... well that is never really made clear since the entire world is covered in water, but instead they seem set on screwing everyone over by blowing up the one safe haven all humanity has. The cops on the are trying to stop the terrorists plans and save the world.
Gameplay: Gameplay centers around class-based, objective oriented, combat. There are four classes in the games (Soldier, Engineer, Operative, Medic) each with their own special talents and abilities that are needed to complete your objectives. Adding to the mix of classes/abilities is the SMART system which allows you to traverse the maps easier (usually).
Soldiers are geared towards heavy combat, demolition, and resupply. They also focus on various forms of gernades. From what I see the best soldier is a heavy one carrying large guns.
Engineers are the support class. They can buff weapons and armor, lay protective mines and control zones with their auto guns. They also are needed to repair equipment, disable bombs, build/destroy alternate routes, and build machine-gun platforms. In most situations the Engineer will have something to do.
Operatives are the spy class. They work best as an infiltrator/assassin light class. Able to quickly get above and behind enemy lines. They have the ability to hack into objectives, control points and even enemy guns. They also can disguise themselves as one of the other side to assassinate and disrupt.
Medics are the healer class (obviously). They can revive/heal others and buff their health so they can survive longer. About the only time they are necessary is when the objective is to escort a person.
While both gameplay modes (solo/multiplayer) are essentially the same, there are some differences you should know.
First in solo mode your teammates are dumber than a box of rocks. (I've witnessed one pick up the objective only to stand there until time ran out.) The classes will not actually do their jobs most of the time, and when they do you will wish that they had not. While they game emphasizes staying in a group, the AI bots blindly charge into a no win situation.
In multiplayer, things can be better as long as everyone does their job. All classes (except perhaps the medic) has a job, and you should be focused on doing it. If you don't, the wheels will quickly fall off and the more organized side will win (which can be a debate sometimes in a AI vs Human match).
Graphics and sound:
Everything more or less looks and sound like it should, but you win not find anything that makes you impressed (except maybe by the similarity of the narrator to the guy who is over at zombo.com). As I said the story makes little sense and the voice acting doesn't help it.
Content:
The game does live up to it's Teen rarting. There is a little language in the game, but nothing that wouldn't be a PG movie from the 80's. The blood and gore is minor, but you are murdering wave after wave of human enemies.
Overall:
Despite it's flaws (and there quite a few), I've enjoyed Brink. It partially reminds me of Tribes on PS2, and partially reminds me of a time when shooters didn't have to depend on shock value (language for the sake of language and blood and gore just because they can). I wish this had been better done and better received as it may have brought back the T-Rated shooter of old.
Score: 3 of 5 for most, 4 of 5 for those wishing to say at a T rating.
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Wull Scott
278,919
TA Score for this game: 1,358
Posted on 06 June 11 at 12:23, Edited on 06 June 11 at 13:35 |
This review has 45 positive votes and 38 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Brink.
Ah... Brinky, Brinky, Brink Brink Brink...
Right, let's hit this head-on, shall we?
Brink is set in a post apocalyptic dystopian future on a hi-tech floating island during a civil war where you... *SNORE!*
Sorry, I said "head on" didn't I... Brink is a shoddy copy of Quake Wars: Enemy Territory with worse graphics, no vehicles, a broken parkour element and shoddy generic characters that look like they are from Bo' Selecta.
Brink is a DONKEY of a game - it is a fetid pile of toss. It is by a LONG stretch the worst game I have ever played.
"Strong words" I hear you say. Strong words indeed and words that I feel need justification with such turds as Hour of Victory, Turning Point and numerous others on my played list. My justification is this - I love cheap and cheerful games, the ones that I find in my local game shop and actually have to ask what it is because I've somehow missed the release, like Blood Drive, Warrior: Legends of Troy and the criminally overlooked Singularity. Games that have had very little publicity (if any) where there are some unexpected thrills to be had. Then we have odd games from German/Eastern European developers that are obviously huge in Germany, like Two Worlds, Divinity 2, Risen and Ghost Warrior which have been made very cheaply and they know what they are. They know that they are cheap and average looking and there might be one person out there who loves them - and that's fine. All these types of games I have no beef with.
Now. Here's my point - Brink and it's ilk, the vile over hyped trash that is usually headed up by months of developers diaries and a teaser trailer consisting of a logo, a muffled crash and fade to the name of the game or something... Oh they wind me up. It is the world we live in, the world of hype and marketing, and AGAIN - I accept this. But never before in my gaming life have I ever felt so comprehensively LIED to as with Brink. Being misled by my own expectations is my own fault, but this... this was targeted humiliation.
Let's start at the beginning then, with character creation - it's hard not to get excited by customisation possibilities that will eventually be made available to you. It's only when you realise the implication that ALL THE CLASSES LOOK THE SAME that you get your first sinking feeling. You see, in an objective based game where everyone has a role to fill it is quite important that you are able to identify and prioritise targets, so if you are defending a deliciously hackable terminal, you are going to want to shoot the operative (or spy, or whatever, I actually don't remember) before you waste your ammo on his escort. Sadly, with the customisation options, everyone looks like extreme sports hobos with cranio-facial genetic disorders. The voices are bland, but at least convey a feeling that they are an international bunch. It can be a little bit odd when you play as the Security forces and you accidentally shoot one of your INEPT cockblocking AI team-mates and they shout "DO I LOOK LIKE A FASCIST TO YOU!?". Buzzcut, uniform, boots, rifle... Yes, actually. Yes, you DO look like a fascist...
We may as well discuss the AI as we have briefly touched on it - it is awful. Greatest hits involve one minute being unable to hit you from three feet and fighting as a dispersed gaggle, to suddenly every shot hitting you as they skilfully hold the objective room. This wild inconsistency runs through both teams to the point where I had gone to the toilet, and got waylaid on the way back to find that in my absence my team had won 2 maps. On other occasions, the respawn, die, respawn, die, respawn, die cycle is so short that you can't help but feel huge amounts of frustration. And woe betide if your AI team-mates pick up an objective that needs to be delivered. That can cost you a match as he steadfastly refuses to move out the room, or insists on getting involved in gun battles rather than running to the objective. It is incredibly frustrating, but not NEARLY as frustrating as the gun play.
Weapons are divided into 3 broad categories... No. Only joking! They are uniformly garbage. Not only do they lack the perceived weight through their animation and controller vibration, but the sound effects are akin to children's toys. Couple this with the fact that they lack the visceral punch in the game and you have a very unsatisfying whole. Examples include 3 headshots with a sniper rifle to take down an enemy and the shotgun that may as well be firing confetti. Muzzle climb and accuracy are awful in this game (as well as damage), so your only real combat tactic is get in close with a rapid fire SMG and holding down the button until you are out of ammo. Oh and good luck with the lucky dip of weapons. They are all basically mixed up in a big generic menu screen with the scantest of information. Sure, you can see stats like damage, stability and what-not, but the game omits basic information like the weapon type and actual rate of fire. It's quite annoying when you discover in your first up close fire fight that the 80% filled bar on the rate of fire stat refers to firing a three-round burst, rather than full auto. Or that new high powered rifle is, in fact a shotgun. It is very shoddy indeed, and that's not even mentioning the tacky feel of the weapon customisation - reflex sights take up too much screen and sniper scope crosshairs are too bloated for accurate work, but then I refer you to my previous statement regarding three headshots to kill. With a SNIPER RIFLE.
Ah-HA! "In Brink, you should be moving more than you are shooting", a loading screen message proclaims. "The guns aren't the point, you fat fool" the game (seems) to cry. Well if that is the case, you really should get a sense of speed as you move through the cluttered environment. Well, you don't. The lies that I mentioned in the previous paragraphs get another mention - I swear that they sped up game play videos, even within the game itself the tutorial videos look far faster than the actual game. It seemed quite promising that there were the three body types to choose from as well, as I thought that maybe the light body type might move like Mirror's Edge or something. It doesn't. In fact, you tend to find with the light body that your character launches himself OVER thinner bits of scenery (like walls) rather than onto, losing you a tactical edge. With his significantly lower health, I had very little use for him. Also, I have to say - S.M.A.R.T? Smart? What would be bloody "smart" would be rather than designing six stupid, confusing cluttered maps and then making a system that allows Smooth Movement Around Rough Terrain, how about you just design better maps? No?
The maps are very poor, it must be said. I have never come across a game so hopelessly skewed towards defenders. It might just be that I am better at defense, I don't know, but I never failed a single defense objective, but on attack... Oh, god. Chokepoints, slow moving easily damaged escort VIPs, hacking that takes an age and AI that flat out refuses to defend you as you repair things as the engineer all conspire to cripple the attacking game. I make plenty of mention of the AI, but not of multiplayer, you might notice. This is due to me getting the game a week after its release, while about a dozen of my friends bought it day one. So appalled were they, that a week later only 2 still had it. My local game shop had to stop taking trade-ins as they had bought in so many (I think their cut off is ten copies). So, I have been left to trawl the underbelly of random matches and blessed lord Krishna, is THAT a lonely place to be... Either that or I'm just unable to join matches. I have managed 2 games and in both, there were only 3 other human players and the rest made up of bots. So... No... No thanks.
My final irritation in this game came on the Shipyard level with a piece of graffiti. A piece of graffiti of a man with a fish saying "WE EAT COD". Now I accept that they probably eat cod. That's fine. However, the implication that they "eat COD" as in they better Call Of Duty in any way is laughable on so many levels. Were the developers so ARROGANT as to compare their new untested product to a far superior well established franchise, or are they so STUPID? I genuinely don't know. For the record, I dislike Black Ops and World at War intensely, but I would play either any day of the week before I even contemplated touching this dreadful pile of muck.
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thirtysmooth
164,545
TA Score for this game: 2,132
Posted on 06 September 11 at 09:15 |
This review has 8 positive votes and 2 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Reading reviews of Brink before it was released back in May, my judgement for this FPS-come-Parkour game had been slightly clouded, due in part to some pretty dodgy reviews littered around the gaming web sites. Since these reviews pretty much decided my outcome to not make this a day one purchase, I had been awaiting a price drop for some time. Forking out £40 for a game which IGN rated at a mere 6/10 with the word “Okay” emblazoned underneath the score, doesn’t exactly scream “Buy me NOW!”.
Having researched a bit about the game play, its core mechanics and realising that it’s Published by Bethesda, the company that brought us epic and memorable titles such as The Elder Scrolls and Fallout Series’, I noticed that it’s developed by the little known (at least to me) Splash Damage. They brought us Doom 3 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. With the gaming behemoth Bethesda behind them, how could they go wrong?
Brink sees a new game mechanic developed by Splash Damage named SMART or Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain. Basically, this makes the player’s movement around the various terrains and obstacles a lot easier and smoother, but we’ll talk about this a bit later on.
After ordering and waiting 3 days for the Postman to arrive, I have it sitting in my Xbox 360 ready to play.
Upon loading, I enter straight into the campaign and am greeted with a rather brief and bland history of The Ark; It’s been isolated for 20 or so years and has been split into 2 zones or factions: The Security and the rebels, or The Resistance. Very boring stuff. Once I’ve entered into the game itself, I’m assigned a task. A small yellow outline of a door is present in the distance. I guess I have to go and do something with that? Heading towards this door, I am faced with what I presume is an adversary, however I am unsure as it just stares blankly at me. After a moment of confusion, this random being begins to shoot at me. Okay, so it is an enemy, but why did it take him so long to realise that I was, in fact, an enemy? Is the AI in this game really that bad? Are the reviews about the AI’s intelligence being likened to a sausage roll true? Yes and yes. They are awful. A cabbage would be more useful than these abominations!
There are four character classes to choose from:
Solider – The run and gunner. He has the ability to furnish teammates with extra ammo. He is also the demolition guy.
Medic – He is pretty much what it says on the tin. He has the ability to ‘buff’ team mates’ health and revive the incapacitated.
Engineer – He is the tech guy. He can build MG nests, turrets and disarm mines.
Operative – Think of him as a spy. He has the ability to disguise himself and can hack computer systems.
Whilst all four classes have different abilities, you find yourself doing exactly the same thing. Run, kill, and repeat. Whilst the different classes offer slightly different objectives, if the class you’re currently playing as doesn’t have the correct ability to complete an objective, you’re pretty much just stuck killing the beyond-dumb AI enemies which becomes monotonous and boring extremely quickly. You do have the ability to change your class mid-game by visiting a command post, but this can prove frustrating and lengthy. At the end of the day, you shouldn’t need to change classes whilst in the midst of battle, that’s where your teammates should come in, but they just don’t.
Along with the different classes, Brink offers a fully customisable character system which enlists different outfits and body types for your character and a weapon customise menu which allows you to modify your weapon(s) to tailor to your needs. These range from the type of scope on your weapon, to the type of magazine attachment. This allows you to be completely unique if you wish to compete online, why you would want to play online is another issue altogether though. This is, however, one of a few good points to the game. I spent a good while cycling through the different variations of tattoos, scars, hair styles and clothing only to realise that I don’t actually care.
It takes a good hour or so of continuous play to get to grips with the controls (Left Bumper to run) and with the objectives you need to complete. As soon as it all clicks in your head, the game becomes a bit more bearable. I actually found myself enjoying it, but don’t tell anyone I said that. The game play reminds me a lot of Team Fortress (and its sequel Team Fortress 2) and Mirror’s Edge. “Team Mirror’s Brink”, if you like? Team Fortress and Brink are very similar in the way they are heavily geared towards multiplayer and team-based objectives. I can give Brink some credit for trying to emulate them as the two Team Fortress games were great fun during their prime and I can see what the developers were trying to do, unfortunately they just didn’t have the fluency or ingenuity to match TF/2.
The SMART system that the developers employed wasn’t exactly a radical improvement to the gaming world. Sure, it works well when traversing over objects, but it’s nothing that Mirror’s Edge doesn’t already do. It can get a little annoying as I, on numerous occasions, accidently run over an obstacle, slowing me down, when it would have been easier and quicker to have moved a quarter of an inch to the right or left where the obstacle wasn’t present, but perhaps that’s just me being a retard.
The multiplayer is a complete mess of Rambo wannabe’s and varying levels of lag of goliath proportions. For a game that bases itself on co-operative game play and team work, it fails for these two reasons alone. Certain people seem to think that all First Person Shooter titles are either Halo or Call of Duty. These people also think that Elvis Presley and Tupac Shakur are still alive and are secretly holidaying in the Maldives. The pure naivety of these gamers ruins the game that Brink is trying so hard to be; the game that employs you to use your head, rather than blasting everything that moves. If you rid these unworldly beings from the game, you might have something that resembles a decent online experience.
Overall, Brink isn’t terrible, but it isn’t great. It had a lot of potential with its resemblances to Team Fortress and Mirror’s Edge, but it failed to deliver an original Parkour-Shooter game. It could have raised the bar in the genre; it could have been so much more. Instead, we’re left with a campaign that is short and devoid of any real storyline and a multiplayer that is dysfunctional and disjointed.
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Me7axas
76,256
TA Score for this game: 1,930
Posted on 05 January 12 at 02:04 |
This review has 9 positive votes and 4 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Developer Splash Damage does a fantastic job blending the genres of FPS and Platformer together in one of the high powered of Spring 2011, Brink. In Brink, you are cast away on an island known as the Ark. After a brief back story, you are forced to choose your allegiance to a faction; Security (police) or Resistance (terrorists). This has almost no bearing on the story what so ever, as you are able to play missions from both sides of the conflict. After picking a few base character traits, you are ready to hit the ground running.
Much like many Bethesda titles, the character customization is immense. In Brink there are thousands of combinations available, each with their own panache and flair. Splash Damage has done everything to make sure that your character is as flashy or subtle as your want him to be. Having said all this, there is no female model option, which is a little surprising in this day and age. After suiting up you can pick and play from one of three modes; Freeplay (multiplayer), Campaign or Challenges. There are a total of four challenges, each with three degrees of difficulty that will help new players familiarize themselves with the gameplay and controls. As for Freeplay and Campaign, there is little distinction between the two, as all the multiplayer maps and modes are essentially what you play through in the campaign. These are objectives such as destroying a barricade, retrieving a package or defending a position for a set amount of time. Much like Halo: Reach, Brink also blurs online from offline, where anything and everything you do will net you XP. Your rank is scaled from one to five, this is determined by how high your level is, which is scaled between one and twenty-four, your level is determined by your total XP. Leveling up awards you with gear to alter your character’s appearance, as well as new abilities to purchase; every time you move up a level, you are given a point to spend (twenty-four total), which you use to unlock perks to be used in battle. These are things like extra health, class specific abilities and other special skills. Characters have initial parkour (free running) abilities which are either enhanced or diminished based on which of the three player models you select (light, medium or heavy). Free running does a good job in adding to the gameplay of Brink, making even the best shots subject to runaway tactics while online. Knowing when to hold and when to fold is a big part of Brink’s multiplayer, staying alive may be pertinent to completing the objective.
Unlike most FPS games today which reward the ‘big winner’, or the person who gets the most kills, Brink hinges on you and your team’s ability to cooperate and complete objectives in a timely and efficient manner. Character roles are split into four classes: Soldier, Medic, Engineer and Operative (the spy). If everyone on the team plays Soldier, no one will be able to complete Engineer specific objectives like repairing a generator. Without a support system of Medics, the chances of anyone completing an objective is slim. This type of team based gameplay usually caters to the PC crowd, and is eloquently emulated by SD. XP is awarded for killing members of the opposing team, but those looking to level up will find that more XP is awarded for stuff like buffing teammates, performing class specific or team assisting roles and of course, completing primary objectives.
Graphics are not the focus of Brink, teamwork, run and gun gameplay and well developed maps are. The teamwork aspect is quickly made clear; it becomes very difficult advance the campaign in the later levels with the do-nothing AI, even harder without it. Unfortunately, with mediocre graphics and a crappy storyline, the game falls short. The ability to pick a side was cool, but when playing as the Resistance, everything is justified and it feels really cut and paste, a way for the player to play as a terrorist without feeling like they were morally incorrect. This really killed the campaign for me, while playing and a friend of mine noted that the terrorists shout “FOR THE ARK!” at the beginning of some rounds, but the whole reason the resistance is fighting is to escape the Ark. If that’s true, why do they give a shit what happens to it?
The ‘What-If’ mission scenarios however were a nice touch; these were little looks at what would have happened if something didn’t go as planned for a respective faction, and what might have happened as a result. Sadly, the mediocre graphics and lack of a real storyline kills the campaign in terms of enjoyment and replay-ability. Much like a lot of games today, Brink allows you to invest a lot of time and effort into your character, but lack of a storyline and focus on customization takes away from it’s appeal; Security or Resistance, police or terrorist, as long as you look good doing it who cares? In terms of concept, gameplay and mechanics, Brink has potential, but there is more to a game than best intentions.
6.3/10
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WildWing2007
21,630
TA Score for this game: 2,132
Posted on 01 August 11 at 04:21, Edited on 01 August 11 at 04:23 |
This review has 16 positive votes and 11 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Story: Not much to write home about. The Security is fighting the Resistance for control of the Ark. None of the cut scenes add any sense of urgency or continuity, and the story as a whole really doesn't make as much sense as Splash Damage probably would've liked.
Gameplay: Excellent FPS action. Typical gun play, but what is more exciting is the way you play Brink. Jumping head first into a fire fight all alone is not the way to go. You will die. Instead, the focus is on teamwork. And when you and your team win a hard fought battle, you get a fist pumping, "Hell yeah!" moment. It is sweet. On the other hand, when your team sucks, their isn't much you can do to turn the battle in your team's favor. Maps are brilliant and invoke thought and strategies to use. I have had the game since launch, and I am still finding new ways to approach the maps. Character customization is relentless. You can create a character that is truly unique by customizing the face, clothes, injuries, tattoos, hair, facial hair, accessories. Then you get to the actual stuff that helps you in combat. The guns. At least 20 guns, each one different than the last. Plus, accomplishing the challenge missions unlocks new guns and attachments to put on all those guns. Throw in 20 (Soon to be 24) levels ups to get, each one giving your character new ability points to spend. You can then spend those points in a general ability pool, or each of the class pools. Speaking of which, the classes available in Brink are the Operative, Engineer, Soldier, and Medic, and each one is equally as important. Also, the new SMART movement system makes it easy to run, jump, mount, climb, or traverse any terrain with just the press of LB.
That covers the good, now here's the bad: No party up system, which means you can't go into a game WITH friends. No in game lobby, meaning you have to leave the matchmaking lobby you have been playing in to customize your character. Only 8 maps (Soon to be 10). While each map is great, there are only 8 to play on, and in a multiplayer focused title, that is a small number. BUT like I said, there are a new batch of maps coming, and probably more are in the works. Finally, the AI (Before the patches they were BRAIN DEAD) is competent, but is still focused solely on capturing command posts.
Graphics And Sound: The voice acting is OK, but I could take it or leave it. Why does everyone have a Jamaican accent? The graphics are very good. The art style is fantastic, and the execution is good. This is after the patches, so I am not counting the lag, pop up or bad textures, as they have been attended to.
Longevity: Only 8 (thus far) missions, but each map has two sides to the coin, and you will constantly find new vantage points, escape routes, shortcuts, etc. Audio logs, upgrades, achievements, various gameplay types and modes, and upcoming DLC ensure a long life span for Brink gamers.
Conclusion: A fantastic experience. The game satisfyingly rewards players with endless streams of rewards. Endless customization, enticing weapon combinations, and teamwork inspired gameplay makes this shooter stand out from the rest. Take a ride to the Ark with Brink, and you will be cheering (and occasionally swearing at your dumbass teammates) all the way.
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Skycaptin5
125,266
TA Score for this game: 167
Posted on 13 May 11 at 23:25, Edited on 29 October 11 at 19:18 |
This review has 3 positive votes and 8 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Great in Looks, Yet Lacking
The Campaign/What Multiplayer is too.
-Brink is basically a game built for online play, the campaign itself is an experience meant for online, as in the whole thing can be played online or offline. Basically the campaign is a series of different objective levels that have been split into two separate fractions. The fraction you support is picked right from game load which you pick either to save the Ark or leave it and you get like a half second little video about your decision. After this you jump into character customization where there are many combinations that only grow as you level. The leveling system isn’t really a long process, and you will finish it very quickly. I found that despite there be four different classes, they varied in only a couple of ways making the it matter less than it should. It doesn't particularly matter though which side you choose as you just hop into the storyline on either team as they are very similar. That in essence is how all of the game is played.
Gameplay
-The game becomes very repetitive, very quick as you are just plainly running around killing people in a little focused area for too long of a time frame. The environments look nice, although there is considerable bad texture areas that take away from its potential. Character movement is smooth throughout going through obstacles, but I found some the abilities should have a different button layout then provided. When online I found many matches to be laggy and it was somewhat hard to tell whether you were playing plain humans or AI, in what quickly becomes a squashed moshpit battle.
The Conclusion
-Brink looked like it would be a great game with a good feel, although this game fails to deliver. If it supported a separate multiplayer experience from campaign this would be an all together better play. Textures are sometimes not great, not much of a story is there, although I will give the game the fact it has sick customizing available. As a side note it also has a challenge little section or custom game section, but these are not greatly excited or will obtain your attention for much time. This is probably a game you should let pass, as this is not worth even close to a full retail pricing.
Written by me on Gamerheadquarters.com
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RobotZombie83
110,548
TA Score for this game: 1,229
Posted on 12 May 11 at 14:45, Edited on 15 May 11 at 00:16 |
This review has 11 positive votes and 22 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Just cut your Expectations in half and you will be happy with a FPS with some new features to play with friends.
SMART(Smooth movement across random terrain) is a great system and all future FPS should have some form of the SMART, it works very well once you get the hang of it and is quite a great way to get around the map. Its "Campaign Mode" was short and uninspiring. Its huge "Solo/Multiplayer is the same thing" is kinda a joke, its just a multiplayer arena style game with objectives. It was Nowhere near as good as i was expecting, The computer AI is wanky, you will have the perfect group of teammates that will complete objectives before you get to them sometimes, and other times they all play operatives and just run and die. Sometimes you will be revived within seconds, other times there is no medics at all on your team, Same with the AI on the other team, sometimes they will drop like flies and not get back up, and sometimes they have 4 medics that are constantly reviving those you just kill.
All in all when playing Human vs Human this game can have some really killer matches. Don't believe the hype but this is definitely worth a rent, or picking it up for something different (than Cod Bops) to play with your friends while you wait for Battlefield 3.
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