5.13.2011

Brink -Review (PC)

Posted by Scotty Fields on 1:03 PM

Quick and Dirty

Platform: PC
Rating: T
Developer: Splash Damage
Release Date: May 10, 2011 (North America), May 13th Everywhere Else

The Good: Great graphics. Fast paced gameplay. You will love all of the customization options for the characters and guns. The story seems fairly well thought-out.

The Bad: All of the missions feel redundant. Multiplayer feels exactly the same as single player. Classes don't seem very distinct. The game on the PC feels like an after-thought. Mouse is only used as an aiming mechanism. The game, as of now is a bit buggy.

Other Notes: I think the game is under-specced and actually required a beefier system to run properly.

Final Verdict: Brink is an amazing concept that seems to under-deliver. I love the customization options and the different skills but on almost every map the battle boils down to one central location. The story of the game is better than some. I wouldn't call it an emmersing story-line by any means. The mutliplayer is so-so and the game is quite buggy at the moment, at least on PC. I am right on the line with this one. It is definately no Portal 2.

The Long Story

Brink had a little hype around it so I decided to check the game out. Watching the intro video got my really psyched, especially when I got the opportunity to chose my side. After picking my character type and customizing him with the plethora of options before me the game seemed promising indeed. Then I started an actual mission.

During the mission I was given my first clear objective - rescue a hostage (I believe). There were sealed doors that stood in the way that could only be taken care of by a soldier. Luckily, the game starts you off as a soldier by default so I had a charge to blast the door open. All participants in the match seemed to converge on the doors as I tried to place my charge. Once I blew up the doors, my squad and I moved further into the enemy's base. The next task required an engineer and before I could change classes, another engineer on my squad took care of the task for me. Again the battle ensued on this central choke-point. These steps never seemed to change throughout my time playing the campaign. They were as follows:

1. Get to a location.
2. Perform a task.
3. Defend the task being performed.
4. Move on.
5. Wash, rinse and repeat.

The game seemed to favor long corridors with only one way in and one way out instead of large, open areas that would have allowed for more strategy. The multi-player wasn't any better either. It felt exactly like the single-player campaign games only with other human players instead of bots. I noticed the game also allowed different classes but the only real thing that seemed to change was one ability from class to class. I was expecting more of a variety of options from within one of the matches than that. Brink really didn't seem to lend itself to any sort of team make-up decisions for this reason alone.

But enough ranting. The game certainly did have high points. Like I said, I really enjoyed the character creation options. Leveling up rewards you with new outfits, face-paint, hair-cuts and other customization items and I definately felt rewarded fairly for gaining levels. The gameplay was action-packed and similar to that of Call of Duty. Three or four shots was really all it took to kill most players.

Brink also allows the medic class to revive other fallen combatants if they so choose to hang around and wait on a medic. At first I liked the notion but soon found it irritating to shoot an opponent putting him on the ground only to have a medic toss him a revive and then have to fight both of them.

The game is also a bit buggy, at least on the PC. It definately does NOT like to be ALT + Tabbed out of. When I tried to do this (due to a skype message), my Alienware 15x would not restore the window at all. Plus, it doesn't seem like the mouse is good for much during the actual gameplay besides being an aiming device. When you die you must make your selection to wait on a medic or respawn with the W A S D keys. Why can't I use my mouse to do this?

Overall the game is barely above average. I like the idea and the concept of the game but I feel like it is not complete. Many of the maps need to be modified to allow more interesting fire-fights. The bugs definately need to be looked at, at least from the PC side of things. I feel like Splash Damage could have taken another month or so and really refined this game into the shooter that we all hoped it would be.

1 comments:

Lovely blog... I'm Marilyn over from http://theartsygirlconnection.blogspot.com stopping by and officially following you a tat bit late from Design It Chic Blog Hop. ;)) Hope you can stop by sometime.. Awesome posts.. ;))

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