Splash Damage and Bethesda teamed up to create one of the most interesting shooters to have come out this year. Brink was introduced by one of the most spectacular and intriguing teaser trailers of recent memory and I have fallen in love with the idea behind the game as well as its art direction, but for it to become one of the great games of 2011 it needed to do just a bit more.
I admit that I am a bit of a sucker for games like Brink, games that step out of the mold and try to do something new and innovative or at least different. Splash Damage’s class based First Person Shooter combines gameplay elements from Mirror’s Edge and Team Fortress with the episodic gameplay from Left 4 Dead set in an extremely violent and combat intensive world that is literally on the ‘Brink’ of destruction.
In the world of Brink, players will be faced with choosing sides between the Security Forces and Rebels, which both have their very own ideas of how to survive in a flooded environment which hangs on a slim thread. While the remaining security forces try to revive ‘order’ and control, the rebellion wants to get off of the ark in order to survive this uncontrolled and diseased world.
The setup sounds very intriguing and would have had good potential to set up a compelling single player campaign but this does not really exist in Brink. The game has little episodic snippets within the overarching plot but no real story progression, instead there are cut scenes before and after each scenario which reminds a lot of Left 4 Dead’s story mode. Likewise, Brink also does not have a real multiplayer mode; the game melts all of the modes together. Players can choose to play through the story mode by themselves, with friends or against random players which simulates the multiplayer gameplay.
All of these modes are supposed to blend seamlessly and allow gamers to choose just how they would like to play Brink but while there is tons of fun to be had in the actual gameplay and Brink’s mechanics, there are also several flaws which don’t allow Brink to become as successful as it could have been.
During my time with Brink I adored the art, look and feel of Brink. I totally loved the deep and creative character customization and progression between all of the different classes in this Team Fortress-esque shooter. I especially loved how players can switch classes in mid game, in order to help the team complete an objective and then switch back after, to move on. Brink nails the different classes and how those interact with the objectives, the world and other players. I also really dug the SMART system which allows players to traverse all the different environments and obstacles in Brink’s world seamlessly.
All I had to do was hold down the SMART button and my character would vault over a bench, slide under a pipe or jump up a wall with ease. This movement system also helped me avoid enemy attacks and then counter them with an element of surprise.
Brink is an objective based shooter where teams are tasked with breaking open a safe, capture and escort intel, take over a command post or guard a gate. In order to succeed in Brink’s campaign mode, teams will need to successfully complete several objectives, failing one of the tasks will result in mission failure and this is where the problems with the game start.
As I noted before, I really like the way Brink plays and what the game is all about but it breaks down a bit in a couple of fundamental areas which can make the game frustrating. The first one is the AI, when I tried playing Bring in the offline single player mode my team AI seemed scaled down and made it nearly impossible to win in some of the scenarios. I replayed missions so many times that I knew exactly when I could just hit restart, since I knew I would fail the objectives. Like I said, the nearly useless team AI makes it hard enough to win in the offline mode as it is but when some of the maps favor one team’s objectives, it becomes downright frustrating to play Brink.
Playing online was a bit of a different story and the more competent human players were able to win games on a more even level but still, some of the Brink’s areas just did not seem balanced enough to create a competitive match.
Writing this review was not easy for me since Brink has so many unique elements and I have really fallen in love with it but there are some issues with the way the game is designed that just do not allow it to become one of the greatest titles this year. While Brink has an immense amount of character and is loaded with some really great fun when things work properly, the title just breaks down at times when it comes to balance and AI capabilities, especially in the offline mode. Brink also seems a bit short since the single player is also the multiplayer and maxing out the characters does not take too long but nonetheless, Brink is one of those games that need to be experienced and will provide some great entertainment, despite its flaws.
Score: 8 / 10
Brink was developed by Splash Damage and published by Bethesda for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on May 10th. Copies of the game’s Xbox 360 and PC versions were provided to us by Bethesda for reviewing purposes.
