Brink Video Game is set in the futuristic Ark, a city designed to be an experimental, floating Utopia. But when the polar icecaps melted, people flooded to the city – even though its creators did their best to hide it. Now, tensions flare; the city has not heard anything from the outside world for twenty years. One faction believes that peace needs to be maintained so that the Ark – and consequently mankind – survives. The other side is a faction of rebels who want to break free of the confines of the city and search for the other humans they believe still inhabit the earth.
It’s a good idea, and one that would lend itself to a fantastic single player campaign, as well as some awesome multiplayer action. But this game focuses more on the multiplayer – sections that could be considered single player are extremely forgettable – and yet manages to not really go anywhere significant while doing so.
<strong>H</strong>ype is a scary monster. The problem it poses is that, if it gets out of control, it ruins the game that it’s about. Not directly, of course; rather, the hype machine creates massive expectation that, if the game doesn’t live up to them, results in disappointed users – and a lowered impression of the final product.Brink is an excellent example of the hype machine in action. Over many months (and a delay or two) we were promised a gaming experience that would literally blow our minds. But the end result is a somewhat pedestrian shooter that tries to be original, but falls short in a number of ways.
Brink is, for all intents and purposes, a team-based, objective-focussed shooter. It allows the player to create a character, get some weapons, and get into the action relatively quickly. But here’s one of the problems. The makers promised us a highly customisable experience.And yes, the player can customise their character and weapons, but it’s rather limited. Faces are, for example, all premade templates… even a few tweaks would have made things better, but the player can only select a premade face, without the luxury of modification. Clothing is the same – there are numerous outfits, but other than mixing and matching elements like pants and shirts, the player’s only real choice is in a limited colour palette.
This comes in with weapons as well, although the player has a little more to work with – and a little more effect on the game itself. Guns can be upgraded with various classes of equipment, and unlocking an item once makes it available for all guns in the player’s arsenal. These upgrades have both positive and negative effects on the weapons’ performance.In the game, players can use one of four different classes, which can be switched mid-game at certain capturable command points. Each of these classes have their strengths and weaknesses, and have powers which affect the other players in the team – a nice touch. This emphasises a little co-operation between the players, which is never a bad thing.The player’s character can also be upgraded, in terms of skills, which are either general, or specific to one of the classes on offer.The game will, in each mission, give the player numerous objectives that need to be filled… these range from capturing points through to escorting important characters or sabotaging objects. Movement through the levels is made easy by allowing a sort of free-movement system, but doesn’t do it better than other games that use a similar concept.When all is said and done, Brink is a fun shooter, but it’s pretty unremarkable. It certainly does not deliver on the lofty promises made by the publishers, and will likely leave the player wanting. It does very little – if anything – to rise above its peers, and with graphics that are a bit lackluster – even though they are distinctive – and a general feel that is nothing more than mediocre, many people will find the game more than a little disappointing. Die-hard shooter fans may well enjoy Brink, but the title really offers very little to distinguish it from the hordes of other, similar products on the market… many of which do things just a bit better than Brink does. The success of this title, with its extremely heavy reliance on the multiplayer experience, will rely on the community that grows up around it. But whether it has enough on offer to foster that kind of growth is another question entirely.<strong>Verdict:</strong>A shooter that is really rather nondescript… may do well, but it might not offer enough to attract the scores of users to keep it alive.<strong>Developer: Splash Damage</strong><strong>Publisher: Bethesda</strong><strong>Distributor: Nu Metro</strong><strong>Platform:</strong>PCPS3Xbox 360
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