Brink has been highly anticipated for some time now. We took a look at the game during last year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo and immediately thought, “Wow, Splash Damage really has something cooking here.” Now, after months of wait and checking out countless videos regarding classes and load outs, we finally have the finished product in our hands. Is it everything we were hoping for? Well, for the most part, no. See, a few problems emerge over the course of Brink’s battles that have us wondering how much better it could’ve been had Splash Damage gone a different way. And we don’t mean a minor tweak here and there, but rather a hefty programming decision altogether. That’s not to say the finished product here isn’t worth trying, because it is, especially if you thrive on multiplayer competition. But the game hinges too often on its erracticness and flaws to really recommend it as highly as other multiplayer affairs on the Xbox 360.
In Brink, you play as one of two factions – you’re either the side that guards the futuristic Ark building, considering it a safe haven for humanity for generations to come; or you’re a group of rebels who see the Ark as a threat and vow to bring it down by any means necessary. There is no general solo player campaign, though you can fight through missions alongside either friends or bots, fighting off teams as you complete a handful of objectives to move forward. Mess up on just one of them, however, and you’ll have to start over from scratch. Like most good multiplayer shooters out there, Brink has a few options to choose from. Four classes are available in the game, with each character getting special abilities and talents vital to surviving the mission. Medics are the most helpful, providing quick revitalization to fallen comrades; but Soldier is most practical, as you run and gun your way to objectives and guard safe points.
All of them are worth trying out, and you can customize your character and load out to improve performance. As you start each batch of missions, you’re automatically pointed towards the most important objective, via a glowing yellow indicator on-screen. If you ever want to change to a secondary one, however, simply press up on the D pad and use the item wheel to select your next goal. It’s a neat system, though one that’s tricky to use in the middle of a firefight. Along with campaign missions and Freeplay, where you can set up your own rules for others to play by, there are also extra Challenges, in which you can earn extra weapons and other goods for your soldiers. So there’s plenty to do here. The question is, how much can you withstand to do it? There seems to be a problem with both going solo with bots and joining friends. When you play with bots, the AI acts incredibly loopy.
This feature review concludes on the next page, please click Page 2 below to see final thoughts on Bethesda's Brink.
