11 Sep, 2010
Tom’s Thoughts
Brink was another situation where I expected nothing more than a fancy new trailer. We waited in the queue for a few minutes and were then shuffled into a room with multiple televisions and were shown a training video. The video outlined what the game was about, how to play and some of its main features, namely the free run mechanic. This would have been all well and good if the video wasn’t in bloody German. Afterwards Steve and I gingerly approached one of the game’s attendees and explained we had no idea what we were meant to do. Fortunately he explained it all and led us over to our own consoles.
The first thing we experienced was the amazing customization. It’s probably the finest character customization I have seen. You can change your characters physical looks, their clothes, the colour of their clothes, their hair, it really was awesome. The gun customisation is very similar. You can take a gun, equip a number of attachments and create the perfect weapon for whatever job you do. It’s a first person shooter’s paradise.
Eventually it was time to play. I believe we were playing a sort of attack and defend type game mode, but once again we were unsure. After choosing our class we were plunged straight into the action. Each class has their own special abilities and traits, as you would expect, so having a fair number of each class on your team is essential for victory. I chose the solider since I like to shoot things. The first thing on my ‘to try’ list was the free run mechanic. So I ran up to a ledge, held the button and my guy quite smartly jumped up and carried on. I then managed to jump off a wall in some sort of acrobatic leap. It was amazing. It really added a whole new element to the FPS genre, something that it is in dire need of. The gameplay all seemed to flow brilliantly, from shooting enemies in the eyes to simply getting from A to B. The graphics were beautiful, all colourful and wonderfully rendered, the whole environment seemed fantastic to play in. All in all I loved it. I would even go as far to say it was my game of the show. It has brilliant potential and will no doubt be a bloody fantastic game, I can’t wait till its release. It’s a shame my hands on time was over in a BRINK of an eye! Get it?
Steve’s Thoughts
Hmm, I doubt I will be able to beat Tom’s cheesy ending line… I shall just have to have a think… In the mean time I shall tell you of my experience with Brink. I loved it… Oh you want to know more? Well it is just a very fresh idea to put into FPS games, I’ve played a billion FP shooters and even I get tired of the same old aim and shoot, oh no I are dead gameplay. The free running is exactly what the genre needed, I know you are thinking “BUT Mirrors Edge already has done that, you are fool”. Technically yes, but this has full on combat while you free run your anus out of danger, or in my case into danger.
My game intro didn’t go as smoothly as Mr Mackenzie’s, I asked the fellow who talked English what on earth I had to press to start and in fairness he did tell me. Only thing was that I pressed start and missed all the customization part of the game… Sad face. Oh well, I ended up as a Soldier which is good because I too like to shoot eyes and unless I am going to keep my save profile on a game, I don’t really care what I look like. Note: If I am creating a character at home, I will literally spend near to an hour doing so.
So when everyone had stopped pottering with their characters armour and whatever it was time to start. Once again I didn’t know how to run because while the tool tips were appearing on the screen, I was inverting my aiming axis because I’m weird. So yeah I didn’t know how to free run, but I still did a damn good job of finding a hidden position and wiping out an entire crowd of guys with my grenades and assault rifle. Once I got the climbing aspect down, I was just so into this game. It looks great, reminds me a lot of Borderlands in a way, even though it’s not cartoony, just the environments and the vibrant colour. The gunplay is epic and very easy to navigate between the various weapon types and thrown items like the flash bang that I kept being told to use, only to end up flashing myself and dying. Oh and when you die, you can choose to wait for medical assistance or just respawn. This is part of the class selection, each class has a job. Medics can revive and Soldiers can give ammo Etc. I actually gave ammo to someone and didn’t hoard it all to myself! Can you believe it?!
So that’s it, I loved the game and I wanted to play more. I’m sure Mr Mack will get it so I’m sure some online death will come my way. Thanks again Bethesda for providing us with yet another brilliant game. I couldn’t think of an ending line as good as Tom’s… *weeps*
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