Review: Brink

13 Jun, 2011

Title: Brink
Platform: Xbox 360/PS3/PC (reviewed on 360)
Developer: Splash Damage
Publishers: Bethesda Softworks
TL;DR: Solid and unique game-play, but feels unfortunately bland
Family Friendly?: Probably not. Click here to see why.

So, here’s the setting: once a vision of Utopian perfection, futuristic city The Ark now floats in ruins above what remains of planet Earth. What’s left of the city is divided. Separated into two warring factions, The Security and The Resistance, the former seeks to preserve the planet and its resources, whilst the latter want nothing more than to escape. Your job is to align yourself with one or other faction and fight for your belief.

Fight or flight – what’s it to be?

Forced into making this RPG-esque decision right off the bat, which is swiftly followed up by detailed character customisation options, there’s a risk that you’ll get Brink all wrong. Truth is, this is all the navel-gazing that Brink permits (and even that’s up for question, given that you can change your chosen faction as soon as the customisations options kick in, anyway). What it does permit, however, is the most detailed character individualisation selection I’ve had the pleasure to use. The detailing is exquisite, albeit slightly perplexing given how little time we get to properly appreciate each player’s individual touch: most characters pass in a spray of colour and bullets and with no time to take in each fetching little detail. Yet as engrossing as the customisation ops are, are they merely window dressing for what is otherwise a lacklustre performance … or is it truly the icing on the cake?

Let’s find out, shall we?

Visually, Brink is striking. However, while the cell-like graphics help set it apart from similar games in the genre and help ensure that it is instantly recognisable, the colourless environments do little to fully engage or retain the interest of the viewer. Does this help ensure the characters pop on screen? Without a doubt. But it comes at the cost of a truly interesting environment.

The sound effects certainly aren’t anything to write home about, either. The guns all sound fairly similar and it’s easy to stop hearing them all together. Regrettably, the same can be said for the voice acting; the only time it seems to play a pivotal role is during the cut scene, and it could be argued that the limited number of voice cast and lack of female characters hinders the immersion the game seems to strive for. Characters can look totally different yet sport the same voice as the guy next to him, and having these voices natter away about what they’re doing every ten seconds is both distracting and irritating. As for the score? The soundtrack here, or lack thereof, does little to draw in the player and could easily be replaced by any generic FPS soundtrack consisting of tense notes and the occasional drum beat. But is it unsurprising to find a lacklustre sound and vocal performance from a game when the focus here was clearly more about gameplay than how it sounds?

The gameplay itself offers much of what we’ve come to expect from the generic first-person shooter, just as it echoes many of the conventions we’ve come to expect from this genre: levelling up, unlockable content and an age-old class-based combat system. How you progress is pretty predictable, too – fighting and exploring reward your skill and curiosity, and as you progress through the game you’re able to unlock new weapons, outfits and abilities, with some of the latter arriving as unique skills to your particular class choice. Some rewards come only by completing challenges, although I have to admit – I use the word “challenge” loosely. It took me a modest 3-4 hours to unlock most if not all of the additional upgrades, and your sense of accomplishment can’t help but be tarnished when you realise that everyone else around you is running about with the same gear slapped on their weapons.

Playing Brink for an immersive storyline is certainly a no-no. The story here seems to be something of an after-thought and has been weaved in around the gameplay rather than governing it. Players looking for storyline are going to be bitterly disappointed, whilst online-players can forget about it all together. The menu offers up the selection of available missions more like list of game-types than presenting it in any sensible chronological order, and while this is helpful for player wishing to tackle a specific game mode, it’s surely daunting to those tackling the missions single-handedly. It is shame; so much more could have been done with an intriguing backstory and just the inclusion of one or two additional pivotal characters – even a separate story-mode all together – could’ve catapulted this game into the stratosphere.

While each mission feels refreshingly different depending upon your class of choice, Brink’s strength lies in how these new skills and classes work together – predictably Medic, Soldier, Engineer and Operative. Whilst your own skills may lie in being an iron-balls, no-nonsense soldier, that won’t necessarily be enough to proceed in and of itself. Only by working closely and collaboratively with the other classes as part of a team can you succeed … that is, if you ensure that your colleagues aren’t governed by the game’s AI. For while the CPU characters are by no means atrocious, I suspect that your best matches will be those where real life comrades fight alongside you. Gathering a party of players and sharing the experience – this is without doubt where Brink performs best.

That said, although touted as a gritty and enjoyable FPS, this actually isn’t where the game’s strength lies. The innovative and celebrated SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) system permits players to move around the environments with an eerie ease simply unrivalled by other titles. By noting your position at any given time, the SMART system predicts where and how you may move next, making your movements fluid, fluent and – most importantly – fun! Is it surprising how much freer your movements are? Without question. But with such an expected flexibility, experimenting with the different body-types (Heavy, Medium and Light) and their interaction with the environment around them – never feels overwhelming or distracting.

It is clear each map has been crafted for use with the SMART system. Conveniently placed boxes, low ledges and high jumps allow the player to customise how they tackle each map and each objective. This means there are no real ‘choke points’ on each map and players are evenly distributed, meaning they can hope to survive just that little bit longer. The parkour experience is limited to which body-type you choose to play as; fortunately, each body-type’s SMART abilities are wonderfully balanced and suit their build perfectly. It is a brilliant inclusion to the otherwise generic FPS features and switches what could have been a very repetitive shooter into an interesting and genuinely unique style of gameplay.

Despite all this – the solid gameplay, unique playability and detailed customisation – there is nevertheless a disappointing blandness that forces me to question Brink’s long-term appeal. Whilst certainly a solid first person shooter, it’s debatable just how long Brink can engage a gamer’s interest, and right now there seems to be surprisingly little to motivate your Average Joe in coming back to Brink again and again. Will downloadable content help fluff this appeal? Very possibly – and I certainly hope so. But as it stands – and as initially as entertaining as Brink is – it’s difficult to see what can truly make Brink stand out from the rest in this already over-competitive genre.

Which is a shame, really

Good Times!

Very detailed customisation

Brilliant SMART parkour system

Multiplayer can be a blast

Bad Times :(

Character customisation goes unnoticed during games

Unlockables seem too easy to obtain

Can start to feel bland after a while

Family Friendly?
The PEGI rating for this game is 16+, which is appropriate. There isn’t a huge amount of adult content in this, but it’s probably wise to keep the guns and shooting away from the kiddies.