Brink is one of those shooters that tries to capitalize on the bigger names in the genre but didn't get the rightful treatment that it could of deserve. Brink was a game that I really wanted to like after seeing gameplay videos and it did pretty amazing but I just never really understood the hate with it, sure the game got passable review scores like 6s maybe a 7 or an 8 but the majority of reviews where just full of hate and disappointment. Brink is a team based First Person Shooter released for the PlayStation 3, XBox 360 and also the PC on Steam that shares many gameplay elements from Team Fortress 2 and ID's Enemy Territory games with the parkour system from Mirror's Edge both of which deliver decently well on those aspects. Whilst I never played any of those games Brink is a entertaining game that has a few things that I think many people get overly exaggerated over.
Taking place in the near future Brink is set on the man made floating island called the Ark where things seemed peaceful until it becomes an isolated island as the increased population of the Ark caused supplies and resources to be stretched too far and then lose contact with the outside world, the Ark then turns into a battleground as the Resistance takes up arms against the Security Forces in order to escape the Ark while the Security on the other hand are doing what they can to ensure order of the Ark in other for the guests to survive. After a brief intro into the game's story you are then given the option to either “Save the Ark” or “Escape the Ark” allowing you to play as the Security or the Resistance missions as you desire, then you are thrown to the character customization screen allowing you to customize your character's appearance to your liking. The game shows of some cutscene before a match begins where it shows each of the two sides perspectives on the situation in the Ark, the Security Team has some of the best writing, motivation and structure when it comes to them trying to do what they can to ensure order on the Ark where as the Resistance storyline is kind of uninspired, flat and just doesn't seem to be all that structured out as their plans and motivations seem to make them more like terrorists of a Rebellion then just a group of freedom fighters that's fighting for a greater cause. Like in one mission they capture a hostage and then inject him with toxin and in another mission they unleash a terrorist attack on the Founder's Tower or and also would dare to destroy the Ark. This is a group that wants to escape the Ark whilst believing that they should have their share of the resources to give to the refugees but to result to such extreme measures doesn't make the Resistance side even a bit likeable. The Security Forces at least shows remorse for wanting to ensure safety on the Ark for the guests then the Resistance side does and their motivations give more intake as to why they dealing with the Resistance Forces, plus they are voiced really well which is why I spent the majority of my time on Brink on the Security Team constantly killing all Resistance Forces that I deem as Rebels and Terrorists.
Now Brink itself is a team based game with multiple objectives where depending on the map and also the side you are on you have objectives where you to either attack or defend the objective from opposing players till either attacking players complete their objective or when time runs out. The game uses a class system where your character can select one of four classes that have different abilities in supporting allies, killing enemies and also completing different objectives. Soldiers can place charges, give ammo to teammates and throw special grenades like Molotov Cocktails or Flashbangs. Operatives can disguise themselves as the enemy, hack devices and also spot Land Mines on the grand. Engineers can disarm charges, land mines and hacking devices, place turrets and mines as well as boosting an ally's weapon and armour and lastly there is the Medic who buff their teammates health and revive fallen allies as well as boosting their metabolism and sprint. Classes can be swapped at any command posts you have on your side and the way the game works is that you have to be at the right class in order to complete whatever objective that you are doing. You can change your objective at anytime using the D-Pad Up and then highlighting with the Right Analog Stick to pick the available objective and then release the D-Pad Up.
There is a decent amount of weapons in the game ranging from submachine guns, assault rifles, a sniper rifle, shotguns and handguns and many of them are pretty good to use. Plenty of the assault rifles pack a lot of fire power and shotguns can really ruin someone's day instantly at close range. You can customize weapons with different attachments that are only unlocked upon completing challenges in the Challenges Mode from adding scopes, grenade launchers and grips and a lot of them are cool but can lower equip speed as it makes the weapon you want to swap to take longer to equip.
The controls for the game by work fine but however on the PS3 the default controls for aiming down sight and firing are L1/R1 again but thankfully the game allows for customization so that you can have the controls to your liking especially if you are used to Call of Duty's controls and that's a good thing. The game has a parkour system called SMART which allows the player to utilize movement over obstacles with just a press of the button mimicking parkour movement. It is a nice touch to the game but not a lot of the levels in the game make full use of it aside from climbing up to a higher ledge or sliding to avoid gunfire which are both very effective and the game does encourage the player to move more then shooting to avoid getting killed easily. The character's body type does affect movement and weapons in some ways, light cannot use assault rifles but can get around areas the easiest and medium can use most weapons and get around obstacles at a normal pace and lastly there is heavy who can't get around obstacles easily cause heavy guys are huge and can be big targets for the enemy but can take more damage and also use heavy weapons like miniguns.
This is also one of those modern day First Person Shooters that uses that health regeneration where you shoot at things while trying not to get shot yourself, if you take damage it gets low and you have to find a place to take cover to let your health regenerate. If you ever die in battle and a medic comes you can use a revive syringe to get yourself back into the battle instead of just respawning.
You earn experience points from completing various objectives, taking out enemies and doing other actions and also handling a secondary objective which could be taking command posts or opening up a new route for your allies so that they can get to the objective easier. When you get enough experience points you'll level up and unlock new weapons, abilities and new outfits to customize your character. You only Level up to 20 and you have to use the credits on every class in the game so that you can be very effective using each class in the game.
The gameplay in Brink is pretty enjoyable, making ambushes on unsuspecting enemy forces is great fun, using the various weapons are impactful, working together with teammates can always turn the tide of battle and making use of the classes abilities will help you achieve victory.
The issue I mainly have with the game is that there really isn't all that much content on offer, you only have eight maps to play through and in the campaign you play six main missions with the two remaining missions being what if missions. Each of the missions last roughly 15 minutes or less unless you are playing on higher difficulties which will take at least longer. When you reach Level 20 and finished both campaigns you would have seen what Brink has to offer. There is also a Challenges Mode where you can complete a series of different challenges to unlock attachments for weapons and also there are plenty of achievements/trophies that you can unlock in the game but you're likely to do everything in about a weekend.
Another issue I do notice that I do agree with everyone about is the AI which at times are completely brain dead and unreliable. They can navigate around the map just fine but they tend to get themselves killed a fair amount, running straight into mines and easily getting killed by enemies and also not paying attention to objectives or sometimes not reviving their dead comrades. They also tend to spend the majority of the time taking over the command posts which yes I get that command posts can also be of help as it helps to boost Health and Supplies to everyone on your team but when an enemy team takes over a command post your allies will leave you and try to recapture it. It's often easier to tackle the mission objectives yourself while your teammates protect you from the enemy but even then they do a miserable job at it. I know that in the game it is not a good idea to go lone wolf as enemies will easily kill you when they are together in a group and you have to stick your squad at all times. It does make a fight annoying that you sometimes have to do the objectives yourself when everyone else is hardly doing the objective at all.
Lastly while I enjoy the majority of the maps I kind of wish that they could have been a bit more balanced out for both sides, the missile launch map I noticed has the Resistance troops spawning a little too close to the objectives making it a little unfair for the Security troops to complete their objectives. If the enemies could have spawn a bit further back would have balanced the map out a little bit more. Even these small little issues I still had an enjoyable time with Brink's gameplay, when you finally get a full working team finally doing the objective and also watching out for each other it becomes satisfying to complete a difficult challenge. You can tackle the missions with other players online instead of relaying on the AI but at as of the day I am uploading this review no one is playing this game online anymore unless you can find boosting groups or ask your friends if they can help you complete the campaign missions. There was also DLC released later called the Agents of Change which gave you two extra maps, some new abilities and also extending the Level cap to 24 but it hardly adds much to the overall package.
The game runs on the ID Tech 4 engine and it isn't really a bad looking game, the character models are decent and the amount of customization each giving out a sense of personality. The environment are pretty good and are well designed and I do like that you can often see the Resistance graffiti placed around as well. The animations and all of the various explosion and particle effects are pretty good as well and the game runs at a very steady framerate, the issue with the graphics are the textures which while good take a long time to load up during play which can make the graphics look muddy and awful until everything finally loads up cause the game doesn't properly load the levels up. The soundtrack for what little there is it is actually incredible and soothing most notably for the Security Team and the voice acting is pretty good especially the radio chatter letting you know what the AI teammates are doing in the midst of battle.
The ultimate question is should I recommend Brink to anyone? To be honest yes, if you are looking for an enjoyable team based shooter that isn't Team Fortress 2 or the newest Call of Duty game that was out in 2011 Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 that you honestly could do worse then Brink. Back then when the game was released Brink was released at full price and everyone took massive criticism over the lack of content and it didn't hold a candle to Team Fortress 2. But months later it reduced in price considerably and I remember picking up a copy for the XBox 360 for (get this) £1.50 and that was for a game that was released back in 2011 and I bought months after it's release. I then got it for the PS3 and it costed my only 49p which I couldn't fault. It does have enjoyable team based gameplay with different classes and great weapons to use, most of the maps that the game offers are decent and parkour SMART system isn't really all that bad. Again I never played Team Fortress 2 and I was really open with Brink and really wanted to like it and still it's one of those I can just pop in my PS3 and play as it doesn't take up much hard drive space on my PS3. If you do see a second hand copy selling for only a couple of pennies then I do recommand this game to you but the Agents of Change DLC will send back much more then the game itself costing £6.49 on the European PlayStation Store with other DLC packs will only over £1 each. It's not as bad as many people often make it out to be and compared to the other games Bethesda has released it is at the very least so much better and I would rather play then the utterly horrible abomination that is Fallout 76.
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Game Score: 8.0/10
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Game Title: Brink
Platform: PlayStation 3
Developer: Splash Damage
Genre: First Person Shooter
Age Rating: PEGI: 16+
Release Date: 13th May 2011
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The Good Points:
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Mostly great maps
Different classes, abilities and weapons to customize adds different personality to each style you like
It looks and sounds great for the most part
Really enjoyable gameplay
The Bad Points:
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Only eight maps and the game only a small of content on offer
Bad AI Teammates
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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