Brink is a breath of fresh air that doesn't go as far as it should.
To start, Brink is an objective based class shooter with four classes. There is the soldier, who can plant explosives (including satchel charges) and can get better and more grenades, and can also buff his or his teammates ammo, which is extremely useful considering how fast you can you through your limited supply. There is the medic, who can buff his or his teammates speed, adrenaline, metabolism, or health. He can revive himself and his teammates, and is a big part of winning in Brink, considering how most objectives are a ways away from the spawning point. The engineer can plant land mines and auto-turrets, and can buff his or his teammates weapon damage. He can also remove hack boxes that operatives plant and explosives that soldiers plant, and can build barricades and machine gun nests in certain areas, and is also able to fix things to complete objectives. Then lastly there is the operative, my personal favorite class. He can disguise himself as the enemy, hack the communication lines of the enemy to find their locations, hack and control turrets, and leave behind traps like caltrops (sharp objects that damage anyone who walks on them) and sticky bombs. He also has an EMP bomb that temporarily disables any nearby enemy electrical equipment including hack boxes, explosives, radar, turrets, and landmines. (Each of the classes have more abilities than that, but there are too many to list.)
Brink's greatest strength is its customization. You level up like in every other shooter, but you get one ability coin every time you level up, and every few levels you go up a rank, unlocking new abilities. You can save up your coins to buy more abilities when you go up a rank, so there is quite a bit of freedom. There are over 10 specific abilities for each class, as well as about 15 abilities that apply for all classes, for a total of around 60 abilities. Most of the abilities mentioned above take a while to unlock, so don't expect to be planting satchel charges and EMP grenades right away, or even within the first 10 hours or so. It takes around 15-20 hours to completely level up a character. There are only 20 levels in Brink, so it feels a bit too easy to level up a character all the way, however this encourages the creation of new characters that specialize in different classes. The character customization is sizable, and you can go from a giant hulk of a guy with skull face paint and a bomb suit to a skinny guy with tight clothes and fro-hawk in less than a minute. You can also customize just about every gun in the game, adding silencers, muzzle breaks, scopes, extended mags, drum mags, grips, and more. The downside is the fact that you can't change the color of your weapons, but it isn't a big deal because they change looks depending on what team you are playing for. So basically, you can change any physical attribute of your character, including voice.
There are three body types in Brink. The heavy can wield giant grenade launchers and machine guns and has a ton of health, but is slow and can't climb over anything above his waist. The medium is a good balance between speed and health, can climb over most objects, and can use assault riffles, SMGs, snipers, one shotgun, a small(er) grenade launcher, and pistols. The light can run super fast, perform wall hops, climb over just about anything, but has a small health bar and can only carry SMGs, snipers, and pistols.
The game play in Brink is generally good, with varied maps with excellent design and multiple levels and routes, and fun and intense objectives that test your abilities. However, Brink's biggest flaw is the fact that there are only 8 maps, and regardless of whether you play them online of offline, they are always exactly the same, with the same objectives. This is not as bad as it seems though, because playing through the missions from the other side or as a different class helps change things up. There are also 4 challenge modes that offer a break from the repetitive battlefields, including Be More Objective (essentially a tutorial of how the game works, but still fun considering it is essentially a jungle gym with multiple levels and lots of cover), Escort Duty (escorting a robot through a maze filled with enemies), Parkour This (a small multi-level maze where you have to reach certain areas in a certain time), and Tower Defense (You are an engineer and must defend an elevated platform from waves of enemies).
Contrary to some reviews, (AKA Gamespot and IGN), Brink on the PS3 is relatively lag free. Every one in 10 or 15 matches will be laggy, but you can easily drop out and switch to a different match, and you can always tell if its laggy within a few seconds, so wont be wasting any time in a laggy match. Most matches are silky smooth even with a full 16 human players (although that is rare). You can play any mode of Brink online or offline, and you can even start a match offline and then decide to add people part way through. You can choose to turn on or off certain online features such as voice chat, friendly fire, and the number of players on each team, so there is a bit more variation. You can also make it so that only human players can be apart of the battle, which is nice considering the AI. Overall, the AI isn't terrible, but it could use some work. It is inconsistent, but most of the time they can get the job done and can be relied on to complete objectives. However, it is still much better to play with real people than the AI because of the teamwork.
Teamwork is emphasized in Brink, and it works much better with real people than it does with AI. The AI can get the job done, but lack the coordination that humans can have. The AI has trouble realizing that there is a great sniping spot with a clear shot into enemy territory, or that they should take the long way to avoid a choke point. This isn't a huge deal, but it can be frustrating when you seem to be the only one noticing that the enemy needs to be flanked in order to advance, or that fighting uphill is a bad idea. There needs to be a balance between classes to best complete the objectives, and sometimes the AI doesn't catch on that you need help completing an objective, but playing online fixes that.
The SMART system (smooth movement across random terrain) works well in almost every instance; only when you approach an obstacle at a drastic angle does it fail you. You can stop it at any time, so it it easy to reach a specific spot, including standing on railings to get a better view.
The art style in Brink works well and looks good, so no problems visually. Brink is an awesome sounding game, and each weapon has a distinguishable and awesome sound. However, there is a problem with the campaign. The story is interesting, but since you can jump around to any mission you like and skip any cut scenes, it just isn't engaging. It is fun, however, to see your customized characters and weapons incorporated into the cut scenes.
THE BOTTOM LINE?
Advantages
+Great customization
+Forces teamwork to get anything done
+Great level design
+Looks good and sounds better
+Great movement system
+Intense objectives and battles
Disadvantages
-Too little maps
-Not enough content
-Story is not engaging
-Bad AI
-Occasional lag
Honestly, I would love to give this game a 9.0, but there just isn't enough content. Splash Damage desperately needs to come out with some DLC to maintain interest in the game, or the fun wont last.