Brink's overall premise is promising, but intense lag and technical issues keep it from greatness.
The Bad: Lag ruins half of the games that you try to participate in; technical issues abound; AI is terrible; parkour is frustrating at times; bad design choices.
Brink has been on many consumers' "must play" list for quite some time now. Promising intense customization as well as Team Fortress-esque classes that force you to innovate; things were looking pretty good for this game. The fact that Bethesda, creators of Oblivion and Fallout, were tacking their name onto the project was also a nice bonus. Unfortunately, technical issues and, most importantly, lag; completely ruin any potential that Brink had.
The story in Brink takes place in the future in a location known as The Ark. Basically, the place is going to hell and a group of rebels are looking to escape. A local security force is attempting to impede their efforts and save the dilapidated Ark in the process. Overall, the story is incredibly boring and makes no attempt whatsoever to keep you interested.
After picking whether you want to escape the Ark or save it (which is meaningless considering you can play as both sides), you're thrown into the customization menu where a rather comprehensive tutorial shows you just about everything that you need to know in order to survive in a multiplayer battle. You're then free to customize your character. This is Brink's strongest aspect, and I really wish that other games would follow Brink's example in this area. Everything from facial features to what kind of gear your character is wearing is in your control, and by completing objectives online and leveling up, you gain more gear to customize your in-game avatar as well as the weapons he is carrying.
Brink is a class-based, objective-focused first person shooter. It's never about how many kills you can rack up in a single game, though you do get points for killing enemy players. It's all about how well you can work with your team. You are rewarded points for virtually anything that you do as long as it involves some sort of teamwork or progression for your team as a whole. If you supply ammo to your comrade, you're rewarded with experience. If you offer a life-giving syringe to your fallen comrade, you're rewarded with experience. This experience is used to level up your character, giving you more customization options as well as new abilities pertaining to one of four different classes.
Each class is unique in the abilities that they possess. Soldiers are focused on pushing the fight forward with devastating grenades as well as their ability to supply allies with ammunition. Medics can buff themselves and their comrades with health upgrades, making them and their teammates harder to kill. Engineers can make the battlefield more dangerous with their ability to plant mines and automatic turrets, and their weapon buff can make any gun pack a more powerful punch. Finally, Operatives can disguise themselves as enemy soldiers in order to get a better view of the battlefield. Each of these classes is important if you are to complete the game's many objectives.
In each game, you're given a set of objectives which can be viewed using Brink's handy objective wheel, allowing you to pick an objective which will then be highlighted on your map. Most objectives require you to switch to a certain class which can be done at command posts that can be captured around the battlefield. These objectives, which usually consist of you defending or attacking something, can be somewhat interesting, and having a good team behind you can make each one exciting. Opening up a shortcut for your team to use just makes you feel like you can make a difference in the battle if you play to your classes' strengths. However, other elements of the game don't work as well.
Parkour works well most of the time. Having a run button that does the vaulting and sliding for you is nice, but there are too many times where you'll be confronted with an obstacle that simply refuses to be overcome. Walls that take effort to climb and objects that can't be vaulted over unless your positioned just right are all too prevalent. It's annoying when you're trying to escape gunfire only to run straight into an obstacle that you intended to vault, but are instead brought to a complete stop. There are just times where the parkour system is just hard to rely on.
Other design choices weren't thought through. Supplying allies with "buffs" is very important, and can really make a difference in a large scale battle. In order to administer a buff to an ally, you have to be close to them. If you're prompted to administer a buff to a teammate and are out of range, you're magnetically pulled toward them with an awkward uncontrollable run that can cause you to run straight out of cover and into enemy fire. It's awkward and annoying. If I'm out of range, don't allow me to administer the buff…it's that simple.
Another aspect of Brink that I found strange was the fact that you couldn't play with people who were a drastically different level than you. Sure, I understand this particular design choice was implemented to make each match somewhat fair. Having higher level players on a team can make or break the experience. However, my friends and I (who had all gotten the game at different times and were all different levels) couldn't play together due to this feature. This flaw, in particular, is a big slap in the face to a game that simply begs to be played with friends. Again, it just wasn't well thought out.
The AI in Brink is also terribly designed. Computer controlled enemies and allies will stand almost completely still when they spot a rival player. They will then proceed to shoot you down from that spot until one of you is incapacitated. Medics will make you priority number one when you're incapacitated, ignoring enemy fire just to heal you only to be downed themselves. It's incredibly annoying when computer controlled allies fill in the empty spaces of your online games; because the team that has them has to deal with their numerous shortcomings and will probably end up losing the match anyway because of their lack of efficiency.
It's tough to truly appreciate a game when each match that you try to participate in is saturated in a game-ruining lag. Brink's connection issues ruin almost everything fun about this game. More than half of the games that I've tried to play have suffered from some form of lag, and with the sensitive parkour and shooting mechanics, even a little bit of lag can ruin any fun that you're having with a game. Yet, the lag in Brink is some of the worst I've seen, preventing characters from moving, shooting or throwing your character right into enemy fire while you're stuck in place. It needs to be fixed.
It's such a shame that the issues in this game weren't addressed. When a game was running smoothly, I thoroughly enjoyed playing Brink with my friends (when we reached the same level). There was a real sense of cooperation as we buffed each other's abilities in order to meet the opposition. However, as we continued playing, the lag and technical issues became all too apparent, and our fun was cut short. This game could've been so much more, but there are just too many problems here. There's fun to be had…just not in the Brink's current state.