Brink (360/PS3/PC)

[Tiko7523]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

Can't wait for reviews really interested

[DirtyJerz32]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/05/09/brink-video-review

Not a fan of IGN, but here's the first review. 6.0

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-hd-brink/713695

Here's gametrailes review 7.9

[goh]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

http://www.vg247.com/2011/05/06/beth...razy-on-brink/

Yet they claimed to not have room for female characters.

Oh man, wrong thread! lol ... thought I was in the LA Noir thread! Sorry!

He did say PS3 so you were right. There's no multiplayer when he gets it on tuesday.

I lost what very little faith I had in this game earlier when I saw it's the same people that made Quake Wars and it turned out to be much more online focused than I thought,then I saw a stream and it looked terrible but I'll check out the IGN review. Poor partner AI,not a suprise. Only 8 maps and they're always the same? Umm... Well they did say it has a lot of style but I doubt that'd make up for the rest of it with me. I'm skiping.

[Burns11]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/05/10/brink-review/

Brink review: Jumping high and falling flat

by Griffin McElroy on May 10th 2011 12:01AM
27

In decades past, when the first-person shooter genre -- hell, when the whole of three-dimensional gaming -- was still very much in its infancy, shooters could scrape by on nothing more than their inclusion of amusing, oftentimes absurd innovations. Combat didn't have to be perfectly tight, weapons didn't have to be balanced to a T, and developers didn't need to worry about character progression to retain their audience. Some might argue that the genre's formative years produced some of the greatest shooters of all time. What they cannot argue, however, is this: Those days are over.

Brink is built on the back of some very unique ideas, the most notable of which being its fluid, parkour-inspired movement and its procedurally generated player objectives. They have promise, to be sure, and even manage to realize some of their potential -- but unfortunately, any innovation Brink brings to the table is mired in its habitually imbalanced nature, as well as its sometimes stupefyingly flawed gameplay design. Brink (2/15/10)

Brink focuses on the never-ending power struggle between The Security and The Resistance, two sects living on the far overpopulated floating island known as The Ark. Their fight is split up over 16 campaign missions, each of which feature a number of objectives the attacking team must complete without getting shut out by the defending team. Smaller missions may only feature one primary objective, but larger, lengthier encounters could feature as many as five different phases.

Most of these objectives can only be achieved by one of Brink's four classes: The Soldier, the Medic, the Engineer and the Operative. For example, the Soldier is the only one that can blow up sealed gates, while the Operative is the only one that can hack into the opposing team's computers. Each eight-player team needs some representation from each class if they want to succeed -- though if a class is missing from your roster, players can change to another vocation at any time by using a Command Post.

Here's one of the first major problems with Brink's objective-based structure: Each level that a player earns lets them unlock a new ability. Though there are a few permanent boosts the player can spend their unlocks on, most of these abilities are class-specific, meaning eventually, you're going to find a class you like and spend most of your points on it. Naturally, you'll have a predilection to play as that class -- but should you refuse to switch your class to suit the objective, you're going to feel like your services aren't really required three-quarters of the time.

There are plenty of secondary objectives for you to focus on during your class' frequent off-seasons, like capturing Command Posts, which gives your team a bonus to their health or "supplies" (an energy bar for using Brink's special abilities). But frequently, the best course of action will be to switch to a role you're not very invested in to further the cause of the primary objective, removing you from the element in which you feel most comfortable.

Its moments of triumph are unsatisfying and far outnumbered by its moments of crushing frustration.

Brink adheres to a "strength in numbers" philosophy present in titles like MAG and notably absent in twitchier shooters like Call of Duty: Black Ops. Headshots and frag grenades don't grant one-hit kills in Brink's universe, so outnumbering another player is usually the best way to take them down. This is actually kind of refreshing for gamers who lack the split-second reflexes required to succeed at a Call of Duty -- but the general lack of "hero moments" is frustrating in those matches where the rest of your team just can't seem to get it together.

Unfortunately, Brink follows that "strength in numbers" philosophy to its own folly. The absolute best strategy, 100 percent of the time, is to form up your entire team on the objective and hold off the opposing force. Whether its a defending team protecting an objective or the attacking team keeping heat off of whomever is completing the objective, it's extremely difficult to oust an entrenched team.

This is the most egregious imbalance which Brink suffers from, but not the only imbalance. Many maps feature choke points so brutal that it makes the attacking team's mission nearly impossible. Also, the classes themselves are oddly balanced: The Engineer, with his deployable turrets and landmines and damage-boosting buffs, is a far more formidable killing force than the Soldier, who can throw Molotov Cocktails and dispense ammo to teammates.

Perhaps Brink's greatest sin is its omission of a traditional party-based matchmaking system, using instead a system designed to automatically populate single-player matches with real-life players. It achieves this goal well, but with one caveat: The single-player experience is absolutely abysmal, and should be avoided at all costs.

It's not that the game's artificial intelligence is inherently bad -- it just never seems to figure out how to cooperate with the human element. There's no way to coordinate with your computer-brained allies, usually leading them to run mindlessly towards the objective, where all eight of the opposing team's AI players sit and wait, a field of landmines and turrets between the two forces. Even on the easiest difficulty, single-player Brink is a fruitless exercise in Sisyphean frustration.

There's a standalone Challenge mode which can be played solo or cooperatively, though this proves to be little more than a momentary distraction from the core game. The mode consists of exactly four training missions with three different difficulty ranks. By completing the first and second rank of each mission, you unlock weapons and their many attachments. I completed this task -- and had unlocked Brink's entire, overwhelming armory -- within 45 minutes of booting up the game for the very first time.

Brink is chock-full of inexplicable missteps like this uneven rewards scheme. For instance, players are shown each mission's (thankfully skippable) opening cutscene every time they load up a match. Also, other than showing experience gains and who played which class the best, there's no post-game statistics page. If you're interested in how many kills you may have received in a given match, you should probably have a pen and paper handy. And possibly some sort of transcriptionist, since you'll be busy, you know, shooting.

Also, why is there no lobby system? Launching a game with your friends requires you to start the game without them, then wait for them to join you or accept your invites. After the game, players automatically move on to the next map, unless they vote to play a different mission. Or, you know, disband and reform with a new host. This inaccessibility was made all the more arduous by frequent standstill lag, which made most multiplayer matches almost unplayable. (For what it's worth, Bethesda promises to fix these "minor networking issues" with a day-one patch.)

But an update to address Brink's connectivity issues would only fix the most superficial of its flaws. There's something inherently topsy-turvy with its core game design: Despite its focus on rapidly-changing objectives, it rewards mindless dog-piling on the primary goal. It punishes players who invest in a single class that resonates with them. Its moments of triumph are unsatisfying, and far outnumbered by its moments of crushing frustration. At every turn, it doesn't just settle for mediocrity -- it runs towards it with ramming speed.

Brink's artistically compelling soldiers can sail effortlessly over obstacles, landing acrobatic maneuvers never before seen in the genre with effortless poise -- unfortunately, just about everything else lands flat on its face.

[Sandman42]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

Ouch. I'll wait to hear some impressions on it from people since there will be actual people to play online and not bots. There was always that chance that this game wouldn't be good in my mind though since it was from the same guys who did Quake Wars which I didn't like at all. Sounds like Splash Damage still hasn't figured out how to write good netcode either though.

Homefront did get some mediocre to poor reviews also, but there was a number of people on this site who liked it. Probably will see the same thing happen with Brink.

[Pappy Knuckles]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

Damn, not sounding too hot. It'll be interesting to see what you guys think about this one. If it's not worth a damn I may just skip it altogether and get L.A. Noire instead.

[Sandman42]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

Giant Bomb Quick Look

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[goh]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

Here's a much better one from GR:

http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/br...52911331493062

Is it better than?

Halo: Reach? No. I like it more than any Halo game, but y'know, that's me

Call of Duty: Black Ops? No. Again, I prefer Brink, because dammit, it's different. Still, it just isn't big enough to compete with CoD.

Team Fortress 2? No, but it could be. I don't personally like Team Fortress 2 (sorry), but fans of TF2 have built a strong community that won't easily be chipped into.

You'll love

Intense objective-based combat
Badass free running
Feeling like your team really needs you

You'll hate

The eight maps quickly become repetitive
No deathmatch, not even just for fun
No ladies?

8/10

[Flawless]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

Arstechnica: Why we're not reviewing Brink, and why you shouldn't buy it (yet)

I know you're excited about Brink as a game, and I'm excited about it as well. Unfortunately, the code arrived too late for us to play any significant amount of time, the state of the review code was such that I was uncomfortable rendering any kind of authoritative verdict, and there will soon be a patch released that may address most of my complaints. Or it could address none of them. The fact remains that the game reviewers have been playing for the past week will not be the same game you play at home, and that makes it impossible for me to do my job in an effective manner.

Allow me to explain what happened, and why you should take a wait-and-see approach to the game.

[mgoblue678]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

I don't understand the complaint about no deathmatch. The whole game is centered around objectives and team play, why should there be a deathmatch mode? Just so they can appease the people who don't like being a team player? This is clearly not the game for that kind of person.

Severe netcode problems and online lag, now that is a big red flag.

[bcruise]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

Really never understood how you can judge a predominantly multiplayer-based game properly before the servers are even turned on.

Oh well, I'll be playing it in about 2 hours to judge for myself...

[thaima1shu]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

Crap, NO! I was so hyped for this game. Hopefully all these reviews are just wrong. My copy is coming tomorrow, so I'll see how it goes for myself.

[Brian_OS]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

IncGamers - 8.8/10
GamingNexus - B+
CVG - 8/10
EuroGamer - 8/10
VideoGamer - 8/10
Destructoid - 7.5/10
1Up - D
IGN - 6/10
Joystiq - 2/5


Couple reviews.. I picked it up for the 360 for my son and PC for me. Nothing much else coming out right now so I am going to take my time and level up to give it a chance.

[Vast]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

I wouldn't be too worried. Except about that lag, lol lets hope they fix that. This game is my type of game, what that guy was complaining about I think i'd feel differently.
I want what this game is bringing to the table.

[LingeringRegime]

Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)

Played the first campaign level. Here are my impressions so far.

Positives

Teamwork is an absolute necessity.
Customization is insanely deep (we knew that already)
RPG Like Character Skill trees
Everything is objective based
Offline Bots/Campaign/Multiplayer
Takes lots of bullets to knock someone down. (Might be a negative to you)

Negatives

Aiming Down the Sight is a little clunky, think Bad Company 2
Graphics are good, but nothing like Killzone 3/Crysis 2
No Deathmatch I have seen, which might turn a lot of people off. But, I am fine with that, since that Deathmatch has begun to bore me.
Takes lots of bullets to put some one down. (Might be a positive to you.)

Bottom Line

If you are the type of gamer that cares about K/D ratio and you are a stickler for bullet damage, you might want to skip this one.

If you want a change of pace, and enjoy more team based objective games, you will enjoy it.

My Review: 8/10