Re: Brink (360/PS3/PC)
Brink Is The Breakthrough That Makes 2011 Feel So Far Away
Brink Is The Breakthrough That Makes 2011 Feel So Far Away
At the start of the action I could select our character class and then plunge forth. If I knew what I was doing, I could just do it. Maybe as a soldier I'd run ahead of the rolling bomb robot and clear out the enemy. Maybe as a medic I'd hang back and heal. Or, as an engineer, maybe I'd try stick to the robot since I'd be capable of repairing damage it took. For any of these actions — for each shot fired that causes damage, for each downed ally healed, for each moment spent near the robot keeping it safe, and so on — I'd gain experience points. Play Brink well and you are constantly gaining XP, which ticks up on the right side of the screen. The XP can be spent to unlock new items and abilities.
But what if you aren't sure what to do? What if the other team is more skilled than you and the people with whom you are playing — or just better communicators? Then, again, you might be me. If you were, you would pick your class (you can change it mid-mission at a terminal) and press up on the d-pad. With that press you'd see a big circle appear on the screen. That's the mission wheel. The wheel is chopped into sections, each representing a possible task for you. The longer arcs represent missions that generate more XP. The most valuable mission is colored in yellow. The mission associated with whatever your first-person perspective is pointed toward is blue. The missions, Wedgwood convincingly-explained, are dynamically generated based on your character class, your location and the needs of the overall mission at that moment. As a medic, I saw missions that involved healing certain characters who were in trouble, human or AI. I also saw missions to protect the truck and several others. There were always about five missions from which to choose.
But what if you aren't sure what to do? What if the other team is more skilled than you and the people with whom you are playing — or just better communicators? Then, again, you might be me. If you were, you would pick your class (you can change it mid-mission at a terminal) and press up on the d-pad. With that press you'd see a big circle appear on the screen. That's the mission wheel. The wheel is chopped into sections, each representing a possible task for you. The longer arcs represent missions that generate more XP. The most valuable mission is colored in yellow. The mission associated with whatever your first-person perspective is pointed toward is blue. The missions, Wedgwood convincingly-explained, are dynamically generated based on your character class, your location and the needs of the overall mission at that moment. As a medic, I saw missions that involved healing certain characters who were in trouble, human or AI. I also saw missions to protect the truck and several others. There were always about five missions from which to choose.
As Wedgwood said, a skilled player could ignore the mission wheel. But the amateur like me can use it in order to be constantly useful to the team. One imagines that a team of players using the wheel for guidance could do great things.
I didn't feel like I was playing a game with training wheels. I felt like I was playing a game with the ability to have sharp awareness of my situation and my orders. I felt like a grunt fighting for a trusted commander who could read the battlefield, recognize my focus and tell me my best options of what to do. It was a rarity for me in team multiplayer games. I felt like a success.
Brink has more than one smart design element. The game supports drop-in co-op. Friends can jump in and help out but can't earn experience points if they quit early. (Players will gain extra XP by playing co-op and will be split into tiered matches online, depending on character achievement.) Brink offers players lots of special abilities, all with trade-offs, Wedgwood said. For example the "sense of perspective" perk that puts the game in third-person while you are hacking a terminal but locks your movement as the trade-off. Some perks didn't sound like they have down-sides, like the one the causes the screen to flash yellow if an enemy targets you or the one that lets you toss and then shoot grenades.
Wedgwood's career focus has been team-based combat games. I'm gratified he and Splash Damage have recognized both what is fun about them and what keeps players like me out. They've wrapped their clever mission system into a game that has a slick, modern aesthetic drawn in the grays and blues of modern machinery moreso than the browns and oranges of rust and dirt.
It is exciting to see a game that is this progressive. I'm eager for 2011 when I can finally play Brink on my own console but, happily, not have to play it on my own.
I didn't feel like I was playing a game with training wheels. I felt like I was playing a game with the ability to have sharp awareness of my situation and my orders. I felt like a grunt fighting for a trusted commander who could read the battlefield, recognize my focus and tell me my best options of what to do. It was a rarity for me in team multiplayer games. I felt like a success.
Brink has more than one smart design element. The game supports drop-in co-op. Friends can jump in and help out but can't earn experience points if they quit early. (Players will gain extra XP by playing co-op and will be split into tiered matches online, depending on character achievement.) Brink offers players lots of special abilities, all with trade-offs, Wedgwood said. For example the "sense of perspective" perk that puts the game in third-person while you are hacking a terminal but locks your movement as the trade-off. Some perks didn't sound like they have down-sides, like the one the causes the screen to flash yellow if an enemy targets you or the one that lets you toss and then shoot grenades.
Wedgwood's career focus has been team-based combat games. I'm gratified he and Splash Damage have recognized both what is fun about them and what keeps players like me out. They've wrapped their clever mission system into a game that has a slick, modern aesthetic drawn in the grays and blues of modern machinery moreso than the browns and oranges of rust and dirt.
It is exciting to see a game that is this progressive. I'm eager for 2011 when I can finally play Brink on my own console but, happily, not have to play it on my own.
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