BRINK: A Critique

Ever since I got into the Shadowrun mood, I have been longing for a game as tense as that. It captures the element of teamwork, AI manipulation, exploration and variety at its best! It was one of the first games under the “Games for Windows” title, where XBOX 360 players and PC gamers could be in the same match together, both using the same controller. It was a time when love was in the air and you could literally make love to the disc. Sadly, it’s one of the most underrated greats which could change the world of gaming if it was merely whispered of again.

When I saw Brink, I was expecting a little bit of Red Faction: Guerrilla, a sprinkle of Conker: Live and Reloaded multiplayer and the co-operation of Gears of War and/or Rainbow Six: Vegas. Yet what we have here is a half-soaked attempt at mixing shoddy visuals of RAGE, the plot of Shadowrun gone horribly wrong and a miserable attempt to throw in elements of Mirror’s Edge. It’s like giving gangsters body armour and big guns - it’s not Saints’ Row, it’s a truckload of sin. It makes the military look stupid, and it makes the resistance look.... Fable stereotype-ish. There’s just little to no imagination whatsoever, and I’m here to discuss every single little flaw that enraged me.

You’d think that a game with simple requirements could at least give enough lore to make it interesting. But this is a critique - this is a JohnGreasyGamer critique - this will get ugly. This means, there’s no hope. From what I remember off the top of my head, the game takes place on the Ark - a city floating on the waters of our flooded Earth. Yet supplies are running low and crime is getting out of hand - some people want to move, and others want to restore the land. The two sides are neither good nor evil, as it depends what choice you’d make. Yet this barely affects the missions or how the game changes. Nope, the only difference is the cinematics on each mission, the “what-if” quests, and whether you are attacking or defending an objective. Even if you learn the characters’ names, you’ll still forget within an instant anyway. Your character isn’t shown in the cinematics, nor do you see him unless he’s working on an objective (hacking something, arming a bomb, etc). There is no relationship between you, your characters or anyone else in-game. It is simply shocking.

When I write my critiques, I tend to compare the game I’m reviewing to something good and bad. In this case, this game is so unique I can only make comparisons to one game: Shadowrun. That, dear reader, is a good game. And by unique, I mean there’s few games that can screw up this hard. I don’t know where to start, so let’s try combat. It’s simple - no matter what difficulty level you’re on, you’re instantly dead unless you have someone else near you as bullet bait. The enemy AI is smart, knowing exactly where to find you no matter what. And you can hide off the map but they’ll most likely bend a rocket in mid-flight to aim it at you and destroy your beloved character. But the friendly AI? Oh you’re in for a treat! The allied AI is horrendous, forever tailing you and getting itself killed, expecting a revive or going to near-suicidal and pointless secondary objectives. If I wanted another spawn point, I’d take it myself. Even if you have a friend who’s willing to sacrifice all their innocence to play this with you, the AI still cheats. It will do everything in its (over)power(ed) mind to destroy your experience.

There’s nothing to say about the missions other than they’re a lacklustre list of objectives which don’t make any sense - how does hacking a door blow up a building in the end cinematic? What does taking the elevator do to progress the story? There’s little logic in the objectives given, and the secondary objectives are there because it’s something to do in order to get away from it all. It’s a linear FPS game with rushed objectives and plot.

BRINK tried to be unique with its parkour (like free-running) but fails miserably, as players can’t do so much as jump and latch onto rails, banisters and other surfaces which grant opportunities to escape from the heavy fire you’ll be taking. In Conker: Live and Reloaded, multiplayer didn’t offer many opportunities for acrobatics, but I’d still find a way to get somewhere new and make the most of my latest find. Despite BRINK having loads of shortcuts and nooks ‘n’ crannies to explore, you’ll barely make use of them. And when you do, they’ll only be recaptured or they’re barely worth it. If you have one spawn point which is right at the back of the map, you may be better off despite it being a long walk.

Next up on John’s list is the god-awful class system. There’s a choice of four uninspired classes involving Medic, Assault, Engineer and Scout (I think - it’s just a clone of Team Fortress 2 anyway), each with their own totally original abilities. While Mad Dash Racing had Flight, Speed and Charging classes in order to use certain paths, this game is horrible in terms of classes as you’ve got to constantly change because secondary objectives have timers. Only certain classes can hack doors or arm bombs etc., so it makes it extremely annoying when the AI doesn’t do a damn thing! I’ve literally seen Medics run to the bombs, but they can’t hack them, and so they just stand there trying to interact with it. It’s appalling.

Whenever you go through Story Mode, you don’t just go from one mission to another. When you finish one mission, you get the stats then are sent back to the menus to choose the next part. This is because your character has been given more XP to spend on perks and apparel, but surely it should be a choice: go to menu, or continue playing. This is OK for new players or ones who are just farming the experience points, but becomes repetitive when you’re just trying to farm the experience until you hit an extremely high number.

This game is best in co-operative but prepare to be scowled at for the rest of your life. By bringing in a human being, you’re getting rid of one of your team’s mindless AI. Yet by doing so, you’re punishing them and slowly draining the essence that makes them human. Furthermore, if you’re doing the Challenge mode missions, prepare for much more disappointment (technically impossible): you will get no rewards, and you won’t unlock any more unless you do them in single-player. Yes, I’m dead serious. The game doesn’t have mercy for co-op players. There’s not even any alternate endings, shared experience, achievements for working with a friend - by the time you realize that, it’s time to just press Eject, and get down on some R6:VEGAS.

You won’t just hear it from me - BRINK has some of the worst lag imaginable in a video game, no matter how good your internet may be. In BF3, servers have up to 64 players within them and each have better or worse internet than yourself, but in Brink, even 8 players can’t bare each other’s existence inside. Multiplayer in BRINK is exactly the same as singleplayer - it’s all objectives with little reason to play Deathmatch. Or kill anyone, for that matter. If I wanted full objective gameplay with quite a lot of kills involved, I’d play Team Fortress 2 - one of the few games that is free to play and good.

My biggest whine about BRINK has got to be its graphics. True, the guns look OK when you’re not online, but the character has missing textures all over - be this PC or home console. You can wait for everything to load, turn around and return a few seconds later, and find that it’s just ridiculously low again. It’s like as if your graphics card has set on fire and won’t even beg to be urinated on. The same problem appeared in Bioshock way too many times, but then it was bearable - here, it’s so noticeable I thought it was implemented like that. And people say that TESV:Skyrim’s textures were broken....

As for the soundtrack, I’ve no comment. Because there is no soundtrack! I wouldn’t mind it playing lightly in the background, perhaps that tad bit noticeable, but for comic relief we’ll often find elevator music.

This was a game I was desperate to play, but was unfortunate enough to pay real money for it not long ago. It is such a slapdash attempt on making an artistic FPS game, but it was rushed because players wanted it so badly. The effort seems to have gone into the cinematics (movie quality, but heave little meaning) and ultimately failing to give us a good plot. While Shadowrun in comparison offers little in terms of story, it’s still enjoyable and feels graceful as we scour through the skies wielding an assault rifle, and slamming down with our huge Troll fists. What do I recommend you do? Stay as far away as possible from this, even if you want the DooM T-shirts in-game!

Rating? 2/9 - why nine? Because 10 is overrated, and the Nostalgia Critic coined 11. I give this game 2 because it offers nothing new. It’s a clone of several games with a new name, hoping no-one will notice. It’s unplayable for the most part, but it’s a change to what we normally have. A disappointing game that’s lifespan is incredibly short.

Feel free to post your thoughts and rating on this game, and I thank you for your time reading this.