Brink isn't so S.M.A.R.T. after all - The Review

By goukijones — May 22, 2011
Tags: blithering-blathering blog brink review

Brink has been in the making for a few years now and promises something new, something we've never seen before in a FPS game. Is it true? Did Brink live up to the hype? Is it the future of FPS?

So I've been procrastinating about doing my write up for Brink, a new FPS game from Splash Damage. Splash Damage worked on Wolfenstien games, Doom 3(multiplayer only) and Quake Wars, so one would think they have some good experience under their belts right? Personally I've been following Brink since 2009 and I've been totally hyped for it ever since. All the ideas and concepts I've been hearing about the game, sounded like it was going to be the most revolutionary FPS of all time. Featuring the S.M.A.R.T. engine (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) and what the developers referred to as being able to seamlessly switch between online and offline play and not know the difference.

Well I'm absolutely embarrassed to say that Brink did not live up to an ounce of it's hype. I told all my friends on Facebook, tweeted to all my followers on twitter and tried my damnedest to sell this game to all the members here on Gouki.com. I can honestly say this will be the last time you ever hear me talk about Brink, unless I bring it up to remind somebody how terribly wrong a game can go. We ordered 3 copies of this game to the office, one we didn't even open and sent it back to Amazon immediately, the other two were put on eBay less than two days after receiving them. We were lucky to get $39 for both copies. One of the people that bought a copy was named Jimmy, ha! Go figure.

Story:
One of the online reviews I watched said it best, the two sides in the game are simply there just to fight against each other. They all look the same, there's no women in this world. I'd be trying to get the fuck out too, if titties were banned on this beautiful floating city island thingy. There's a short cutscene before and after each level and even while playing multiplayer and you can't skip through this stuff fast enough. Anybody that knows my gaming style, knows I don't watch cut scenes anyway. Brink just did this completely wrong.

Gameplay:
This is where I plan to really ramble, so try and keep up. Leveling up is just like COD or Crysis, the more you play the more experience you get and the more goodies you can buy. (Except weapon upgrades, which I'll explain more later.) Each class has a group of "perks" you can unlock by playing the game. Then there is an overall perk list, which adds more health or more special moves. Once you've leveled up all of this, then what? That fun is gone and I expect anybody still playing this game right now, is probably maxed out. The 4 different classes are a great idea in Brink, but if you're playing offline and you're the not class that the objective is asking for, well then you're fucked, because the AI don't do shit. Remember that seamlessly switching between online and offline? Yeah totally fails here.

Weapon upgrades are no different from other games, extended clips, different sights, grenade attachments, yeah all cool. Here's the thing though, you have to do the challenges to unlock these attachments. You can do the challenges with your friends up to four people. The difficulty increases with stars and you can unlock more and more stuff. But wait there's a catch, you can't unlock items if you play with your friends online. That's right, you have to do these challenges offline and alone to unlock the items. No fun there. Seamlessly switch between online and offline.

Playing online with friends was fun for about 2-3 games. Oh that was while we were playing private matches with bots. The bots are dumb as hell and playing public games were no different, if nobody had operative leveled up then nobody played operative. That lead to the objective not getting done and well ... equaled Team Sad Face. When we switched to public games and actually started playing random Jimmys online, the game came to a screeching halt and I witnessed lag like I have never seen before in my life. I didn't know what was going on and we eventually switched back to just playing private matches. Public matches eventually did work for me, but I was playing alone, all of my friends had given up already. Another feature of the "seamlessly switch between online and offline."

Graphics?
I would give Halo Reach a hard time about it only being two colors most of the maps, but Brink took it to a whole-notha-level. I really think you can define the color of Brink and just grey bland. That's an official color now. Splash Damage could have easily made at least one or two stages in an atrium or on a beach of this Jimmy ass island city. Every level either takes place in a grey building, with the exception of the level that is in the shipping yard. That level is red bland.

The characters look cool and I like the idea behind the design and this is probably the best feature in the game. There's no girls though, like I mentioned earlier and that move right there I think turned off a lot of female gamers. On a side note, one stupid thing about the customization was that when you were selecting different colors for you gear, they were like shaded or grayed out and you couldn't really see what color it was until you actually put the gear on your character. Somebody was asleep on this one.

There's nothing really good to say about Brink. This game shouldn't have cost more that 1200 MSP points or $15 bucks for you PS3 Jimmys. There's only 8 maps, no campaign and maybe 3-4 game types. Not even a pair of the most spectacular elongated boobs would have save this game.

Flush it!

Brink

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Release Date: May 10, 2011

Buy it! 15% - Rent it! 38% - Flush it! 46%

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Brink isn't so S.M.A.R.T. after all - The Review

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