The world you love has just become flooded and the only place to live is on a floating utopia known as the Ark. Will you choose to escape the Ark or will you save it the Ark? Splash damages and Bethesda Software has just released their new game Brink, a futuristic shooter with some extremely detailed customization to your character. Will this game be unique or will it end up in the 10 dollar bin within the year.
Let’s begin with the story line. The world has flooded and is no longer ground on earth. You live in a giant floating city called the Ark. The Ark was designed to bring nations together that want to stay alive from the water. At first the Ark was supposed to be a utopia. Sadly a lot of the cities people have gone into poverty and starting to rebel. You are now on the brink of choosing a side for the upcoming civil war on the Ark. You can either try to keep peace and save the Ark as the Security, or you can escape the Ark for a better life as a Rebel. There is no good or bad side in this game. Both factions have good reasons to fight. Unfortunately this game doesn’t have much of a story after the intro. Before each mission a one or two minute cut scene is played, with a couple of forgettable characters while you’re in the background doing something. This game has almost no story line. I played through both campaigns multiply times and I honestly cannot tell you any main characters name. You could skip every cut scene and you would still understand the story perfectly. Also I beat both campaigns in less than 8 hours. This game’s campaign feels like an afterthought or rushed you have no idea what is going on.
On to gameplay, Brinks gameplay is very unique it mixes first person shooting with parkour moves such as running over objects, walls, and anything that gets in your way. In Brink you better keep moving cause you will be destroyed if standing still. You have a choice of three body types, light, medium and heavy. The light body types are the fastest and most athletic of the group. They are also the least protected and can only use submachine guns and pistols. The medium body type is slower and less athletic from the light body type, but can use all the weapons the light type can plus snipers, grenade launchers, and assault rifles. Heavy body type is the most powerful. They can use all the weapons plus rocket launchers, and chain guns. They are also the slowest and are not athletic. The game also splits you into to four different classes to choice from. Soldier can plant charges and give ammo. Engineer can repair; boost weapons power, and disarm charges. Medic can revive wounded team mates and give health boosts. Operative can hack into systems, and disguise themselves as enemy teams. All four classes have to work together to win the round. Finally your character and weapons are very customizable, over a billion different ways to make your own unique character. My weapon had a bayonet, red dot scope, drum mag and a silencer. What makes this interesting is I will not find another person in the game that looks like my character. The A.I in the game is very rough. Your team most the time won’t go for the main objective. Don’t expect A.I. medics to heal you if they’re not standing right over you. Plus half way through the game the enemy team will suddenly be almost unstoppable and mow your team without losing any health. The games controls are a little clunky and a lot of times I didn’t know the main objective was while fighting.
Now to graphics and multiplayer, graphics for this game is pretty nice. Storming the slums, or raiding the rich trains ways and clubs all feel real and should be adored. Multiplayer sadly almost does not exist on the xbox version. There is no normal multiplayer like team death match or capture the flag. Campaign, free mode, or challenge mode are the only games you can play. Splash Damage even made Brink’s first downloadable content free for 2 weeks to get people to come back. Personally I think that comes out as desperate for multiplayer.
Honestly this game has some good but a lot of bad. For a game that got delayed multiply times and still lacks in many areas is quite a shame. With no multiplayer, story, and irritating A.I. this game made me go crazy. It was a tough choice between rent and pass, but honestly don’t waste your money and time on this. I’m giving it a PASS rate. It’s ok for about 10 minute and that’s when I’m creating my character.
