On the Brink..! Of being good.

Brink is a game I want to love, but can’t. Sort of like brown bread, it just isn’t the same. They seem to have tried to mix in a free movement twist to the game, which I like, I always admire a company trying to add a little spice to killing. However, this was not the spice that should have been added.

The objectives are across on the opposite side of the map, so the infinite run is a welcomed ability, however when you reach the objective it’s a small closed off area. Now you are either sat defending or just shooting like any other FPS, which takes out any real need to bounce off walls like a 10 year old on 12 bottles of energy drinks. Sure it’s fun doing it but it just isn’t needed, and your team gets really annoyed when you do it around crates while they’re all defending some guy.

The game tries to give us a very frantic feel with super speedy characters, a system that lets you climb over and slide most things easily (Small ledges that are raised up sometimes don’t work) but all in all it works decently well. No, I don’t mean the frantic feel thing, I mean the slidey thing!

So, Custard. I hear you cry out what could go wrong with a game giving out a frantic feel? Well, kids. Each objective takes around 10 minutes to complete, around the same time it takes to finish an entire match on other major based multiplayer games. The objectives all include either sitting around or running at people who are sitting around. It’s basically a game about camping, where most games try to discourage this, BRINK advises you to. Luckily, not with snipers. Kind of.

I only used one sniper rifle, I don’t even think it was one, it had no scope. But you have to unlock all of the gun customisation through challenges and leveling up. You can pick if that’s good or bad.

The game has boasted an insane amount of customization, which I always like, but always knew would rely heavily on colour options. There is a fair bit to unlock, things like bondage bin bag arms, pointy gas masks, and Lord of the Ring Orc face paint.

The story line had me fascinated since I first met Paul Wedgwood, many eons ago. (Who was/is the game director, designer and CEO of the company. ) It hit me as a kind of possibility that could easily happen within our life time, I liked the idea of complete rebellion against tides of enemies who are better trained and equipped than you, yet you have the bond they don’t. Sadly, this is not how it plays. We instead see the story revolving around some dying guy being saved, or making sure some dying isn’t being saved, depending on which side you pick. The story segments last around half a minute, and are pretty much pointless.

The single player is actually a giant tutorial for the online play, I was warned that the single player isn’t as good as online play, so I thought I would check. They were right, the single player was quite very naff, and the online is only quite naff! It seems every match is leading to a big climax, and just like that whore last week, I was left disappointed, and with a funny feeling of pain in my eyes.

There seems to be no dedicated servers, they are all user hosted, which leads to a painful gameplay experience. The game drags, plays slow, and just isn’t all there, it’s missing something, or a lot of somethings. The multiplayer, is just the campaign online, so the issues still stand, frantic game play in a slow world.

So, sorry guys I was not impressed, sure pick this up when it goes down in price, but for now, it’s not great.

Games: Brink, Platforms: Xbox 360, Genres: Shooter, Publishers: Bethesda Softworks, Developers: Splash Damage