Brink is looking cartoony, but fun

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Verdict:
Looking solid, but still a touch rough conceptually.

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A floating city on the edge of civil war... and a lot of guys with guns. Fun times, in Splash Damage’s first independent effort.

FPS games with tight multiplayer integration are nothing new, but there’s never been quite such tight integration as Brink, the new game from one-time Quake developer Splash Damage, has promised.

This isn’t a game that’s promising a great campaign, and a related multiplayer game – rather, the entire game’s designed to be played online, and you can mix and match to your heart’s content, depending on the style of game you want. It’s an impressive idea, but will this level of integration deliver a heretofore unheard-of level of competitive, yet story-balanced play, or will it just muddy both experiences?

Water, water all around...

Setting is everything in a good game, and Brink’s future apocalypse environment does a good job of delivering a wide range of locales.

Set on The Ark, a floating city designed to carry 5,000 people and be totally self-sustaining, Brink kicks off as global warming is pretty much just flooding the planet – also leading to massive overcrowding on The Ark, with something like 50,000 people looking for shelter. Designed from the outset as a utopian ideal – clean, curving lines in whites and bold colours – The Ark is now overcrowded with festering slums and shanty dwellings.

As pressure mounts, two forces are now clashing. Though functionally identical in terms of gameplay (so far), the two factions offer very different outlooks and fashion choices. The Resistance is all fist-pumping for freedom and semi-tribal in their look, while the Ark’s Security forces are your typical future-SWAT types.

Character design is similarly bold. Rather than show grittily accurate character models, Splash Damage has decided to go with a look more akin to Team Fortress 2 than Modern Warfare. It’s a move we’re honestly not sure about, given the extremely detailed and real-world inspired weapon designs, and the grittiness of the setting. It’s not a game-breaker, by any stretch, but as always with any idiosyncratic design choice you risk alienating a portion of your market.

The Atomic jury’s out on this one.

...and not a round to waste

Of course, Brink’s really going to live or die on the strength of its combat and how the persistently online nature of the gameplay actually works. When in Germany last month for GamesCom, we got a chance to spend a little while trying to beat one of the game’s more intense missions, and it gave us a good idea of its strengths and weaknesses so far.

Playing as members of the Security forces, we and our fellow journos were tasked with completing a series of missions while escorting a robot through a rundown portion of the city. Along the way we needed to hack doors, blow other doors up, and generally keep the robot more or less in one piece.

Brink features four character classes, and we got to experience how vital each is to completing a mission like this. Soldiers are vital to keep friendly ammo counts high, and can blow up certain targets, while engineers are needed for repairs, weapon buffs, and placing turrets. Medics are your archetypal healers and rezzers, while Operatives are competent hackers and infiltrations specialists.

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Developer: Splash Damage Publisher: Bethesda

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4 Comments

Bundy 2.0 Nov 24, 2010 8:07 PM	I can see why it's cartoonish, cartoonish graphics allow them to exaggerate features and give the players some character especially when there is customisation of appearance involved. I think if they took a gritty more serious look the customisation would be lost. also consider that games that look cartoonish 'age' better than games that try look realistic. Because there is a perceived and accepted intentional imperfection involved. TF2 is a great example compared to other shooters released in 2007 on an engine that is now commercially 6 or more years old.
wayke Nov 27, 2010 2:08 AM	LOL Brink Splash Damage going for another Failing FPS ETQW sucked I brought the blah blah with the metal tin played it a few times and they lost thier way from original ET it was like Q2 meets BF2 with really weak gameplay the modes were boring as hell and you would think they'd have kept something from their Free success game ET Which for years had people playing the clan base And XP save servers yay that game rocks I love watching rage quiters step on mines argh but only games i see latley are so crap, Good games are on the BRINK OF EXSTINCTION this constant spew of Gerbal in the arse gaming it's weak and the whole idea of ONE FREAKING BUTTON TO LEARN SHOOT TALK EXIT FFS GET A CLUE PEOPLE HAVE KEYBOARDS NOT GAME PADS ON PC, And surely these outrageous claims of millions of dollars spent on creating these games which are about as well thought out as a Campaign designed to Spread Genital Warts or Herpes by subscription Mail GAMING IS Dying and morons still buy this JUNK SC2 all these New FPS games with limited options limited this and the FANBOIS scream but thats the way its meant to be no its not ITs not at ALL it SHOULD BE WHAT WE WANT WE ARE PAYING THEM THEY'RE Raping our wallets for these Pathetic Wares GAMES ARE DEAD.
Bundy 2.0 Nov 27, 2010 8:42 AM	Well Quake Wars was fairly well received both commercially and critically which indicates it was "what we want" maybe not what you wanted. SC2 isn't an FPS.
wayke Nov 28, 2010 9:11 AM	SC2 was just a really crappy redo with Multi to many units removed that should of still been mayaswell have been a MOD for Warcrap 3 and i had to mention that RTS as it was such a waste of money had to say Yes i Rant much. } Bundy 2.0 Nov 27, 2010 8:42 AM Well Quake Wars was fairly well received both commercially and critically which indicates it was "what we want" maybe not what you wanted. } By critically do you mean PAID reviewers LOL ? Commercialy are you talking sale sadistic statistics from those people who assume you want a vacuum on your iCrap because you ticked a box or info was stoled from FB really that FB has to go to. ETQW intial Release and several Patches were about as stable as someone with Parkinsons holding Nitroglycerine on tray tables with cushions on the bottom of tables being kicked by a person with involuntary spasms OH NOOO! BOOOMMMMMM!!!!!! Holy handgrenade Batman.

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