Brink

Brink has promised a lot and at least kept some incredible features.

If you play Brink as the multiplayer-shooter it undeniably is (despite the possibility to save or leave the Ark alone, which should simply be ignored), it's a real winner. Great character-customization, well balanced maps, good handling, awesome graphics and a surprising depth thanks to the huge amount of abilities make this a MP-Shooter that has come to stay.

Brink is destined to be a cult classic (on PC), for us fans of Quake Wars. Has no single player value but high entry difficulty due to tight team focus and sprawling maps. Good, but not nearly as damn good as Quake Wars. I like Brink but it is no wonder that most gamers don't. [June 2011]

A daring proposal that, if succesful, is a step forward for a genre prone to stagnation, as it mixes altogether campaign, multiplayer, cooperative and competitive. With good ideas well executed, it may be liked more or less depending on the player, but deserves an opportunity.

And that is Brink in a nutshell: the potential to traverse the digital battlefield in an entirely new way that affords the player more combat options. Couple this with the well-balanced classes (including the higher-level abilities) and the distinct lack of camping equipment (there's really only one sniper rifle in the game), and this is a different breed of first-person shooter: faster, sexier and made for online play.

Give yourself and the game some time. Learn how to play, study the maps and objectives, look for competent friends to play with and Brink will open up to a great game with tight matches, non stop action and a ton of fun. Unfortunately there´s a handful of issues that Splash Damage needs to patch quickly, such as a poor server browser, sound bugs, lags and the poor fact that you can´t switch characters and body types in game.

Despite these issues, all the elements are in place for Brink to become a terrific multiplayer shooter. It handles well, offers customization options galore, and challenges FPS players to do more than just pull the trigger.

It's not without its faults, some of which are more serious than others, but Splash Damage achieves the impossible: a game that feels fresh in the stalest of genres.

Flawed brawling in a beautiful world you never quite get to explore. [July 2011, p.90]

Suitable just for multiplayer users, as if played offline it won't be able to deliver even a third of it potential. That, among other minor issues, make this a somehow wasted chance.

Brink has lots of interesting ideas, but most of them are only half-done, like the mix between bot-matches and multiplayer, which is a good idea with a very bad AI. Brink could and should have been better.

Play the game the way it asks you to and you can have lots of fun, but Brink can be a bit too needy for pick-up-and-play.

Brink's unique visual style and great customization options save the day. Although its core gameplay needs some polishing, it's a solid multiplayer-only experience nevertheless. [July 2011, p.81]

Overall, Brink is a game which could have been a genre favourite at launch, but due to some developer oversights, such as the lack of an extensive beta, the unfinished nature of the initial release have turned many potential fans away.

Brink definitely doesn't live up to our high expectations and hopes but it's still a game worth checking out by all shooter fans. Gamers who prefer single player experiences won't find anything for themselves here but online matches are really interesting. Despite all the setbacks, the developers have managed to create a unique game with its own identity that doesn't resemble other popular first person shooters.

Critics, business types, and your mom and dad don't understand that multiplayer is much more important to you than single-player these days. Head-to-head content gets the wealth of gaming time and Brink comes well equipped for hours and hours of gunplay.

Brink tries so hard to be the next big thing, but just launched with too little to go around. A poor map selection and mindless grinding to unlock things doom it to being uninstalled by all but the most diehard fans quickly.

Brink could have been a great game, both solo and online if a little more work had gone into it.

There's very little question that Brink is highly geared towards the multiplayer crowd. The SMART system and the well done visuals are very attractive, but the level design imbalances and small map variety don't offer much in the way of longevity. There's a lot of promise in the game but only the most patient of players might be willing to see that promise realized.

The hype around Brink was huge and the game doesn't live up to all of the expectations. The campaign is extremely short and so it's the online gameplay that saves this game from demise. With the right teammates you'll have a ton of fun online.

The game really represents a missed opportunity for Bethesda. With a little more polishing and thought the game could have been great, rather than merely good.

Brink tries to present many good ideas, but it falls short and, in the end, it's just the same gameplay mechanics we've seen many times. The SMART system is not as dynamic as it should be; the game modes are all the same; the feeling, overall, is that we have a fun and interesting multiplayer game (even in its Campaign mode), but users are left without new emotions. Many customization options that, in the end, are nothing new.

In the end, Brink is another of those games that we see every so often; the games that have incredible potential and truly unique ideas but fail in their implementation. This could have been a great game, it could've been a hit and it could've given shooter fans a reason to return to a genre that has lost much of its originality over the last handful of years. Unfortunately for us and for its developer, the keyword here is "could've", because there's little here that makes Brink the genre redefining game some of us hoped it would be.

Quotation forthcoming.

Brink has quite a few flaws, but the most frustrating one is the spawn-die-spawn-kill-die repetition in single player mode. At best it's a little banal and tedious, and at worst, it's downright rage-inducing. Your AI teammates and enemies often act strangely, exhibiting poor awareness of their surroundings, but they will unleash laser-accurate gunfire once they notice an enemy. This makes playing the game, especially at the start of the Security campaign, a real chore.

Brink is not a bad game. If Splash Damage can stabilize the performance and fix some glaring omissions (like a pre-game lobby) with a patch, I'd gladly spend more time with it. But with only eight multiplayer maps, 20 progression levels, no clan support, and average gunplay, it's not a good value proposition. Especially considering many Xbox Live games offer a similar amount of content for a fraction of the price. [July 2011, p.86]

An online shooter needs variety, depth, and addictiveness to succeed over the long term. Brink might find a niche with some hardcore fans, but it isn't for everyone. The PC version feels more complete than its console counterpart, but my qualms over content remain the same. Brink has heart, but the overall package is lacking.

Who would have thought that this highly ambitious concept would turn out to be such a bland game?

It has a fresh look going for it, but Brink's fancy footwork and terrible AI Interfere with its fast-paced gunplay. [Aug 2011, p.70]

Complex without being deep, Brink is a hollow interpretation of Splash Damage's classic teamplay formula that speaks to the very core of what is wrong with multiplayer FPS today. [July 2011, p.58]

Loaded with shortcomings, not really generous in terms of content, Brink still remains an FPS with some really neat ideas, mostly in the way it promotes good teamplay. If you have several buddies with whom to share the experience, and take the time to organize your strategy, you won't be disappointed. But even so, the clear lack of polish, the not-so varied environments and average technical side prevent it from being an excellent FPS; it's only a good one.

On the lively and intriguing battlefields of Brink, design issues can be as deadly as enemy soldiers.

The setting is cool, the parkour is sort of neat, the focus on objectives over Team Deathmatch is admirable, but there's really nothing special about Brink.

With a few patches, it's certainly possible that Bethesda will clean up the network problems with the game and it will certainly be worth your time. As it stands right now, with laggy network performance and an abysmal single-player experience, this is a game that will push your patience to the brink. Take a pass, at least for now.

Decent game – in a few months and through a handful of different patches. We don't judge what games (probably) will look like, but how they are now. [June 2011]

Brink works fine, yes, and can deliver a competent multiplayer game of shoot-shoot, but as a full-priced retail title it leaves a lot to be desired. A simple, story-less downloadable game would have made much more sense.