Brink

 PC
User Score
6.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 579 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 233 out of 579
  2. Mixed: 174 out of 579
  3. Negative: 172 out of 579
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. dosse91
    May 11, 2011
    4
    well, this game is not as good as i expected.
    the first problem i encountered was the game engine itself: the idtech 4 is so outdated that this game has mobile phone quality graphics, and super low framerates. if you can get past this, you'll be pissed off by the fact that this game is only in english and that there are no subtitles. that may not be a problem if you speak english very    well, this game is not as good as i expected.
    the first problem i encountered was the game engine itself: the idtech 4 is so outdated that this game has mobile phone quality graphics, and super low framerates. if you can get past this, you'll be pissed off by the fact that this game is only in english and that there are no subtitles. that may not be a problem if you speak english very well, but if you're like me and it takes you a long time to concentrate on what the characters are saying in order to understand the story of the game, subtitles, or localization are a needed.
    apart from this **** the game is decent, but not too original, it's just a regular shooter with classes and abilities.
    **** this **** what a waste of money    … Expand
  2. classic_rocker
    Jul 25, 2011
    4
    I was very excited for this game and was dissapointed when it released.however they were on to something with the ideas they had the whole game felt broken.the multiplayer was constanly leggy,the bots were not fully functioning and the whole free running thing did not work.however at some points the multiplayer would be fun and the character custamization was cool.every gun almost felt theI was very excited for this game and was dissapointed when it released.however they were on to something with the ideas they had the whole game felt broken.the multiplayer was constanly leggy,the bots were not fully functioning and the whole free running thing did not work.however at some points the multiplayer would be fun and the character custamization was cool.every gun almost felt the same to me witch i did not like.i would not reccomend playing this game but if they could fix all these problems the game could be very fun but that may take a whole new game to do that.… Expand
  3. dknight821
    May 10, 2011
    4
    Summing it up: A disappointment. Pros: Movement is very fluid. The players look pretty dynamic, fluid, and natural. Appears to be a wide variety of guns, along with gun attachments reminiscent of the COD Modern Warfare series. Meh: Environment isn't all it's played out to be. Climbing over things is fun, but you don't really get to monkey around obstacles as shown in many of the sneak peekSumming it up: A disappointment. Pros: Movement is very fluid. The players look pretty dynamic, fluid, and natural. Appears to be a wide variety of guns, along with gun attachments reminiscent of the COD Modern Warfare series. Meh: Environment isn't all it's played out to be. Climbing over things is fun, but you don't really get to monkey around obstacles as shown in many of the sneak peek videos that were released. The class options are sure interesting, but as long as you're a medic you're good to go in terms of points and XP grinding. Cons: Hmmm... Lots of these. The gameplay is barely acceptable. The damage is little or next to nothing. Headshots certainly do exist, but it seems mostly to be spray and pray, and this is coming from someone who has played CS for over ten years, and CSS since it was released, in addition to the COD series. It's not just me I swear. The multiplayer campaign idea, while different, is lacking. For some reason, the action just doesn't feel exciting. There's no comparison to a CS massive kill streak, or a good MW2 flank when you've gone around the enemy team and kicked some serious butt. You simply don't have enough bullets and don't do enough damage to make anything like that happen. While the game totes the 'freedom' of movement, players are too restricted by the campaign. If there's one thing this game is in DIRE need of, it's Team Deathmatch. Come ON! How can you make a multiplayer online FPS and not have a TD mode? The leveling up and the new perks, videos, and abilities don't really alter gameplay that greatly, unlike the abilities did in the COD series. It feels exactly like what it is: a grind! I am bored after a few hours, and probably won't pick up this game again.… Expand
  4. Praesi
    Dec 6, 2013
    4
    A buggy Mess with a NetCode from Hell, On paper this Game sound awesome. Reality is the complete opposite. Everyone who give this a 10 is a liar. The Netcode is so horrible that you will lag so bad, it will feel like teleporting. Sound is sometimes missing complete. Parcour System dont work like it should. After some hours i had to delete this Game.
  5. runbmp
    May 17, 2011
    4
    The premise of a waterworld with bothers is certainly an enticing idea and certainly had me interested. Once immersed the game play I quickly realized that the staying power would be short lived. Personally I love precision shooting with high twitch elements. I do genuinely think some people will enjoy the game immensely. Especially once a patch fixes some of its graphical glitches.

    I    The premise of a waterworld with bothers is certainly an enticing idea and certainly had me interested. Once immersed the game play I quickly realized that the staying power would be short lived. Personally I love precision shooting with high twitch elements. I do genuinely think some people will enjoy the game immensely. Especially once a patch fixes some of its graphical glitches.

    I think in terms of overall gameplay, TF2 is a better game over Brink.    … Expand
  6. Journeyman
    May 12, 2011
    4
    Its great as a tech demo.
    As a game, its useless, for anyone older than 12 years. Strip away the graphics and its good old high speed, no point shooter. Quasi-macho style is nothing new. Still pitiful tho.
  7. nielz
    May 13, 2011
    4
    Great potential, but i don't know what's happened with the engine - there must be something gone horribly wrong. I like the multiplayer aspect with buffing mates, missions, storyline in multiplayer wich grants more xp than just killing stuff. The character class customization options are very good, the range of possible speccs makes this game a long-term fun. Many Weapons, "perks", (IMHO)Great potential, but i don't know what's happened with the engine - there must be something gone horribly wrong. I like the multiplayer aspect with buffing mates, missions, storyline in multiplayer wich grants more xp than just killing stuff. The character class customization options are very good, the range of possible speccs makes this game a long-term fun. Many Weapons, "perks", (IMHO) good balanced maps, graphics with a unique atmosphere, well made interface for multiplayer action.
    But back to the Engine. All drivers up2date, gtx580 and i7 980x - and it's stuttering like hell. The FPS are good but every second it feels like it's freezing. Laggy as hell, too, but not as bad as PS3 and XBOX360 Players are reporting.

    For me it's definitely not playable, i hope there is a patch very soon. Don't buy it before someone reports the bugs as fixed. Save money and many frustrating minutes.    … Expand
  8. seldomConvinced
    May 16, 2011
    4
    Brink will appeal to a very certain type of PC gamer.

    Above all, it will be the type of gamer that cares only about multiplayer, because despite it's claims to provide an 'innovative' mix of single-player, co-op, and multiplayer, BRINK simply reuses the multiplayer maps for single-player and co-op whilst adding bots into the mix. Unfortunately, with crippling AI shortcomings, these bots    Brink will appeal to a very certain type of PC gamer.

    Above all, it will be the type of gamer that cares only about multiplayer, because despite it's claims to provide an 'innovative' mix of single-player, co-op, and multiplayer, BRINK simply reuses the multiplayer maps for single-player and co-op whilst adding bots into the mix. Unfortunately, with crippling AI shortcomings, these bots provide a single player and co-op experience that is frustrating, tedious, but (mercifully) short. The game contains in total 8 maps, less than many budget games, and though these are accompanied by some attractive cutscenes and an interesting premise, they ultimately boil down to charging through one of two choke points to an objective, or defending these chokepoints against the opposing team.

    Secondly, it will be the type of gamer that likes the idea of teamwork, but dislikes engaging their brain too much. Teamplay in BRINK is achieved by spamming buffs, rather than careful positioning or depth of strategy. If you do take the risk of engaging your brain for a second, you might be taken aback by how incredibly patronising the game is in its desperate attempts to force you to focus heavily on buff spam - this is a game that literally rewards standing at your spawn buffing freshly spawned players more than running off and single-handedly obliterating the enemy team. Proponents of BRINK might be quick to discount people who are more interested in killing the opposing team as people who don't understand the true value of teamplay; however, when a major objective of said teamplay is to kill the enemy team, the bizarre way in which BRINK rewards the most trivial actions over the most significant ones makes it extremely difficult to identify the good players from the bad.

    BRINK is the equivalent of your manager grabbing you by the neck and slapping you in the face repeatedly screaming "BE MORE OF A TEAM PLAYER!". Subtle it certainly isn't in its efforts to get you to stop thinking about the fun of trying to rack up kills, and get back to your key role of pressing "F" and "X". You'll certainly be pressing these keys a lot, because you need to rebuff yourself every time you die (it's not fun in an MMO, and turns out it's even less fun in an FPS). The same goes for your teammates, who'll also need buffing constantly, and the objectives you'll be zerging to stand near and press "F".

    So, thirdly, BRINK's appeal is also limited to FPS players who aren't huge fans of, or very good at, the actual running and shooting part. Running is handled by a SMART system which allows you to hold a key to automatically jump/vault as appropriate, eliminating any need to carefully time jumps. Unfortunately, the parkour-based fun that might ensue is limited by the 8 maps that really don't allow the system to shine. Shooting is facilitated by a wide selection of broadly similar weapons, whose killing power is often affected more by the randomness of their huge bullet spread than the actual accuracy or tap-fire ability of the user. Aim is still required, and it would be wrong to suggest there isn't a degree of twitch-based action in BRINK, and I'm sure there are many subtle differences in the weapons, but it's still a game where the outcome of a firefight is mostly down to the number of people you bring to it, rather than their individual skill. A Call of Duty-style XP unlock system allows weapon upgrades and perks to be unlocked, but you'll get through this in about 10 hours of play, so it's yet another way for the developers to continue to hammer in the "TEAMWORK! TEAMWORK!" mantra by forcing you to complete the trivial team actions the XP system so richly rewards.

    Finally, BRINK will only appeal to the type of gamer who doesn't own an ATI card or care about 3D Vision support, since neither of these work with BRINK at time of writing. This is another buggy release, less so than the Xbox360 version, but still fraught with issues - a surprise given that this game treads no new ground in its graphics, netcode, or gameplay.

    Despite all this negativity, if you fit all these criteria, chances are you will at least like, though perhaps not love, BRINK. It doesn't innovate half as much as the hype might have you believe, but if you loved TF2, you'll find more of the same here. Yet these is one final proviso - BRINK is incredibly overpriced given the omission of true single player or co-op gameplay, and a meagre 8 (similar) multiplayer maps. As a result, Splash and Bethesda deserve poor reviews for pushing out so little content at a premium price tag. At $15 BRINK's peers would be Killing Floor, Section 8, and Breach, and it's comparable to all of these. At $50 it can only be expected to be compared to the big boys of the FPS genre, and it's far from their league.    … Expand
  9. viibl
    May 19, 2011
    4
    The depth of my disappointment with the game cannot be overstated, but neither can its flaws.

    The primary issues are ones that relate to the elemental parts of a good FPS game. In these ways, Brink scores below average when compared to the benchmarks across the FPS pantheon (Planetside, Quake 2, Counter-Strike, Battlefield 2142 and BC2, TF2). Weapon Balance: Poor. There are two runaway    The depth of my disappointment with the game cannot be overstated, but neither can its flaws.


    The primary issues are ones that relate to the elemental parts of a good FPS game. In these ways, Brink scores below average when compared to the benchmarks across the FPS pantheon (Planetside, Quake 2, Counter-Strike, Battlefield 2142 and BC2, TF2).


    Weapon Balance: Poor. There are two runaway favorites - the CARB SMG and the Revolver. Because their accuracy, operating range and damage are only barely worse than the next tiers of weapons (and because combat happens at close range most of the time), these two guns are the most common seen and the most effective. There are no appreciable advantages to the Assault Rifles or Heavy weapons. The rest of the SMGs are, simply put, worse than the CARB. Don't bother. Class Balance: If some maps didn't require Operatives and Soldiers then you'd never seen them. Medic and Engineer are very well rounded and their buffing abilities outshine whatever skills the other two classes have. This, keep in mind, with the Engineer's turrets almost entirely crippled by incredibly slow target acquisition. The body types are visual candy at best; the differences in health are negligible in firefights, leading more to choose the Light type due to its mobility. Note that the Light can use both of the superior weapons above. The twitchiness of aiming and movement make it possible to tank damage simply by moving quickly.


    Map Design: Consider that one map has no sound, another glitches all player models into invisibility and a third can have one team's spawn locked down within 30 seconds and you'll see why the map design is disappointing. There are no CTF or Capture Point modes (near-requirements in the FPS space), instead relying on repeated objective-based tasks governed by timers and checkpoints. These are poorly balanced, with the defending team almost always at an advantage. Controls and Movement: Possibly the worst part of the gameplay. Yes, you can jump over barricades and slide into corners, but your character will also get tripped up on ground debris (breaking sprint - argh!), twitch uncontrollably when up against cover and mercilessly hesitate when transitioning between postures, aiming and sprinting. The complete lack of polish in control ruins the authenticity of the gameplay and makes you feel more like a ghoul clumsily floating over the landscape, occasionally snagging your pants, rather than a mongoose-like soldier weaving your way through a battle.


    There are too many controls given what you can actually do with them. For example, two keys are required to deploy your base ability - one for self-use and one for other-use. In a game where you can express intent by aiming your crosshairs, you simply don't need two buttons. Press the key - are you looking at something? Act on that. No? Act on yourself. Brink is only vaguely molded and not-at-all polished. There's probably a good game lurking somewhere in the design documents, but the just-barely-thought-out customization and gameplay design choices all smack of trying to do too much. What concerns me most are the issues at the core levels of gameplay, specifically movement, ballistics and game modes. These are hard things to resolve with patches, yet the game desperately needs help in those areas and more. It's hard to walk away from the glitz of different colored shirts and a few parkour moves, but I recommend you do. Check back in a year - if there are still people on the already-near-empty servers, the price has fallen and the game cleaned is cleaned up in the ways that matter then, well, you might be in for a treat. Apologists will predictably quip, "I'm having a ton of fun; if you don't like it then don't play it" and "You just don't understand what kind of game it is; go back to CoD." To which I reply, "Just because you think it's fun does not mean it's good."    … Expand
  10. konpyuuta_san
    May 28, 2011
    4
    False marketing of "innovation" and "blending online-offline-single-and-multiplayer" leaves a bad aftertaste.

    Unlike what the advertisement promises, there is no campaign or single-player modes; only matches with bots and the "blending" constitutes of showing cutscenes in multi-player and single-player alike. That's it. The game is plagued by connectivity issues and an objective system    False marketing of "innovation" and "blending online-offline-single-and-multiplayer" leaves a bad aftertaste.

    Unlike what the advertisement promises, there is no campaign or single-player modes; only matches with bots and the "blending" constitutes of showing cutscenes in multi-player and single-player alike. That's it.

    The game is plagued by connectivity issues and an objective system that punishes creativity by penalising completing objectives without selecting them first on the objective wheel. Teamwork outside of the predetermined roles is thus punished with an XP penalty; or not given an award at all! Quite a hindrance when levelling is so important in the game.

    The game promised to do away with "one-shot-kills" and endless camping, but dying from one or five shots within a 1.5 second timeframe makes no difference at all. Camping remains the most solid tactic, in particular since escort missions of very slow moving objectives are so common.

    You have to specialise in a class to be effective, and that completely negates the idea of being able to change classes on the fly. You loose a level by respeccing, which is a terrible price to pay and not at all worth it if your into competitive play. At the higher levels, they take a very long time to regain.

    The weapons lack tangible differentiation, despite behaving quite differently. Another issue is that you can only decide what weapon suits you by trying them all. Some are utterly useless, while others are similar enough to each other that it simply becomes a matter of preference. Then there are a few that seem to be entirely predominant online; those with highest damage and stability scores.

    The system of unlocks is tedious and punishes new players. You have to unlock necessary upgrades to be competetive by completing tedious and often outright boring Challenges; particularly egregious since you have to complete each of the four missions TWICE in order to attain those important ammo and scope upgrades. They also more or less have to be completed on early levels, since attempting them online will quickly prove frustrating and the difficulty is such at higher levels that the tedium becomes too much to bear. Starting a new character is because of all this a very unattractive prospect.

    The server browser is absolutely horrible, with no way of discerning what rules the match you are entering has if it doesn't conform to some limited preset of rules; a clear majority of servers are simply listed as "custom", which can mean just about anything. Are you going up against rank 5 (the most advanced skills) specialists that will pwn you over and over unless you have a solid team, is friendly fire on or off, and so on. Coupled with the incessant disconnects, despite rock solid performance in every other game I play, that sometimes gives you marginal XP and sometimes none at all, this provides a frustrating and quickly tiring online experience. As a team based multiplayer shooter, it is average; not as punishing as Counter-Strike, but neither as rewarding, not as difficult to learn as Team Fortress 2, but neither as dynamic.

    The SMART system works as a cool replacement for rocket-jumping and the likes, but the utility of the Light body type that can do wall jumps and more advanced manoeuvres is very much in doubt. The levels have a only few places where the Light type can pull off some cool stunts, but the only real gain is that you arrive faster at your destination by using those shortcuts; most often that means leaving your team behind and thus a quick death when you arrive at the enemy camp. Had the servers supported more than 8 players on each team, perhaps a strike team of Lights could do something useful, but as it stands those slots are needed for the core team to be able to complete objectives. All in all, I found Brink to be worth about 20hrs of gameplay, after which it became stale and restrictive. For a multiplayer shooter, that's appallingly short in terms of longevity.

    Releasing an unplayable game is also not acceptable, which was the state the game was in when my pre-order copy arrived. That's why it gets a '4' and not the '5' I would rate it as in its current state.    … Expand
  11. bullet
    May 31, 2011
    4
    If you liked Enemy Territory, avoid this game.

    I don't know what it wants to be but it certainly isn't working for pub playing. I spent 100s of hours in ET playing pub-only and had so much fun, but every single design decision in Brink seems to try to destroy pub playing. It SEEMS like anything and everything revolves around teamplay. That might be really great for clan players and    If you liked Enemy Territory, avoid this game.

    I don't know what it wants to be but it certainly isn't working for pub playing. I spent 100s of hours in ET playing pub-only and had so much fun, but every single design decision in Brink seems to try to destroy pub playing. It SEEMS like anything and everything revolves around teamplay. That might be really great for clan players and competitive league gaming but it simply isn't working with 15 strangers on a server.

    The problem is if your team is bad, you won't have fun. There is no way to move something as a single player. Why is that? Because the game pretty much keeps you alive as long as possible.

    The weapons feel like a joke. If you loved the arcade-y feel of ET, don't play Brink. Unless you have all the powerups there are, command posts and the enemy has nothing, you don't really deal damage. It frequently takes more than a clip to kill someone. There is almost zero chance for you to win a gun fight vs. two people. That means a strong player can't really turn the tide. The guns feel incredibly weak most of the time. The recoil is horrible and random, I don't see how you can adapt to the pattern and get better (even when burst firing, mind you!) over time because there just is no way to predict the crosshair movement. Iron sighting or crouching doesn't seem to really affect the "precision" if you may even call it that.

    All explosives are NOT meant to deal deadly blows. The regular nades or molotovs deal damage but it won't kill anyone, they rather get knocked down.

    Talking about knockdown. You'd think sneaking up on an enemy and knocking him down gives you an edge but it rarely is. It feels like the enemie's crosshair immediatly jumps to you once you knock him down. Combine that with the low damage and even knocking an enemy down usually comes to a coin flip of who wins. Most of the time it's better to start firing right away.

    The classes are mostly fun on their own but thanks to the fantastic design decision of not being able to change characters, you mostly can't adapt to the game. A lvl20 character has barely enough points to cover 2 classes. Another point that destroys pub gaming. In ET I was constantly switching classes to adapt, because it was fun AND helping my team. If you don't have a lvl20 soldier, you still can switch to that class but lack all the skills. No problem in clan play with designated classes, but it breaks pub gaming.

    SMART was marketed as being awesome and fresh and stuff like that. In reality, it's boring, clumsy and slow. You won't avoid any battle using SMART moves because the time alone it takes you to pull up somewhere gets you almost killed off. Enemy Territory and almost any other id engine based game had way better trickjumping and it wasn't intentional nor was it marketed as such.

    Right now we're on the 3rd (or 4th, I don't remember) patch since release. The game itself was unplayable in its release state and while most of the performance problems have gone, gameplay-wise nothing has really changed.

    I could go on and on about the big and small flaws of Brink but my overall point is: This probably isn't the game you want to buy. If you loved Enemy Territory, ET:QW (from what I read, I haven't played it myself) - don't buy Brink, it's frustratingly worse than this simple, free game I used to enjoy.

    The future of Brink doesn't look too good. There is a free DLC coming out soon, but at the time of writing, there were only about half a dozen servers with good ping and players on it, early evening. Most of the early adopters have already moved on and I really doubt the situation is going to be better.    … Expand
  12. Lordeldar
    Feb 2, 2013
    4
    Brink has an amazing concept, full of creative and incredible ideas. However, the game itself is laggy which ruined the whole game for me. I found the singleplayer was incredibly weak despite it's concept. The multiplayer is a definite improvement, but is far from TF2 or Halo or anything like that. Graphics are alright, but certainly no Crysis. Brink could've been amazing, but the conceptBrink has an amazing concept, full of creative and incredible ideas. However, the game itself is laggy which ruined the whole game for me. I found the singleplayer was incredibly weak despite it's concept. The multiplayer is a definite improvement, but is far from TF2 or Halo or anything like that. Graphics are alright, but certainly no Crysis. Brink could've been amazing, but the concept was executed so poorly, that it's really not… Expand
  13. MangoJango
    Aug 7, 2011
    4
    No, this game is horrible. Don't bother wasting your money on it. It's a typical shooter with decent graphics, and lackluster missions (holding a button to accomplish objectives). I don't see how other gamers can give this game such a high score, honestly. There are many bugs in this game, it takes and infuriatingly long time to kill someone, it takes almost two clips to drop someone, andNo, this game is horrible. Don't bother wasting your money on it. It's a typical shooter with decent graphics, and lackluster missions (holding a button to accomplish objectives). I don't see how other gamers can give this game such a high score, honestly. There are many bugs in this game, it takes and infuriatingly long time to kill someone, it takes almost two clips to drop someone, and the story is unbelievably bad. This is by far the worst video game I've played this summer, and I've played many. If you want a couple hours of FPS fun, then give this game a shot. Otherwise, after the first few hours, the repetitiveness of the game play and mediocre shooting mechanics will set in, and you'll want to opt for a more fun shooter, like Team Fortress 2!… Expand
  14. TexasGamer
    Nov 29, 2011
    4
    Brink promised a lot and delivered very little. Its as if someone took Call of Duty, cloned it, put a new name on it and shipped it out the door.

    The best part of the game was the teaser videos. If brink would have been anything like the videos, it would have probably been a great game. The maps are bland, the weapons look like they were ripped from other games,,, there is just not    Brink promised a lot and delivered very little. Its as if someone took Call of Duty, cloned it, put a new name on it and shipped it out the door.

    The best part of the game was the teaser videos. If brink would have been anything like the videos, it would have probably been a great game.

    The maps are bland, the weapons look like they were ripped from other games,,, there is just not good to say about Brink.    … Expand
  15. ZootMan
    Mar 28, 2012
    4
    Simply not worth playing strictly for the single player. Grenade spam is awful, performance sucks, no i see why this got scorched when it came out.
  16. uberplayer01
    May 5, 2013
    4
    One of the worst games I have ever played; brink fails in so much of what it should be. The A.I that you have to depend on for all solo aspects of this games is like playing with your little sister; they run around hopelessly trying to do something but ending up failing. The maps are twisted to the point that shotguns and grenades can quickly kill the entire other team or leaving you toOne of the worst games I have ever played; brink fails in so much of what it should be. The A.I that you have to depend on for all solo aspects of this games is like playing with your little sister; they run around hopelessly trying to do something but ending up failing. The maps are twisted to the point that shotguns and grenades can quickly kill the entire other team or leaving you to run from the other side of the map every 10 seconds trying to get a objective. The graphics show in all the movies don't compare to the graphics in game; the in game graphics go from 1080p to 320. The multiplayer is so awful; I was playing with one guy and the game ran like a old playstation game. I was constantly runing into walls; shooting at npcs as they disappeared into think air. I looked forward to this game and was let down completely; I can't believe that a company like Bethesda put its name on the box.… Expand
  17. Qarren
    Mar 15, 2021
    4
    Remember Brink? Of course you do. Everyone does. Everyone remembers when Bethesda, in the same year they published Skyrim, also published Team Fortress 1.5. Everyone remembers it because it was an absolute flop. The history of this game began and ended in the brink of an eye.
    Brink goes in the same genre as Bigs Rigs does, or Sharknado does for film. The game is so hilariously bad that    Remember Brink? Of course you do. Everyone does. Everyone remembers when Bethesda, in the same year they published Skyrim, also published Team Fortress 1.5. Everyone remembers it because it was an absolute flop. The history of this game began and ended in the brink of an eye.
    Brink goes in the same genre as Bigs Rigs does, or Sharknado does for film. The game is so hilariously bad that it's actually entertaining. Where to even begin with this monument of gaming history? I know. Let's start with what the game does right.
    And that's about it for what the game does right.
    Oh, all right. I'll be fair. I can give the game a couple of compliments. Firstly, the gunplay isn't actually that bad. It's far from perfect. But in a game like this the gunplay is the absolute foundation, and -had it not been for everything else- this might have carried the game to at least mediocrity, or consistent playability. The guns feel as they do in most other team-based shooters. They don't have the greatest impact, but they're not nerf guns either. And there a good level of feedback in the otherwise goofy animations of enemies being hit. Except melee; that looks like that scene in Dragon Ball where Goku beats up his fiancé using only the air between them. Except less cool, and less inspiring.
    And I do have to give it to Bethesda. They tried. It is evident that they did put in some effort, at least conceptually. I don't know if you remember, but there was actually quite a lot of hype preceding this game. People were desperate for the next big competitive multiplayer shooter, and Brink proposed some decent innovation. A complicated movement system that would later make Titanfall a star, and also make Call of Duty another failure. Wow, context is everything, huh. Open maps with optional objectives to increase strategy and force unity in a team. It all seemed so beautiful, until the fire nation attacked.
    Optimization? What's that? Bethesda asked as they ported a buggy console game to the PC poorly, furthering the bugs' heritage. Even after unlocking fps limits on the PC version you may find that Brink just vibes with 30fps, or often less. Certain areas of each map mean frames yeeting themselves to the nether, never to be seen again. I don't know, maybe that was on purpose. It could be a useful strategy to lay in wait in an area you know will mess with the enemy teams' on a spiritual level. But if that's not enough, that's just the singleplayer. Any of the multiplayer lobbies still open today, are built on the thousand-thousand corpses of good pings. I giggled like a school girl on oxy every time I shot at an enemy only for him to appear behind me all "nothing personnel, kid" style. The crashes were the funniest though. I bet you think the buttons on the menu are for navigation. Well, you're mostly right, but you're forgetting the RNG counter that sometimes deems them the crash to desktop button. It's not consistent either, it could be any button. Predatory menu buttons just lying in wait in the long grass to pounce when a clueless player walks by.
    Or that time that I loaded the game up only to not have any input. Didn't do anything different, the game just decided it wasn't feeling it today. This game actually has the personality of an angsty teen built into its basic operation. I f&#king love it.
    But how about that 1 in 5 times you actually make it into a game? Well, I mostly stuck to the singleplayer which CLEARLY wasn't their focus. So judge this review by your intentions with the game, as they may not line up with the consensus. I did get curious and tried the multiplayer and found the 1 other person playing this game in 2021. We didn't say a word, but I could tell we bonded immediately. Just 2 unique souls in a world intent on only playing good games. I miss him.
    Anyway, the AI are the scum of the Earth. I don't know where my team mates went for 90% of the missions. I assume they took vacations to Tampa. I would push the primary objective alone and completely fail, only for the entire squad to show up at the very last second, complete the objective and take all the credit.
    Seriously, I couldn't count on them for anything except running into my line of fire until it was time for last minute cram, and they would show up dramatically to the exam and ace it immediately. I always hated those students.
    The enemies however. Oh boy, do I have even less idea what was going on there. Firefights always looked like an introvert-only party. Everyone standing in a room staring at each other silently until one smart kid decides to loose a bullet. Then all hell is raised. Still no bullets of course, but the spam of grenades. Jesus couldn't clutch that game of minesweeper in a thousand years.
    I'm out of characters? But I didn't mention half of this game's 'qualities.'
    Perhaps there is no character limit on our planet that could adequately describe this game. Like the Great Pyramids of Giza, this wonder you have to see for yourself.    … Expand
  18. JackyBeans
    Jun 19, 2011
    3
    Brink is a game I wanted to love so much. Pre-ordered it on Steam. How I wish I haven't. IF YOU HAVE AN ATI CARD, FORGET ABOUT THIS GAME.. Or at least, I, among many ATI owners, are currently suffering with this game. I advise you not to pick it up, at least not for now.. I envy you Deific since you seems to be among the rare gamers running it smooth.. FYI, I own a 5870.. Even with driverBrink is a game I wanted to love so much. Pre-ordered it on Steam. How I wish I haven't. IF YOU HAVE AN ATI CARD, FORGET ABOUT THIS GAME.. Or at least, I, among many ATI owners, are currently suffering with this game. I advise you not to pick it up, at least not for now.. I envy you Deific since you seems to be among the rare gamers running it smooth.. FYI, I own a 5870.. Even with driver hotfix 11.5a,b,11.6 and latest game patch, the game still suffers considerably when it comes to frame rates, having sharp decreases and increases for no reason.. Engine feels unfinished. (mind you my system played Crysis 2 & Buletstorm at 1080p high fidelity without any significant problem) The graphics are weak, very weak. Art style is amazing only. Gameplay? shooting is dull (no recoil?), guns feel all the same, objectives are "classic", boring and repetitive and your character runs awkwardly. SMART system is forgettable and not really cleverly implemented.. Gunplay, again, doesn't feel as tight as it should feel. Offline gameplay is dull. This is interesting for online coop only. I didn't really have the experience to invest plenty of hours in the game (~5 hours) since it's barely playable but what a disappointment in the couple of hours I have played. I dont want to mention the nightmare when it comes to online gaming: lag, sound issue, matchmaking etc. So much hype, so much noise, so much style.. Shame, the game couldn't follow..… Expand
  19. Ephos
    Aug 6, 2011
    3
    The inbred cross-breed of Modern Warfare 2 and M.A.G, utilizing the "best" aspects of both, and failing at them terribly. A useless reward system and XP given for simply doing what you are supposed to. Firefights which basically involve you standing five feet away from your opponent, aiming at their upper body, spraying, reloading, and spraying their corpse. Annoying, jagged, boringThe inbred cross-breed of Modern Warfare 2 and M.A.G, utilizing the "best" aspects of both, and failing at them terribly. A useless reward system and XP given for simply doing what you are supposed to. Firefights which basically involve you standing five feet away from your opponent, aiming at their upper body, spraying, reloading, and spraying their corpse. Annoying, jagged, boring gameplay at best. It feels like you are grinding -- in a first person shooter. Supposedly the entire world revolves around an area called "The Ark", a megacity the size of Manhattan, contained within three square miles or so. Usual communist backstory about how there is an uprising. You get to choose your faction with an extremely vague: "Save The Ark, Escape The Ark". That's pretty much all the depth you are going to get in terms of backstory, and that is extrapolated from a series of very uninspired cutscenes, barring the inital introduction with clay figurines. Do not spend your money or encourage Bethesda to continue producing absolute garbage like this. The entire game is basically an extremely expensive "Look, we can do it too!" by Bethesda. I seriously can't believe they bought ID Software. You know, the guys that gave birth to the genre, and perhaps the entire PC gaming industry. Doom, Quake, ring a bell? Yeah. They're owned by Bethesda now.… Expand
  20. CrockD
    May 13, 2011
    3
    I had to wait several days before I felt I could give this game a fair review. The reason for this was due to the very large amount of hype Bethesda and Splash Damage attached to this game to the extent that in Brink's facebook page they heavily exaggerated the amount of interest in Brink at PAX East (I was there, which is why I know they weren't telling the truth) and the large fanboyI had to wait several days before I felt I could give this game a fair review. The reason for this was due to the very large amount of hype Bethesda and Splash Damage attached to this game to the extent that in Brink's facebook page they heavily exaggerated the amount of interest in Brink at PAX East (I was there, which is why I know they weren't telling the truth) and the large fanboy following which is evident in many of the games positive reviews on here (the wording of the reviews, not the fact that they have positive reviews). The simple truth about this game is that even if you put aside the fact that there are serious lag and connection issues in multiplayer the game itself is barely mediocre and frankly wouldn't be one of the top games if it were released in 2004 let alone 2011. The ID tech4 engine (which was released in 2004) looks abysmally outdated even despite the changes they made to it for this game. The developers highly touted use of parkour for traversing terrain using their SMART (Smooth Movement Around Random Terrain) system would be an imaginative addition if the maps weren't so bland and simple. The weapons feel like blunt instruments not precision ballistics and the nades are an absolute joke, their trajectory doesn't look remotely bound by any rules of physics and the explosions are laughably bad. The plot and voice acting for the single players game and the multiplayers characters feels like something from a cheesy low budget 80s sci-fi movie. In multiplayer there are lag issues and issues where every player on a server will lose sound all at once (happens on multiple servers). I could go on but there's no need for me to completely bury this game. Without the multiplayer problems this game is no better than a 4, with those issues this game is a 2 but I'll give it a 3 under the assumption that future updates will fix the multiplayer bugs. A highly disappointing game.… Expand
  21. Jaxadeo
    May 10, 2011
    3
    The game had tons of potential. You can see the free-running of Mirror's Edge, the class system of Team Fortress 2, the unlock system of Modern Warfare, and the gameplay of Killzone 2. Sadly, Bethesda has not fully utilized what they had. The juxtaposition of these elements is harsh and it just doesn't come together well. The game feels like it really belongs on a console and was ported toThe game had tons of potential. You can see the free-running of Mirror's Edge, the class system of Team Fortress 2, the unlock system of Modern Warfare, and the gameplay of Killzone 2. Sadly, Bethesda has not fully utilized what they had. The juxtaposition of these elements is harsh and it just doesn't come together well. The game feels like it really belongs on a console and was ported to the PC as an afterthought. It even keeps the tutorial videos from the console version of the game. That being said, it still feels rushed over. The AI is mindless; the only thing that makes it difficult is the never ending spawning which supposedly is to make it feel more balanced. The campaign feels like there was no care in telling the story of the Arc which really disappointed me (especially when it comes from a company like Bethesda). It is a game that looks like it has plenty of potential and just never got completed. I would hope that Bethesda would become Valve-esque and release updates to make this game better, but I highly doubt that they will.
    It has it's redeeming features, such as the customization and the parkour, but that does not make up for it's flaws. It is a purchase that I regret.
    It doesn't feel completed. The campaign is laughable. It feels like it doesn't belong on PC.    … Expand
  22. NovaSix
    May 11, 2011
    3
    First the good: it's a good fps game. Sure there are bugs, but I will ignore them for now and take the developers at their word on the patches coming down the line. Overall, it is smooth movement with nice interfaces. Group game play is promoted and in keeping with the original design philosophy. That part certain performs as the developers intended.

    The Bad: What's the point of    First the good: it's a good fps game. Sure there are bugs, but I will ignore them for now and take the developers at their word on the patches coming down the line. Overall, it is smooth movement with nice interfaces. Group game play is promoted and in keeping with the original design philosophy. That part certain performs as the developers intended.

    The Bad: What's the point of parkour movement when you can't even see yourself pull off the moves? The reason why Assassin's Creed is so popular is because of how cool it looked when your character pulls off a neat stunt or combination. My problem with the mechanic is that I don't feel any different playing this game than any other FPS. I understand the SMART system is supposed to be revolutionary, but in the first person perspective, I just don't feel any different from other games within the same genre. Secondly, one button? That's it? No skill required, just hold down this one button? Couldn't they have at least made an attempt and making the player hit the button in a certain sequence. I mean, why bother having the button at all and just leave the feature turned on all the time? Think of it this way, I used to love playing Tony Hawk skateboarding games. Half the fun was in pulling of difficult stunts and getting to hard to reach places. The stunts required timing and several buttons hit in a certain sequence to pull off. I like to think of parkour in much the same way that I do skating. There is a difficulty involved that just is not reflected in the games controls.

    The game fails because it's touted gimmick is so unbelievably boring. Not worth $50.    … Expand
  23. DavidCastle
    May 11, 2011
    3
    Brink is fail. I rate it 3/10. The only reason it isn't a 2 is because of it's potential. Sadly, splash did a royal job of pooping on our faces. So much for innovation. Brink is nowhere near what they advertised it to be. Personally I do not feel character customization belongs in an FPS, but since they put it there ill talk about it.Customization is horrid. You get like a dozen shirts,Brink is fail. I rate it 3/10. The only reason it isn't a 2 is because of it's potential. Sadly, splash did a royal job of pooping on our faces. So much for innovation. Brink is nowhere near what they advertised it to be. Personally I do not feel character customization belongs in an FPS, but since they put it there ill talk about it.Customization is horrid. You get like a dozen shirts, pants and jackets and a few hair styles and they call that customization? yea you get a few pre-made faces and you choose skin color... woopee. Didn't they have character customization at the level of choosing entire body structure like... forever ago?
    Gun customization is another story, but even sadder. I LOVE customizing gun's in FPS's that offer the option. It allows for multiple ways to play. Sadly, there are almost no options. They try and hide it by giving you 4 red dots but the dot is THE SAME, they even state so when choosing. its all preference? How is it preference if it looks the same when aiming? And for the front, all you get are 6 exactly the same acting muzzle brakes with different flash area's and a silencer? k wait, you also get a forgrip or speed sling, and YAY you get drum extended or duct tape.... nice customizing... NOT. Don't even get me started on the point system. I agree with game pro. A headshot should ALWAYS be a 1 hit kill in an FPS. Shooting people sucks. There is no power in any of these guns. The medic revive isn't bad, Bad Co 2 had a revive system, the only difference is, YOU DIE IN 2-3 bullets if not 1 from a head shot. Its realistic. So many times, i will spend 2 full magazine's to kill some stupid heavy, then he gets revived. Not to mention medics have an invincibility buff and a self revive? really? Guns just don't like they should. If you enter a room and get the drop on 3-4 people, it should take 2 seconds max to gun them all down. Not 30 seconds of running around grabbing their asses to kill them. This game is horrid. Flanking options are bad and can easily be protected by a couple engineers laying down their mines. I have never felt so disapointed in my life than when i bought brink.    … Expand
  24. GiantJunkBox
    May 15, 2011
    3
    I keep waiting them to patch this game, the fun seems to be broken. I keep trying and trying to get the fun working correctly, but it is just not fun. Aside from that I am getting very tired of game crashing every 15mins and randomly deleting my save games. I would very much like my $50 back. If the price ever falls to the $15 range it might be worth it. Overall I give this game a big fat fail...
  25. Banjaxed
    May 23, 2011
    3
    Just terrible. Boring game if i wanted to play team fortress 2 then ill just play team fortress 2! Sure the sliding is cool but the game just lacks any fun imo.
  26. sistre
    May 24, 2011
    3
    Come on brothers, lets do this! First thing I do as a XP addict is watch the tutorial that tells me to hold tab to see and choose objectives.
    I start the campaign and immediately I get all confused about wtf to do. I hold tab.....i see no objectives. i hold tab again. no objectives instead I see a nice scoreboard. WTF do i want a scoreboard for in SINGLEPLAYER???? i don't care about the    Come on brothers, lets do this! First thing I do as a XP addict is watch the tutorial that tells me to hold tab to see and choose objectives.
    I start the campaign and immediately I get all confused about wtf to do. I hold tab.....i see no objectives. i hold tab again. no objectives instead I see a nice scoreboard. WTF do i want a scoreboard for in SINGLEPLAYER???? i don't care about the bots stats!!!!! I do care about the new SMART system though. Good idea if your maps where up4 the challenge. And omg the goddamn medics running around throwing syringes everwhere geezeez I just emptied 2 full mags in his head and all it takes for him to ress is 2 secs? srsly I have now uninstalled and when this is done im returning this piece of donkey **** they chose to call a game :) have nice day- witcher2 plz dont suck this bad!!! plz    … Expand
  27. Pomornik
    Sep 24, 2011
    3
    Brink is an "intresting" mix between awesome artstyle, bad design choices and countless technical issues. I liked the locations, background story, music, amount of various skills and character creation, but thats all about it. Lets get to the lacking aspects, which are plenty by the way. First of all, the whole reasons for the conflict seems to be forced, just for the sake of having twoBrink is an "intresting" mix between awesome artstyle, bad design choices and countless technical issues. I liked the locations, background story, music, amount of various skills and character creation, but thats all about it. Lets get to the lacking aspects, which are plenty by the way. First of all, the whole reasons for the conflict seems to be forced, just for the sake of having two hostile factions fighting each other, that are reason for this game to exist. In reality they could get along very easily, but i dont want to put spoilers here so lets skip that. The leveling system is unfair, it would be ok if all it gave you was cosmetic stuff like new costumes (which it does), but it also makes your character have more abilities or stronger abilities, which gives you an advantage over players with lower level. There are f***loads of bugs, ranging from the harmless ones, like text errors or wrong messages (says you have to defend, when you really have to attack etc) to those annoying and gamebreaking, like game suddenly losing sound, crashing or you cannot see other players. The netcode is really terrible too. You will lagg even with a decent internet connection, even if you wont, the game will still run so clunky that you will feel as you did. With slow internet, forget about multiplayer, the game will be unplayable, stick to playing with bots. But dont worry, you wont loose much, because even in the multi you will meet more AI bots than real players. And the AI in this game stand for Artifical Idiocy. Its as if they was purposedly coded to be so dumb, so that you can easily tell its a bot, and not a person with a brain. Talking about stupid, lets talk about the whole S.M.A.R.T. thing, which is basically climbing and jumping over fences. Sure thats cool, because it gives you more movement freedom than most games, but you wont use it that often anyway, except to gett from spawn point to the battlefield. First of all, you almost cant do any of this stuff with heavy body (which is the most efficient in combat), second, you cant shoot when doing all those tricks, making you an easy target, and thrid, the maps are not really designed for this, as you mostly fight indoors, but even on streetfights you wont be able to climp on a building and jump over roofs (like in the trailer). Also the weapons in the game are really boring, all you have are machineguns with diffirent skin and slightly diffirent stats. There are also few otherweapon types but they seem to be significantly weaker than the machineguns, so everyone just uses machineguns (which i personally hate). Overall, Brink is a game that looks good and promising, but has so many flaws that i just can't give it anything close to a positive rating, even if i wanted to.… Expand
  28. Envoid
    Jun 1, 2011
    3
    I had high hopes for this game to turn out to be something great. The idea was there, and the hype behind it had me quenching for more. During the first couple of hours in game play however I was sorely disappointed. The movement in the game feels rather clunky, which is something I didn't expect watching the movement system in action in their videos. The guns don't feel unique much atI had high hopes for this game to turn out to be something great. The idea was there, and the hype behind it had me quenching for more. During the first couple of hours in game play however I was sorely disappointed. The movement in the game feels rather clunky, which is something I didn't expect watching the movement system in action in their videos. The guns don't feel unique much at all. They're all pretty much Sub-Machine Guns and using anything other than that is just masochism. I was also quite disappointed with the customization of the character, though it wasn't too bad. I was a bit saddened by the simple fact that you couldn't make the face how you wanted it, you had an option between about 9 and it ultimately decided between those 9 what race you were. Sure you could change the tones, but only to a more tan/pale white guy, or a dark/caramel black guy. Overall I was very displeased. Those that say this game is 'just like' Team Fortress 2, have never played Team Fortress 2 (I'm sad TF2 sold out though..)… Expand
  29. Kacey89
    Jun 1, 2011
    3
    The narrow corridors and choke-points completely ruin this game. Just sitting there buffing each other, getting off a few shots at the enemy, but don't really hurt him. 5 clips later you down an enemy then you get downed, the enemy gets revived, then you get revived. Repeat. That's the whole game in a nutshell.
  30. eulogy
    Jun 25, 2011
    3
    Single player is essentially nonexistent. The only single player are essentially bot matches, but they also do a good job of portraying the story even when you're playing multiplayer. I generally play FPS for the multiplayer aspect anyway. Brink isn't very special. While I'm glad that it's an objective-based team game, many times it feels like there's nothing that you can do to helpSingle player is essentially nonexistent. The only single player are essentially bot matches, but they also do a good job of portraying the story even when you're playing multiplayer. I generally play FPS for the multiplayer aspect anyway. Brink isn't very special. While I'm glad that it's an objective-based team game, many times it feels like there's nothing that you can do to help your team win and stalemates often turn into team deathmatch (without kills being worth anything). I bought this game on a whim and I regret spending every penny. It's not a horrid game by any means, but it doesn't refresh the FPS genre like it claims to. The character editing is pretty cool I guess, but has no real effect on gameplay and is simply an aesthetic ploy for your money.… Expand
prev
Page:

Awards & Rankings

23
#23 Most Discussed PC Game of 2011
37
#37 Most Shared PC Game of 2011

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 38 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 38
  2. Mixed: 19 out of 38
  3. Negative: 2 out of 38
  1. Pelit (Finland)
    Oct 19, 2011
    84
    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]
  2. Absolute Games
    Jul 26, 2011
    60
    Who would have thought that this highly ambitious concept would turn out to be such a bland game?
    Read full review
  3. PC Games (Russia)
    Jun 24, 2011
    75
    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]
See all critic reviews »