My Brink impressions

Post » Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:07 pm

Overall I like Brink quite a bit, and I really like ET:QW so I gave this game a shot. My main problem with the game is there isn't a lot to do. We need a lot more maps and more of a variety of things to do. There is also some weapon balance issues but I hear those are getting addressed.

Next is the map design. I think they look great and are interesting, but some of the maps are far too easy to defend on, with objectives out in the open (like shipyard crane controls/missile launcher hacking objective) where you just get endlessly sniped or grenaded. Narrow hallways (like the hostage escort missions) that is just an insane killbox. Or a team that spawns too close to the objective area. I also believe their don't fully allow the smart system to be fully utilized.

I'd like to see new maps that have random elements to them so they aren't mostly the same each time. Different routes, randomly available. A few maps with multiple ways to win would be awesome, such as a hacking objective, or a destroy objective while completing either will win the match for the offense. More tertiary objectives that aren't required to win but can make it easier. Container city and Shipyard are good examples of this.

Bots. I love bots in games. The bots in Brink are pretty good, but could use a little work in a few areas. Most notably bots attempting (or often clearly not attempting) hacking objectives. More than once I've seen a bot start a hack, wait a bit, then whip out his gun and charge out into the open and get wasted for no apparent reason. Engineers suffer from similar issues. They don't seem to understand how important it is that they complete this action. Since operatives can move around while hacking they need to try harder to break line of site and generally avoid contact. On maps like Shipyard, when playing with my bro and bots often one of us has to go operative to complete the missile hacking objective because they'll either simply not try or just be dumb and get themselves blown away. We held it mostly firmly for around 8 or 9 minutes once. At times we've kept the area quite safe for 90 sec-2 minutes at a time and still they couldn't manage to do it.

I'm not 100% on this but I get the feeling that bots kill me the instant I get incapacitated far more often if I have the Downed Fire ability. It's like the instant I go down they are aware and keep shooting, while without it they almost always ignore you once you're down. Yes this is possible against human players who learn who has that ability but with bots they just know instantly without trial and error. It's not a major issue as it's still not super common but I thought I'd mention it all the same.

Bots can sometimes react too quickly and melee you down the instant you get in range, even if you drop down on them from above or run into each other around a corner.

Lastly, why do we have such little control over game settings? Balance issues I suppose.. But what if I want two teams of 6 or of 10 instead of 8? Or I want a handicap match where my team has 6 and the other has 8.

Overall I like Brink and I thank you for making it. I just hope the coming DLC is more substantial than just like 3 more maps and such. From what I've read in various places Brink seems to be teetering on the edge of obscurity. I hope you really understand that and make that DLC and those of the future something sweet. I count myself lucky as the only real problem I've been having is corrupted text. Even on high settings (other than ambient occlusion which chows all my FPS) my aging system runs the game very well, usually 28-50fps. And I only have a 2.93Ghz dual core CPU, 4GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce 250GTS. Running on Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit.
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