My name is Alex and I wish I loved BRINK.
Ever since I saw the amazing cinematic trailer for it i was obsessed over what this game could mean for the industry. But sadly, what it is right now is lacking in a few key areas. Obviously you don't really want to hear a whole lot of negativity from a consumer, because, I mean, what the hell do I know about making a video game?
But here's what I do know, as a designer; BRINK is amazing looking. You nailed that. You clearly have some talented artists and designers working with you and it shows in that BRINK doesn't look like every other first-person shooter flooding the market trying to be the next Call Of Duty (which is a hideous, completely overrated game anyway).
Another thing you pulled off very nicely is the movement system. Getting around the map is fluid and feels very natural. I feel at times maybe the level design doesn't lend itself to you using S.M.A.R.T. all the time, but that could be more a reflection on me as a player than the layouts themselves.
Customisation is very well done with all of the outfits being able to be chopped and changed without clipping issue on all body sizes, and you should definitely be stoked about that because I've yet to see it done so well in a game this generation.
But now I have to get to the things that need changing, and more importantly, the future of BRINK.
CONTENT
The biggest issue, right now, is that there just isn't enough content. I have passed the whole game and I got it yesterday. This was without playing with other players as well. It needs more maps, more levels, more everything. The customisation system is very solid but again, there's just not enough outfits there to warrant playing for too much longer. More importantly they are just too easy to unlock. More levels as well, I'm halfway through the leveling process and it's the second day of me playing. This needs to be rectified in future downloadable content, but not in the way every developer is doing it right now. More on that later.
HEADSHOTS
The lack of substantial headshot damage is a huge huge issue for several reasons.
Firstly, it means that your S.M.A.R.T. movement system is not being integrated into the combat as effectively as it could be, because when the air is full of bullets and the only way to kill people is to start spraying them with your weapon before they do the same to you, sliding and jumping around gets relegated to the sort of thing you do when you're getting TO the combat, not once you're in it.
Secondly, because of the hideous bot balancing (which i am aware many people have made clear to you guys) you become incredibly frustrated with the way that you cannot take on more than, at maximum, two enemies at once, because you simply can't kill them quick enough. While your bots are constantly securing command posts (still not sure what command posts actually do for you that's worthwhile) or doing other unimportant tasks, or hanging back to run around in circles, you are left to plant/defuse bombs on pillars and fight off all the enemies at the same time. If your headshots did significantly more damage you'd get to a point where you could really feel like the hero (something i believe you were trying to convey by making friendly bots deliberately less adept). I would assume that fixing the damage headshots do is a fairly painless process (please correct me if I'm wrong, I really am only guessing). As for the bots; the enemy AI is ruthless and at times, very effective, so I know this is an issue that'd be easy (proportionately) to address. Wouldn't it just be a matter of changing the friendly bots' priorities rather than rewriting the way they work entirely?
ONLINE PLAY
But you never really wanted people to play with bots, did you? That's why you give things like EXP bonus for being online, or completing the match while online, and all the other things you did to encourage online play. But my online play experience has been completely broken. I am playing on Xbox 360 in Australia and to say the connection is horrible would be an understatement. I have connected with a maximum of one other human while playing co-op campaign during the times I have tried. One person is not enough. I get constant "rubber banding" (a term I never knew until i looked it up to explain my BRINK experience) and huge amounts of lag which leaves the game completely unplayable online. I can't get around relying on the bots because they are the only option I have. Maybe you haven't taken into account that Australia's connection to American and UK players would be so bad, but let me tell you, it really really is. And you're probably getting the best profits per game from Australian customers. We pay $89.95AUD for your game here, a standard price for new Xbox 360 games set back when the Australian dollar was low and the American dollar was high. But if you do a bit of research you can now see that the Australian dollar is actually stronger than the American dollar in 2011. Which means we are paying thirty dollars more for a product that deliberately excludes us. Smart business would dictate that this needs to be fixed immediately if you want to maximise profits. Halo works fine here, the Gears Of War 3 Beta is fine also, minimal lag for both. I understand these are made by companies with much, much bigger budgets to play with, but I feel like right now, I'm getting a third of the experience you have slaved over for almost double the price!
CLASSES
The Soldier class feels completely useless compared to the Engineer class. There's no reason to be a soldier except to complete the objectives the friendly soldier bots are refusing to do. It needs something to make it worthwhile, perhaps an action that lets you shield other players so you can, as a soldier, protect engineers while building, repairing and upgrading, and operatives while they hack things. If they could plant a physical shield (with a certain amount of damage threshold before it breaks) on the ground or create a forcefield (with a timer) like Halo 3's bubble shield (but with less overt copyright infringement, obviously) I feel like the soldier class could become a very important role on the battlefield.
Also the operative's disguise ability is not great because headshots and melee attacks don't do enough damage right now. A melee attack whilst disguised should do extra damage (i.e. instantly kill) because firing your gun instantly removes the disguise but doesn't actually allow you to "get the drop" on enemies due to the fact that once undisguised, you still have to empty the whole clip into them to kill them.
Both of those ranks feel boring and unimportant right now.
Also improve the reaction time of the Engineer's Turret to enemy players, by the time it starts firing at them it's dead.
CHALLENGES
I love the idea of the challenges but would like to see more of them. Have a look at Timesplitters 2 on Playstation 2 for an example of how to do challenges amazingly. There was a huge amount of them, and you were always doing something different and exciting. Also if you are playing the challenges in solo mode, you NEED to make the priority of the bots to stay with you as best they can and to always support you, because solo challenges for the Be More Objective missions are infuriating. The bots just don't do their job. Instead of three different difficulties for each, how about have two different rounds for each challenge, using the Be More Objective one again as a template, where in the first round you're achieving the objectives, and in the second you are playing as the opposition trying to prevent the other team from achieving them. Less of doing the same challenges over and over, more of doing varied challenges from each side of the fight.
WEAPONS
There need to be more guns, and more variation in gun designs and purposes. I feel like I have 20 iterations of the exact same SMG that looks slightly different, and the Assault Rifles feel like SMGs with less ammo! More shotguns, more explosive weapons, more difference in everything! Also boost the amount of ammo in the guns, something I feel was deliberately limited to give the Soldier class the facade of importance, it feels like a cheap move and it doesn't make me want to play as a soldier, it makes me want to stop playing the game. This is something that feels particularly like adding insult to injury because it takes so many bullets to kill an enemy.
DEATH & RESPAWNING
You need to be able to respawn at the closest command centre, not the always the starting one. Dying is something that happens a lot and when you have to rely on medics that won't always be around because of the limit of 8 players per team, having to respawn at the far end of the level constantly becomes incredibly frustrating. Especially in missions such as the escort missions where you have to constantly be in the thick of the fighting and dying. The respawn timer is too long as well, too much of the game is spent dead waiting for a chance to get back into the action.
PARTIES & LOBBIES
That party and lobby system everyone keeps suggesting is another very important feature that needs to be included. But obviously I don't need to stress the importance of that, as everyone has been complaining to you about it.
DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT
Ok this is my last point I have to make, but it's the most important one. Downloadable content in modern gaming is a joke. They always insignificant and tacked on to the original game, overpriced, and not game changing enough to warrant playing the game again that you put down months ago. The exception to this is real time strategies on PC and in regards to console games, the expansions for Grand Theft Auto IV. In regards to GTA IV, they spent much longer developing their DLC than any other company, and charged significantly more for it, and people were happy to pay for it. Because it had so much more content in it and because people will pay anything for new GTA content. The latter point doesn't really help you, but the first point, about the extra content, really does. I understand that your team is much smaller and working on large DLC packs may seem like a waste of resources, but think about it;
The reviews for Brink on Metacritic.com currently stand at "mixed or average", Brink got quite a few glowing reviews, but these were generally from the smaller, less professional gaming publications and websites, the big ones, like IGN, 1UP and Gamespot gave you more average reviews. They are also the ones who give the most thorough DLC previews and reviews too. Imagine if you will, the headline that could come with a large and game altering DLC release, you'd have these websites encouraging readers to give Brink another go or buy it now, because this DLC fixes so many of the gripes they had with the original product. You didn't spend this many years working on your first original IP to give up on it with lackluster three map, two piece of clothing DLCs for 800points every three months. You could change minds with the DLC you have no doubt already started working on, or you could get another 6 out of 10 for it. Whether the major publication's reviews were right or wrong, they have major pull over the gaming public, people cancel their pre-orders over what these people say, that's something you should keep in mind while making the add-on you're working with. You can either work with the community who have bought BRINK already, a smaller one than everyone originally thought it'd be, that's only going to get smaller as they get bored and trade it in, or you could shoot for the stars and take more time with the DLC in order to release something really impressive.
By impressive i mean at least 5 more levels, more challenges, more outfits (and not novelty ones, legitimate ones), more guns (different types too) and a promise to listen to and address and patch issues as they arise with balancing and functionality for all the platforms the same way Epic Games did when Gears of War 2 came out with broken multiplayer. Also, there needs to be a more deathmatch-skewed mode, one similar to battlefield's 'ticket' idea. Taking objectives will reduce the enemy tickets/respawns but killing them will do so also. That's the sort of thing people would love. People will happily pay more for DLC that seems like it actually adds something to the game that won't be over in a few hours.
--------------------------
I realise it's all well and good to ask this of you when I don't have to do any of the work myself, but I have also made a conscious effort to not just list problems, but to provide possible solutions as well.
I want so badly for BRINK to be the game it has the potential to be, I want you guys to fix all the things that bug many of the people who bought it and prove that smaller developers making original IPs (everything is sequels or remakes these days!!) can do it right, and can be taken seriously. Please don't let me down, don't let yourselves down either, you made it this far, don't give up!
EDIT
Just got a reply from Splash Damage. I really feel like they read and took the time to respond to everything I said in the same detail I gave them! Love the link to the patch news that everyone already has:
Hi Alex,
Thanks for your thoughtful and elaborate feedback. We are absolutely committed to supporting Brink and have already got game updates in the works. Have a look at this blog post to see where we’re at right now: http://www.splashdamage.com/content/brink-update-splash-damage
Thanks again and see you online!
Steve