» Sat Mar 05, 2011 3:34 am Both versions:
First off... Brink is an AMAZING game. When you get into a game where all cylinders are firing the game is an absolute blast. Having to actually use teamwork makes each match feel so much more rewarding in the end. The story cutscenes are a nice touch... if you know the story. Which is my first gripe. The way the game is organized and played through the campaign makes the story stilted. Sure, I'm grabbing Nacheyev, yeah he's the only pilot the resistance has, but why the hell do I REALLY care about the guy? His story isn't presented in a way that makes me care one bit about losing or winning this match and bringing the guy home. The game does have some audio logs you unlock that fill in a few blank spots and do a great job of explaining the motivations behind the respective leaders of the Security and Resistance but otherwise aren't that remarkable. The story just isn't... personal enough. The cutscenes sometimes almost get there, like a resistance member talking about his family, or a security officer expressing his hesitance to lump all the "guests" together as rabble but in the end these cutscenes devolve into "DO YOUR JOBS". I think instead of the mission voiceover before the cutscene should have had small art stills showing Chen/Mokoena(sp)/whoever is second in command, talking to the men we see in the cutscenes, explaining the mission to them. The same guys appear in these cutscenes over and over... why not bring these men into the forefront? Give them identifiable names... have the leader speak to each of them and give them their roles.
Example:
Chen: "Jackson (random name), I know you've been struggling with this, having to leave your clinic and family to help the Resistance, but this is important my friend. You're a damn good MEDIC and we need you to keep Nacheyev(sp) alive long enough to get him to our boat."
then...
Chen: "And who's the OPERATIVE who's going to hack that door open so our boy Jackson can get Nacheyev home? You? What's your name? Miller? You can hack? Alright men, we are sending some other guys out into the field with you just in case you cant get it done. Now get out there and show those fascists that there's fight in us yet. FOR THE RESISTANCE"
Something like this wouldn't have cost many more resources (a few art stills) and isn't any longer than the mission brief you receive before the mission cutscene you get anyways but now theres a human element to the brief and theres a connection between the mission, the men in the cutscenes, and you the player. You know you are part of this team and you know what you're going to have to do.
Also, instead of the campaign being organized into Security and Resistance I believe it should have been organized chronologically and skipping back and forth. This would allow you to see the story from both sides, see the human element in both forces, and in the end turn a black and white story into one that tugs you back and forth always into the grey. I've played the campaign this way and in my opinion its much better in its execution than simply having Security and Resistance.
This also carries into the guns. There's a lot of them and they all look cool, sound great, and you can customize them but they are given to you right away. Why not unlock weapons with levels like the clothing? Im not saying COD style where every few levels you get to unlock a new POS weapon that isn't as good as what you already have. I'm saying every level give me a few new ones. A new SMG, AR, and Pistol would do wonders every level because I would want to try those new weapons ASAP. And since there are only 20 levels by level 12 or so I would have all the weapons and 8 levels left to pick my favorites but I would have already experimented with them all since I've unlocked them. Granted, I've now experimented with all the weapons and done this myself but I can see a lot of players being overwhelmed and just grabbing the first two that they do semi decent with and saying screw it to the rest.
Other than that minor gripe everything is excellent. I love the way the game throws you out there with knowledge (if you watched the video) but no sense of execution. Sure you've done the training but here's the WAR and it's all around you. Those first few games you play are hectic and almost terrifying but you start playing and you start doing the objectives and you start helping your team and then suddenly you're a warrior. You're doing everything almost second nature. Then you rank up and you find your skills improving. As an operative you start being able to hack enemy turrets and make your teams turrets stronger. As a soldier you gain new types of grenades and begin to learn that you can do WAY more than supply ammo and throw bullets downfield, you have flashbangs for crowd control, molotovs for intimidation and frag grenades to break the enemy up. Command posts become much more important as they can be upgraded to give you even more of an edge. These ranks and abilities were built into the game to always keep you learning and making you feel like a badass at the end. The art style is amazing in a way you didn't think it could be. The SMART System, though taking some getting used to is excellent and even more so when you learn to start doing the slides and jumps manually. Awesome work Splash Damage.
PC Only:
By far the best way to play Brink. The controls are excellently mapped from the get go. The art style really comes through if you have a decent rig. Most players are already more attuned to the team based style of the game. The dedicated server list loads and refreshes quickly. Everything works awesome despite a few hiccups. Some new drivers needed to be installed but most PC players know to check for a driver hotfix almost every time you get a new game. Almost all the games I've played have run excellently without a problem.
My score on PC would be 10/10
Xbox Only:
Brink is great on a console when you get a good lobby together without any lag. Unfortunately the netcode Splash Damage has implemented is sometimes a mess. It seems that all it takes is for one person who is too far away with a bad connection to turn a game into a slideshow of lag. Literally less than a frame per second. Rubberbanding all over the place. You get the picture. Yes I know it's the first day but some of these games are UNPLAYABLE. Its only about 1/4 that are this bad but still. 1/2 are occasionally laggy and the other 1/4 is smooth as silk. The game controls well on console and once you get used to the aiming then its really great. The ADS is more sensitive than a console gamer may be used to but like I said it eventually becomes second nature. The game is a little blurry as some people have said but in motion and actually playing the game it looks great. This isnt a stand in a corner and marvel at the detail kinda game. Splash Damage has done a great job with the budget they had and the games art style alone puts it above COD graphically. I'm one of those guys that loves style over ZOMG THE REALIZMZ, but I can definitely see why people would be miffed about the graphics on console. The firefights themselves feel a little weaker on the XBOX as well. This isn't any sort of difference within the game software wise but its there nonetheless. It's probably due to the fact that the console is home to much more responsive twitch shooters where a few specks of sand can kill someone but this kinda game just feels a little off to me. The shooting is a lot more mobile and a lot more actively engaging. PC players are used to this what with Quake and UT and such but on a console controller it feels weird. I've adjusted to it and have grown to love it since it feels like the Goldeneye and Halo 1 days but at first its a little off putting. The Xbox version needs some serious network patching and then it will be good to go. I've talked to some people while playing Advanced Matchmaking (the playlist that enables FF and VOIP Communication) and they seems to be loving it when the game is actually working.
Xbox score would have to be a 7/10. An online game absolutely positively needs to work online. The matches work about 7/10 times, thus the score.
These aren't things I'm expecting Splash Damage to fix (except the networking) through patches, just my overall opinions on what would have made an already tremendous accomplishment. If you are reading this and are on the fence I would still recommend it more than anything on the market. The xbox issues aren't as bad as some people make them out to be and trust me they will be fixed eventually. All games go through networking troubles in the first week, albeit not as bad as Brink's but it's still a point to be made. Buy the game, support Splash Damage for trying something new. Unless you are poor, if you are poor and you can buy just a few games a year then I would rent it then purchase it for a bit cheaper down the road. This game is NOT for everyone... and it doesn't apologize for it at all. Thanks Splash Damage for Brink =).
Feel free to discuss and debate these points and if you have any questions about either platform or about the game in general. Please ask me any questions about the game and I will give you my 100% honest opinion as will anyone else on the forums.
