I have to say that when I first saw Brink, the parkour was definitely exciting and something I was looking forward too. (Don't let my sig fool you, I play Light very often) Also, the possible idea of a changing environment, and seeing what the SMART system could do with it.

What I expected: to be leaping across roof-tops, doing crazy slip-n-slides through complex sewer systems, and doing the "Gordon Freeman" in a few air vents. (Among dodging flurries of bullets)

What I feel I got: a series of maps that were more linear than my math homework. The shanty levels I think were probably the biggest disappointment. When I got into the refugee sector the first thing I wanted to do was to climb to the highest possible altitude to get a good understanding of my surroundings. The best I could get was about 3 crates (stories) above ground level. There were multiple times where I thought I had found a feasible climbing position for my light-body type to grab onto a higher ledge, but instead was met with my hopping there up and down desperately trying to climb an invisible wall.

This is also how it felt on most of the other levels. They weren't terribly complex, which was nice at first, but as I became more familiar with the levels I quickly realized that the paths were much too linear for a parkour game especially. It came down to a matter of "Do you go to the Right or Left?" When I envisioned Brink as a Heavy Soldier, I imagined myself charging towards the front lines, possibly by my self or with a few mediums to assisst, and then have my light-body teamates come crashing in from above or below in the most Batman way possible. Again, what happened most of the time instead was that they would run off, capture an enemy command post, and then end up in the same hallway as me as we approached the main objective.

Being a light-body type doesn't mean that you can take secret routes or hidden passage-ways, most of the time it just means that you can have little "Short-cuts" along the main paths. Basically, body types decide whether you use a crate or the staircase to get to the second level.

I'll definitely admit that the overall fluency of my characters movement felt absolutely perfect (no getting caught on those pesky corners or tables:), but the actual range that I could use that movement felt very stringent and disappointing. I understand that with 8v8 matches the maps have to be relatively small to compensate, but imo that severely hurt the potential of the S.M.A.R.T. system in the end.

I agree with what you're saying, and I think it would be cool if lights had more ways to get around, but I don't really think Splash Damage intended for the game to be that way. It's like you said, being a light body type means that you have short cuts along the main path, and I think that's what SD was shooting for.

I wouldnt say its disapointing... that may be a little harsh. Sad it couldnt be used in a more free form way (like Assassins Creed) but the execution of it was so well done... I am just happy about that.

my favorite use of parkour in the game is that one challenge explaining how to use it, if they could do something like this but in a bigger mission oriented level, I would love it.

I think what they did with the SMART system is a leap forward in a competitive FPS movement. I think if there is a sequel, they can improve the range and effectiveness, but I think we need to appreciate the SMART system for what it is and that nothing has been executed like this in any competitive FPS.

While i don't know what a Gordon Freeman (haven't played HL) I would like to see new maps with more verticality (why doesn't spell check recognize that) but I didn't feel like the game was missing. They probably don't want every part of the map to have a spot where lights have an advantage. Also it would probably slow you when you have to move on to the objective.
p.s. There is a part of container city when the bot opens up the laboratory where the resistance get a nice vantage point up high.

I always give props to well written posts, so consider yourself virtual high-fived. The parkour element is an incredible let down in this game. When it works, it's nice, don't get we wrong. It's both cool and efficient to stylishly leap over a railing instead of awkwardly hopping it or going around it. That said, the implementation of SMART within the gamespace is riddled with problems. A vast majority of the promotional materials for this game threw parkour at us over and over again, promising to bring the end of "canned animations" and allowing us freedom in approaching our objectives the likes of which no other game has provided. The cinematic trailer showcased it, the developer diaries followed suit, hell the game was even highlighted by actual free running tours in a separate marketing campaign and yet the maps we're left with offer nearly nothing to do regarding SMART.

I didn't expect a game filled with mission after mission of intense wall hopping on shanty town roofs hundreds of feet off the ground, but something along that mindset would have been nice. At this point I don't even see why I'd ever want to play a Light: Mediums have more stopping power with a very slight movement penalty and Heavies have more health with some of the most fun weapons in the game. There aren't any opportunities to flank or be creative in your path construction; you're simply choosing one bottleneck over the other. I feel this also contributes enormously to the lack of Operatives in the game as it stands now. A class built on being clever and stealthy really loses its punch when there's no way to get behind enemy lines other than banzai rushing the opposing force outright.

They just need to add some maps with more options for SMART.

You know,maps that play on rooftops kinda like Mirrors Edge where a light can jump around from rooptop to rooftop like a crazy squirrel while engineers have to build bridges or something for the heavys (cause they cant SMART over anything) to get from rooftop to rooftop.
The Mission could be, "GET TO DO CHOPPA".


Lights definetly need more SMART ways for some action.

I agree with Yeti and the OP.

I was excited about all of the possibilities of SMART, but the lack of being able to put it into use. Kind of like, "Here, let me jump over this one random box in the middle of all this flat land."

I wanted to be able to free run over everything and anything; have a teammate funnel an enemy down an alley way as I and a teammate chased from rooftops! Jump throw windows, slide under trucks, jump roof tops, and run and gun at the same time avoiding danger on the way to an objective.

But since Brink has just come out, I'm hoping for perhaps some DLC that could provide all of that

Honestly, it's NOT a parkour game.

It's a shooter that has parkour elements.

It's not trying to be the next Mirror's Edge, it's trying to be Brink.

The SMART system is about breaking down one of the frustrating elements of other shooters where your movement is blocked by an obstacle that shouldn't really be getting in the way.

The shortcuts and alternative routes in the game are a great reward, and those extra few seconds a Heavy takes to reach the next floor when a Light is walljumping around corners to skip half the stairway can be the difference between victory and defeat.

While I understand people's disappointed when visioning a parkouring style game. However you need to remember that they have to be very very careful when enabling this kind of movement in games. When it comes down to map designing the same goes there too. If there was a bigger border between what a heavy and light built characters can and can't do, there could be some major issues very fast.

For simple example if light built characters had more higher places to reach that was not accessible to anyone else, others further down would have to have some boost to be able to handle the unreachable enemies that shoot from "hidden" high spots.

For me the actual movement system so far has been great and I have a feeling that we will see some more nice parkour-supported maps in near future.

I like the parkour elements they have. Sure it would be nice to add more, but this is a team based multiplayer shooter not an open world game (that would be cool too, you know). What I would love to have seen is certain side objectives only Lights can get to, or even little sniper nests that only lights can get to.

I think that the problem here is the way SD explained it. They made it sound like there were infinite possibilites in SMART, when in reality there aren't. Still, we have to appreciate this is the first FPS with a system like this one, and also the system works well. Light body-types still do have an advantage as they can get to objectives faster using quick little short cuts. Plus as you said, the system is very fluid.

While yes, you are correct sir, this is NOT a parkour game, but the developers put such an emphasis on it during development that I (and many others) have come to expect that parkouring was going to be a significant element within this "Revolutionary" shooter.

I also expected that.

And in my opinion, it is.

I can sprint diagonally towards someone who's trying to line a shot up on me, jump, wallhop, slide tackle them, then melee before they know where I went or why they're on their back.

Ehh, rang is just fine for me, Ive found that in increased movement games the best players use enhanced movement in the places the developers least expected.

The movements are pretty fluid, but i would say when it comes to the moves you can do, there are alot more things that could have been added

I think that the map design [censored] on the vast possibilities that come with SMART, they had lightning in a bottle, and decided to let it go.

If they had invested more time into the maps I think we would've seen more

a. things to slide under, to enter other areas

b. things to wj, to reach other platforms

c. things that are more dynamic (swinging cranes with i beams etc.)

They could've looked at mirrors edge more for map design, to really key in on the SMART mechanic, and then balance things around that, instead we're given dull levels without much complexity.

Hopefully future maps will allow us to make the most of the SMART movement system. I think the way it has been done works really well because of the simplicity. Props to SD on the good work