» Sat Aug 28, 2010 3:09 pm In 2010 I saw an ad on Gamefaqs about brink and thought it looked pretty cool. Some time later a friend told me he was going to get the game, so I thought I'd look it up. The trailer was breathtaking and awesome. The characters felt well thought out and the deep look on the Angers face compared to the wild looks and behavioural traits of other's made me think this game would be very interesting story wise. This increased when I saw the Ark. It was beautiful and it reminded me of something I've been following for a very long time, The Venus Project (something I find very interesting and important). This game was my new favourite game.
So, on launch day, I felt pretty bad. I had the game pre-ordered, but lived in Europe so I had to wait till Friday, while some people had it already. And then I was notified by my gamestore I could pick it up early, so I was very happy. =)
Within three days I cleared all challenges on 2 stars, completed the campaign on hard and had a level 20 and two level 7 characters. I had customized and tested all of my weapons, found the perfect outfit for my character and was only busy with the abilities (had to derank only once).
The story was pretty dissapointing as it was unclear and very short and sometimes I felt I didn't know what I was doing in the game. Like the first mission. Why blow up a door you can access from both sides?
Anyway, I didn't want my experience to be blown by the story. The gameplay was the most attractive about the game anyway. Especially the classes. They were supposed to be balanced and all have a clear purpose.
But they don't.
Let me just go by this one by one, starting with Soldier.
Soldier:
This class is probably best used with a heavy with a turret, or a rushing medium/light (rapid fire weapon like AR or SMG probably). It's grenades are great for use of infiltration or just to get some good kills. It's objectives are useful and it appears sometimes as a main objective, which is good.
As bots, soldiers can provide you with some good ammo. They don't seem to have any problem arming objectives either.
I think this is the best balanced class in the game. Nothing bad here.
Medic:
I don't really know what to think of this class. It seems balanced, but still a bit underpowered. It's good in healing and reviving, but it's metabolism just doesn't do anything. I've never noticed any difference when buffed with metabolism compared to when I wasn't. I haven't seen it's Lazarus grenade in action, which might balance out it's metablosim buff.
However it's objectives are really crappy and not that frequent. You never need to be a Medic when it's the main objective, because one is all you need and there's always one medic on the team. However, the hostage is so slow that it dies too quick and you have to buff him over and over again, which can be really boring after a while.
As bots, medics can svck. They buff you a lot, but it's mostly metabolism (anyone for customizable bots that stick with you in solo play?), and when it comes down reviving they're just plain idiots. However, their main objective play as Medic is great, they always circlejerk around the hostage with 4 of 'em, so I don't have to do the boring job.
Overall, it still feels weird and a bit underpowered, but that might be because it's a very big support class, or it's just my personal playstyle.
Engineer:
I'd say this guy is a big surprise for me. At first I thought his job was simply just the technical stuff. Turret building, repairing, mine placement, other kind of traps and that's it. And that sounded pretty cool to me. And then they had weapon and armor buffs and upgrading of command posts. Powerful much?
These guys are the most useful class in their abilities, from the guarding of wellplaced turrets and mines (anyone complaining about turrets, learn to place them correctly. They were never meant to be instant killing machines, but tactical, strategic assets), to the upgrading of command posts, to the buffing of teammates with improved weapon buffs and kevlar plates, they always have some way to help the team.
And not even just the team. The (improved) weapon buff can be deadly when used with a shotgun or sniper and makes ambushing very effective, especially with turrets and mines that can alert you of enemies when you place them well.
As bots these guys aren't that amazing though. They rarely upgrade command posts, turrets and mines are randomly placed around the map and you're lucky if they care enough to buff your weapon. Usually it isn't even improved. However, this really doesn't matter, because one human Engi is all a team needs, and in solo play that can be you.
And the engineer's objectives.... Holy jesus. They might take a long time but:
- So does spawning. And the engineers buffed weapon can kill anyone around the objective easily before starting on the objective.
- They are irreversible (which I spelled wrong), unless they're barricades or bots. And even then, they can only be reversed when they're finished, meaning you can't stop an engineer's 99% progress.
- So many side-objectives! MG Nest? Varies per map, but usually about 3 per map. Command posts? 2 per map. Barricades or shortcuts? 1 per map?
- Their anti-objectives are way too fast and easy.
Overall, the engineer is probably the most powerful of all classes (And I use it all the time, hahahahahaha!).
And finally: The operative
Uncapitalized for dissapointment. This guy should get a buff.
It has no team-buffing, which makes it a bit useless as a support character off spawn. Disguising can be hard, because the only place you'll find bodies, is on the battlefield and you can't really run in and disguise without being noticed and killed/discovered. You might get lucky and find some random dude wondering somewhere, but that rarely ever happens, as the enemy is always well organized. However, sometimes the enemy retreats from a battle, leaving you free to disguise. And even then, bodies might dissappear in the middle of disguising.
And when you are disguised, you don't really have that much to do. Sure, you can't fire your weapon, but why can't I hack my objective? Wouldn't that be great? Also, spotting enemies and mines when disguised is a bit hard, because I can't see where I'm looking at. It takes me way too long to spot mines or people, and when I finally can spot someone, SMART makes me lose him.
Turret hacking is pretty useless. I never seem to be able to find any turrets and when I finally do, I either destroy them because they shoot me, or they're so badly placed that they're not worth hacking.
And I've never noticed anything when firewalling a command post.
The only truly effective thing Operatives have is the Cortex Bomb, but it's pretty cheap to do.
As bots, Operatives seem to be uselss as well. As hackers they're fine, but they have this urge to kill more than to hack, even when they don't need to and on Shipyard, that's a real bad thing. However, they can't use disguise, they never use comms hacks or spot mines and I've never seen them throw any special kind of grenade.
And the objectives. Oh lord the objectives.....
Hacking takes hours, especially when you have to take cover and lose reception(?), while taking off a hackbox takes two seconds. Other than that they have nothing to do. Firewall a command post maybe, but that doesn't do anything.
Overall, I was thinking at first about becoming an Operative and sneak behind enemy lines to recon for the team. I didn't like the campy idea of the Engineer, the rush in Soldier and thought of becoming Operative/Medic.
I'm now Engineer/Operative, simply because I don't like Medics abilities and Soldier is not my playstyle. I'm never Operative though, except if I have to hack, because bots simply are useless sometimes and that's the only reason I've specialized in that class.
Discuss?
