Greetings, gentlemen. (Ladies: in Brink, you are gentlemen, too.)

This thread is for those of you who follow Brink closely enough you could practically give an interview on it. You who pre-ordered back when Brink was coming out in Fall 2010. What I invite you to do here is: pick a popular shooter you've played, and write an explanation of Brink in the context of that shooter. How would you convince your BC2 buddies to get Brink? How would you explain the differences between Splash Damage's last title, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and this? What would you focus on to sway your friend who played UT2004 and loved Onslaught?

Not every reply has to be as verbose as mine is below; if you have one or two comparisons to make to your favorite shooter, feel free to put in your two cents. I know, though, that there are people here who can, if they put their minds to it, rival me in long-windedness.

Feuer frei!

I'll go first, being the thread author and all. The single shooter I've played most is TF2, so I'll explain Brink to an audience that is familiar with TF2.

Beginning with the broadest qualities of the game, Brink is a fundamentally teamplay-based shooter. Where TF2 has nine classes, each of which has unlockable customisation items, Brink has four classes, three body types, and many, many guns. The biggest difference between Brink and TF2 is that your class only determines part of how you play: it decides what special tools you have for interacting with your team, but not what guns you can carry. Every class is equally good at shooting people, which means you should never be guilted or trapped into playing Medic or Engineer just because nobody else will. It also means every class has useful ways to interact with teammates on the battlefield, so Medic and Engineer aren't on a special pedestal. Soldiers provide ammo to teammates (and this ammo can contain buffs, depending on the Soldier's specialisation), Operatives hack into fallen enemies' comm systems and reveal the locations of enemy combatants on your radar, Engineers (in addition to building sentry guns) place mines and buff their allies' guns to do more damage, and Medics (in addition to simply healing allies) can buff allies' maximum health and toss adrenaline syringes to downed allies who haven't been completely finished off (and haven't respawned) yet. Basically, your class determines what you can do when you're not shooting someone.

Like TF2, and unlike most other shooters, Brink gives you a tradeoff between health and mobility. The three different body types are basically a sliding scale between "cool guns" and "cool moves"; if you play as a skinny guy, your quick gait and wall-climbing skills give you access to paths other types don't, like the Scout has in TF2. If you play as a beefy guy, you can carry big machine guns, like the Heavy, and you don't even have to be fat and bald. And, of course, there's the middle ground: you can carry decent guns and still be able to climb some walls if you play as the mesomorphic Medium.

Weapon damage adheres to a philosophy that should be familiar to TF2 players: killing anyone instantly takes some finesse. In fact, Brink goes so far as to eliminate the concept of snipers by making even the slowest, scopiest, most bolt-action guns unable to kill a healthy enemy with a headshot, and by being set in an environment where it's rare to have a line of fire long enough that the enemy can't shoot you back without a scoped weapon.

Weapon accuracy is a bit more like TF2 than other shooters tend to be; your accuracy doesn't completely disappear while you're moving. Brink's developers like to run and gun, and they're going to make this viable. However, you will be able to aim down your weapon's sights to improve your accuracy (at the expense of your movement speed). Weapons can be customised in a variety of ways; if you want to run and gun, you can attach a foregrip to improve your aim while you're on the move, and if you prefer to crouch and aim, you can attach a dot sight or a scope.

Brink is as objective-focused as TF2, which is to say, more so than other shooters. Dying just means you have to respawn; it doesn't get the enemy closer to victory, so there's seldom a reason to simply take cover and hide. Brink maps are most anologous to TF2 Attack/Defend maps, in that once your team completes a primary objective, the other team can't un-complete it. The same sort of clock scheme is in Brink as in TF2: you have a limited amount of time to complete the first objective, but if you do it, you get plenty more time to complete the next objective. The difference is that the objectives themselves are class-based: instead of simply occupying an area for a time, your team has to get a member of a certain class there in order to use its class tools. This results in three different types of objective:

• Engineers stand at the Construct/Repair objectives and use their repair tool (so teammates need to secure the surrounding area to keep you alive),
  
• Soldiers have to plant a charge at Destroy objectives and make sure enemy Engineers don't disarm it (so, once the charge is planted, the enemy has to actually move to the objective to defend it, instead of just shooting you),
  
• and Operatives are able to use their wireless hacking tool to complete Hacking objectives from a short distance away once they've applied a transponder to the target (but hacking is faster if the distance is smaller).

There's also a variety of other objectives. Command Posts are like TF2 control points, in that they can be captured and recaptured many times. They're never the primary objective, but they are very useful in that, as long as you own one, you can use it to change class, change weapons, and refill ammo, and it gives every member of your team a buff.

Brink uses a common shooter element that is absent from TF2: experience point progression. You gain XP by using your class tools to complete objectives or help allies, and by killing enemies (kills that are made close to an objective are more valuable). You use XP to unlock specialisations for your character. Splash Damage doesn't commit the infuriating sin of forcing you to unlock essential class tools: a Medic can always heal, a Soldier can always crap ammo, etc. However, with specialisations you get through XP, you earn the opportunity to give up some of your class tools (e.g. the ability to buff a teammate's max health) for others (e.g. a special grenade that can revive several teammates at once). Brink skills are much like TF2 items, except you actually get to pick which ones you earn. (You will never have to deal with finding the Force-a-Nature six times before you get your first Kritzkrieg.)

There are other forms of character customisation. Unlike TF2, the classes don't fight in completely different ways, so Splash Damage doesn't do what Valve did and make each class have its own distinctive look. Instead, you craft your character's look using clothing, body armor, and helmets that you unlock through gameplay. This area of customisation doesn't affect gameplay at all; you can go shirtless if you want, and your chest will absorb just as many bullets as the guy with the bomb squad suit.

Brink has bots. We're told the bots are really good, and if the bots from Splash Damage's previous game, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, are any indication, we're not being deceived. Players who are intimidated by online multiplayer can play the same game against bots to build their skills. You still earn XP when you're playing against bots, and this also means you can set up a private match and play cooperatively with a friend.

Finally, Splash Damage is trying its hardest to make Brink a game that builds a competent player base. You shouldn't ever have to worry about your team's newbies not understanding their class skills ("this team has three engineers and no teleporters!" "i burned to death and a pyro who could have extinguished me was right there!"), because Brink actually tells its players that these are objectives. Brink has a feature called the Objective Wheel, which is an interface where players can see everything they can do to earn experience at whatever moment they look at it. If you're wounded, and a nearby Medic checks his objective wheel, he'll be told he can make some easy XP by healing you. If you're getting low on ammo, the Soldier's objective wheel tells him to toss you some. Naturally, the primary and secondary map objectives are on here, too: a huge arc at the top of the Objective Wheel is taken up by whatever the primary objective is, at all times. You are never required to use the Objective Wheel in order to perform objectives, but if you do, your character announces to your team that you're going to perform the objective you've selected, which lets smart teammates know what you're planning and allows them to help or get out of the way as appropriate.

If you love TF2, I think you'll love Brink, because Splash Damage, like Valve, thinks long and hard about how the game should work to make it fun, and isn't afraid to break with convention where it will improve the game. Get Brink for PC and play it with me. I will buff your gun.

^^^ That guy knows how to go in-depth! lol Thats an interview!

I will not even try and 1 up him, and simply say, i conquer!

I'll just show them a gameplay video, then show them a gameplay video of their previous game, then show them brink gameplay video again.

You should throw in a video of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbIVUgW0t0o for good measure.

Hello gamers.

Look at your game, now back to brink, now back to your game, now BACK to BRINK! Sadly, your game isn't Brink. But with a little bit of intelligence and some money from your pocket you could have Brink as well.

Look down. Back up. Where are you? You're on a large artificial arc, in the game your intelligence bought. What's in your hand? Back at me. I have it. It's an INSERTMOUSE&KEYBOARD/CONSOLECONTROLLER with buttons that let you have fun. Look again, it's a clock indicating that you've been playing for hours and haven't realized it.

Anything is possible when you're playing brink. It's on an arc.

Hello, gamers,
look at your game, now back to mine, now back at your game, now back to mine! Sadly, it isn’t mine. But if you stopped playing boring wornout games and switched to BRINK, it would be like mine.
Look down, back up. Where are you? You’re in a store with the game your game could be like! What’s in your hand? Back at me. I have it! It’s the game with all features that you love. Look again, the features are now diamonds!
Anything is possible when your game plays like BRINK and not a tubefest. I’m on the Ark.

*feels inferior* ;_;

Take the best elements of your favorite shooters. A Bad Company 2-style class system. Blacklight: Tango Down's unique weapon customization system. Modern Warfare 2/Black Ops's graphics. The character customization available in Rainbow Six: Vegas 1/2. The unique freerunning/parkour (there's a debate on the correct term but I believe it's freerunning) system of Mirror's Edge.

But don't think of BRINK as just a copy-paste of all of the above. BRINK takes everything a step further.

Bad Company 2's class system simply gave you a few advantages and disadvantages, but your gameplay style never really changed drastically no matter what class you chose. BRINK is different. When you pick either Soldier, Engineer, Medic, or Operative, every class has a different feel and style of play. As a Soldier your job is to charge the frontlines, keep your teammates full of ammo, and blow stuff up. As a Medic your job is to hand out Revive Syringes, Health Packs, Lazarus Grenades, Life Buffs, anything to keep your team alive. Engineers need to hold the line alongside their teammates by dropping turrets and boosting the damage output of your teammates' guns. Operatives sneak behind enemy lines with disguises (a la TF2), and need to sabotage everything necessary to help their team get a better foothold on the battlefield.

In addition, BRINK's classes coexist equally as important powers. No one will get anywhere without good battlefield intelligence, and the Operative is the man for the job. Without the Engineer, your defensive and offensive capabilities are at a sub-par strength, and so on and so forth.

Blacklight: Tango Down is an interesting game because it offers a higher level of weapon customization than is available in other games. But B:TD only has about 5 guns to customize. BRINK gives you 24. Each and every one can be customizable with any attachments you desire. Are you the Rambo of your team? Then get a machine gun, throw on a bigger clip, a red dot sight, a front grip, and a muzzle break so that you'll accurately unload hundreds of bullets. Do you want a combination of stealth and lethality? Get a shotgun, install a silencer and an extended magazine, and you have yourself a weapon that can royally own without giving your position away. You have no limit to what you want to do to your gun. It can fit one purpose or it can be a jack-of-all-trades. But just remember: every time you throw something onto your gun, it takes longer to equip it and take care of other actions.

Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops both have pretty impressive graphics. BRINK's a 2011 game. BRINK's graphics will prove to leave an even bigger impression on you.

With Rainbow Six: Vegas, you could select from a formidable set of armor to make your operative look like a super-soldier. But the problem with Vegas is that you had to worry about both movement and protection. The armor you thought to be impressive could have also been the same one that offered the least protection. This isn't a problem with BRINK. You can choose from either the Light, Medium, or Heavy bodytypes, and no matter what pieces of clothing you choose, your health statistics will never change. So you have the freedom to pick whatever you want without disadvantages. Whether you want to look like an F-16 on legs or some cop who doesn't follow dress code; a total punk-gangster or a construction worker, you're not going to sacrifice anything to choose what you believe is truly cool.

Finally, we have freerunning/parkour, which grew pretty big after the release of Mirror's Edge. Sure, Mirror's Edge was a good game, but its shooting element was unnecessarily tacked on. BRINK aims to blend both freerunning/parkour and shooting seamlessly. You're not going to have as many moves as Mirror's Edge, but you're certainly going to be able to use freerunning/parkour as a way of getting a tactical advantage over your enemies. Whether you use it to sneak behind enemy lines, or you use it to flank your enemies, freerunning/parkour is a key element of the game. And to utilize freerunning/parkour isn't as hard as you may think. Mirror's Edge required at least three buttons to effectively perform parkour. BRINK uses only one: the SMART button, which is going to be L1/Left Bumper on a PS3/Xbox, respectively (don't know about PC). SMART is truly smart because it is context-sensitive: for instance, when you look at an airport security scanner, aiming above it will cause you to mantle over it, while aiming at the ground will make you slide under. Shooting and moving both at once is something BRINK will let you do, as opposed to the current system of movement in FPS/TPS games, where pressing a certain interaction button will leave you vulnerable as you attempt to move past it.
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So there's my description. If there's anything I've missed feel free to inform me.

I just told my friends it was objective based, good customization, and talked a little bit about the SMART System. Worked out for me.

i told my freinds there balls would implode and i would consume there souls and they will fall into a realm of pain and doom and they shall submit to my wrath and subcome to a hypnotic dance of madness and bow down to me, then is shall command my armies of the damned to destroy everything they loved and charished, there minds will then rot and there pain will feed me and fuel my insanity until they have accepted the madness that awaits there endless torture. THEN ALL SHALL BOW DOWN TO THE DOCTA, THE APOCLYPSE WILL BEFALL THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD AND ALL WILL BE VANQUISHED AND SERVE MY ETERNAL ARMY!!! DEATH TO ALL- i mean, world peace, yay brink.

I just say "It's going to be awesome get it." Then explain every feature....curse my endless talking!

I showed my friends videos and I so far got 2, working on my 3rd friend who I play a lot of games with.

I explained it to my friend as "It's like halo, but with no vehicles, you can jump climb and go almost anywhere" and I told him about the 3 body types, the four classes, mentioned the awsome customization and left like that. You did a lot better than me. I might actually print your post and put flyers around my school with it.

I'd say "it's like a class based shooter with parkour. Oh and the story is the multiplayer."
You know what, I'd just leave it to the first guy.

You crazy bro, thats a whole more then 2 sentences. Just put pictures with captions explaining all the cool features.

Well said and on that note welcome back Chant, been wondering when you would pop back up.

For CoD: "Think of how fast paced cod is. now, think of how many times you have died because you got stuck in-between some rocks or somthing. in BRINK, you can just freerun right over the rock like a badass.

For BF: "think of how awsome the teamplay of Battlefeild is when everyone sticks togeather. the problem is, half of the people playing are rambo medics or engineers who want to be Ninjas. in BRINK, every objective can only be completed by a certain class, but medics can't heal themselves too much, and the maps are localized way better. also, no sniper NOOBz."

by the way, this is just for console players, which i am, for PC gamers i would just say "look it up, and prepare to die of amazement."

Why would it be explained differently for different platforms?

Because PC gamers can just look up the game, because they're on a comp. while console gamers might be really lazy and just want someone to explain the game or compare games

The release date announcement got me salivating again. Even so, I'm gonna try not to hover around here all the time, like I used to.

I should probably shouldn't hover this much but its fun. :spotted owl: