» Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:07 pm Why reviewers don't get Brink
Right off the bat let’s get something straight, Brink is a multiplayer title. Let’s not pretend for a minute that Splash Damage created this game to be an immersive single player experience with multiplayer as an after thought. Sure, there’s a story but, it’s almost irrelevant - this is a title that's all about the gameplay.
Having interviewed the Splash Damage guys a few times over the years on the subject of Brink, every time single player was brought up the answers were short and a little blurry. In all honest it didn't come as much of a surprise, having played Quake Wars to death, I was never under the illusion that Brink was going to offer much in the way of a single player campaign mode. Solo play was always going to act as more of a training mode for the online game than anything else (much like we saw from Tribes and Quake Wars).
What Splash Damage have done with Brink (which they didn’t really do as extensively in Quake Wars) is try and give the training missions some meaning. But, at the end of the day, the meaning (in this case 'story') doesn’t ultimately matter a great deal when you start to play online. Again, Brink’s focus is online. Brink's focus is multiplayer.
So why the crap review scores? (For the record, we awarded Brink a healthy 8.8/10 - Ed.) There's one clear reason: many reviewers were looking for and/or expecting a game that was focused equally on single and multiplayer. Where did that expectation come from? I have no idea. Whatever the reason, the lack of a split focus is one of the main negatives brought up in every review of the game that awards an average, or below average, score. Just to be clear, by 'average' I mean 4, 5 or 6 out of 10 (the Xbox 360 version of Brink sits at 69/100 on Metacritic).
The other common complaint I've seen relates to the lack of maps. Again, let’s look back at that previous Splash Damage title, Quake Wars. That game didn’t exactly come with 50 maps and, in essence, was a multiplayer-only title in. Did it get stale as a result of < 50 maps? No. To this day you’ll still find busy Quake Wars servers. Sure, it's popularity has diminished since launch but there is a reason people are still playing it... great level design with a push towards competitive team play and very focused objectives. More maps would have been nice but the challenge was in mastering and understanding the maps as team.
During the lead-up to the Brink reviews going live, Bethesda had organised numerous online play sessions on the 360 to allow reviewers to play together. John handled the Brink 360 review here at IncGamers and I asked him about it a couple of days in. His main comment was that reviewers didn’t really understand the importance of team play and it was incredibly hard to get any sort of rapport going with team members because they were largely unfamiliar with each other. John had indicated that he didn’t think a lot of people would 'get it'. It seems he was right.
There seems to be a lack of understanding about Brink's goals. Perhaps some players find it a little complex? With having multiple mission objectives and classes that play a vital role at different stages of the mission and near on-the-fly switching maybe that's a little too complex for some.
This is a huge problem for a game like Brink because, as with Quake Wars, team play is everything and that's something Splash Damage understand very well. When I first started playing Quake Wars I used to hop on random servers and (long story short) found it infuriating - players had no sense of team coordination and I was often left weeping over my keyboard.
After a few weeks I discovered the OCB server, a server run by a tight-knit group of players that were there to primarily have fun but also showed good skill and team-wide coordination. Just as importantly, they understood the maps and the objectives. Immediately my enjoyment of the game was boosted a hundred fold. I ended up playing Quake Wars every night for around a year. Being a late comer to the proceedings, I only paid ￡10 for the game and it was probably the best value for money I have had from any game and I wish I had grabbed it when it was first released.
Splash Damage played up the breadth of Brink's character customisation prior to release and there’s no denying that it's an incredibly stylish game. However, let’s not put too much emphasis on character customisation. If you have time to stand around admiring what your squad-mates are wearing then you’re doing something horribly wrong. A character’s looks are pretty irrelevant, as was indicated in Quake Wars or any modern day shooter in which the classes look largely alike. Still, does customisation ruin the enjoyment of the game? Obviously not.
Review scores around the lower ranges feature remarks that are picky to the point of ridiculous. One review I read this week complained about the look of the outfits. I mean c’mon! Marking down an objective based, team orientated shooter because the outfits didn't look right? God have mercy if that reviewer is let lose on the next Call of Duty and that series' brand of generic 'out size fits all' attire.
Now I'm not saying that Brink doesn’t have issues, the lag on 360 being one of them (in my experience it plays fine on the PC after the launch day patch), but like any game these days it will have shipped with bugs that are going to need to be ironed out and, eventually, the lag spike will become a thing of the past. In fact there was a day-one patch in the UK that addressed many of the game's issues, a patch that some reviewers in the US didn’t have access to before their reviews went live.
Brink also seems to suffer from the fact that it has been designed for multiple platforms. Trying to create a game that works well on all platforms is not an easy task and Brink may have stumbled a little as a result. There was no way I was going to pick this up on a console, you really do need a mouse and keyboard with all the trimmings that come with playing on a PC to get the most from a game like Brink.
Perhaps this is something Splash Damage should have predicated and pushed the PC version out first to garner positive feedback before launching on consoles at a later date. Many of the negative reviews and comments have come from console reviews or players unhappy with the console's lag issues at launch.
In a world that is filled with Battlefield and CoD clones, Brink is refreshing. It’s not doing anything all that groundbreaking - it’s building on solid foundations set-up by the likes of Wolfenstein and Quake Wars and, from my experience, that can only be viewed as a good thing.
The biggest disappointment for me regarding Brink has nothing to do with the levels, characters or gameplay; it’s the lack of vehicles. The open expanses of Quake Wars brought an extra element of tactical planning. Still, I was under no illusion there would ever be such an inclusion in Brink... Splash Damage told me two years ago not to expect vehicles.
So far I am loving Brink and I know that I’ll be playing it for quite some time yet. Let’s hope that gamers who spent their hard earned cash on the game stick with it because it is rewarding... if you put the effort in.
Right off the bat let’s get something straight, Brink is a multiplayer title. Let’s not pretend for a minute that Splash Damage created this game to be an immersive single player experience with multiplayer as an after thought. Sure, there’s a story but, it’s almost irrelevant - this is a title that's all about the gameplay.
Having interviewed the Splash Damage guys a few times over the years on the subject of Brink, every time single player was brought up the answers were short and a little blurry. In all honest it didn't come as much of a surprise, having played Quake Wars to death, I was never under the illusion that Brink was going to offer much in the way of a single player campaign mode. Solo play was always going to act as more of a training mode for the online game than anything else (much like we saw from Tribes and Quake Wars).
What Splash Damage have done with Brink (which they didn’t really do as extensively in Quake Wars) is try and give the training missions some meaning. But, at the end of the day, the meaning (in this case 'story') doesn’t ultimately matter a great deal when you start to play online. Again, Brink’s focus is online. Brink's focus is multiplayer.
So why the crap review scores? (For the record, we awarded Brink a healthy 8.8/10 - Ed.) There's one clear reason: many reviewers were looking for and/or expecting a game that was focused equally on single and multiplayer. Where did that expectation come from? I have no idea. Whatever the reason, the lack of a split focus is one of the main negatives brought up in every review of the game that awards an average, or below average, score. Just to be clear, by 'average' I mean 4, 5 or 6 out of 10 (the Xbox 360 version of Brink sits at 69/100 on Metacritic).
The other common complaint I've seen relates to the lack of maps. Again, let’s look back at that previous Splash Damage title, Quake Wars. That game didn’t exactly come with 50 maps and, in essence, was a multiplayer-only title in. Did it get stale as a result of < 50 maps? No. To this day you’ll still find busy Quake Wars servers. Sure, it's popularity has diminished since launch but there is a reason people are still playing it... great level design with a push towards competitive team play and very focused objectives. More maps would have been nice but the challenge was in mastering and understanding the maps as team.
During the lead-up to the Brink reviews going live, Bethesda had organised numerous online play sessions on the 360 to allow reviewers to play together. John handled the Brink 360 review here at IncGamers and I asked him about it a couple of days in. His main comment was that reviewers didn’t really understand the importance of team play and it was incredibly hard to get any sort of rapport going with team members because they were largely unfamiliar with each other. John had indicated that he didn’t think a lot of people would 'get it'. It seems he was right.
There seems to be a lack of understanding about Brink's goals. Perhaps some players find it a little complex? With having multiple mission objectives and classes that play a vital role at different stages of the mission and near on-the-fly switching maybe that's a little too complex for some.
This is a huge problem for a game like Brink because, as with Quake Wars, team play is everything and that's something Splash Damage understand very well. When I first started playing Quake Wars I used to hop on random servers and (long story short) found it infuriating - players had no sense of team coordination and I was often left weeping over my keyboard.
After a few weeks I discovered the OCB server, a server run by a tight-knit group of players that were there to primarily have fun but also showed good skill and team-wide coordination. Just as importantly, they understood the maps and the objectives. Immediately my enjoyment of the game was boosted a hundred fold. I ended up playing Quake Wars every night for around a year. Being a late comer to the proceedings, I only paid ￡10 for the game and it was probably the best value for money I have had from any game and I wish I had grabbed it when it was first released.
Splash Damage played up the breadth of Brink's character customisation prior to release and there’s no denying that it's an incredibly stylish game. However, let’s not put too much emphasis on character customisation. If you have time to stand around admiring what your squad-mates are wearing then you’re doing something horribly wrong. A character’s looks are pretty irrelevant, as was indicated in Quake Wars or any modern day shooter in which the classes look largely alike. Still, does customisation ruin the enjoyment of the game? Obviously not.
Review scores around the lower ranges feature remarks that are picky to the point of ridiculous. One review I read this week complained about the look of the outfits. I mean c’mon! Marking down an objective based, team orientated shooter because the outfits didn't look right? God have mercy if that reviewer is let lose on the next Call of Duty and that series' brand of generic 'out size fits all' attire.
Now I'm not saying that Brink doesn’t have issues, the lag on 360 being one of them (in my experience it plays fine on the PC after the launch day patch), but like any game these days it will have shipped with bugs that are going to need to be ironed out and, eventually, the lag spike will become a thing of the past. In fact there was a day-one patch in the UK that addressed many of the game's issues, a patch that some reviewers in the US didn’t have access to before their reviews went live.
Brink also seems to suffer from the fact that it has been designed for multiple platforms. Trying to create a game that works well on all platforms is not an easy task and Brink may have stumbled a little as a result. There was no way I was going to pick this up on a console, you really do need a mouse and keyboard with all the trimmings that come with playing on a PC to get the most from a game like Brink.
Perhaps this is something Splash Damage should have predicated and pushed the PC version out first to garner positive feedback before launching on consoles at a later date. Many of the negative reviews and comments have come from console reviews or players unhappy with the console's lag issues at launch.
In a world that is filled with Battlefield and CoD clones, Brink is refreshing. It’s not doing anything all that groundbreaking - it’s building on solid foundations set-up by the likes of Wolfenstein and Quake Wars and, from my experience, that can only be viewed as a good thing.
The biggest disappointment for me regarding Brink has nothing to do with the levels, characters or gameplay; it’s the lack of vehicles. The open expanses of Quake Wars brought an extra element of tactical planning. Still, I was under no illusion there would ever be such an inclusion in Brink... Splash Damage told me two years ago not to expect vehicles.
So far I am loving Brink and I know that I’ll be playing it for quite some time yet. Let’s hope that gamers who spent their hard earned cash on the game stick with it because it is rewarding... if you put the effort in.
http://www.incgamers.com/Columns/112/why-reviewers-dont-get-brink
