Brink
Cops and robbers of the future? Far from it, as Quake Wars developer Splash Damage brings something new to the FPS table. Get ready for territory capturing, olympian style.
Brink's developer Splash Damage is located in Bromley. Its a Borough of London, located some ten miles from the city's centre.
I mention this as much to remind myself as to inform you. Because such is the gusto and enthusiasm generated for duration of its hour-long Brink demo I'm convinced the studio members on hand have been replaced by Team America. That, or a squad of Energizer Bunnies.
We get a energetic pep talk of a presentation to begin, and come the hands-on we don't know what's louder - the gun fire emitting from multiple HDTVs or the continual stream of commentary by the team as they paces the room. They excitedly pointing out gameplay mechanics, possible strategies and the occasional shout of appreciation when something cool happens on-screen.
It could be someone's put something in their morning coffee, but it's probably truer to say the studio is just enthused about their game, and the rapid-fire comments are more a side-effect of jamming a lot of new mechanics, or twists on established ones, into a established genre. They're jazzed at their design, and want you to be too.
Even without the director's commentary, its likely that enthusiasm would still exist, if the hour's worth of play is anything to go by. Because Brink is extremely likeable.
On course for a May release, the multiplayer-centric FPS is built from the same foundations of the developer's previous works in the Enemy Territory franchise: team-based, objective-orientated gameplay, two sides, class system, defend or attack.
Instead of the realistic warfare of, say, Battlefield, Brink skews towards the bright and brash style of a Team Fortress or Borderlands. We're in a far future, with a 'utopia crashing into anarchy' story spin, with gameplay that offers a dabble in weapon and character customisation as well as a dash of Mirror's Edge parkour.
Its this free-running element that gives Brink its vitality and, partially at least, its uniqueness. The standard territory-grabbing dynamic is given a fast-paced flow as walls become walkways with combatants bounding up and over them with only a button hold, while others speed run between cover points, or slide through tight grills with a tap of a button. Understanding your directional intent is all programmed on the fly by SMART, Splash's acronym-munching Smart Movement Across Random Terrain system, meaning you're never left ineffectually trying to time a leap. Just get a run up and off you go.
It's an important point of play, as it means that success can shift between sides in the blinking of an eye. Mapping the numerous routes through each level and keeping one eye on the radar means you can by-pass a whole troop of enemies without firing a single bullet. Things move very, very fast in Brink.
Game time reflects this. In our brief glances to the clock on the two maps played - the previously seen Container City and a new map that's yet to be officially named - we were charging through roughly ten to fifteen minutes apiece. There's a lot going on in that period though, Splash crunching in multiple objectives that grow naturally out of each other. Container City's initial mission to blow the doors open into a complex built entirely of shipping containers segues into providing cover for a mobile robot heading to the next set of doors, repairing a crane to carry across a gap, and rebuilding foot bridges to offer alternate routes for your team through the level. All this, while trying not to get your head blown off.
There are multiple objectives at any given time, and you can set your waypoint with a button press to call up an objective-wheel. I found most objectives needed the engineer class to complete, one of four on offer, each with their own perks. You're able to change classes at remote stations nearby each of your spawn points, with the game noting how many of each class were in play at that given time and thereby letting you choose how best to aid your team.
Teamwork is an integral part of Brink. In an interview with lead writer Edward Stern, which will appear on this site soon, he proclaimed that Brink subtracts most, if not all, the annoyances of the MP FPS field, with its own mechanics forcing players to play cooperatively.
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- System:PC, PS3, Xbox 360
- Genre:Action
- Developer:Splash Damage
- Publisher:Bethesda Softworks
- Online players:1-16
- Release date:13 May 2011
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