Tried it over the free weekend. For a game that looks and plays so great, it’s really surprising how bland and unaddictive it is.
Yea, the free trial this weekend gave me a chance to test out Brink finally…
I thought the weapons, the graphics, the customization options, the maps and everything was quite nice. The gameplay however wasn’t very good. I am not sure if I ever got into a multiplayer match, since I just picked the campaign or w.e. and started it, up to level 8 or 9 I got. It felt like a bot match. And, if they wanted a bot-match game, the scenario surrounding the game, it might as well have been a pure singleplayer experience, and it would probably have been pretty good at that.
The campaign is bot matches, yeah.
Mazuo
1644
I was initially optimistic and bought it on release but coming back to it this weekend it’s pretty disappointing. The weapons and customization are entertaining, but its biggest flaw is the teamwork or lack of it. It’s crucial for people to be doing the jobs their class requires of them, but instead you end up having 5 medics on a team not healing anyone else or reviving but simply playing that class because they can heal themselves and get more kills. Which aren’t even tracked as I recall which increases the level of stupidity on their part.
On top of that, with the already very small maps and short respawns, killing someone never feels like much of an accomplishment as you’ll only be seeing them again a few seconds later. Both attack and defense objectives become a chore as you never seem to really make much progress unless the other team is incompetent…which does happen a lot. Add in the never fixed bugs like turrets that can’t acquire targets standing right in front of them and some fairly anemic special abilities on every class. Also the health command posts feel useless as one extra pip on your health bar still leaves you dead just as quick as before. It’s not a large enough boost to make a difference again except for a team that’s already working together, and if you’re doing that, you’ve already won. And you’ll continue winning as there’s no autobalance so one side will continue to get stomped forever once a dominant team emerges.
It’s especially distressing when one of the game’s main features was to leap and jump anywhere…but there’s nowhere to go. Brink seems like a game with a great concept of objectives and teamwork that’s devolved into one long pointless deathmatch in a small cage.
Quality of teams varies. I had sometimes games with very bad teams, and games with great teams (for a public server). On average, i would say the average Brink player is much more a team player in comparison with other games, the level is usually very decent. Still, a “flaw” of the game is the high requeriment of teamwork, almost too much. Like, objectives can only be done by a specific class, and the rest of the team have to support them.
If you are judging the game with this weekend, you are making a mistake. This weekend had the most noob teams i have seen in all the game, because most players are new people trying the game thanks to the free offer. They will dissappear tomorrow, leaving the normal Brink players.
The respawns aren’t short, they are usually 20 seconds to respawn. An eternity sometimes.
Turrets aren’t bugged, they have a long acquisition of target time.
Health commands are essential to win. Double health pip (once upgraded by the engineer) to all the 8 players is a big advantage on the big picture of the match.
There is lots of places to use the SMART feature, on every map. Some of them i haven’t notice them until i played 50 hours of the game.
Mazuo
1646
I’m not a new player and I’m not judging it solely off of the time I spent this weekend. I’ve got over 25 hours clocked on it and I’m voicing the problems I see. Turrets are bugged as enemies can stand in front of them even shooting at them and they will sometimes acquire a lock, other times not at all. That’s not consistent, reasonable behavior.
Respawns are incredibly short because the respawn area is a very short distance from everything and I’m including the times when medics pick you up. You also almost never face the full 20-second timer as it ticks by independently of when you died. SMART spots are interesting and moderately useful but ultimately lack the power they could have if not every route was just about as long as any other. Yes, if you want to go hide in a neat vent as a light body type you may enjoy them. They don’t serve a great strategic purpose though.
I understand you like Brink a lot, but I’m just voicing what I’ve seen time and time again go wrong within the game.
Tony_M
1647
I’m with Naeblis. In Brink I’ve experienced the best teamwork in any public server game I’ve ever played*. But since the game is designed for everyone to be working as a team, even a few players playing Rambo can be really frustrating.
Tony
*Is that due to the XP system, or is it self selection by the type of players who choose this game?
A certain subset of people, no matter what the FPS, are going to only care about their Kill / Death ratio. Brink does an excellent job of making the gameplay and even the advancement of your character focus on the objectives and teamwork but that’s like saying you lead the horse to water…
I play the game with the smug satisfaction that I can rack up 10k XP in a round and win the match even if I’m padding some bro’s K/D.
After finally figuring out how to actually play a multiplayer match, instead of a bot match, and not timing out on every frakking server I tried to connect to… I came to the realization that Brink is a great engine and demo showcase for what it can do, but the “game” is better as a botmatch than playing online. With 50 ping it feels laggy as fk, the sound was muted for some reason, movement felt weird and teamplay was non existent.
We’re close to releasing a comprehensive update for Brink, bringing full clan support, ladders and tournaments to all versions of the game. This update is currently in the final stages of testing and will be pushed out to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the PC version of Brink as soon as that is complete.
Since there’s a whole bunch of new stuff headed your way in this update, we thought we’d give you a sneak peek of the goodness that awaits you:
…
Game Updates
Finally, we’ll also be releasing game updates for all three versions of Brink alongside the Clans & Tournaments update. We’ll have more information on what’s in these very soon, so keep checking back!
cool!
Oh wait
A bit too late, Bethesda!
No kidding. Talk about missing the boat.
sluggo
1652
I feel kind of bad for Splash Damage. I’m sure this is all stuff they wanted to have in the game from the beginning, and were forced to cut for time’s sake, and probably have never stopped working on, and this is the fastest they could get it out.
But of course, with Battlefield 3 and MW3 here (not to mention all the other holiday releases distracting people), Brink’s time has passed, so it’s a lot of work that’s going to go mostly unnoticed. :(
lordkosc
1653
Yeah, after the free bit of DLC over the summer, I uninstalled.
marxeil
1654
They really seem to have bad luck with their games. I recall QW:ET also wasn’t a great success.
LMN8R
1655
I can’t believe they even had people still working on the game. Do they actually expect people to come back to Brink now with Skyrim, Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Assassin’s Creed, and countless other games sucking down peoples’ time?
The best Splash Damage could hope for right now is a brilliant conversion into a free-to-play game overhauling all of the unlock mechanics, but even that would be extremely risky at best.
Clan and tourney support? Now? Really? Not new maps, guns, perks, levels or outfits? seriously wtf.
FYI, Splash Damage have already a new project
http://www.industrygamers.com/news/united-front-7-uk-studios-to-keep-an-eye-on/
Splash Damage
You know Splash Damage from Brink, an online multiplayer shooter that saw limited success earlier in the year. But at a time when Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 are going head-to-head, it feels like the product of another age.
After its release there was some cruel chatter that Splash Damage might go the way of Bizarre or Black Rock, split apart after an expensive failure. However, being independent, the company has managed to sign at least one unannounced project for a major entertainment brand. The online multiplayer technology is already in place, and once a collection of well-known characters are laid over the top of an even more polished Brink engine there’s going to be a lot of excitement from genre fans.
The game will be based on one of the biggest American pop culture brands of the last 50 years, and there’s no doubt Splash Damage can do the licence justice. However, the project’s success will depend a great deal on the backing it gets from the media company that owns the IP – a company widely believed to have given up on the console publishing business.
Mmm Star Wars Battlefront 3 done by SD!! :P
Hunty
1658
The phrase “even more polished Brink engine” made me laugh. A well-polished engine was definitely not one of Brink’s strong suits.
WarrenM
1659
I don’t understand adding clan and tournament support … is anyone playing Brink at this point?
Regarding their new project, I think my goodwill for Splash Damage was burned out by Brink. I’ll wait on the reviews and to see how the community fares well after launch. Basically, it’s deep Steam sale or nothing.
