Reviews// Brink

The feeling that you're being punched in the brain by information also isn't helped by sometimes unclear mission directives.

In the first mission on the Resistance side, for example, you're given a barrage of seemingly conflicting orders to alternatively guard or shoot one of your spies, depending on whether the enemy has hold of him or not.

You're unable, however, to actually finish off this guard. You're also not required to actually complete the mission and get the spy to safety – you only need to have him in your custody or shot-up when the timer runs out. This is not the most intuitive mission set-up in the world.

However, if you survive being chucked in the deep end and learn a bit of doggy paddle you'll get used to what's going on and find a lot of depth in Brink. Between the different classes, the different objectives and maps that invite you to take multiple routes, there's tons of variety to be had.

A few more maps wouldn't go amiss, but there's still plenty there to keep you occupied. It's still early days on the Brink servers right now, with just a handful of journos and the like playing promo copies of the game, but it's going to be really interesting to see the depth of strategy people are employing in a few weeks' time.

Beyond the campaign there's a free-play mode, which enables you to tackle missions and maps at your leisure and is probably going to be your go-to mode for multiplayer, and a series of challenges that take you off-map to test your particular skills and better prepare you for the meat of the game.

There's also tons of customisation on offer, with more options opening up as you progress. They range from aesthetic changes through new abilities to tweaking the individual components of your weapons. Bethesda's said there are over 100 quadrillion possible characters you can create from the bits and bobs on offer. I haven't had chance to try them all yet, so I'm taking Bethesda's word for it...

Visually, Brink has a nice look in the menu screens and cutscenes with pale colouring and slightly caricatured figures, but the in-game visuals leave a little to be desired. There's a lot happening on screen so you can be a bit forgiving, but watching people hovering in the air and turning a bit blocky in the distance isn't very unusual.

While we're (I'm) griping – there's a bit of bugginess in the online multiplayer (yes, I was able to play online so yes, this was a 360 copy). I spent one particular mission being forcibly jerked around to face walls while being shot at. It wasn't a happy time. I only experienced this once (albeit right through a match that lasted 15 minutes or so) and don't know how widespread the issue is, but hopefully it'll get cleaned pretty sharpish.

Conclusion
While Brink certainly has its problems, however, they're not worth getting hung up on. Some proper tutorial levels probably wouldn't hurt, but the complexity stems from the game's richness rather than poor design. Online bugginess could be a significant problem, but hopefully it'll be resolved in the near future. Beneath those issues is an ambitious shooter with lots of depth and plenty of meat. It's a tough game that's most definitely for core gamers, but if you fall into that bracket and can forgive a few problems, you can get a lot out of Brink.

SPOnG Score: 83%