After playing for about 3 hours here is what I think...
Its repetitive. That's for sure. It's fun, but I can see it getting boring pretty fast.
I am level 8 already, and if I did the math correct the highest level to unlock everything is around 25. Shouldn't take me very long to get 25....
The guns and attachments are awesome, but WHY ARE THEY PRETTY MUCH ALL UNLOCKED FROM THE START? If they are not all I have to do is do one single player mission that takes 5 minutes and I can unlock pretty much anything.
Medics get way, way to many points for buffing and reviving. Why can I get 175 points total for throwing a syringe and a revive while I only get about 50 points for completing an objective? It sort of takes the objectives out of the game. You should be rewarded more for doing the right thing.
One last thing....friendly fire. Every time you hit a friendly it takes away like 25 points. This really needs to be fixed. I find myself not firing because I am afraid someone is going to run in front of me.
Anyways it's fun but I can see it getting really boring fast. Not worth the $38 I paid unless some things are changed.
The art is GREAT but the game play and design are pretty bad. I would give it about a 7/10.
Hopefully some of the fine folks at Splash Damage can turn it around
@Striff: I agree completely. I've been playing for a bit now and I'm surprised how repetitive they've already made the first few objectives. Characters are awesome, but everything else needs a bit of work.
Btw, props to whomever incorporated the polycount logo in the game
I picked this up yesterday, still have a few days until unlock here and after reading much of the above am already feeling disappointed. The -25 point friendly fire penalty alone sounds shithouse - pretty open welcome wagon for greifing.
Sounds like its going to be worth it for the visuals alone but still ... sadness
Edit* Little ashamed i hooked into some of the initial release whining, mostly i cant wait to play in my region and will hold my opinion until i actually give it a fair go.
IGN review was way too overly negative, most other sites like gametrailers and eurogamer are sticking with around 8/10. 1ups review is pretty laughable, apparently 2.5/10. Metacritics got it at 71/100 right now aswell.
Looking forward to just oogling the character models but gotta wait for psn to come back online looks awesome
I bought the game after being incredibly hesitant initially. (Class based? blah.) And I can't even play it because steam chose this moment to shit itself and die. Reinstalling it doesn't work, repairing it doesn't work..
Bullshit.
From what I've read, the 360 version was the focus of most reviews since the PSN has been down and the PC version not available until release. Apparently there is also a huge patch coming to the 360. I went with the PC version. These types of games typically get better with time and tuning. I'm looking forward to it despite low out-of-the-gate reviews by ign & 1up.
Okay so.. some people are whining about TOO much customization...
That it doesn't play like CoD
That traversing terrain using SMART is hard on console
That grenades don't do enough damage
That people have too much health
and that apparently SD spent too much time on customization instead of the "actual game"
So, opinions so far are completely worthless and spouted by people that are worthless. All is good.
Can't type ignorance without IGN and Gametrailers has always been hilariously bad at non-CoD/Halo games.
One comment I read on Facebook which I thought was interesting went something like this: "Brink feel's like it came out before TF2, and Valve learned from it for what not to do then released TF2."
I wasn't very excited for this game because I didn't see anything new in it, and now that it has released, that seems to be exactly what everyone dislikes about it. That or poor performance, which is always fixable to some degree.
I'd like to see this get patched to a acceptable state, so we'd get less bitter comments on it's performance and more informative criticism.
One comment I read on Facebook which I thought was interesting went something like this: "Brink feel's like it came out before TF2, and Valve learned from it for what not to do then released TF2."
So what are you saying Adam, that Valve have a time machine? That would explain a lot!
I personally like the game, but yes there are technical issues. I do like how the gameplay has a big focus on teamwork. I enjoy being the medic and running around to help my teammates.
I do really hope a patch is coming soon to fix a few of the issues, graphical and sound wise.
I find it more than a bit frustrating to read reviews such as the one at 1up.com - where it appears that the critic misunderstands the gameplay mechanics. Maybe they are fully justified, but couldn't some of the problems outlined - such as stalemates at objective locations - possibly be solved by executing things such as building a speedier route to that location via stairs for a re-spawning team (something the critic suggested might be pointless). And while neutral control posts may not advance a team's spawn location (such as the critic expected they would), did I not read somewhere that holding them provides team buffs? I might be less informed than the 1up reviewer...but it just seems like these sorts of reviews were written with little understanding of how the game was meant to be played. Furthermore, games change drastically when bots are dropped for real players. Nevertheless, I expect SD will continue to tweak and tune the game to perfection. I just hope some of the negative press doesn't affect sales too drastically. (SDK please)
A couple of things really irk me about these people talking about the potential "flaws" when they themselves have neither played a game to a high level and the game has only been out for a short time - in my eyes its akin to moaning about going against "cheese" in starcraft and summarizing the game based on that.
Multiplayer games like these are so fucking amazing when a community gets a hold of it and they somehow manage to develop it into something even better and more concise - CoD MW Promod / TFC clanmatches and all the rules that people just adhered to to streamline the game even further.
Still, the community members on some of these sites are just as fucking braindead;
"I played it. It's not as good as I hoped (the objectives are stupid--just walk up and hold down a button)"
Im sorry... what he fuck did you want, DDR bomb disposal? Mario party hacking screens? fml.
I jumped in with a friend at about midnight last night and played until 6 AM. game feels fantastic, shooting is tight, gameplay as a light or a medium is exciting and interesting, operatives are awesome because enemies are CHUMPS, and fuck container city, so goddamn easy to get resistance's spawn raped.
Objectives are always fun, the gameplay rewards a lot of different play styles, it feels a LOT like wolfenstein ET. Capturing command posts is important but not pivotal, it's something good to do to help your team if there's a stalemate and i felt the game always made it clear to me which command posts belong to who. The combat is fantastic, and the map design is awesome, but it relies a lot on using SMART to flank around enemies and attack from multiple directions at once, or combat becomes big groups bullet sponging back and forth.
Every single class has awesome weapons and gunplay, like the ET games, but it's probably best to unlock some attachments and fool around before you get too committed to anything -- front grip, especially, is a godsend for me.
Operative is tense and very cool, finding someone to take down batman style and disguise as, before inevitably leading a roundabout chase when one guy without comms on the enemy team catches you and you want to try to get to the center of his team's objective and cause havoc before he manages to kill you and break your disguise.
Engineer is my personal second favorite class, mines and turrets are fast and not near as powerful as say TF2, but create an interesting structure to your team's forces and buffing people (and yourself)'s damage makes you the natural long range fighter.
Soldier is very cool from the start, being able to bloody the nose of HUGE groups of enemies, between the molotovs, which can easily knock down 3 people, and the slide trip and grenades that all classes have. Playing a soldier last night typically boiled down to dying in a huge pile of tripped enemies and getting a bunch of assists as they try to stand back up.
Medic, finally, really... Plays a lot like the bc2 medic. But instead of being an unstoppable angel of death, the other classes are tough enough to handle him, and it just makes fights with a medic involved very intense.
ps, the bots are awful. hilariously, run at you, start shooting, and then get distracted and stare at a wall indefinitely kind of awful.
I wish this was the norm with all MP game reviews. "wait till after launch day patches and till it actually gets people to play with, then review"
But no, 100% of the reviews were on the offline version of the game, on a fucking 360, before the day 1 patch that fixed a lot of issues is applied.
Eh.
Still looking forward too it.
LOL? I think it's perfectly valid to review a game on 360, I mean the dev released it on 360 so they're presenting it as a valid platform to play the game on. And why should they wait for a patch to play? If the reviewer has a finished copy of the game then it's ready for review.
It just frustrates me that I feel like so many of the things that irk me about the game could have been fixed in a matter of days and a couple of playtests. The game just doesn't feel polished to me...but so many AAA games that have come out recently just seem to lack that "finishing touch" and feel like they have been rushed out the door. Gamess developed by companies like Valve and DICE have this feel IMO.
It's even more confusing that the release day was pushed up a week...
It just frustrates me that I feel like so many of the things that irk me about the game could have been fixed in a matter of days and a couple of playtests. The game just doesn't feel polished to me...but so many AAA games that have come out recently just seem to lack that "finishing touch" and feel like they have been rushed out the door. Gamess developed by companies like Valve and DICE have this feel IMO.
It's even more confusing that the release day was pushed up a week...
Yea, this. This game needed more QA. I'm running into a lot of bugs. I still can't get my sound to not turn off half way through a game (half the time)
This makes me sad, I don't know what to do. I preordered it...
Asked for a refund from Steam but I dunno... feels like reviewers are big scrubs as usual. Look at what they did to alpha protocol.. one of the more amazing games out that year (although it had horrendous combat). They reviewed it as a shooter when it was barely a shooter.. (espionage rpg, hello!).
LOL? I think it's perfectly valid to review a game on 360, I mean the dev released it on 360 so they're presenting it as a valid platform to play the game on. And why should they wait for a patch to play? If the reviewer has a finished copy of the game then it's ready for review.
Sorry I misworded myself on the 360 bit, what I meant was that they could ONLY review the 360 version, PC wasn't available and neither was PS3.
And I am not saying "wait for a patch" I meant wait for the launchday patch, as in, the update that comes in when the game launches as there is usually always one in games that are big on MP.
I dunno, maybe I just think it's unfair. To me its the same as reviewing an MMO on launchday and say the entire thing sucks because of server issues and lack of community
Why should anybody ever wait for a patch? What makes you think that even a patch will fix any serious issues?
I'm still waiting on a Vegas 2 patch to fix the sound bug... No dice.
A game should be reviewed on how it plays launch day. Maybe another review some time down the road if things have been fixed or changed. But not reviewing something based on "waiting for a patch" just means "this games shit, avoid".
Please understand what I wrote, Launch Day Fixes are not the same as "patch that arrives 3 weeks after launch".
In this case it's patches that fix networking issues and a graphical bug, the former of which is a pretty big deal since it's a MP game. It's the devs fault for sending an unfinished product to reviewers, but I still think it's the opposite of properly reviewing a game when you don't play the same version people who bought it do.
Well I've barely started playing this game and a few things off the bat...
So I thought this world of this game was really cool and I wanted to be emersed in it, but getting a cut-scene before a multi-player map wasn't exactly doing it for me. I was so detached to the world and the only thing that had a chance to keep my interested going was gameplay...which I'm kinda wishy washy about atm.
Some of the mechanics I found kind of odd, The general abilities seem like good game design that's found in other games, but it's an unlock. Reinventing the wheel but then wheel is off by default, and you have to go a certain distance before you can enable the wheel.
I also found some of the controls disorienting. The objective selection menu for instance would actually take control of what I was pointed at when I hovered over each objective. This happens while you are moving...in a game encouraging movement this seemed kind of odd to me.
SMART is cool, but it feels more clunky than fun so far. I never really got that "WHEEEE" feeling when moving like you kinda did with Mirrors Edges. Then again maybe I need more unlocks and more like playing.
I want to like this game, I really do. Hopefully things become more enjoyable as I start progressing.
I also found some of the controls disorienting. The objective selection menu for instance would actually take control of what I was pointed at when I hovered over each objective. This happens while you are moving...in a game encouraging movement this seemed kind of odd to me.
Oh yeah, that's awful, you can turn that off in gameplay options.
I'm finding it to be really fun, certainly more fun the more time I put into it. It was a bit confusing at first, but once you settle in it gets better.
I've been playing SP without any technical problems, except for once "Loosing connection" to my own game, that was pretty frustrating. The bots are dumb, but SP is still reasonably fun. For this sort of game(team orientated MP game) I think the AI is fine. Sure it could be better. I'm not sure I really bought the "SP and MP!!!" hype, so I was expecting the SP to be pretty basic, I can't say i'm super disapointed there.
The MP is super fun, playing with real players, and after you've unlocked all the body types is much, much more fun than just jumping into the first level in SP. I've had some bad technical issues here, the sound bug keeps coming up, that make it nearly unplayable however. I just had to quit, reopen the game, and then got the sound bug instantly again. Hopefully we'll see a patch for this soon, as when the MP is smooth, its a pretty good game.
The art and customization is awesome, certainly the best customization system, and best art to go along with it that I've seen implemented into a game. I find myself wanting to just explore the levels, art direction and atmosphere is excellent.
I also found some of the controls disorienting. The objective selection menu for instance would actually take control of what I was pointed at when I hovered over each objective. This happens while you are moving...in a game encouraging movement this seemed kind of odd to me.
This is probably my biggest knock on the game. And how the camera jerks control around when giving a buddy ammo or whatnot.
Hats off the the artists, the style you guys created pushed a lot of sales before any of the reviews pumped out.
I think this old sentiment rings true for game dev, "less is more".
There are simply too many knobs, classes, abilities, customizations, etc. that it leaves your head spinning and none of them amount to much of a change. In the end you're a soldier running around with a pretty balanced gun with a few cool little abilities. Gameplay could use some distillation. With so many systems at play at once, it seems like the idea of a "class" suffers and the gameplay is a bit stale. There's no soldier with weakened health for super increased speed for example and the overall polish of the engine would make such a class a bit clunky anyhow. It's already been said, TF2 nailed this concept so well it was a tough act to follow.
Oh well, i'm going to keep playing, it's a nice change of pace and certainly not a BAD game. At the very least i can admire the environment art
:P, i meant in a "class" sense where one class (out of many) is specifically balanced to be INCREDIBLY game breakingly fast, but weak in areas the standard soldier isn't. Brink takes the tribes route where things are spread out into 3 standard branches making the fast soldier less unique. I could also note in tribes the energy pack combined with skiing led to some really crazy combinations among all the classes. Same with a repair pack allowing classes to repair of disk jumping. Again these systems were simple but added a lot of complexity when the nuances of the game were layered on top. That said i'm sure a lot of console players are having a lot of fun with the new intuitive movement system since complex manuevers are harder on a console, but as a pc gamer i actually find it more limiting. It's not quite as exhilarating as doing crazy double jumps as a scout in TF2 for example. Anyway, enough people have dogged on this game, and i think it's recieving more flak than it should, i think the hopes were just a bit too high.
:P, i meant in a "class" sense where one class is specifically balanced to be INCREDIBLY game breakingly fast, but weak in areas the standard soldier isn't. This is the tribes route where things are spread out into 3 standard branches making the fast soldier less unique.
I dont know, I think its pretty great that your body style is independent from your class, it adds some more complexity to the gameplay. You can be a big fat spy with a chaingun, or a super fast soilder running and jumping all over the place. I think its a nice break for X class does X and only ever X.
Instead of the scout that can only... run around, and carry things. Or sneak up on people and smack them with a bat or whatever. I can be a light engineer, run around and set up turrets, land mines, fixed guns, and be very effective defensively even though you'd generally want a larger class for defense.
It seems like a lot of people are just complaining that the game isn't TF2, but I mean, just go play TF2? I would be really disappointed if it was the same game with just a different art style.
Fair enough, I'd love to see some personalized perks for heavy medics, give 'em a decreased health regen cooldown, or things of that nature. Just little nuances that are inherent to certain upgrade decisions and not spread out over several menus. Just personal taste though.
Well, but you can have all of those sort of things by choice, thats the whole ability system. Instead of Fat Engy always has X X and X, you can really suit it to your playstyle, which I find a lot of fun.
I like the system, its basically:
X class has X intrinsic abilities, demolition/supply, hacking/disguise, health, repairing/building
X body type has cons/pros, fat/strong/slow/carry big guns, normal/normal/normal/carry normal guns, small/weak/fast/carry small guns
And then a bunch of customizable abilities as well.
And then an awesome character and weapon customization system that will give most users the ability to never get bored with the look of their character, or look/function of their weapons.
To me this is very similar to the TF2 system, you just have more room to fine tune it all to your liking, which I can't really see why people would complain about. I'm really not seeing big flaws in this system, to me the flaws in this game are dumb AI in SP, and some pretty awful bugs and glitches in MP.
I'm going to give it more time, maybe it'll grow on me. I can't help but think the system could have been more iterative so as not to alienate players so much off the bat though. I am looking forward to playing this when i get home
I'm enjoying it immensely, they did a great job on this.
I actually enjoy letting the objective wheel reorient me. I found that if I hold down middle mouse button without moving the mouse, but continue running, it will guide me to the objective. It's hard to explain, I just sort of tap mmb, hold the mouse still, and use the wasd keys, it's as if the objective wheel is mouselooking me where I need to go.
Played this for something like 5 hours last night, and I have to say that this is pretty awesome. That said, the SMART stuff isn't as versatile as I'd have liked, the bots are stupid (but this is just kind of the nature of bots), and I really (really really really) would've liked more parkour challenge maps, because that was actually fun compared to the other challenges (though the objectives one is great once you unlock the light body type). I never really feel like any one side has a distinct advantage, the weapons are all fun to use, and so on and so forth. Basically, it's like Enemy Territory with lots of customization and slightly better movement. Also, it's fucking beautiful. Haven't had any graphics or sound issues either, so I'm not sure what's up with that.
Most of the reviews seem to agree that it's a good game with some flaws, with a few exceptions (Joystiq in particular), so I don't know what's going on there. The 7 and 8 out of 10 reviews all seem fairly reasonable compared to the others, at least, but that's probably just because I like the game a lot. Hopefully the reviewers come out with separate reviews for the PC version, but who knows.
I want to thank all the artists who worked on Brink! Lots of great people put in awesome effort and certainly I am proud of what we acheived, particularly with the characters and weapons.
I think most of the low reviews we've seen are like "Oh I played it for 30 minutes and it sucks" / "Lets be the first to review it!" sort of thing. I think as we start to see some reviews from people who actually put some serious time into the game, the scores will be higher, that and if SD gets a patch out soon.
Replies
Hoping to play in a few hours when the steam download finishes.
Update yo drivers foolz!
Its repetitive. That's for sure. It's fun, but I can see it getting boring pretty fast.
I am level 8 already, and if I did the math correct the highest level to unlock everything is around 25. Shouldn't take me very long to get 25....
The guns and attachments are awesome, but WHY ARE THEY PRETTY MUCH ALL UNLOCKED FROM THE START? If they are not all I have to do is do one single player mission that takes 5 minutes and I can unlock pretty much anything.
Medics get way, way to many points for buffing and reviving. Why can I get 175 points total for throwing a syringe and a revive while I only get about 50 points for completing an objective? It sort of takes the objectives out of the game. You should be rewarded more for doing the right thing.
One last thing....friendly fire. Every time you hit a friendly it takes away like 25 points. This really needs to be fixed. I find myself not firing because I am afraid someone is going to run in front of me.
Anyways it's fun but I can see it getting really boring fast. Not worth the $38 I paid unless some things are changed.
The art is GREAT but the game play and design are pretty bad. I would give it about a 7/10.
Hopefully some of the fine folks at Splash Damage can turn it around
Btw, props to whomever incorporated the polycount logo in the game
Sounds like its going to be worth it for the visuals alone but still ... sadness
Edit* Little ashamed i hooked into some of the initial release whining, mostly i cant wait to play in my region and will hold my opinion until i actually give it a fair go.
If people want to add me on Steam btw, I'm maphistal on there.
Looking forward to just oogling the character models but gotta wait for psn to come back online
Bullshit.
That it doesn't play like CoD
That traversing terrain using SMART is hard on console
That grenades don't do enough damage
That people have too much health
and that apparently SD spent too much time on customization instead of the "actual game"
So, opinions so far are completely worthless and spouted by people that are worthless. All is good.
Can't type ignorance without IGN and Gametrailers has always been hilariously bad at non-CoD/Halo games.
2 days to go.
I'd like to see this get patched to a acceptable state, so we'd get less bitter comments on it's performance and more informative criticism.
So what are you saying Adam, that Valve have a time machine? That would explain a lot!
Sounds dissapointing but will see how it is in a month.
I do really hope a patch is coming soon to fix a few of the issues, graphical and sound wise.
A couple of things really irk me about these people talking about the potential "flaws" when they themselves have neither played a game to a high level and the game has only been out for a short time - in my eyes its akin to moaning about going against "cheese" in starcraft and summarizing the game based on that.
Multiplayer games like these are so fucking amazing when a community gets a hold of it and they somehow manage to develop it into something even better and more concise - CoD MW Promod / TFC clanmatches and all the rules that people just adhered to to streamline the game even further.
Still, the community members on some of these sites are just as fucking braindead;
"I played it. It's not as good as I hoped (the objectives are stupid--just walk up and hold down a button)"
Im sorry... what he fuck did you want, DDR bomb disposal? Mario party hacking screens? fml.
alas... preachin to the choir
Objectives are always fun, the gameplay rewards a lot of different play styles, it feels a LOT like wolfenstein ET. Capturing command posts is important but not pivotal, it's something good to do to help your team if there's a stalemate and i felt the game always made it clear to me which command posts belong to who. The combat is fantastic, and the map design is awesome, but it relies a lot on using SMART to flank around enemies and attack from multiple directions at once, or combat becomes big groups bullet sponging back and forth.
Every single class has awesome weapons and gunplay, like the ET games, but it's probably best to unlock some attachments and fool around before you get too committed to anything -- front grip, especially, is a godsend for me.
Operative is tense and very cool, finding someone to take down batman style and disguise as, before inevitably leading a roundabout chase when one guy without comms on the enemy team catches you and you want to try to get to the center of his team's objective and cause havoc before he manages to kill you and break your disguise.
Engineer is my personal second favorite class, mines and turrets are fast and not near as powerful as say TF2, but create an interesting structure to your team's forces and buffing people (and yourself)'s damage makes you the natural long range fighter.
Soldier is very cool from the start, being able to bloody the nose of HUGE groups of enemies, between the molotovs, which can easily knock down 3 people, and the slide trip and grenades that all classes have. Playing a soldier last night typically boiled down to dying in a huge pile of tripped enemies and getting a bunch of assists as they try to stand back up.
Medic, finally, really... Plays a lot like the bc2 medic. But instead of being an unstoppable angel of death, the other classes are tough enough to handle him, and it just makes fights with a medic involved very intense.
ps, the bots are awful. hilariously, run at you, start shooting, and then get distracted and stare at a wall indefinitely kind of awful.
I wish this was the norm with all MP game reviews. "wait till after launch day patches and till it actually gets people to play with, then review"
But no, 100% of the reviews were on the offline version of the game, on a fucking 360, before the day 1 patch that fixed a lot of issues is applied.
Eh.
Still looking forward too it.
LOL? I think it's perfectly valid to review a game on 360, I mean the dev released it on 360 so they're presenting it as a valid platform to play the game on. And why should they wait for a patch to play? If the reviewer has a finished copy of the game then it's ready for review.
It's even more confusing that the release day was pushed up a week...
Yea, this. This game needed more QA. I'm running into a lot of bugs. I still can't get my sound to not turn off half way through a game (half the time)
Asked for a refund from Steam but I dunno... feels like reviewers are big scrubs as usual. Look at what they did to alpha protocol.. one of the more amazing games out that year (although it had horrendous combat). They reviewed it as a shooter when it was barely a shooter.. (espionage rpg, hello!).
And I am not saying "wait for a patch" I meant wait for the launchday patch, as in, the update that comes in when the game launches as there is usually always one in games that are big on MP.
I dunno, maybe I just think it's unfair. To me its the same as reviewing an MMO on launchday and say the entire thing sucks because of server issues and lack of community
I'm still waiting on a Vegas 2 patch to fix the sound bug... No dice.
A game should be reviewed on how it plays launch day. Maybe another review some time down the road if things have been fixed or changed. But not reviewing something based on "waiting for a patch" just means "this games shit, avoid".
Anyone know what lvl you start to unlock the weapon upgrades?
In this case it's patches that fix networking issues and a graphical bug, the former of which is a pretty big deal since it's a MP game. It's the devs fault for sending an unfinished product to reviewers, but I still think it's the opposite of properly reviewing a game when you don't play the same version people who bought it do.
Most (all?) of them are unlocked through completing the Challenge missions.
So I thought this world of this game was really cool and I wanted to be emersed in it, but getting a cut-scene before a multi-player map wasn't exactly doing it for me. I was so detached to the world and the only thing that had a chance to keep my interested going was gameplay...which I'm kinda wishy washy about atm.
Some of the mechanics I found kind of odd, The general abilities seem like good game design that's found in other games, but it's an unlock. Reinventing the wheel but then wheel is off by default, and you have to go a certain distance before you can enable the wheel.
I also found some of the controls disorienting. The objective selection menu for instance would actually take control of what I was pointed at when I hovered over each objective. This happens while you are moving...in a game encouraging movement this seemed kind of odd to me.
SMART is cool, but it feels more clunky than fun so far. I never really got that "WHEEEE" feeling when moving like you kinda did with Mirrors Edges. Then again maybe I need more unlocks and more like playing.
I want to like this game, I really do. Hopefully things become more enjoyable as I start progressing.
Oh yeah, that's awful, you can turn that off in gameplay options.
I've been playing SP without any technical problems, except for once "Loosing connection" to my own game, that was pretty frustrating. The bots are dumb, but SP is still reasonably fun. For this sort of game(team orientated MP game) I think the AI is fine. Sure it could be better. I'm not sure I really bought the "SP and MP!!!" hype, so I was expecting the SP to be pretty basic, I can't say i'm super disapointed there.
The MP is super fun, playing with real players, and after you've unlocked all the body types is much, much more fun than just jumping into the first level in SP. I've had some bad technical issues here, the sound bug keeps coming up, that make it nearly unplayable however. I just had to quit, reopen the game, and then got the sound bug instantly again. Hopefully we'll see a patch for this soon, as when the MP is smooth, its a pretty good game.
The art and customization is awesome, certainly the best customization system, and best art to go along with it that I've seen implemented into a game. I find myself wanting to just explore the levels, art direction and atmosphere is excellent.
This is probably my biggest knock on the game. And how the camera jerks control around when giving a buddy ammo or whatnot.
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/143/14349125/imgs_1.html
I think this old sentiment rings true for game dev, "less is more".
There are simply too many knobs, classes, abilities, customizations, etc. that it leaves your head spinning and none of them amount to much of a change. In the end you're a soldier running around with a pretty balanced gun with a few cool little abilities. Gameplay could use some distillation. With so many systems at play at once, it seems like the idea of a "class" suffers and the gameplay is a bit stale. There's no soldier with weakened health for super increased speed for example and the overall polish of the engine would make such a class a bit clunky anyhow. It's already been said, TF2 nailed this concept so well it was a tough act to follow.
Oh well, i'm going to keep playing, it's a nice change of pace and certainly not a BAD game. At the very least i can admire the environment art
:poly124: keep playing, man.
I dont know, I think its pretty great that your body style is independent from your class, it adds some more complexity to the gameplay. You can be a big fat spy with a chaingun, or a super fast soilder running and jumping all over the place. I think its a nice break for X class does X and only ever X.
Instead of the scout that can only... run around, and carry things. Or sneak up on people and smack them with a bat or whatever. I can be a light engineer, run around and set up turrets, land mines, fixed guns, and be very effective defensively even though you'd generally want a larger class for defense.
It seems like a lot of people are just complaining that the game isn't TF2, but I mean, just go play TF2? I would be really disappointed if it was the same game with just a different art style.
I like the system, its basically:
X class has X intrinsic abilities, demolition/supply, hacking/disguise, health, repairing/building
X body type has cons/pros, fat/strong/slow/carry big guns, normal/normal/normal/carry normal guns, small/weak/fast/carry small guns
And then a bunch of customizable abilities as well.
And then an awesome character and weapon customization system that will give most users the ability to never get bored with the look of their character, or look/function of their weapons.
To me this is very similar to the TF2 system, you just have more room to fine tune it all to your liking, which I can't really see why people would complain about. I'm really not seeing big flaws in this system, to me the flaws in this game are dumb AI in SP, and some pretty awful bugs and glitches in MP.
I actually enjoy letting the objective wheel reorient me. I found that if I hold down middle mouse button without moving the mouse, but continue running, it will guide me to the objective. It's hard to explain, I just sort of tap mmb, hold the mouse still, and use the wasd keys, it's as if the objective wheel is mouselooking me where I need to go.
Most of the reviews seem to agree that it's a good game with some flaws, with a few exceptions (Joystiq in particular), so I don't know what's going on there. The 7 and 8 out of 10 reviews all seem fairly reasonable compared to the others, at least, but that's probably just because I like the game a lot. Hopefully the reviewers come out with separate reviews for the PC version, but who knows.
I want to thank all the artists who worked on Brink! Lots of great people put in awesome effort and certainly I am proud of what we acheived, particularly with the characters and weapons.