Brink is set in the near future, where two factions battle for control of a floating city known as the ARK. The Security and The Resistance are plagued with overpopulation and poverty, and have decided that the ARK is not big enough for the both of them. There is a story line for each faction and sixteen missions total in the campaign. Unfortunately the storylines are very thin and not nearly as immersive as one would expect with its conceptual design. I was very disappointed with the cut scenes where your character is merely standing in the background and listening to other NPC's spout of scripted lines. I never felt like I was really involved with the outcome of the mission, just a soldier following orders.
During the campaign missions players will have to change in and out of four different classes to complete specific objectives. Play a Medic and help heal fellow players or a Soldier and blow a door off its hinges. Along with these classes, players can unlock abilities by completing specific objectives and then minor objectives as well. If you're playing solo this can pose a problem, as you may find yourself becoming partial to one class and dumping points in that class to be more useful, but if you have to keep switching to other classes - where you have no points to complete specific objectives, it becomes very frustrating. I can see a scenario where you are playing online with a group of friends who have their roles planned out, and not so much switching going on, being a more advantageous option.
One of the more interesting aspects of the game is the SMART button. This button lets you do some awesome parkour/free running style moves at the touch of a button. Leap/climb over walls, jump from platforms or slide under fences. Your only limitation is your characters size; larger characters tend to move slower, where smaller characters are a flurry of Matrix style leaps and bounds.
Character Customization and the overall graphics of Brink are very sharp and clean. Players can choose through a variety of costumes, weapons and an assortment of other customization options that stay with your character across both campaigns. With this much customization and the ability to change classes whenever you feel like it, I highly doubt you will need to make more than one character.
Overall this game can be summed up fairly easily. It's an online multiplayer game with a very weak solo campaign. If you are buying this game to get online with buddies and destroy the opposing faction together, then you will really enjoy the look and feel of this title. If you want to just pick this game up with no plans of playing online, you will be severely disappointed. There's just not enough solo content to keep players enticed. Hopefully Brink will release some new content in the form of DLC and make this title more lucrative to the solo player.
BRINK was developed and published by Splash Damage and Bethesda Softworks on May 9th 2011 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. A PC copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. I played through both campaign modes offline and online, along with several hours of online play.
