Matthew Byers | Staff Writer
A team-based first-person shooter in the apocalypse.
When people think of team-based shooters usually Call of Duty, Team Fortress 2, or Battlefield comes to mind. There are typically one or two actions that need to be done before the round ends and a winner is decided.
Brink, released on a variety of systems in 2011, is a first-person shooter that encourages team-based “complete the objective” combat. This can be done by one team playing defensively, and the other team having to hack security consoles, break open doors, and revive hostages to be rescued. There are a variety of stages each with their own objectives to be completed and no team has a direct advantage over the other.
The team-based portion of the game focuses on being one of four classes: soldier, medic, engineer, and operative. Soldiers focus on firepower, explosives, and resupplying friendlies and themselves to make sure no one runs out of ammo on their watch. Medics focus not only on reviving allies once they have been knocked down, they can administer status-buffs that give friendly units extra health, faster sprint, and shorter time to recover their own lost health. Engineers have the ability to give Kevlar vests to increase allies defenses, increase allies weapon damage, and they can repair equipment on the battlefield all while placing landmines and sentry turrets. Operatives can disguise themselves as enemies to get in close, hack enemy turrets and communications, and generally sabotage enemy defenses.
The gameplay focuses on the interaction of classes. When a door needs to be demolished, the soldier class is the only class that can place c4 explosives, and engineers are the only ones that can properly remove enemy devices. Spies can hack enemy computers to complete objectives, and medics are the only ones that can revive downed hostages to be moved into safe-zones. No one player can perform all the duties necessary in a game (although you can still change loadouts mid-game), and it really presses the need for quality teamwork.
The graphics of the game are somewhat “cartoony”. They aren’t poor, they are quiet unique and the setting made for the game is quiet pleasant, and this is just to say they aren’t designed to mimic real-life. Music is somewhat lacking, and often only appears before death.
The combat of the game is entirely up to players. While some items, such as grenades and mines, are class-specific, weapons such as pistols, rifles, shotguns, and machine guns are not. No class is forced to use any weapon they don’t want too, and weapons can be customized to allow players to really delve into a custom class. This being said ammo is only useful for standard firing; a grenade launcher has in theory unlimited ammo, but you have to wait for the grenade meter to recharge before firing again. There’s also different ways to explore the environment based on if you choose a heavier or lighter weight class. The heavier you are the slower you go, the shorter you jump, but the more health you have. The lighter is completely opposite, you can fly across the battlefield but a few hits and you are down.
Being released in 2011 Brink was unfortunately a game that never was successful, it was often highly criticized for being lacking in story. Despite the quality team-based multiplayer the game died and it’s difficult to find other players online today. Luckily the producers gave a single-player mode that completely mimics what playing online with other people would feel like. Enemies respond defensively, aggressively, soldiers will bombard with explosives, engineers will build sentries in choke-points, and operatives will kamikaze when necessary. There is also how the bots will actually level up their gear the further a player levels up offline, so it can be played over and over. It might be a dead game but Brink is definitely a something that any fan of shooters should check out.
