Brink, a new TF2/Monday Night Combat style FPS from the creators of Quake Wars and Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, has hit the shelves today with much hype and happenstance– and then some brutal ass reviews! The synopsis from reviews so far (some posted at 12:01 AM): single player sucks ass, it’s got some broken maps due to choke points in multiplayer and some weirdness with unlocks and team roles. Ok, not to defend a game that just came out and could be shitty, but how long did these guys actually play it? How many times have we heard this in games like TF2 or BF2142 with new maps, new weapons, patches that X tactic doesn’t work any more or ‘because they made X change to this class, this map is impossible to win on for the Attackers!” Then a month later people trying to defend the same map will say–“oh this is impossible to defend now because the attacker just does X to win.” I seem to remember some similar criticisms leveled at TF2 early on, though no one now can say anything but it’s a ‘living’ classic of a game even with all of it’s fucking HATS. Again, I’m not saying Brink is on the same level, but I think that some reviewers may look back and rue the early reviews they did: oh except it made their site some ad revenue right?
Despite all the negative press, I’m really looking forward to getting into this one due to the core gameplay, i.e.: jumping around like a jack ass all over an urban environment while shooting guns.
So? What do you think so far? The guys over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun say it’s a bit of a letdown, but only because they expected more due the the barrage from the hype machine. Otherwise, it’s a solid men-with-guns shooter with beautiful (even if not accessible) environments, and quality audio.
Here’s one quote about the barrage of bad reviews:
“It’s not the sum of its promises, no. But also most of the criticisms that surfaced in the initial barrage of 360 reviews are tosh. One was even criticising it for rewarding teamplay, which made little sense. This game cannot be judged on its single-player, because it’s a demanding multiplayer game, and utterly focused on that.”
All I can say right now is that I want to play it more, the design and aesthetic are both awesome. Again there is a LOT of jumping around like a jackass, so exploring the ways the climbing/jumping work is a big draw. I would love to see free for all deathmatch though certainly.
So, you’ve had a solid week of getting all up in it and enjoying the associated jumping and jackassery. Has it been enough time to coax some type of word smithing from you about it yet?
I have another post cumming that has more about it.