Brink Critic Reviews

If you're looking for an in-depth, engaging experience that rewards practise and team work, and represents a welcome break from the stagnate place the genre has found itself, then you can do a lot worse than Brink. If you're looking for a drop-in/drop-out, ten-minutes-a-night-and-I'm-done shooter then you could do a lot better than Brink.

It blurs the line between single-player and multiplayer styles, introduces an effective new movement system, and finds ways of discouraging all the obnoxious behavior common in most multiplayer shooters. The campaign is long, and the different classes allow you to play each mission over and over without getting bored.

Brink does have challenge modes and a two-sided singleplayer campaign, but obviously it is multiplayer that shines brightest. Brink supports 16 players in multiplayer – get ready as I'm about to lay down some prediction as well as some very heavy compliments.

If you love playing team-based shooters with strong team elements and multiple objectives, plus you have the patience to work through some clunky game choices and technical issues, Save Brink. If you're the exact opposite from above, Escape while you still can.

Brink is a game that provides massive amounts of customization for its gamers, including some unbelievably fun abilities. If you can excuse some of its offline play and lack of NPC A.I., then you'll find a game that encourages friends to come together online to share a deep and fulfilling team-oriented experience. Brink is a perfect example of how an online experience should feel and play out.

Brink doesn't quite live up to the narrative potential set up by its compelling setting and production values, but it does deliver a tight, well-polished team multiplayer experience. The SMART movement system saves Brink from being just another pretty face in the crowd by adding some much-needed mobility to the FPS formula. If you're looking for a creative new take on the Enemy Territory-style team multi shooter, Brink fits the bill.

If you play Brink as the multiplayer-shooter it undeniably is (despite the possibility to save or leave the Ark alone, which should simply be ignored), it's a real winner. Great character-customization, well balanced maps, good handling, awesome graphics and a surprising depth thanks to the huge amount of abilities make this a MP-Shooter that has come to stay.

Combat is consistently and gratifyingly chaotic, as the objective system organically builds choke points, and maps reward (or require) a good range of classes. Still, the game isn't frustration-free: Bulk, unlike class, can't be adjusted on the fly, escort missions are ludicrous, and the soldier class is underpowered. But a combination of good looks, heavy customization, and frenetic, fluid gameplay gives Brink the edge.

A daring proposal that, if succesful, is a step forward for a genre prone to stagnation, as it mixes altogether campaign, multiplayer, cooperative and competitive. With good ideas well executed, it may be liked more or less depending on the player, but deserves an opportunity.

The ideas have been strong within this one, but the awful AI and the campaign that isn't worth its name may not exactly be helpful. For online players, however, it's a blast.

The game is lovely to the eye because of its artistic decisions, has a gameplay that supports cooperative working, and has huge customization variety. But its lack of contents, poor performance and its online-only focus makes Brink not so great.

A familiar class-based, objective-based multiplayer shooter that is immensely rewarding when played online with others.

It's not without its faults, some of which are more serious than others, but Splash Damage achieves the impossible: a game that feels fresh in the stalest of genres.

But the clean menus and HUD have a slickness and simplicity of interaction that elevate the squad-shooter genre to a new level of style and polish. Likewise, in moment-to-moment play, this is often a more engaging, tighter experience than Valve's Team Fortress 2. For those who can leap that first hurdle, Brink should run and run.

Billed as a game that will blur the line between single-player, co-op and multiplayer, Brink actually does the opposite and reaffirms the general consensus on Xbox Live that multiplayer is king. Frankly put, unless you're playing Brink with and against human players, the game is mediocre at best. Get into a game with players that want to co-ordinate as a team against a group of like-minded foes, and Brink will almost certainly satisfy on every level.

Brink deserves to be ranked among the finest co-op games available. As a multiplayer experience, it is exquisite. But as mentioned earlier, it falters if played solo. While all the modes can be played in single-player, the bots that act as a stand-ins for other players are a poor replacement.

It's only disappointing that Brink feels so confined by its own premise. Its innovative mechanics far outdo its lifeless, confining story, and, while respectable, its pure focus on multiplayer, team-based objective matches confines it further...Brink is still a very good game, and it deserves notation - just below Team Fortress 2 - as an exemplary team-based shooter.

Truly an original offering: it's got all the requirements of a solid class-based shooter, it injects some story into the mix, and it forces you to work together with your teammates, be they AI or human, to win.

The great unknown with Brink is whether a strong online community will form and maintain itself. And that's the crux of the matter. Blazing through the Campaign takes little time and earns a good number of achievement points but the game is lumbered with awful AI. I had limited online play with real people and found Brink to run smoothly enough but this is before a thousands of people jump on to find a game.

A meticulously designed Live shooter...Few multiplayer FPS games furnish you with unique anecdotes about valiant last stands and over-the-trench assaults but Brink is full of them.