Posted Jun 14, 10:28 am by Naiboss
If you are at all interested in Brink, you've probably read quite a lot of comments about it so far. The vocal minority (as far as I can tell) appear to be rather unhappy Xbox 360 owners getting some pretty bad lag when attempting to play online. I don't think the PC version has suffered from quite so many issues but it certainly wasn't problem free. For that reason, despite starting this post some time ago, I've held off finishing it while numerous patches have been released to give the game a fair shot.
Splash Damage have been rather good in terms of getting patches out there and communicating with the players. Personally, I've not had any issues other than some rather shocking AI.
The graphics, while not cutting edge, are good and the stylised art direction works well. There have been a few complaints about the lack of female characters but I'm not sure the elongated faces and features would lend themselves very well to the female form.
There has obviously been quite a lot of attention given to the sound as well. After listening to it being discussed in one of the Bethesda podcast, I can't help but notice the difference in sounds when aiming down the iron sight... and I think it's this attention to detail that really sells the game and, if I'm honest, something I've almost come to expect from anything coming out of the Bethesda camp.
As for the much hyped customisation, it's mixed bag. The character customisation is ok; Your face and colour are picked when you first start the character and then these can't be changed. I was a little disappointed to find that you can only pick your face from a selection and, while I understand why, it would have been good to have a wider range or some control over some of the facial features. Also, while there are quite a few pieces of clothing to be unlocked, I found that once I'd picked out an outfit I was reasonably happy with, I didn't really feel any need to go back and change it (although I did always check once I'd unlocked a new piece). The weapon customisation felt very similar, although there are obvious benefits and penalties for fitting certain attachments.My problems with the game are all fairly minor issues, but ones that perhaps more testing or a fresh eye might have avoided. The weapon selection, for example, is desperately in need of some way to compare different weapons and a choice of selection screen; the current selection screen gets very cluttered once you've unlocked everything. Maybe the ability to filter by type of weapon might help. The friendly AI is also a little lacking; while your AI controlled medics will almost always run to your aid, they will often blindly run into firefights and get very quickly taken out. I also found that your team mates would sometimes struggle to run in the right direction for an objective or, worse, grab a transport objective and then run into an obviously hostile environment. At one point, one of my AI team mates managed to get themselves stuck behind a ladder and seem to become invisible to the other team... I ended up having to use grenades to knock him back into play!
But, as I've already said, a great game and definitely worth a play in a world drowning in the next "Call of Duty" wannabes.
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Welcome to Chaotic Good where we do our best to give you balanced and honest reviews, news and opinions of video, tabletop and RPG games, old and new.
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~ Naiboss