Preview: Brink

Posted on 23. Nov, 2009 by James Dilks in Eurogamer Expo 2009, Featured, PC, PS3, Previews, Xbox 360

Splash Damage is pretty well respected for its work on the Enemy Territory series, so a presentation on its new title Brink, at the Eurogamer Expo 2009 was worth a glance, at the very least. CEO Paul Wedgwood began with bold claims for his company, referring to its publishing partnership with Bethesda Softworks in 2008: “We announced our intention to make the transition from a pure multiplayer shooter studio for the PC, to a triple-A multiplatform game developer for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC, and Brink is the result of that partnership.”

As is the way with these things, of course, Splash Damage hasn’t strayed too far from its ideological roots. It’s worth mentioning straightaway that Brink looks to be, at heart, a multiplayer shooter with narrative pretentions, rather than a game that has equal amounts to offer in both modes, as Splash Damage claims.

Brink takes place on The Ark, a kind of above-water eco-Rapture. Wedgwood explains; “It’s an immense floating city, built at sea as part of a contemporary green vision, but now existing around 2045 and having lost contact with the rest of the earth it exists in total isolation and is an immense and artificial focus of conflict for two competing factions.” Two things are immediately apparent: unlike Bioshock, it’s a location built around an idea for a game; and seemingly, it’s not too much more than a team-based online multiplayer shooter, in true Splash Damage style. So what makes Brink ‘triple-A’, compared to what came before it?

The first level we’re shown is the Airport, and as you’d expect it’s exactly as you’d expect; large split-level lobbies, big windows with a runway outside. And in true failed utopia style, there are bloody scrawls all over the wall; “they took our children,” and such.  It’s an excuse for Wedgwood to show off what one punter called the Mirror’s Edge button. (Actually it’s called SMART [Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain].) Simply put, as you approach any kind of obstacle, hitting a key and looking at where you want to go will get you there as efficiently as possible. Be it as simple as vaulting a wall, or as complex as sliding under a metal detector’s lasers and leaping from one balcony to another, all in quick succession. More complex moves need more input, for example running and then crouching and hitting SMART performs a slide, so hopefully it won’t feel like the game is doing all the work for you. It certainly gives you options; over, under, around, or through, at least. When he’s finished flying around the level like a loon, Wedgwood shows us an impressively varied selection of meatheads, showcasing the character customisation options. As you’d expect, there are a few unique classes, options to change weapon and gadget loadouts, a whole range of clothing, accessories, and lots more to make your character unique. Or as Wedgwood puts it; “cool stuff to show other people how badass you are.” Quite.

The two playable factions (it really is a multiplayer game) are Security and Resistance. Security are all policeman blue uniforms, heavy weaponry, serious body armour and ‘kill the punks’ attitude. Resistance are more interestingly attired, they’re essentially refugees, who want “a fairer distribution of resources”, and so they’ve got homemade tyre armour and clothing with a bit more character. All the avatars have a distinct, cartoon look to them, which certainly fits the game’s feel; it’s more Quake 3 than Modern Warfare.

Next up is the Scrapyard, which turns out to be another gaming cliché; it’s a maze of shipping containers, plus a couple of gates to get through and a crane to hack into. Short cutscenes bookend the level, introducing the objective (escort the bomb-defusing robot to a mysterious threat), and giving the characters a bit of personality. The problem here is that presumably any user-created character can take any place in the scene, which would surely result in both character and narrative inconsistencies. This demo, however, was otherwise filled with AI controlled players so nobody looked too idiotic, with a couple of other human players dropping in to demonstrate the ease that you can jump in and out of a game. Scrapyard is all about territory; so various objectives need to be completed in order to move through the steel jungle one stage at a time.

Rather than explain the intricacies of the reward and customisation systems, I’ll generalise. Basically, doing good things (killing, completing objectives) nets you points, really going out of your way (for example, changing class if your team’s missing someone who can use a spanner) gets you a lot of points. Objectives can be chosen on the fly, with both primary and secondary challenges to offer some variety.

Splash Damage, knowing in their collective heart of hearts that Brink is a multiplayer game, realise the importance of balancing. The impressive amount of time that they have spent playtesting the game certainly seems to have paid off; because the combat itself looks like a lot of fun. They certainly shouldn’t be afraid of releasing an almost multiplayer only game, having seen the success of Left 4 Dead 2 and others in recent months.