I remember seeing Brink for the first time way back in 2009. It was at that year’s EGX in London, and Splash Damage’s Paul Wedgwood had taken to the stage to show off the game. I remember being very, very excited about what he was showing, everything about it seemed original and interesting.
Although the game’s multiplayer focus was certainly something that felt a little fresh at the time, it was really the SMART parkour-esque system that shone out as being truly special.
It was over a year and a half before the game finally found its way to shelves, hitting almost exactly a year ago. For a game with a multiplayer focus that release date in May absolutely crippled it; in case you’ve forgotten, May last year was the time of the PSN outage. Fortunately Brink was released at the tail end of the outage, but even so it just seemed like terrible timing for the release of a multiplayer title.
Release troubles aside, it was Dan who took to reviewing the multiplayer shooter. He was also keen to praise the game’s fantastic SMART system, going as far as to encourage other developers to build the system, or something similar at least, into their games.  I’d like to second this opinion, the system is fantastic and it would be brilliant for someone else to bring it into their game.
Whilst Dan was largely praising in his review of the game, he did feel the game lacked some variety. He also found that the game had a few graphical issues, even though many of these were fixed by a day one patch.
Ultimately Brink weighed in at 9/10, and here’s what Dan had to say in conclusion:
Brink will live or die by the community it attracts. Whilst it is so much more accessible than MAG, you’ll still need to put the time in to stay relevant. Despite a bit of lag, playing online is a fantastic affair, with the potential to be made even better with the addition of more variety by way of DLC. Looking for a deep and meaningful single player story? Then step away. Looking for an intense online shooter with more guns than Texas? Come on in, the water’s fine.
So there you have some of Dan’s thoughts on the game, as well as a couple of my own. Now it’s time to find out just what you guys in the community thought of the game. That’s right, we want to hear your opinions.
If you feel like taking part in this opinion sharing extravaganza then all you need to do is drop a comment below, telling us exactly what you think of the game. Once you’ve converted your thoughts on the game into comment form remember to attach your verdict of the game.
Rather than using a numeric scale to rate the game, WeView uses that Buy It, Bargain Bin It, Rent It or Avoid It system. Just pick which of those labels best represents your thoughts on the game and include it in your comment.
Finally remember that you need to get all of this done by Sunday afternoon at the very latest if you want to be included in Monday’s verdict article. Any later than that and you’ll probably have missed the boat.
LTG Davey
Great choice this week, bound to have a huge divide.
Personally I really didn’t enjoy the game. Below-par visuals, brain-dead AI and dull gameplay merged into one experience that could be completed in just a few hours. Online play was better but numerous connection issues made even this mode more frustrating that it should have been. A big, fat AVOID from me.
SpikeyMikey23
What a load of Shi…..
Nah, It wasn’t all bad. i enjoyed my initial run through of the campaign missions. The online (with friends) was fantastic when it worked but it didn’t 99% of the time.
Best thing about this game was selling the Steelbook for £85 quid 6 months after I bought it for £29.99
SpikeyMikey23
Buy it (you can pick it up for a couple of quid, enjoy the campaign missions, some easy trophies for the whore inside you and then trade it in for a penny or add it to your existing collection ;) )
Germanos
I really got hyped about this title, man was I excited about Brink. I even convinced two of my friends to buy it: This is gonna be the fps shooter of this console generation ! Best multi ! etc.”…
…and then I picked up my preordered copy…I filled like a jerk :/
The single player campaign was rubish, but the mutiplayer should have been the better side of Brink. Yea , it should, but for about 3 weeks of online playing against BOTS ( WTF !? ) i traded it against Crysis 2. Best trade of my life.
AVOID IT !!!
Grey_Ghost13
I loved everything about Brink, the style, the story, the game mechanics, the customizable characters & weapons, the enthusiasm from the developers, still have their developer diaries stored on my PS3 and the gameplay. But that PSN outage really did criple it, completed the campaign before the PSN came back up and couldn’t find descent people to play with or against. And the leaderboard trophy clitched for me because of the outage! It is still a fun game to play but needs a bigger online community prescence. Here’s hoping for a sequel.
And due to the fact that you can pick up brand new copies of the game dirt cheap I would say BUY IT, if it just got more players online…. :)
Bilbo_bobbins
the basis of this game is excellent, it was great to play or muck around, apart from the idiotic people you ended up playing with, who mostly didn’t have a clue. Thats why I gave up in the end. I would say RENT IT.
E8_BALL_
Online matchmaking still broken. Would have benifited greatly from not intergrating sp & mp imo. Just didn’t run(fps) smoothly, at least for me. Rent it at best, unless(as Ghost said,) you can find a cheap copy.
Sympo
This ^
Played it when it was free and didn’t really work well online.
E8_BALL_
sorry, afterthought… enjoyable in a private party. We had some fun meets, where teammates actually helped each other.
Youles
Claims that it would “change all future FPS” (or similar) due to the AI and SMART system were a bit over the top, but it was actually an enjoyable game with some pretty tough AI, which got better as your level/rank progressed. Despite it being the basis of the game, I actually think it could of done with having a single player campaign instead of MP and SP basically being the same thing. I was also expecting more customisation and more interesting maps but I had a great laugh more recently with some TSAers. The PSN downtime certainly didn’t help this game sadly. Considering I’ve seen it for under £5 new, I would say Buy It, otherwise Rent It (with friends).
SpikeyMikey23
http://www.shopto.net/PS3/VIDEO%20GAMES/PS3BR03EX-Brink.html
£4 delivered
Forrest_01
Yeah, i was gonna mention that – It’s a definite Buy It if you can get it that price!
tonycawley
I feel really sorry for the guys who made this game, because it’s actually excellent, but most of the people who got to play didn’t get to see it for what it really is. It released, as you said, while the PSN was down, and by the time the PSN was back up, people had forgotten about it or moved on.
As a single player experience, it’s nothing to write home about, but we played a lot of TSA meets on this game when the network was back up and the game really came into it’s own, providing a great teamwork experience.
It’s a difficult one to rate really, because I think if you can get a group of you together, it’s excellent, but if you can’t, well it isn’t. The community for this game is now almost non-existent so you’re not going to find a game online with randoms, and it really has to be played online to get the best from it.
For that reason, I’m going to spoil my ballot paper and say buy it, bargain bin it, avoid it, Ken Livinstone and Boris Johnson.
Bilbo_bobbins
Completely agree with this. Good comment, apart from Ken…Boris all the way !
yogdog
I was with Tony in those meets, and it seems I share his thoughts on the game. Buy if you have friends to play it with, pass otherwise. Fairly easy plat if that’s the sort of thing you’re looking for.
Forrest_01
But its only a fairly easy plat if you have friends to play with. I got left behind in the meets (for a number of reasons) & now the game just seems like an uphill struggle.
Forrest_01
Not criticising btw, just saying! :)
element666
Playing it single player isn’t that great due to the AI, but playing it with friends it really shines
Buy it from me :)