The wait for Brink may be killing me

From everything I’ve seen, Brink seems to be a combination of the most entertaining FPS styles – over-the-top, all-out gunplay carnage and team-based objective gameplay. Though I haven’t gotten my hands on it yet, I’ll be getting to play it sooner than I thought as Splash Damage recently announced that its release date has been moved up a week – from May 17 to May 10.

I’ve been playing Torchlight like crazy for the past two weeks but put that aside for a foray back into Call of Duty: Black Ops with a friend. It’d been a long time since I had played Blops (have I mentioned how much I love that word?), mostly because I tend to get fed up and frustrated with constantly getting dominated in nearly every game I play. After numerous rounds of successfully ruining my KDR even more, I thought that a switch to Battlefield: Bad Company 2 would be in everyone’s best interest (the best interest of my sanity and anything breakable within arms reach – controller included).

If asked, I’d pick BFBC2 over COD any day but that isn’t to say it doesn’t have its flaws. While the large, destructible maps are a plus, many are so large that in games of Rush, you can sometimes spend as much time getting to the action as actually participating in it. Because of this, the multiplayer experience often feels unfocused and uneven.

As I see it right now, Brink should meld together my favorite elements of both COD and BF while strengthening their weaker aspects. For instance, I love gunplay and fast-paced action of COD. All the weapons, attachments and perks consistently give you goals to work towards. But on the other hand, I really, really dislike the cheap tactics most employ (camping being a big one) and that most people in the community are more concerned with their KDR than actually winning. Whereas the team focus of Battlefield is a huge draw, the large (and long) multiplayer matches sometimes hurt the game more than help.

Brink’s classed-based objectives, crazy gunplay and emphasis on teamwork is looking likely to replace those two FPSes in my gaming rotation. The maps all seem to be large enough to create many interesting battles while still pushing the action forward. I’m really looking forward to testing out each different character class – not only the skill classes but the class types as well. Being able to choose a small, medium or large character is very reminiscent of Tribes – a game that provided countless hours on fun on the PC in my younger days. I also really like that Brink offers each class its own specific objectives in addition to the larger, team objective on each map.

In one gameplay video I watched, a team of Security soldiers were tasked with escorting a security robot through a Resistance controlled area. The robot would only move when teammates were close by and needs to be defended from enemy fire but that is only the main objective on the map. Each class have their own special objectives they can accomplish to help their team, such as soldiers blowing up obstructions in the robots path. Classes can also be changed on the fly (at special terminals) so that you don’t have to stop playing if you get tired of your character.

Other little character class additions, some that seem so simple, are pretty ingenious. The medic can heal teammates and pick up injured teammates, but that last mechanic is slightly different from a game like Battlefield. Medics in Brink hand out revive syringes that you can use on your own time to get back into the action, if the area where you went down is still hot, for instance, and they can even buff their own or their teammate’s health. Another example is the engineer’s abilities. This class has the ability to put down an automatic turret – a skill typical for that class in FPS games. Engineers in Brink can also give themselves and teammates damage buffs to make them more deadly on the battlefield.

Even with its release date being moved up a week, I still feel like it’s going to be forever until I actually play Brink. I guess I’ll just have to make do with the shooters I already have but…will they be enough??