Yep, as the title says, it’s time for another first impressions topic.
So I grabbed Brink for the 360 on launch night, giddy as a schoolgirl, came home, and popped it in. These are my impressions from it.
First off, character creation. Honestly, a bit of a disappointment. I know, I know, you have to unlock the neat stuff, and I get that, but that’s not what I’m talking about. The clothing selection is just fine, but for a game which touted its customization as being omginsane, you’d think they would provide you with more than some pre-set faces (all of which, might I add, are hideous. Not like, poorly-made, but just ugly. Want to make a somewhat-attractive character? too bad!). On top of that, there’s the hair colors. Twenty shades of brown, black, blonde, and then… green. Wanted to make your Resistance character look like a crazy punk-rocker with crazy hair? Hope you like green, man.
The rest of the customization is at least passable, and in some cases downright awesome. Some of the outfit designs are stellar, and even the once that aren’t are still good. There are no customization pieces that I saw that I looked at and said, “Man, that’s just BAD.” I am a bit disappointed that all outfits are only available in preset color schemes, but I understand the necessity.
Moving on to the gameplay itself. I don’t think I need to spend much time on this, because it will be evident to anyone who has played the game, but I feel it should be said at least once: The AI is dumber than a sack of bricks with an extra chromosome. Just play a round with them, you’ll see. It makes playing against the AI boring and playing with them infuriating. So stick to online, if you can.
The gameplay itself seems like a smorgasbord of great ideas mashed together so haphazardly that it takes forever for one of them to shine through. I’m going to say that the gameplay, at its core, was good enough and leave it at that so I can take time to highlight the things that bugged me, because the glass is half-empty dammit.
First off, combat itself. Generally, good. Evocative of Team Fortress 2 (don’t strangle me, it’s a good thing), especially in the way that headshots aren’t instant kills but instead “critical hits” that do extra damage. That’s fine, I’m not one of those people who’s screaming bloody murder because a headshot doesn’t instagib my target. I do, however, find it incredibly frustrating how long it takes to finish off an incapacitated enemy. I’ve already taken his life bar out once, and now I have to do it almost a whole second time just to finish him off. Yes, I know, you can melee them for (I think) an instant coup de grace. That’s cool and all, but if you’re at a distance, you have to hope you can unload another frickin’ clip into the guy before a Medic comes to revive him, because a headshot execution just won’t do the trick. That’s absolutely ridiculous. I’m all for having the chance to be revived after death, but between the fact that it takes far too long to finish off an incapacitated enemy, and the fact that you can’t just dome the Medic as he comes running because headshots aren’t instant kills, I’d say one of these things needs to change. In my opinion, just make headshots on an incapacitated opponent a coup de grace. It may fix the issue, it may not, but I think it’s worth looking at.
Then there’s the Operative. I always play stealthy classes, so I was really looking forward to getting my hands on him. What a disappointment. The Soldier has a powerful molotov and can replenish ammo, which is invaluable. The Medic can revive and buff health, which is invaluable. The Engineer can repair turrets and the bot, plant landmines, and buff attack power. The Operative? A disguise that is so disadvantageous that it’s not even worth using.
Yeah, I know he can spot landmines, but BFD.
So hear me out. Unlike TF2’s Spy (yes, another comparison, sue me) who can disguise at any time and therefore has a very useful ability to get behind enemy lines, in order for the Operative to disguise, he has to kill someone whose identity he plans to take. Then, you have to spend … what, about five seconds? Maybe less. Still, a fairly substantial amount of time if you’re in a high-traffic area. Anyway, some amount of time actually applying the disguise. Then, if you’re so lucky as to do so without being caught by the Medic who inevitably comes to check on his dead buddy (because if his buddy is dead, he knows there’s someone to kill), you are now disguised. Great. Now what? Assume you did all of the above. Killed a guy in a low-traffic area, finished him before a medic could come try to revive, took his identity, and successfully disguised. Now you have to find a way back behind enemy lines to integrate into their ranks and… for what? The second you try to interact with an objective, the disguise fails, so it doesn’t do much to help you there. You don’t have any kind of TF2-Spy-esque backstab ability that can only be used from behind, so no advantage there. So someone, please tell me: Why would anyone go through all that trouble for a disguise that, at best, will allow you to launch a single sneak attack on a single player and little else?
Those are really my chief complaints, and my stomach just informed me that it’s dinner time, so I’ll finish this up later. Comments, criticisms, etc. are all welcome. I’d love to be proven wrong on the Operative disguise point, for example. Anyway, thanks for reading.
