Brink 2: Would You Buy It?

(nephandys) #1

I heard a rumor about SD potentially announcing in the near future some new project they are working on and was having this conversation on Live last night about if SD announced they were working on Brink 2. What do you think? Good/bad idea? How many people would be interested?

Despite the fact that I enjoy Brink a great deal I think the generally terrible reviews, lag at launch, PC problems, map imbalances, body type issues, etc. (we are about 2 months in and still have the glitch where lights are walking around with med/hvy weapons) would lead most people to not go any where near such a product. I think even a lot of the current player base would not be interested unless they put some serious work into the current version of Brink and showed their dedication to turning things around. At the same time that effort would hopefully work to rebuild the community numbers and get people back into the title. That would really pave the way for a Brink 2 IMO.

Lastly, if the rumor is true I really hope they are going to announce more DLC already underway for Brink or something altogether unrelated (ETQW 2, WET 2, w/e).

Edit: Forgot to throw in my 2 cents. Despite deep reservations, skepticism, and cynicism I would probably buy it myself.

(wolfnemesis75) #2

Here’s what I was trying to point out last night. And what would make Brink 2 very successful. Most of what I outlined has to do with casual players and console specifically.

Four biggest criticisms of Brink (Console):

1.) Lack of traditional campaign. In conjunction with that is the A.I. on your team in campaign doesn’t help (*casual players) completing objectives. Most people play campaign and not multiplayer. So this is a causal focus fix.
2.) Multiplayer was confusing whether you were playing with Bots or Humans. Lack of Party/Lobby System
3.) Defense bias. Even out most of the maps in terms of balance. Get Sec Vs Res %50 win/loss.
4.) Lag. (Fixed)

Fixes

1.) More Traditional Campaign: (Slightly) Add more cutscenes and choose two protagonists to follow. One for Security, one for Resistance and we get a bit of back story. Add longer cutscenes (think Bioshock) specifically to campaign similar to Shipyard only extend to get a bit of back story. E3 trailer. (*Edit down these cutscenes for multiplayer)

2.) Make campaign easier for casual players and friendly bots complete challenges/objectives. Add a Normal difficulty that is easy compared to Brink 1. Basically, make the game easy if you play alone and scale difficulty as human players join for co-op.

Multiplayer Fixes.

1.) Streamline the game modes as follows:

Freeplay (2 modes six playlists total)
Objective= Standard or Ranked(Competitive) or Custom(Private)
Stopwatch= Standard or Ranked(Competitive)or Custom(Private)

2.) Add Red Highlight to a Bot name. (Or whatever will make the bots more recognizable over humans.) Make it so bots are only added to even out a team. For instance. If one team has 4 humans and the other team has 3 humans. Then the team with 3 humans gets one Bot added to their team. Add lobby/party system.

3.) Setup maps to even out Defense vs Offensive balance. Make most maps a %50 split.

With some of these changes or adjustments, Brink 2 would do really well.

(HandOfGod) #3

If they were to announce a new project, it would not be BRINK2, IMO. BRINK has not been out long enough to release a sequel… Its probably some new quake game.

(nephandys) #4

I agree with you 100% here. I’m just curious about people’s thoughts on the issue because we were talking about it last night.

(KnollDark) #5

Yes, unlike movies, game sequels improve upon what has been done and though I have no complaints many others do

(Zarel) #6

[QUOTE=wolfnemesis75;353259]Here’s what I was trying to point out last night. And what would make Brink 2 very successful. Most of what I outlined has to do with casual players and console specifically.

Four biggest criticisms of Brink (Console):

1.) Lack of traditional campaign. In conjunction with that is the A.I. on your team in campaign doesn’t help (*casual players) completing objectives. Most people play campaign and not multiplayer. So this is a causal focus fix.
2.) Multiplayer was confusing whether you were playing with Bots or Humans. Lack of Party/Lobby System
3.) Defense bias. Even out most of the maps in terms of balance. Get Sec Vs Res %50 win/loss.
4.) Lag. (Fixed)

Fixes

1.) More Traditional Campaign: (Slightly) Add more cutscenes and choose two protagonists to follow. One for Security, one for Resistance and we get a bit of back story. Add longer cutscenes (think Bioshock) specifically to campaign similar to Shipyard only extend to get a bit of back story. Same as Brink only with more cutscenes.* Add more cutscenes like E3 trailer. (*Edit down these cutscenes for multiplayer)

2.) Make campaign easier for casual players and friendly bots complete challenges/objectives. Add a Normal difficulty that is easy compared to Brink 1. Basically, make the game easy if you play alone and scale difficulty as human players join for co-op.

Multiplayer Fixes.

1.) Streamline the game modes as follows:

Freeplay
Objective= Standard or Ranked(Competitive) or Custom(Private)
Stopwatch= Standard or Ranked(Competitive)or Custom(Private)

2.) Add Red Highlight to a Bot name. (Or whatever will make the bots more recognizable over humans.) Make it so bots are only added to even out a team. For instance. If one team has 4 humans and the other team has 3 humans. Then the team with 3 humans gets one Bot added to their team. Add lobby/party system.

3.) Setup maps to even out Defense vs Offensive balance. Make most maps a %50 split.

With some of these changes or adjustments, Brink 2 would do really well.[/QUOTE]

I second this. Also, even if they fixed the lag from here, I could still see they could further optimize the game to work as smooth as…say, Quake 3 Arena.

Just like any IP’s, they already got this one. Having established concepts, I’m sure they’re no longer have any problems in expanding and improving on that further. I think, if they’re given three years, and really worked this out. This could finally turn out to be THAT game we’re looking for.

(AmishWarMachine) #7

Yes

I’m confident that all the issues that Brink 1 currently has would be fixed, and Brink 2 would be an improvement to the formula, a formula that has amazing potential.

(HandOfGod) #8

SD would have to greatly improve BRINK, in a rapid fashion for me to buy BRINK2. However, I would have to say that, as it stands, I will not buy BRINK 2. It is taking them entirely too long to deal with the console issues of BRINK. If the game had not been released in such a poor state, I could understand them taking their time for updates and DLC but considering how this game launched, they have waisted far too much time and are not making things happen quick enough. Also, their lack of info on this site is embarrassing. They would have to GREATLY improve their business ethics.

(Spez) #9

Despite all of the problems Brink has on the Xbox 360 (mostly technical), it is still one of my most played games (own it since release). I just happen to love the overall gameplay.

So yeah, i would definitely be interested in a sequel.

(nephandys) #10

Really? You have no complaints at all? I mean I f**king love this game and even I can see that it has flaws and I definitely have complaints.

In my experience it’s true many times sequel’s are better than their predecessor’s (in gaming). But SD really doesn’t appear to have a track record of getting better over time. Again I love this game and play every single night on 360, but I’m just being honest about what I see.

(Darksider) #11

[QUOTE=nephandys;353251]I heard a rumor about SD potentially announcing in the near future some new project they are working on and was having this conversation on Live last night about if SD announced they were working on Brink 2. What do you think? Good/bad idea? How many people would be interested?

Despite the fact that I enjoy Brink a great deal I think the generally terrible reviews, lag at launch, PC problems, map imbalances, body type issues, etc. (we are about 2 months in and still have the glitch where lights are walking around with med/hvy weapons) would lead most people to not go any where near such a product. I think even a lot of the current player base would not be interested unless they put some serious work into the current version of Brink and showed their dedication to turning things around. At the same time that effort would hopefully work to rebuild the community numbers and get people back into the title. That would really pave the way for a Brink 2 IMO.

Lastly, if the rumor is true I really hope they are going to announce more DLC already underway for Brink or something altogether unrelated (ETQW 2, WET 2, w/e).[/QUOTE]

If that’s true, it kind of reminds me of the Left4Dead franchise from Valve, remember people were complaining about not enough content in the first game and went on a rage when Valve did something they never did before release Left4dead 2 exactly a year later and kind of left Left4Dead 1 hanging for the most part.

(Oschino1907) #12

[QUOTE=AmishWarMachine;353276]Yes

I’m confident that all the issues that Brink 1 currently has would be fixed, and Brink 2 would be an improvement to the formula, a formula that has amazing potential.[/QUOTE]

Exactly, But I kinda hope they would wait to use the ID5 engine or wait for the next gen consoles.

(peteXnasty) #13

Given how poorly Brink was marketed and launched: hell. No.

They made so many mistakes with this game that I wouldn’t believe a single word they say about a new game being what we all hoped for.

(nephandys) #14

That’s a good point. I hadn’t thought of that, but that’s definitely one instance where they pretty much launched the sequel back to back with the first title. I personally would hope that doesn’t happen in Brink’s case as I can see a ton of room for expansion.

Future Maps

(zenstar) #15

I’d probably buy Brink 2.
Not that I expect them to announce Brink 2 any time soon. I hope they move to the idTech5 engine though. I bet id have done some amazing upgrades.

(thesuzukimethod) #16

I’d probably buy it regardless (i really like brink to start with)

but

I’d also buy a sort of serial/subscription type model if they simply added content to brink (either like a rockstar pass style deal, or as map add-ons). There is plenty of room (if the larger Ark map is to be believed) to add maps, and there is also the option to create new modes on existing maps - e.g. this idea

if they could add on some cool maps and fun new modes/objectives/etc - they already have a pretty large (potential) player base out there…i know i know, lots sold their copy, but that’s just SOP with today’s gaming system. plus that means there’s lots of used copies out there that people could pick up for cheap, etc.

the somewhat negative critical reaction to Brink 1 is a bit overblown (it’s a great game for what it’s trying to do, although there are legit points of contention about the actual execution). There have been a number of “sequels” that vastly out performed their prior iterations, so i dont think the gaming public has a very long (or grudging) memory when it comes to games. (i also dont think that the best selling games are necessarily the best games out there. blockbuster =/= quality (although many blockbusters are of very high quality and critical reception (ME2, RDR, GTAIV, etc etc)

it seems like the cost of developing a new/discrete entity would be much higher than doing some expansion work if they thought they could pull in the player base…but is suspect their decision will hinge on how well the initial rounds of DLC go (i am assuming that the June/July DLC is the first of at least a few rounds, but as i often state, i’ve been wrong before)

(Cep) #17

Simple answer…No

(wolfnemesis75) #18

Also, I would buy Brink 2, (fanboy) as it will most likely address at least some of the problems and flaws with the first. And since I still like the first, I want to continue the story. I think there is a rich and well developed framework which to build upon. That may upset the haters or those unsure, but that’s where I stand. :slight_smile:

(dommafia) #19

For the first time I’ll “try before I buy” an SD game again, sadly.

(Darksider) #20

If there was a Brink 2.

I would expect more of these.

  1. More interaction with the environment or destructive environment especially with those grenade launchers
  2. Weather system go from sunny to cloudy to raining or heavy winds (come on we’re in the middle of the ocean.)
  3. More open world and diversity
  4. Vehicles aka jet skis or underwater objectives
  5. Demo Recorder/theater mode to make machinma vids.