Brink's Storyline (SPOILERS)

(Bayonet) #1

Seeing as there appear to be zero topics on the Campaign here, I thought I’d make one.

I think the best way I can describe it is the same way Damon Knight described I Am Legend: “The (product) is full of good ideas, every other one of which is immediately dropped and kicked out of sight”. I mean, what the hell?

[ol]
[li]We get told the game is about the social breakdown on the Ark, but never see what the Ark was once like, meaning we have nothing to compare it to. You can’t care about something being lost if you didn’t know about it beforehand.[/li]
[li]We never see a civilian, or any of the build-up to the civil war. The arrival of the guests, concern over dwindling resources, growing tensions, the two sides forming. The most interesting aspects of the story, told in 5 seconds flat with a paper animation. That’s just insulting to the word ‘story’.[/li]
[li]Speaking of the civil ‘war’, terribly handled, you get the sense that the few isolated events you experience are all that’s happening. Would it have hurt to have upped the scale a bit? Shown some other events, news reports, bombings and attacks by the Resistance on the founders, and counter-attacks by the Security forces on the guest slums. Who knows, this might have actually made it seem like you were part of something.[/li]
[li]I also recall there being two brothers, each on one side. They each know they might have to fight the other and talk about it, promising start. Then we forget about them completely. Why? Why would you set something up and then completely ignore it?[/li]
[li]Then there’s the “resources” thing. We keep getting told the reason we’re fighting is to conserve resources, but it never becomes more than just a word. Is there any chance we could actually see what they are, and what effect they have? See people starving, hospitals shutting down, buildings collapsing as they diminish?[/li]
[li]As for the plot twists, don’t get me started. Both could have been great moments. With the security, we see a younger Mokoena waving off an expedition, their arrival, the hellish outside world and their subsequent butchery, then Mokoena watching helplessly as it happens, resolving to never let anybody leave the Ark again and to keep its location a secret. Or we see Chen realising the Arkoal is dying, the Founders scorning him and him being forced to resort to terrorism. But no, both are simply explained in a few words. Yawn. More disappointment.[/li]
[li]And finally, global warming. This is clearly what the whole universe is about. Brink could have got a serious message across here. Did we hear it talked about once? Nope. Were the writers determined to cut out everything that would have made this game great?[/ol][/li]
To conclude, sadly this game’s story is beyond repair; but when Brink gets a sequel, I hope somebody at Splash Damage remembers there’s more to games than multiplayer.

(iezza) #2

two words: Audio Logs.

(Bayonet) #3

Please tell me this is a joke.

(iezza) #4

yap :smiley: the audio logs are rubbish, if they were video logs with a voiceover, and placed inbetween missions theyd be good.

(zenstar) #5

You can see the breakdown of order in the levels. Look at how places like the aquarium are all high-tech but run down. The place was a scifi fantasy city that has been left to degrade.
The resources are pretty obvious. I don’t need to see a chicken dinner and a glass of water to realise that people are starving and dying of thirst.
The whole global waming thing: they don’t need to elaborate on it. Look at the film Waterworld. It had pretty much the same message and it basically said the same thing: “there once was land then the waters rose and now we’re kinda screwed” and then move on with the rest of it.

I partially agree with you that more story would have been nice in the Campaign but there are certain things I don’t need to be force fed to appreciate. Also you can’t just disregard the audio logs. They hold a lot of interesting stuff.

Hopefully we’ll be getting extentions to the story with each DLC. Overall I’m not disappointed with how they did it. :cool:

(Bayonet) #6

[QUOTE=zenstar;332230]You can see the breakdown of order in the levels. Look at how places like the aquarium are all high-tech but run down. The place was a scifi fantasy city that has been left to degrade.
The resources are pretty obvious. I don’t need to see a chicken dinner and a glass of water to realise that people are starving and dying of thirst.
The whole global waming thing: they don’t need to elaborate on it. Look at the film Waterworld. It had pretty much the same message and it basically said the same thing: “there once was land then the waters rose and now we’re kinda screwed” and then move on with the rest of it.

I partially agree with you that more story would have been nice in the Campaign but there are certain things I don’t need to be force fed to appreciate. Also you can’t just disregard the audio logs. They hold a lot of interesting stuff.

Hopefully we’ll be getting extentions to the story with each DLC. Overall I’m not disappointed with how they did it. :cool:[/QUOTE]

I agree it looks degraded now - my point is, we don’t see it degrade. Brink in its ‘degraded’ form is what we see throughout, so it’s what we think of as ‘normal’. I just think that having a proper introduction would have made us a lot more attached to the world we’re fighting for.

And maybe I’m just a sucker for cinematics, but it did feel like every good aspect of the story wasn’t at all featured. Actually watching news footage of terrorist attacks on the ‘civilized’ area, or of Security forces terrorizing the civilians in Container City, would have made it much more effective than vaguely knowing that something like that might have happened at some point we’re never going to see.

(zenstar) #7

[QUOTE=Bayonet;332274]I agree it looks degraded now - my point is, we don’t see it degrade. Brink in its ‘degraded’ form is what we see throughout, so it’s what we think of as ‘normal’. I just think that having a proper introduction would have made us a lot more attached to the world we’re fighting for.

And maybe I’m just a sucker for cinematics, but it did feel like every good aspect of the story wasn’t at all featured. Actually watching news footage of terrorist attacks on the ‘civilized’ area, or of Security forces terrorizing the civilians in Container City, would have made it much more effective than vaguely knowing that something like that might have happened at some point we’re never going to see.[/QUOTE]
I get your points. I kind of liked the art style of the “living blueprint” of the city but yes… it does mean we got a cleaner and more summarized story I suppose.
Would you have been ok if the cinematics were jsut extended? Maybe some TV report footage (like you suggest) added before & after each cinematic?

As it is I like what’s there. More cinematics may have been nice and I’m hoping the story continues in future DLC. At the end of the day I was expecting something similar to ET:QW so I’m pretty happy with the results here.

Maybe they’re holding the good stuff back for a comic book tie-in? (That’d be sweet).

(Bayonet) #8

[QUOTE=zenstar;332285]I get your points. I kind of liked the art style of the “living blueprint” of the city but yes… it does mean we got a cleaner and more summarized story I suppose.
Would you have been ok if the cinematics were jsut extended? Maybe some TV report footage (like you suggest) added before & after each cinematic?

As it is I like what’s there. More cinematics may have been nice and I’m hoping the story continues in future DLC. At the end of the day I was expecting something similar to ET:QW so I’m pretty happy with the results here.

Maybe they’re holding the good stuff back for a comic book tie-in? (That’d be sweet).[/QUOTE]
My fingers are crossed for a novelization, I don’t usually go for comics but I would in this case. And there’s nothing wrong with what we’ve got, it’s just that stuff it missing. An intro scene of a few minutes, and extra cutscene between each mission of a minute at the most, would make the story great if done right. I just don’t see it happening.

(zenstar) #9

Yeah… that could be quite nice. An unlocked cinematic for each campaign mission which when watched in the video viewer tells a story (maybe not even the story you’re playing through, just more background Ark stuff).

Basically it would have been awesome if the adio logs were video logs too :slight_smile:

And I’d buy the novel!

(its al bout security) #10

look i love the game in most of its inirety but i think the single player campain should have had alot more info, an actuall story that made you feel like you were part of your faction that you could get to feel their lives and such but instead its just “go here and kill some assholes then plant a bomb” real nice story you got here

(Darksider) #11

[QUOTE=Bayonet;332214]Seeing as there appear to be zero topics on the Campaign here, I thought I’d make one.

I think the best way I can describe it is the same way Damon Knight described I Am Legend: “The (product) is full of good ideas, every other one of which is immediately dropped and kicked out of sight”. I mean, what the hell?

[ol]
[li]We get told the game is about the social breakdown on the Ark, but never see what the Ark was once like, meaning we have nothing to compare it to. You can’t care about something being lost if you didn’t know about it beforehand.[/li]
[li]We never see a civilian, or any of the build-up to the civil war. The arrival of the guests, concern over dwindling resources, growing tensions, the two sides forming. The most interesting aspects of the story, told in 5 seconds flat with a paper animation. That’s just insulting to the word ‘story’.[/li]
[li]Speaking of the civil ‘war’, terribly handled, you get the sense that the few isolated events you experience are all that’s happening. Would it have hurt to have upped the scale a bit? Shown some other events, news reports, bombings and attacks by the Resistance on the founders, and counter-attacks by the Security forces on the guest slums. Who knows, this might have actually made it seem like you were part of something.[/li]
[li]I also recall there being two brothers, each on one side. They each know they might have to fight the other and talk about it, promising start. Then we forget about them completely. Why? Why would you set something up and then completely ignore it?[/li]
[li]Then there’s the “resources” thing. We keep getting told the reason we’re fighting is to conserve resources, but it never becomes more than just a word. Is there any chance we could actually see what they are, and what effect they have? See people starving, hospitals shutting down, buildings collapsing as they diminish?[/li]
[li]As for the plot twists, don’t get me started. Both could have been great moments. With the security, we see a younger Mokoena waving off an expedition, their arrival, the hellish outside world and their subsequent butchery, then Mokoena watching helplessly as it happens, resolving to never let anybody leave the Ark again and to keep its location a secret. Or we see Chen realising the Arkoal is dying, the Founders scorning him and him being forced to resort to terrorism. But no, both are simply explained in a few words. Yawn. More disappointment.[/li]
[li]And finally, global warming. This is clearly what the whole universe is about. Brink could have got a serious message across here. Did we hear it talked about once? Nope. Were the writers determined to cut out everything that would have made this game great?[/ol][/li]
To conclude, sadly this game’s story is beyond repair; but when Brink gets a sequel, I hope somebody at Splash Damage remembers there’s more to games than multiplayer.[/QUOTE]

Audio Logs, Just like Left4Dead where the story is not in FRONT of your FACE, little by little you pick up on the small little things that gives you a new scope on the storyline in game, Audio Logs are like the writings on the walls in Left4Dead, and just like Left4Dead, Brink is not good being a single player type game. It shines when played in Multiplayer.

(Bayonet) #12

My point being, when I played the story, I alternated between thinking “this is lame” and “this could have been so much better”. And if a Campaign feels lame, something is clearly very wrong. The idea of discovering extra info is a good one, but it shouldn’t be instead of a main storyline, that’s getting your priorities wrong.

Yes, Brink is not good at being a single-player game. However, it could be. It’s ridiculous to come up with such an awesome setting, promising characters, and great plot twists, then do nothing with them. In fact, more than that, it’s annoying.