I want to start off by saying that I really, really enjoy this game. I echo the belief from critics that it has AMAZING potential.
But as it stands now, it’s a tad bit… I don’t know. I can’t think of the word. Disappointing? No, because i’m having fun. Perhaps “unpolished” is the best word for it.
Anyway, here are my thoughts on how to improve Brink.
Critical
Fix the missing sound bug that occurs randomly.
Fix the “missing people” bug that occurs randomly.
Make a more simple lobby to join multiplayer games. This is the first time I’ve used the steam UI server browser to join a multiplayer game because the way you currently have it is slow, doesn’t work, and clunky as hell. This game lives and dies on multiplayer and this is imperative.
Release the SDK. Stop thinking about DLC and making more money off of us. You can do that later, and its fine! Seriously, I want you guys to make more money. But look at TF2. They make money hand over fist but they also released the SDK. Let people make more maps because right now, even with 8 maps things are slim pickins. Yes, TF2 released with less but obviously that excuse isn’t working with people. You have to roll with the times.
High Importance
Your gun selection/mods aren’t what they were cracked up to be. There was a lot of hype about weapons and the modifications. But the problem is that those modifications kind of stink. They improve some things, but it’s not worth it because they lower the ratings of over important stats. What do I have to gain by increasing accuracy a sliver if my stability goes way down? It’s silly. I don’t even use most mods.
Your guns are meh Don’t get me wrong, they sound and feel amazing. This is about the selection. Once you get the best gun in whatever subclass, thats it. There’s no reason to pick another one. For example there are two revolvers. I can’t remember the names of them because i’m at work right now, but one is clearly better than the other. You might have to unlock one of them, but whats the point? The challenges (for the most part), are easy. You’ll get them really quick. Which brings me to my next point.
Levels and experience are worthless I was super excited to see that I get experience for EVERYTHING I do. It’s a welcomed change to a lot of FPS team shooters where I contribute, but the person who lands the killing blow gets all the accolades. The problem is, you eventually reach max level because it’s only level 20. Then what? Part of the fun of the experience system in FPS games is getting new things. You made an unfortunate design choice of tying unlocking guns and parts to challenges, and unlocking cosmetic stuff to leveling. This was a bad idea. Either increase the level threshold and add new perks and weapon modifications and even weapons (seriously, you need more weapons and weapon modifications), or just scrap it. What starts out nifty ends up just being a poor design decision once you’ve played the game for 10+ hours.
This hyped up custom character thing only… has… this many customizations? Another thing you hyped up was the customization stuff for characters. And well… They’re poor. For example, why would you have your resistance character be forced to have the same tatts and scars as your security one? Another bad design decision. But lets get to the nitty gritty. The customization just isn’t as complex as it was made out to be. I like the aesthetics of the characters. I love your art style. However, I was really looking forward to tweaking things like lips, eyes, nose, ear, etc etc. Sort of like a Sims thing.
Overall what this game ends up with is A LOT of good ideas, but poorly executed or halfway finished.
And trust me, you have amazing ideas. The SMART system should be required in every FPS game from now on, for example.
Still as important!
Some of your level design is under par. I love some of what you’ve done with the levels in Brink. And the more I play the more I appreciate the SMART system for all the nooks and crannies you can get into. But some of these levels have terrible chokepoints where it just becomes an endless boring war, eventually leading the defenders to win. One of these examples is the level where you have to defend/get that fuel to fill the plane. There is only ONE way to get inside that place. That’s not good level design. There are also other levels where there is only one way to get to an objective.
You need more levels Already covered but I wanted to mention this again. More levels, and more objectives for current levels. Have you ever thought about having a random objective director that will switch things up a bit? It will keep things fresh.
The Operative is seriously useless. Besides having an Operative for completing objectives, the operative is really, really, really useless. Disguises really don’t fool anyone, especially since its always chaos on the field. But while IN disguise, you can’t really do anything. At least in TF2, you could assassinate someone and go invisible, but in Brink you sort of just have to stand around. In fact, as soon as you pull out your gun, you lose your disguise. Operatives also cannot do anything to buff your teammates like the rest can. Unless you spec your character with every Operative talent, then there is no point to have one on your team unless the objective requires it. You really need to look into this class to see what you can do to make it more interesting. Hell, let them disable turrets and mines without losing their disguise. That way you can make turrets stronger so they don’t feel like peashooters either. Another thing you can do is let an Operative be able to steal an objective, like the fuel can, but retain their disguise for 3 seconds, giving them enough time cause confusion.
I want to end this by saying that I really love this game. I want it to grow. I don’t want it to die because no other shooters come close to how unique this is. Obviously there are some issues, and I hope the developers read this thread.
I hope the community uses this thread to give constructive criticism as well. So we can help make this game better for the rest of us.
PS: Also for the love of god, in the next patch put in the ability to use an xbox controller on PC. Sometimes I want to play in bed. :stroggtapir: