How will the mix between singleplayer and multiplayer work?

(Gogeku) #1

As far as I’ve understood it, SD will try to mix both SP and MP aspects of the game during online play. I’ve been trying to find out and understand exactly how this works, but still haven’t been quite able to. Can any of you Brink oracles in here help me with this?:smiley:

(jazevec) #2

Have you ever played those games on arcade machines, like The Gauntlet etc ? “Press fire to start” ? In The Gauntlet, you can play co-op with AI controlled character. At any point another player can insert a coin and join a game in progress. His character replaces the one controlled by AI.

In Brink it’s basically the same, except they make a big fuss about it, and have the money to market it as new. The idea is decades old, but is now so retro Splash Damage can get away with that.

(H0RSE) #3

In Brink it’s basically the same, except they make a big fuss about it, and have the money to market it as new. The idea is decades old, but is now so retro Splash Damage can get away with that.

In all fairlness, even though the overall concept is “decades old,” SD is still doing something new and fresh with it, by incorporating it into a multiplayer-focused FPS, which is practically unheard of.

Comparing the mechanics of a dungeon crawling, hack-n-slash arcade game (where both dungeon crawlers AND arcade games in general, are known for merging modes and drop-in drop-out support) with a PC/console based competitive FPS and then criticizing SD/Brink for being “unoriginal,” is hardly fair.

(engiebenjy) #4

The best description i could give is its like left 4 dead, but with a story for both sides - not just the survivors.

(Cankor) #5

Kind of, yeah, again with drop in/out support for both sides (depending on how you set it up, you could ahve drop in for just your side or drop in for both). But the gust of it is the maps link up into a campaign, and they are also multi player maps where you can come back and play them via a server browser.

In L4D is the entire campaign playable in verses mode?

Even though at first a lot of people will be playing their own campaigns, and while they are doing that they aren’t likley to want to drop in on another game because they could just be coming in at the middle, they still me go online, see a friend, and want to paly with them and so drop into their friends game. Even if they are only part way through their own campaign.

Also, if you are playing with someone, and add them to your fireteam, you will stay with them for the next level. So there’s a way to stay together with guys you’re playing with even if they aren’t on your frinds list (since I don’t play consoles and therefore unaware of some of the issues like this, that seems lto me ike a very good thing).

(H0RSE) #6

Also, if you are playing with someone, and add them to your fireteam, you will stay with them for the next level. So there’s a way to stay together with guys you’re playing with even if they aren’t on your frinds list (since I don’t play consoles and therefore unaware of some of the issues like this, that seems lto me ike a very good thing).

Well, Steam has a friendslist, so I’m sure it work in a similar manner. Also, if you’re playing with friends, they will stay with you through missions, regardless if your in a fireteam with or not.

(Gogeku) #7

So basically it’s not gonna be some annoying video sequel in between every objective point etc. That was what I was fearing:D

(Nikto) #8

nonono, they didn’t explain it very well i think :stuck_out_tongue:
the singleplayer and multiplayer will be the same, only in singleplayer, bots replace the players.

but while in singleplayer, friends can drop into your game and take the place of a bot, and if you want to, you can open up your game to total strangers.
from single to co-op to multiplayer without much trouble.

(H0RSE) #9

Just imagine playing W:ET or QW with bots, and at any time, a player can replace a bot. You could also just play a private game where no one can join -

(PlayingUndead) #10

I might have things confused, but, if I’m right, I think the single player missions ARE the multiplayer. The only difference is if you play alone or not. So there is no single player mode, or multiplayer mode, there’s just “BRINK”.

They said that you can play the missions in any order you want to. Yes there is a proper order for them, but, none of them are closed off until you complete the one before it.

What I’m saying might be entirely incorrect, but, this is what I think it might be.

(H0RSE) #11

[QUOTE=Sir Undead;244690]I might have things confused, but, if I’m right, I think the single player missions ARE the multiplayer. The only difference is if you play alone or not. So there is no single player mode, or multiplayer mode, there’s just “BRINK”.

They said that you can play the missions in any order you want to. Yes there is a proper order for them, but, none of them are closed off until you complete the one before it.[/QUOTE]
DING! DING! DING! You sir, are a winner!

(KAS--Will) #12

My guess from all my video and blog research, is depending what whether you play Singleplayer, Co-op, or Multiplayer, will only determine if you play Online or not. So the experience changes because of your competition… or am I missing something?

(Gogeku) #13

Thanks for all your answers guys, glad I got it cleared it:D

(LyndonL) #14

If you so choose you can make it single player only so noone joins you. Also to your earlier point… YES there are cutscenes at the start and end of each mission. But if you don’t want to watch it you can skip it and instead edit your character loadout (weapon, abilities etc) or run around the staging area (ala ET:QW or TF2 start up).

And yeah there are two modes - campaign mode where you start at whatever chapter you want and progress from level to level, or you can choose to play individual maps at your own will.

(Lanz) #15

There’s really nothing new with this concept at all from a pure technical position. They have perhaps added some new ideas to the concept but it sounds a lot like when joining an empty server online with bots and regular people join in and replace them after a while. Marketing makes it sound new and special of course.

(LyndonL) #16

The new part of the concept is doing it with an FPS in a storybased scenario. It’s not just a new unrelated story per map, each chapter of the campaign progresses to the next.

Also, I stayed out of the Multiplayer FPS arena for years because of the stigma with hardcore players. I was always a pretty casual gamer and didn’t want to play online cause I cbf getting dominated by people without a life! (I played MOH on launch day, and I saw in the leaderboards at 22 hours after launch the top player had over 20 hrs online play time).
I eased into online play by playing coop (L4D) and worked into other things from there. So by allowing people to play a singleplayer FPS, and then progress to playing it exactly the same way in multiplayer… that is great.

(engiebenjy) #17

Yes it is marketing - but it gets more interest into the game which should be a good thing. I think the technical achievement is what happens if your team loses - how do you advance through the story if you fail to win? there was some discussion about this a while back and it all got pretty confusing :slight_smile:

(Lanz) #18

The implementation is key ofc. That might be what separate it from things in the past. I’m just not fond of marketing hypes combined with lack of information. Lack of information leads to speculation and in the end disappointment when it doesn’t live up to the imagination.

(H0RSE) #19

Lack of information leads to speculation and in the end disappointment when it doesn’t live up to the imagination.

That really isn’t the fault of marketing - it’s, like you said, the consumers lack of information. If they don’t want to do any research and find things out for themselves, they deserve to be let down. It’s like someone who believes everything the news tells them as 100% true, and does no research on his own.

(Lanz) #20

So it’s the consumers fault for not searching through wades of bull****, speculations and rumors to find new info? That’s funny.