I am a very loyal Brink player, having followed the game since the debut trailer, and while it did fall slightly short of my expectations, I will stay faithful to Brink purely because it is one of those games that has potential; it will most likely keep getting better over time, thanks to patches and DLC. Probably the thing that annoyed me most was the lack of maps. Such a small amount can mean the game will get boring quickly, so I hope the free ‘Agents of Change’ DLC, coming sometime in June, will rectify this, but in the meantime, I have a few ideas for maps. I’ll post the map name, a short description and some thoughts I have for it. If anyone likes my ideas, I’ll keep adding more, and hopefully I’ll find a way to contact the developers and see what they think!
ARBORETUM
Whenever the Ark’s inhabitants needed a place to relax and take in the bountiful wonders of nature, they would visit the Arboretum, a series of large glass domes filled with flora and fauna of all varieties. However, no one has tended to the creatures inside for years. Now, all of the animals and insects are dead and the plants have overgrown and filled most of the domes.
Drawing obvious comparisons to the Eden Project, the Arboretum could be filled with plants of all shapes, colours and sizes. Not only would it be a beautiful place, it could have a certain atmosphere about it, showing the deterioration of some of the Ark. For example, one of the domes could have an enourmous crack in the glass, flooding the dome with sunlight. As for the layout, each dome would have various walkways, some on ground level, some among the treetops, as well as a large outdoor garden and a small, prism-shaped building with an indoor pool full of aquatic plants.
PLAZA
Located right at the base of the Founder’s Tower, many peaceful protests were held here before Chen managed to build up the Resistance into a formidable army. Now, it is barely visited by any civilians, as the Founders stay holed up in the tower and the Security have blockaded the tower entrance to stop any Resistance bombers.
This is probably the most basic map I’ve thought of. The Plaza is simply a huge square area with buildings on the south, east and west sides. These buildings can be entered and scaled up to roof level in order to construct MG nests in advantageous positions. The Founder’s Tower at the north end needs to be entered by the Resistance. A soldier plants a HE charge on the Security barricade, opening up the lobby area of the tower. An engineer needs to repair the lift generator and an operative needs to hack the tower mainframe in the basement to activate the lifts. These two objectives can be completed in any order.
CAMPUS
The Ark saw many bright young minds fly in during the 2020s, eager scientists hoping to help build the sustainable future that the Ark promised. Many of those young scientists came to the Ark University to recieve the best scientific training possible. However, not a single fresh student has come to the University in years, and it is now utterly deserted.
The Campus of the University would be a multi-layered map. On the left side would be a path leading to two large houses, one for the male students and one for the females. On the right would be a two-story library, with overturned bookcases used for cover. At the top of the Campus would be the main building. On one side of the reception area would be a set of doors leading into a corridor. Inside would be four doors, two on each side of the corridor, leading to four labs. On the other side of the reception would be a large set of doors leading to a massive lecture theatre. One of the factions would have to retrieve a data key from the bottom of the theatre.
CHEMICAL PLANT
When the nuclear reactor was constructed to provide sufficiant energy for the refugees, the Founders needed a place to store and process the chemical waste produced. The Chemical Plant was intended to treat and dispose of this waste, but activity at the plant slowly ran down to a halt as the tensions between the Founders and the guests escalated. Now, the plant is simply a mass of dirty, leaking tanks, their toxic contents dripping into the nearby ocean.
The Chemical Plant would be a filthy, run-down area. And I mean REALLY run-down. I’m talking leaking tanks, puddles of nuclear waste, narrow walkways suspended above chemical vats… anyway, I think this map could have a lot of things going for it. There could be multiple levels, similar to Reactor, with stairwells going down to different floors. There could be stairs going up to the roof, with steaming vents and sets of fans, some whirling, some shattered and sparking. There could be stairs going down to the basement, with grimy, bubbling tanks of toxic sludge, along with an area in the sewers, following a flowing river of nuclear waste, running from the vats down to a pipe pouring the waste out into the sea. In the sewers, there could be improvised wooden bridges running across the river of sludge. Going onto the objective side of things, the Resistance could use an engineer to open a vent that redirects the nuclear waste into the Ark’s main sewers, filling various Security-owned areas with radioactive puddles, making areas central to their operations virtually uninhabitable.
VAULT
Back in the days when many wealthy investors were visiting the Ark to fund the various sustainable development projects, the doors of the Bank of Ark were always open. Nowadays, the bank’s vault contains the most precious of the remaining resources, and is constantly guarded by an elite Security group, protecting the bank against thieving Resistance extremists.
In one of the existing maps, possibly Terminal, I saw a poster near a Command Post advertising the Bank of Ark. My first thought was, ‘I doubt there’s much money in there now.’ My second was ‘DAMN, that’d make a pretty cool map.’ There are already scenarios where Resistance are assaulting a Security stronghold, the first one coming to mind being SecTower, but the Vault could provide a fresh new setting, a stronghold right in the middle of the rich Upper Ark. I don’t really have much to say for this idea, but I’d like to see a luxurious lobby, all glass and marble, leading down into a harsh, metal labyrinth with safety deposit boxes lining the walls and a giant vault containing some sort of resource that the Resistance have to get to a boat waiting in a canal near to the bank’s main entrance.
SILO
As Chen became more and more desperate in his search for a method to turn the tide of the conflict in his favour, he decided that the only suitable course of action would be to use surface-to-surface missiles to attack the Founders directly. Once his first missile was launched, he knew that he had to keep on the offensive, and so the Resistance was ordered to construct a munitions factory and long-range silo in a secure location.
The mission in the Shipyard was one of my favourites, but there should be a bit more destructive action, if you ask me. Imagine if the Resistance had a crude factory, using manual labour to construct rattling missiles to launch in the Upper Ark’s general direction. I think there could be a lot of variety in this map. Imagine a wide area with conveyor belts tugging the missiles along towards an enormous shaft at one end of the factory. There could be rusty walkways leading around the silo and a retracting roof that opened when the missile was due to launch. The best thing about this map could be that both teams would be the attacking team. The Resistance could have to use Engineers to repair the silo and produce the missiles to prepare for the launch, while the Security could be hacking the silo control room so that the missiles self-destruct or are redirected to a certain Resistance base.
FLOODGATES
Many of the Ark’s islands are sliced up by a network of tiny canals running through the Upper Ark. The Main Canal, running from the north area close to the Founder’s Tower all the way down to the right side of the Security Tower, is the Upper Ark’s primary source of water, thanks to a desalination plant for purification and a set of high-security floodgates to stop the guests from stealing unrationed water.
I don’t have much to say about this map. Basically, it would be a huge compound with two sets of floodgates that you can run across, linking the east and west sides of the area together. Each side could have several buildings to enter, and a road at one side of the compound could lead through a Security checkpoint into the desalination plant, which could be crammed full of various types of water treatment machinery.
CASINO
In 2024, a very rich businessman came to the Ark to donate funds, and was amazed when there was no casino on board. The Founders insisted that a gambling house had no place in the future they were building, but eventually gave in when they were told the businessman would donate an extra five million dollars if he got his wish.
So, here we are, the Ark Casino. It’s a bit of an obvious choice for a map, even if I did have to overcome the hurdle of ‘the Founders wouldn’t built it’ with an utterly arbitrary explanation about a rich businessman. Anyway, one of the problems I have with the existing maps is that they’re all fairly similar aesthetically: either rusty reds and browns (Container City and Shipyard), sparkling whites (Aquarium, Terminal, Resort and Reactor) or the sort of murky areas inbetween (SecTower and Refuel). A casino could have loads of flashing neon lights, a huge room with loads of overturned tables that used to be used for blackjack or poker, a giant roulette wheel, rows of slot machines providing ample cover. The full shebang, basically.
MUSEUM
The visitors to the Ark used to gape in wonder at the undersea findings of the scientists, mysterious and amazing fossils dredged up from the depths of the ocean in the Natural History section and the most recent advances in technology in the Modern Science section. Sadly, the museum is no longer visited by anyone except Resistance soldiers attempting to steal some of the technology.
This map has potential, you have to admit. There are similar areas of the Ark, such as Aquarium, but I’m thinking more along the lines of, say, a huge room with a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton (which has crumbled onto the floor), a glass-walled room with dioramas of the life of Red Indians, medieval folk, people during the Industrial Revolution, etc. in the Natural History section and huge machines demonstrating things such as how the Perimeter Breakwater operates, how the solar panels extract energy from the sun, etc. in the Modern Science section.
STUDIOS
When news of the Ark was beginning to spread around major countries such as the United States, the Founders created many promotional films to attract people, but there is no need for the film studios where they were created anymore. Security intel suggest that the abandoned studios have recently become a large Resistance base.
Did anyone else here play Red Steel on the Wii? Well, if anyone did, I’m sure that one of the levels they remember most is the whacked-out world of Tetsuo’s Games. The level led from the city streets into an arcade complex, but you got knocked out and woke up in a fun house. You had to fight your way out through arctic areas, forest areas, even a fake city where you had to board a cable car to take you to the next area. Oh, and there were snowboarding penguins that exploded if you touched them. And swordfights with people dressed as Power Rangers. Anyway, imagine a map like that in Brink. Film studios where there are several different sets for different films. There could be so much to see and do in here. So many different landscapes in a single map. Splash Damage had better put a map like this in the game, or I’ll push an explosive snowboarding penguin in their general direction.
Thanks to anyone who took the time to read all that. I’d be really interested to hear from any other Brink fans, any response is welcome, whether it’s praise or critique. If you think my plans would be good as maps for the actual game, please help me bring my ideas to the attention of Splash Damage!
