Opinions on Brink

(sanDIOkan) #21

PC, i have fun but not as i thought and wanted. The game is abandoned on the competitive scene that is totally forgotten by devs.
i hate the consolization, poor options, damn netcode, and over everything i hate the damn magic button.
if i could come back in the days, i wouldn’t rebuy it.

(H0RSE) #22

Actually it is worth arguing about. So what if the animation is prettier when I mantle onto those boxes and climb up that wall? I could do it faster and have more control if I could strafejump onto them

The point is, in previous games mantling wasn’t an option - that is wear it opens up more options. As for strafe jumping being faster, this depends on the height on the boxes - too high, and you aren’t jump strafing over them, whereas in Brink, I can simply climb them.

You’re kidding yourself if you think this game doesn’t restrict movement; strafejumping > SMART in pretty much every situation. There’s very little that SMART would do better than just straight up strafejumping.

And the thing you are forgetting is body types. You are trying to compare a mechanic from past games, that worked the same across the board, no matter who you played, since every player was identical in terms of movement capabilities. So even if there was strafe jumping in Brink, it would work differently for each body type, since speed comes into play when strafe jumping. You’re trying to compare apples to oranges here, dude.

Another thing you seem to not be factoring in is that strafe jumping was a “player defined movement,” meaning it isn’t something you can look up in the game manual or even something that the game/maps were built around. It is more something that players discovered and made popular on their own - sort of a sub-tactic/maneuver that was developed within the game. Ironically, one reason strafe jumping became so popular was becuase of the lack of movement those games featured.

Past games were not built around strafe jumping - Brink is definitely built around the SMART system, so every player knows exactly what he or she can and cannot do - there are no “secret” maneuvers that need to be discovered (like strafe jumping.) SMART (and what it can do) is explained in the Brink manual, in a tutorial vid in the “Dossier” section of the menu and there is also a Challenge that focuses on using it. Strafe jumping is something you either know about or you don’t.

I don’t really see a purpose arguing that something (strafe jumping) is faster when 1) - Brink uses a completely different movement system and 2) - it is not a technique that everyone knows about or does.

(Duraigo) #23

Xbox 360
Overall i enjoyed brink. I wanted it at first for my bday but after the reviews i didnt get it. Recently i rented it, and found that i quite enjoyed it. I can probably get it for 30 bucks, so it will be money well spent. My only problems with it are:

[ul]
[li]players who treat the game like cod and dont do objectives
[/li][li]Playing on a team full of bots against a team of humans
[/li][li]thought there’d be more customization options
[/li][li]texture problems
[/li][/ul]

(H0RSE) #24

[QUOTE=Duraigo;369962]Xbox 360
Overall i enjoyed brink. I wanted it at first for my bday but after the reviews i didnt get it. Recently i rented it, and found that i quite enjoyed it. I can probably get it for 30 bucks, so it will be money well spent. My only problems with it are:

[ul]
[li]players who treat the game like cod and dont do objectives[/li][li]Playing on a team full of bots against a team of humans[/li][li]thought there’d be more customization options[/li][li]texture problems[/li][/ul][/QUOTE]

[ul]
[li]this has more to do with the community and mindset of the players on console, and no so much an actual flaw with Brink itself.[/li][li]this can simply be avoided by playing gamemodes that feature no bot support.[/li][li]If you are referring to the “texture pop-in,” I really don’t see this as a problem with Brink, and more of a problem with the hardware capabilities of Xbox. Texture pop-in can be seen in a wide range of games on the 360, ranging from Mass Effect to Borderlands to practically every game released by Epic.[/li][/ul]

(Duraigo) #25

again not really big problems, just my little nit picks :slight_smile:

(Thundermuffin) #26

[QUOTE=H0RSE;369956]The point is, in previous games mantling wasn’t an option - that is wear it opens up more options. As for strafe jumping being faster, this depends on the height on the boxes - too high, and you aren’t jump strafing over them, whereas in Brink, I can simply climb them.

And the thing you are forgetting is body types. You are trying to compare a mechanic from past games, that worked the same across the board, no matter who you played, since every player was identical in terms of movement capabilities. So even if there was strafe jumping in Brink, it would work differently for each body type, since speed comes into play when strafe jumping. You’re trying to compare apples to oranges here, dude.

Another thing you seem to not be factoring in is that strafe jumping was a “player defined movement,” meaning it isn’t something you can look up in the game manual or even something that the game/maps were built around. It is more something that players discovered and made popular on their own - sort of a sub-tactic/maneuver that was developed within the game. Ironically, one reason strafe jumping became so popular was becuase of the lack of movement those games featured.

Past games were not built around strafe jumping - Brink is definitely built around the SMART system, so every player knows exactly what he or she can and cannot do - there are no “secret” maneuvers that need to be discovered (like strafe jumping.)

SMART (and what it can do) is explained in the Brink manual, in a tutorial vid in the “Dossier” section of the menu and there is also a Challenge that focuses on using it. Strafe jumping is something you either know about or you don’t.

I don’t really see a purpose arguing that something (strafe jumping) is faster when 1) - Brink uses a completely different movement system and 2) - it is not a technique that everyone knows about or does.[/QUOTE]

Please, tell me where mantling is really that useful. The only reason I mantle stuff is because jumping is so restricted in this game. You jump forward for like maybe a foot and then fall right back to the ground and your vertical isn’t even that high either.

You’re correct about strafejumping being found by the players, but it hasn’t been some mysterious element in games for years. I think everyone who has heard of Quake/Unreal/Wolfenstein/other arena shooters knows of strafejumping, whether or not they call it that specifically. Plus lots of maps have been made specifically with that in mind and I’m pretty sure now a days ET/Wolfenstein/QUAKE/UT players expect the maps to be catered to strafejumping, rocket jumping, and all of those other jump techniques the players found. Haven’t you seen say Lost World and how the map has spots where if you’re good (note: if you’re good, not if you can hold down shift like in BRINK) you can jump over stuff and completely cut out having to walk around half the map to get somewhere.

Didn’t TFC have body types? Strafejumping and conc jumping were both in that game, and it worked perfectly fine. The slower types (soldier/heavy) were able to gain speed to make the game play faster, but they weren’t moving as fast as the scouts/medics.

Put strafejumping in the manual then; it isn’t like it requires a degree in rocket science. It’s a simple combination of pressing keys and moving your mouse. You can make tons of videos to show it off, show off basic jumps, etc., and people will understand it. If they aren’t good at it at the start, it gives them something to work towards. What do I have to work towards in BRINK? Beating my challenge time? Yeah, I’ll pass as that challenge map isn’t that fun.

I see the purpose in it because SMART just isn’t that innovative as SD made it out to be; okay, so I can jump over these boxes, but they’re placed there on purpose to let people mantle and vault over them. It isn’t like someone found a box on the corner of a map and was able to chain together SMART movements to be something useful. It’s not dynamic like strafejumping and that brings the game down for me and it is restrictive in that regard. To people who aren’t good enough to learn how to strafejump well or can’t learn how to watch 1 video to figure out how it works, sure SMART is better. But do you really want to cater your games to the lowest common demoninator? You can see how well that worked for BRINK (low playerbase, mocked by lots of people, PC players have lost trust in SD and went to other games, no competitive scene, etc. etc.).

With strafejumping you find out all kinds of sweet things you can do to surprise your enemy; like heck, last night I was playing some CS map and I ended up on top of a car, and strafejumped onto the roof of this building and got up and over a chokepoint (it was like an arched door way) and was able to kill the CTs from above. They had no idea it was coming, because they didn’t know you could do that. If it was BRINK, there would have been boxes placed right next to the arch so you knew “hey I can get over that.” That’s innovative for sure. :rolleyes:

The OP asked for our opinions and mine is that the game is slow and restrictive. That’s perfectly valid when you compare it to previous ET titles.

(Throbblefoot) #27

PC.

The game is fun, there’s a lot more I want to try, but it has flaws (oh how I hate the arm gate in Security Tower).

Excellent point. While you can set up a game so you can just explore it at your leisure, it’s definitely not obvious how to do it. And an unfamiliarity with the maps leads some players to a) die all the time b) always do the same things on a map and c) get frustrated.

Throbblefoot

(Fetter) #28

It’s always struck me as unfortunate that strafejumping, rocket jumping, and the like is considered to be a mark of competitive play. In general, advantageous movement patterns shouldn’t have to be “discovered” and practiced in order to be effective-- everyone should know what their character can do from the getgo and be able to run with it. In this way, the SMART system seems like a big step forward. One thing that helps make a game more competitive, after all, is eliminating barriers to entry.

Personally, I think BRINK is a good game, got a substantial improvement with the DLC, and could easily be a great game with some more tweaking.

(solidus) #29

Ultimately I respect what Splash Damage was going for with brink but it just has too many fundamental issues both on the gameplay side and the menu/matchmaking/infrastructure side to really keep me invested. I traded it in yesterday.

Hopefully Splash Damage learns a lot from Brink and is able to deliver on the potential in whatever is their next release.

(Xiphoid) #30

I’m on the Xbox 360, I think Brink is a good game because it reminds me of Return to Castle Wolfenstein and it tries to be different to other more typical FPS games… On the downside though, I think the player base in my area has dried up again and there’s no game search interface to allow me to join laggy games… I bit of ice skating I don’t mind, teleporting enemies I might draw the line at…