Zero Punctuation: Brink

[UnderCoverGuest]

Hmm; judging from the from the five or so comments I've read in this thread and threads before it, if Yahtzee reviews a game and people generally don't like that game, people say Yahtzee did a great review. But if Yahtzee reviews a game and people like that game, people say Yahtzee did a bad video type shouty thing that they wouldn't call a review.

Anywho, I bought Brink because I wanted a first-person shooter where you could change your appearance and do some nifty stunt-work in-between mindless shooting, and Brink satisfied that desire for a good few hours playing co-op with a friend, and doing the challenge modes. But like a fine wine, I've matured through my years of ingesting video games, and have removed all sense of loyalty to video games, leading to me being a fair and independent judge of virtual interactive quality...why did I type all that.

Anywho, required immediately or very soon for Brink to extend it's life:
- Modding Tools
- Mapping Tools
- Game Modes:
* Team Death Match
* Death Match
* Race
* Capture the Flag

In general, me and the buddy I played Brink with found it similar to Unreal Tournament; you don't have a single-player game, but that's fine as long as the generic combat action makes up for it. Unreal Tournament 2004 was a great game, but you can't really say it had a single-player story. After all, it was just multiplayer missions with bots (huh, that phrase sounds familiar); but that game was pretty darn fun! So in order for Brink to get a bit more lifetime, it needs a helluva lot more maps at least. Meh, bored of typing now.

 

[Grey_Gore]

Odd that Yahtzee would criticise Brink for forcing people to unlock content and kindly ignore that TF2 (take a drink) did the same thing with the early class packs, (i.e. tying item unlocks to achievements, which was then supplemented with the utterly horrid random drop/crafting/microtransaction system they have now).

Wasn't this in the context of "Every class is nearly identical until you unlock character-specific upgrades"? As an example, in TF2 (take a drink) the heavy is radically different in game style than, say, the engineer, even with basic equipment and no unlocks. Been a while since I played TF2 (take a drink) though ~ I *might* be biased towards it and, if so, apologise in advance.

[sub]I'm beginning to suspect that the comments will be much more liver-unfriendly than the actual video.[/sub]

 

[teh_Canape]

Didn't Monday Night Combat already do the Team Fortress 2 rip off, and do it better?

I wonder why people keep comparing Monday Night Combat to Team Fortress 2

as far as I saw, the only thing in common is the vibrant color scheme

 

[GaryH]

Yahtzee manages to yet again destroy a game that I like without me disagreeing with him at all. How the hell does he keep doing that?

Brink is a multiplayer only game, the devs shot themselves in the foot by including bots and calling it a "campaign". Like almost all multiplayer games, Brink only really any fun with friends; with that in mind it is a LOT of fun, and just different enough to any other multiplayer shooter to enjoy.

It is a bit overpriced for a handful of multiplayer maps, though, but I have some hope that it could grow into something really special.

 

[Vanbael]

*stumbles around drunk*
I'm not one to comment a lot but *hick* I think that was a fucking awesome drinking game.

Now to get to the rest of the show.
Brink isn't TF2 *takes a drink* by a long shot. Yeah you have classes, but all the weapons a pretty much the god damn same. Its your character that changes the style, you want more Mirror's Edge, go with medium or light character, you want Heavy from TF2 *takes a drink and passes out for a minute* you take the larger built character. You are stuck with those guys for the entire fucking match regardless of Multiplayer or single player. Personally, its learning curve is much more nicer than TF2 *takes another drink out of an empty rum bottle* and the feel of it is more like MAG combined with Mirror's Edge and with aspects of TF2 *tries to drink out of the empty bottle* why is the rum always gone...

 

[Infernoshadow211]

Man, I feel like playing TF2 now.

 

[K84]

I like Brink, it's an odd game, but fun.

 

[EvilRoy]

...as a guy with over 1000 hours on TF2 (I don't buy games often) I thought brink was a pretty refreshing take on the same team based shooters that I like.

Come on, don't say something like that without explaining it! Especially since you're currently the only person in the thread who identifies as a frequent player of TF2.

I did hear that Splash Damage is going to publish free DLC, although that makes no sense.

That's what they used to call "patches" back in the unenlightened days before publishers realized they could charge for them.

Well, personally I really like when games are as team based as they need to be. For instance in both Brink and TF2, if your deadstopped or being rolled, its not necessarily just that your team is bad, it just means that your not working together effectively enough.
So you can easily raise the stakes by just escorting each other and moving on objectives as a group rather than just sprinting ahead and doing whatever.
However, when both teams are just ignoring teamwork and having a ball regardless, there's no need for stress or worry because both sides are handicapped to similar extents.

I also think that the xp system in brink, and the achievement/drop system in tf2, do an excellent job of easing you into all the many many toys you are going to be expected to be able to use on demand.

My two primary grievances with Brink are:
1. you can't change loadout in game. Or maybe you can and I just can't figure it out, but whatever. There it is.
There are 3 body types (light, medium, heavy) and around 10 guns with all sorts of attachments for them, but once you join a game no matter how bad your team needs a heavy to soak up damage, or a light to make a run on an objective, you can't change without leaving the game.
Edit: sorry you CAN change guns during a game, but as far as I know, you can't change attachments to those guns, so I hope you enjoy minor bookkeeping as you apply your preferred scope, muzzle and sling to each gun.

2. Same as yahtzee, I have trouble iding enemies sometimes. Luckily security tends to have a 'clean' look to them, while the resistance has a 'punk' look so it kind of helps. But all the same, there have been times where both myself and my enemy actually stopped firing and stared for a minute trying to figure out if we were team fragging. AND some servers do -ve xp for team damage/kills.

 

[SckizoBoy]

S'Okay... (the game I mean... well, the vid, too at that).

However, didn't really have high hopes for Brink, because of the bloody single player, so we're agreed... again...

Anyway, boy was that Mario freaky...

 

[stupiddrummer]

Didn't Monday Night Combat already do the Team Fortress 2 rip off, and do it better?

I wonder why people keep comparing Monday Night Combat to Team Fortress 2

as far as I saw, the only thing in common is the vibrant color scheme

Yeah, the art design is similar. I'd compare Monday Night Combat to DOTA before anything else.

Also, MNC on Steam has hats >_>

 

[Cenequus]

I was expecting worse when I've seen him starting to compare it with TF2,since he's known to drop his pants and bend over Valve games. Still haven't heard if the game is fun or not.

 

[de5gravity]

I love your videos (sad to say i'm a fanboy..) but this one is just not getting to me. The game is too fun. Sorry!

 

[wehrp3nguin]

From the commercials, Brink looked to me like a more-than-4-PvP DLC for Borderlands. Too bad.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I wasn't expecting this multiplayer only game to be "Critiqued",so color me surprised because I liked it.

Hopefully Witcher 2 is gonna get be the "naughty boy" next week,looking forward to that one.

 

[Vrach]

Funny review, but can't really agree with ya Yahtzee, even if I'm not a fan of the game myself (the fact singleplayer is comprised of multiplayer maps with bots should result in someone over at Bethesda getting a cockslap across the face indeed).

The thing is, it works. The shooting is different than TF2 and imo - more fun. The parkour works too. It's not too heavy, but it's there and people playing multiplayer can make a lot of use of it. I know you're not into multiplayer, but I'm sure you're aware of the simple fact that dynamic combat is fun combat where PvP is concerned.

The gameplay itself is pretty amazing multiplayer wise. I was much more drawn into it than TF2/CoD and can see it lasting a lot longer, but sadly, I prefer large scale battles myself so I stick with Battlefield for my online FPS fix.

 

[huckleberryhound]

I like brink, it's good mindless Shoot a few people from another country FUN!!!

Container sorld has a problem where the oppositio9n can camp at the funnel style entrance and clock up the newly psawned cops, but otherwise it's good for when you've only a short time to play before work.

But then again, i bought APB and DCuniverse online.

 

[jpoon]

Hah, I saw this one coming and boy does this game deserve every bit of it. Glad I didn't buy this heap of shit!

 

[KingofallCosmos]

Gawdimmt I wuznt even Irntee.. irsees... into Blink an now I'm pifsed. I like Team Fortrss *passes out*