Overview

Brink is a class based first-person shooter in development at Splash Damage in partnership with Bethesda Softworks taking place in a sci-fi environment. It's been defined in an interview as a "genre-breaker" and "real killer app". The game's quality is promised to be "along the same lines as Fallout 3" and that "so many innovative features" will be present in the title.

S.M.A.R.T.

Richard Ham, creative director at Splash Damage, describes Brink as taking place on The Ark, a prototype utopian city designed for perfect sustainability and green living. Intended to support five thousand people, the ecological collapse of the rest of the world requires it to support fifty thousand or more. Thirty years after this disaster, an entire generation has grown up living shoulder to shoulder on The Ark. The super-rich live the life of luxury, "within spitting distance" of the poor. As the player character joins the game, the society stands on the brink of civil war.

The title boldly claims that it will attempt to blur the lines between single and multiplayer first person shooter gameplay by carefully teaching single players how to work as a team with the rest of their AI driven squadmates, and then gently encouraging them to play missions online with human partners.

Also included is the S.M.A.R.T. (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) system, which with a push of a button will assist the player in traversing difficult terrain in order to focus on shooting and "fun".

Story

The Ark, setting of Brink.

The Ark was built off the coast of San Francisco by the founders as a vision of the future, a future without pollution; a cleaner and higher status of living. Built as a prototype of a self contained city atop the ocean, it was also the first successful floating city, and a place where scientists and brilliant minds could make their dreams a reality. It didn't last long, as soon the prolonged effects of global pollution took their toll. The polar ice caps finally melted, with sea levels drastically rising most towns and cities became flooded others completely submerged. Wide spread panic caused many around the globe to rush to the Ark for safety.

At first, the Ark's founders welcomed the refugees with open arms, offering to let them work in menial and maintenance jobs for a share of the food and water. However, the trickle of refugees soon turned into a flood. In the original design it was constructed to house a population of about 5,000 people, but it became so overpopulated that the founders struggled to maintain control of the Ark's resources and people.

Now, in 2045, life on the Ark teeters on the brink of a civil war. The new generation of refugees on the Ark are tired of being treated like second-class citizens, while the leaders insist that the supposedly-renewable resources of the Ark are being stretched to the breaking point just keeping up with the new population. With civil unrest rampant the founders have called for volunteers to restore peace as part of a new Security force. Several of the original inhabitants volunteered to help restore order, while some of the new generation of refugees raised on the Ark are forming a militant Resistance group to take by force what the leaders won't give them.

Now completely cut off from the rest of the world, the Ark has been pushed into the brink of destruction.

Factions

Escape the Ark.

Save the Ark.

Security

The once prominent police force for the Ark, with the fall of the Ark's vision and overpopulation they have become made up of volunteers. They are fighting to protect what very little food and water is available, and restore order to the Ark.

Resistance

Tired of being used as labor fodder by the Founder, they are made up of terrorists who rebelled and want to overthrow "The Man". They want more food and water rations than the other survivors on the Ark, and insist on using remaining resources to seek outside help.

Characters

Captain Clinton Mokoena.

Brother Joe Chen.

Captain Clinton Mokoena

The leader of the Ark security forces; he is he briefly seen in the opening of the Security campaign, getting into an argument with his superior officer about whether to use lethal force or not to resolve the civil war that is brewing on the Ark.

Brother Joe Chen

The spirtual Resistance leader who was formerly the general secretary of the Ark security, he is briefly seen in the opening, convinced that they have to escape the Ark and seek help from the outside world. Unlocking audio logs reveal more about how he became a resistance leader and how he got others to join his cause.

Gameplay

Brink is a FPS designed with a heavy focus on Team-Based objectives; using command points as spawn points and featuring four playable classes - each offering unique ways to help the players' team. A dynamic mission system (similar to Enemy Territory: Quake Wars) offers players both simple and complex ways to help their team. It changes based on your current location, the status of your team, class, and various other factors. Completing missions and matches earns XP which can be used to get new weapons, attachments for weapons, and tons of character customization options.

Incapacitated System

Whenever you take enough damage you will fall down and be in an "incapacitated" state. You have a few choices when this happens:

1. You may wait for one of your medics to come revive you. You may call out for them, and if they are coming to help you out they will send a response to tell you they are en route.
2. You can choose to simply die and wait to respawn. You will then be queued up to wait, and when the timer hits zero you will spawn at your command post.
3. If a medic does manage to make it to you in time they will toss you a medical syringe. Which will then give you a new option to revive yourself. This is not instant and it will take a few seconds for you to get back on your feet.

When an enemy is incapacitated you can land a "finishing move" that will kill them, and thus the enemy team won't be able to revive them. This execution style move is quick and almost instant. It is also a good idea as it conserves ammo, rather than dumping a magazine in the enemy when he is down.

Spawning System

Spawning is done is waves which is fairly comparable to Splash Damage's earlier title Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. In Brink there is a constant "internal" clock that is constantly counting down from 15 seconds. When the timer hits zero it repeats the process again. This timer goes for the whole team not just one player. Any players queued to spawn will spawn at the same time.

Balance

In an effort to maximize fun and fairness amongst players Splash damage has taken some extra measures to ensure balanced gameplay by removing/toning down common exploits and spamming such as:

• Grenade spam - instead of carrying a fixed amount of grenades there is a grenade cooldown period (30 seconds) between each toss; in addition, grenades almost never kill rather they simply knock you down for brief second.
• Ability spam - in order to encourage players to actually go out and complete objectives as well as helping their team you are given minimal points for kills, some more for healing, replenishing, buffing etc. and huge XP is given for completing objectives.
• Greedy medic - to stop medics from simply reviving themselves and healing themselves constantly, long cool down times are put on self revivals, and healing yourself rewards you with 0 points.
• Lone wolf - players who stray off from their team are awarded fewer points for kills and doing objectives, being near a teammate when you are killing or he is completing an objective will award you extra XP.
• Spawn camping - spawning players will be temporarily invulnerable to damage for a few seconds, giving enough time to find cover from snipers or other ill hazards.
• Overpowered guns/abilities - all the strongest abilities (e.g. ones that can increase your health and ability limit) are obtainable from the very first few levels so that players are given equal opportunities, all guns vary in statistics and no one gun is stronger than another – it is merely a matter of personal taste.
• Overpowered players - using the Ranks (see below), matchmaking pits players against a fair group of similarly leveled players, though if players like the challenge they can alter the search/server options.

Bots

Bots can fill in your spot while you are gone. They also replace quitters in order to auto-balance teams. Playing against bots in single player will provide the same amount of experience as playing against human opponents, and experience points as well as purchased abilities will carry over from single player to multiplayer seamlessly. The skill level of bots also depends on the level of the player, although due to community response the developers have considered making bots the same regardless of player rank.

Ranks

Matchmaking is split into ranks to give low-level and new characters a fair playing field. Rather than a level 15 player being matched against a level 2 player, the level 2 player would be sorted into rank 1, meaning that the highest level opponent he could face would be a level 4.

Ranks also affect which abilities you can purchase. Each ability requires a specific rank to use.

The five ranks and their level ranges are:

• Rank 1: level 0/1-4
• Rank 2: level 5-10
• Rank 3: level 11-15
• Rank 4: level 16-19
• Rank 5: level 20

If players want to face higher-level opponents, they can so by changing their matchmaking settings while searching for or creating games.

Objectives

The Objective Wheel

A series of goals that, when completed, push the team forward for victory and awards tons of XP. Objectives are time based and as such can be attempted as many times as desired as long as there is time remaining. The time left for the objective can be seen in the objective wheel.

Failure to complete main objectives will result in a victory for the other team. Whenever a major objective is completed the time limit for the next objective will be reset. Objectives require different classes as certain things like construction cannot be achieved by any class other than the engineer.

There are two sets of objectives: "Core" objectives, which are objectives that need to be completed in order to achieve victory, and "Secondary" objectives which do not have to be completed, but offer extra XP to those that pursue them.

Core Objectives

These objectives can be completed by anyone.

For class only objectives see the objective section below in the Classes table

• Escort
• Capture and Return
• Defend

Secondary Objectives

• Reveal alternate paths
• Capture a command post

Classes

There are a four classes in Brink. Each has access to special abilities tailored to it's specific role. Playing with one particular class will expand it with newly earned abilities, which in turn open up new strategies and play styles.

You can identify which of your teammates belong to which class by their gloves and back pack; each class carries a different, corresponding set. While you are at a command post, you can switch to a different class in real time without having to respawn, and you will be told how many members of each class are currently on your team so you can make a better choice.

The four classes are:

Class Buffs

Each class has a specific "buff" excluding the Operative

• Medic - can buff a team mate's health
• Engineer - can buff a team mate's armor/damage
• Soldier - can buff a team mate's weapon capacity
• Operative - while they have no buffs they can alert their teammates to enemy positions

Except for medic, basic buffs can be applied to yourself, though this takes slightly longer than another team member giving you the buff.

Abilities

The abilities screen.

Abilities are unique bonuses that can be added to your character. Abilities are broken into two categories.

1. Class Abilities - These abilities can only be used by the required class (ex: Medics can't lay turrets, Soldiers can't disguise)
2. Universal Abilities - These abilities can be used by anyone as long as they meet the requirements, often times this would mean you have to reach a certain level

Abilities heavily diversify player style. Soldiers can invest in a more offensive style , with heavier explosions, and area of effect grenades, or offer their team mates varied ammo upgrades to increase their team's killing power. Engineers can get stronger turrets or invest in special land mines to cut off the enemy at choke points. You can even avoid class specific abilities and just spend all of your points on universal abilities.

Universal Abilities list

• Grenade Shooting - Allows you to detonate your grenades in the air by shooting at them, sending shrapnel flying around the area (Rank 1)
• Battle Hardened - Adds an extra life pip (Rank 1)
• Supply Max Increase - Increases the number of abilities you can use before they must recharge (Rank 1)
• Combat Intuition - Tells you an enemy has you in their sights if you are looking in a different direction (Rank 1)
• Sprinting Grenade - Grenades can be thrown while sprinting (Rank 1)
• Sprinting Reload - Reload while Sprinting (Rank 1)
• Sense of Perspective - When doing certain actions (E.g. Planting a bomb) your view snaps to 3rd person (Rank 1)
• Resupply Rate Increase - Boosts the recharge rate of you Supply meter for all classes (Rank 3)
• Silent Running - Makes you move completely silently (Rank 4)
• Downed Fire - When incapacitated you can continue to shoot, but only with your secondary weapon (Rank 5)

Customization

Characters can be customized with different shirts, hoods, tattoos, masks, bandannas, pants, as well as basic facial structure. Players may also choose from 3 different body types when designing their character. All customization options other than body type are cosmetic, so you can pick whatever your heart desires without worrying about what has better defense or gives you more accuracy.

Body Types

Character customization.

There are 102,247,681,536,000,000 possible character combination including sub-options such as clothing colors, voice packs and body type.

• Light - Fastest movement, most acrobatic, can vault over anything at head level, weakest health. Can carry up to a Light weapon as a primary weapon and a pistol as a secondary.

• Medium - Balanced, average speed and can vault over anything at eye level. Average health.Can have up to a Medium weapon as a primary weapon and up to a Light weapon for a secondary.

• Heavy - The tank of the team basically, can take the most damage, and wield every kind of weapon , but is the easiest target due to large frame and sluggish movement. Can only vault over things at chest level. Can have up to a Heavy weapon as a primary weapon and up to a Medium weapon for a secondary.

Weapon customization.

Unlike a traditional FPS game where the player must play a separate character in the campaign and multiplayer, Brink allows you to advance the same character whether you are playing online or the single player campaign. Players can choose between a list of different accents for their character, which serves as their voice in the campaign and when issuing commands in multiplayer.

Guns can be customized with various attachments, such as drum magazines, taped on magazines, red dot sights, scopes, stocks, grips, and different skins. Each changes the numerous attributes of the weapon. Most come with advantages and disadvantages: e.g. drum magazines add more bullets for less frequent reloading, but extend reload times; silencers can increase accuracy, but at reduced damage; grips can increase stability for less recoil; et cetera. The more attachments you add to your gun the heavier the weapon becomes, also making it take more time to equip. "Resistance" weapons and "Security" weapons differ in look and sound. Security weapons look more pristine and sound more clean and new, while Resistance weapons appear dirty and scavenged, and sound weathered.

DLC/Pre-Order Bonuses

There are 4 different retailer specific bonuses.

Doom Pack Doom Pack (Available through GameStop in North America and in GAME and Gamestation in the UK) Unique "Hellspawn" body tattoo Exclusive UAC (Security) and Cacodemon (Resistance) customized skins for the Bulpdaun SMG Exclusive UAC Marine Body Armor (Security) and Lost Soul Screaming Skull (Resistance) t-shirts Exclusive UAC beanie cap (Security) and DOOM bandana (Resistance)

Fallout Pack Fallout Pack (Available through Best Buy in North America and Play.com in the UK) Unique Fallout Vault 101 body tattoo Exclusive Vault 101 (Security) and Fallout New Vegas Vault Boy (Resistance) customized skins for the CARB-9 SMG Exclusive Fallout Vault 101 (Security) and Fallout New Vegas Vault Boy (Resistance) t-shirts Exclusive Vault-Tec beanie cap (Security) and Fallout bandana (Resistance)

Psycho Pack The Psycho Pack (Amazon and Direct2Drive in North America and the UK) Exclusive weapon: the "Caesar" Revolver New attachments: The Resistance’s improved Soda Can Silencer and Security’s ArkTactical Silencer Exclusive Resistance "The Grin" Combat Mask Unique "Tortured Soul" body tattoo

Spec Ops Pack Spec-Ops Pack (Walmart or Steam in North America and in GAME and Gamestation in the UK) Exclusive weapon: the "Hockler" Machine-Pistol Exclusive "GreenEye" Combat Optical Scope Exclusive Security "Sloani" Combat Mask Unique Dogtag body tattoo

PC System Requirements

Minimum

• OS: Windows XP (SP3) / Vista / Windows 7
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz
• Memory: 2GB RAM
• Video Card: NVIDIA 8800GS / AMD Radeon HD 2900 Pro
• Hard Disk Space: 8GB

Recommended

• OS: Windows XP (SP3) / Vista / Windows 7
• Processor: Intel Quad Core i5
• Memory: 3GB RAM
• Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 / AMD Radeon HD 5850 (or better)
• Hard Disk Space: 8GB