BRINK (PC)

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SMART makes the environment your plaything

Playing as a heavily customised (there are 19.2 billion different character creation combinations and variations) member of the Security, seen as oppressors by the residents, Wedgewood’s mission is to escort a bomb defusal robot and to try and track down the location of a dirty bomb. A team of muscle-bound hard nuts is stood at the entrance to the city. The stunning-looking sea behind them ripples under the sun. Sleek, futuristic towers can be seen protruding from the water in the distance. Seagulls spiral overhead, singing their song. The grinding of metal containers is heard from within the rusting innards of the city, a place that rekindles memories of Fallout 3’s stunning Megaton. The team discuss the mission ahead. It is to be a quick, clean and quiet escort. Enemy fire puts paid to that, and all hell breaks loose.

Immediately we see what Wedgewood meant when he talked about blurring the lines between offline and online play. In Brink you play the same in-game character irrespective of whether you’re playing offline or online. As you advance your, created character is moulded with graphic alterations, but also with gameplay-affecting abilities. Different body types affect play style. You might have a huge character, basically a meat shield, which as a result of his size has less freedom of movement. Conversely, a skinny guy will be fast and able to jump further. Abilities you unlock for each of the combat roles allows you to further specialise with weapon unlocks and upgrades.

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In-game, via Command Posts that are captured during play, you’re able to dynamically change your class and load-out on the fly. The Soldier, for example, is for players who like pulling off cool mid-air headshots and blowing stuff up. The Engineer can deploy defensive turrets and plant mines. The Operative is the stealth class, excelling in getting behind enemy lines and up to mischief. What’s different is how the game is affected by your class changes and objective choices. Wedgewood starts as an Operative with the Assault load-out, which gives him a light submachine gun. If he had chosen to start as a Soldier, it would be his job to destroy a closed gate that’s blocking the bot’s path. As the Operative, however, the game automatically generates a number of missions that he’s able to pick from a radial menu, each one granting a predetermined number of experience points (like in CoD4, XP pops up above killed enemies). He picks “Interrogate the Enemy”. A sat nav arrow appears at the top of the screen, directing him to a down, but not out, enemy. He approaches the crawling bad guy. An iPhone-like device appears in his left hand and two crab-like claws protrude from the forward corners. It’s a taser of a sort that zaps the target. After a few seconds of pain he squeals, “damn you, I’ll talk!”. The mission is completed, your squad commander radios in to tell you new information has been received. It’s a comical moment, really. One) once the guy talks you celebrate with a thumbs up, and two) he doesn’t actually say anything other than he’ll talk, which, we suspect, isn’t exactly the most revealing of statements.

Still, completing this objective has bought the Security a little more time, and has revealed new objectives that Wedgewood’s team can pick from. He looks for something else to do. Via the radial menu he picks the mission that’ll give him a whopping 500XP – “Repair the Crane” – but it requires a switch to the Engineer class. The sat nav directs him to a Command Post that’s just been captured. He switches, picking the Close Combat load-out (shotgun fun and turret placement for long-range support). Once switched, the Squad Commander acknowledges the change. The team is alerted to the mission he’s on, and new missions are automatically generated for Wedgewood’s co-op friends: two Splash Damage team members button-mashing behind a wall. Wedgewood mentions it like it's only a trifle feature, but it is incredibly exciting: Brink will support eight-player co-op drop-in and out play. He repairs the crane, it picks up the bot and carries it further forward, pushing the front line and the enemy back.

The only limit to your movement is the sea that surrounds the Ark

He switches to the Soldier, selecting the Heavy load-out that grants the heavy explosive charge and the grenade launcher. He picks a mission to destroy an obstacle that is blocking a shortcut for the bot. He plants explosives, running and gunning up pipes and ledges, SMART facilitating the kind of agile movement rarely seen in an FPS. Boom – the bot reaches its objective and a cutscene plays out. The team cut open a canister – something mysterious and fantastic is inside. “Control – what did you say our objective was?” The demo ends.

It’s been a thrilling presentation, one that’s sent the hairs on the back of our necks reaching for the sky. While Wedgewood promises that the game will be fully playable single-player, as either a member of the Resistance or the Security, with all the narrative-driven action you’d expect from a single-player triple-A FPS, it’s the multiplayer side of things that genuinely excites. Eight-player co-op, dynamically changing objectives, class-based gameplay, CoD4-style progression… it’s like Killzone 2’s multiplayer spliced with an MMO. Then he mentions something that gets us even more excited. All the action demoed will be playable competitively with persistent characters. So, eight versus eight, dynamically changing missions and class changing. Wicked.

In many ways Brink is the natural evolution of Splash Damage’s online PC-focused Enemy Territory series, but as far as console shooters go it’s practically revolutionary. 360 and PS3 owners schooled on the online offerings of CoD4 and Killzone 2 should be very, very excited. And, to be honest, so should everyone else.

Brink is due out for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in spring 2010.

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