Brink Review Round-Up: Love and Hate for Splash Damages New Shooter

Brink has been released to mixed reviews. The first person shooter from Splash Damage and Bethesda has taken some harsh criticism despite hype for the game prior to its release. Both IGN and Joystiq gave the game harsh reviews, calling it lackluster. Eurogamer was less harsh on the game, calling it "unique and exciting."

8.8

incgamers.com review
If you’re looking for an in-depth, engaging experience that rewards practise and team work, and represents a welcome break from the stagnate place the genre has found itself, then you can do a lot worse than Brink. If you’re looking for a drop-in/drop-out, ten-minutes-a-night-and-I’m-done shooter then you could do a lot better than Brink.
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8.6

cheatcc.com review
The most innovative aspect of Brink is that the single-player and multiplayer games are basically the same thing. Whenever you start playing, you decide whether you're playing alone, with co-op partners, or with both co-op partners and human-controlled enemies. Each mission is a series of objectives in which one team tries to accomplish something and the other team tries to stop them. You can play through the entire campaign as two different factions, each with its own set of cutscenes, for a total of 16 missions.
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8.5

gamingtrend.com review
Customization is great and all, but it shouldn’t end with tattoos and cool hats. There are over 25 unique weapons in the game, with a huge varieties of scopes, silencers, expanded magazines, and much more. There is a top, front, bottom, and magazine hardpoint on almost every weapon, so almost every weapon you pick up should be slightly different than the last. Each attachment has both pros and cons, so you’ll have to take them out for a spin to find your best fit. S.M.A.R.T. is still the star of the show, but there are more than enough guns (and you carry both a primary and secondary at all times) to keep you busy.
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8.4

digitalchumps.com review
Much like real engineers in the world, this one keeps machines going and lays down some nasty hardware to dispose of enemies. Packing mines and turrets (one of the best surprises during a game), the engineer is my favorite class. It’s rewarding when it comes to winning missions and rewarding in terms of XP. It depresses me when the game occasionally asks me to change from an engineer, as they’re a blast to play. 


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8.3

gamingnexus.com review
As with most aspects of Brink I was initially disappointed with the SMART system. I was expecting my entire team and I to be leaping great distances and scaling obstacles freeform from the get-go, but SMART is a nuanced mechanic and takes time to learn. Thankfully Brink can play as a traditional FPS; you can quite effectively plod through the levels without using SMART, you’ll just be much slower and against experienced players, you’ll be an easy target.
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8.2

vgchartz.com review
Brink is a top notch shooter and a great new IP which will likely appeal to veterans of the genre much more than to those not already a fan of FPS. The plethora of play options make it a great fit for many differing types of gamer and a good value purchase. Brink has set a high ambition for itself - to bring online and offline shooter fans to a single game - and I feel it will likely succeed in this ambition . Solo fans have a good story; online fans have the thrill of competing against other humans. Brink is the best of both worlds in a great looking, brand-new setting.
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8.1

3djuegos.com review
No Synopsis Available
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8.0

videogamer.com review
Brink is a game that deserves a chance, and those with a penchant for the multiplayer shooter owe it to themselves to give it a look. It's not without its faults, some of which are more serious than others, but Splash Damage achieves the impossible: a game that feels fresh in the stalest of genres.
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8.0

xbox360achievements.org review
Billed as a game that will blur the line between single-player, co-op and multiplayer, Brink actually does the opposite and reaffirms the general consensus on Xbox Live that multiplayer is king. Frankly put, unless you’re playing Brink with and against human players, the game is mediocre at best. Get into a game with players that want to co-ordinate as a team against a group of like-minded foes, and Brink will almost certainly satisfy on every level. Well thought-out, balanced, with great level design and able to create moments that any other team-based shooter would envy; for a first stab on consoles, Splash Damage have a keeper on their hands in Brink. They can lose the whole “story” aspect now from here on out or at least make it a little more entertaining.
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8.0

eurogamer.net review
Brink is an exceptional team shooter, smart, supremely well balanced and with a unique, exciting art style. Splash Damage struggles to ease the player into its workings – evidence, perhaps, of the studio's background creating free mods for hardcore Quake players, who never needed much hand-holding.
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8.0

computerandvideogames.com review
If Brink's campaign had perhaps stolen a few more genre staples from today's modern blockbuster shooters (for which Splash Damage patently has little time), this could have been a must buy. Sadly, its single-player has to be considered something of a frustrating letdown and an unspectacular option in a genre stuffed with sexier options. That being so, with its genuinely rewarding multiplayer experience and day-squandering replayability, Brink still manages to teeter on the edge of greatness.
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8.0

gamesradar.com review
The mechanics of Brink's shooting, free running, and objective-oriented classes and skills are fantastic. If it weren't so confined by its premise, it might have been a masterpiece. Instead, it feels smaller than it should, and left me begging for its potential to be fully realized. It's a shame that it doesn't quite feel complete, but Brink is still a very good game, and it deserves notation - just below Team Fortress 2 - as an exemplary team-based shooter.
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8.0

gamespy.com review
Brink's greatest strength is that it presents these many tasks intuitively through an interface that constantly updates to provide players of each class with new jobs to do at the push of a button. A sizable XP carrot is dangled for each objective, and a host of unlockable abilities, equipment, and character customization options await. I spent the majority of my time playing as an Operative, and experienced some of the best multiplayer gaming I've played in years.
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7.9

gametrailers.com review
No Synopsis Available
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7.5

destructoid.com review
Brink is a confusing beast. Inspired and engrossing, exasperating and chaotic. Putting my thoughts into words has been difficult, as a series of garbled, guttural noises are what I want to make whenever I try to describe this game. I want to excitedly shout about how happy it makes me, but I can't do so without adding important, overbearing caveats. This is the type of game for which the phrase, "There's always a but," was made. There is always a "but" with Brink, some sort of unusual downside to every bright spot.
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6.0

strategyinformer.com review
It's fair to say that a lot of thought has clearly gone into the development of Brink, but perhaps not all in the right areas. We really wanted to like it, as there are clearly some nice ideas here, but ultimately the game is far too messy to recommend. One to watch out for in the inevitable Steam sales.
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6.0

justpushstart.com review
Overall, Brink is a game that is meant to be played with other people and not with the A.I. If the player decides to play the game by themselves, just prepare to have the dumbest A.I. in your team where players will most likely get frustrated and throw the controller out. The game is not a shabby title and it’s not something everyone would go out on day one just to buy it. The game’s major strength is the deep tactical team work gameplay but it falls short on the weak story of the game and the A.I. is just unbearable.
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6.0

ign.com review
An online shooter needs variety, depth, and addictiveness to succeed over the long term. Brink might find a niche with some hardcore fans, but it isn’t for everyone. I'd love to see more of the parkour gameplay, but one mechanic isn't enough to carry an entire game. Brink has heart, but the overall package is lacking.
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5.0

thekoalition.com review
Brink simply isn’t a game for everyone, I happen to be in that group. I have experienced far more frustration with Brink than I have had fun with Brick. The learning curve is just too much and too long to get over. The terrible AI bots and the downright absence of a true narrative hurt this game badly, partly due to the multiplayer not being as captivating as Left 4 Dead or Team Fortress 2. Those games survived without stories due to their strong multiplayer, whereas Brink’s isn’t as strong nor as fun.
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4.0

joystiq.com review
Brink's artistically compelling soldiers can sail effortlessly over obstacles, landing acrobatic maneuvers never before seen in the genre with effortless poise -- unfortunately, just about everything else lands flat on its face.
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