Brink

Overview

Brink (stylized as BRINK) is a sci-fi team-based first-person-shooter developed by Splash Damage and published by Bethesda for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on May 10, 2011. The base PC version was later made available as free-to-play on August 22, 2017.

The first original-IP game developed by Splash Damage, Brink takes place in the near-future man-made self-sustaining "floating city" named "The Ark", which is being pushed to the limit due to global warming, a flood of refugees, and lost communication with the outside world. Two factions are at war: the Resistance (whose goal is to distribute the Ark's resources to those in need and to establish contact with the outside world) and the Ark Security forces (whose goal is to stop the Resistance's terrorist plots and to prevent contact with the dangerous outside world).

The game is considered a spiritual successor to the developer's Enemy Territory series, focusing on class-based gameplay and multiple dynamic mission objectives utilizing each class's abilities (from using the Medic's healing ability to keep a VIP alive to using the Soldier's HE Charges to breach an area). Brink's scoring and persistent experience point system encourages players to work together as a team. The game's story is told through its eight multiplayer missions, which can be experienced as a campaign either alone (with A.I. bots) or online.

Story

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

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. Led by Captain Clinton Mokoena.

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. Led by Brother Joe Chen.

Missions

The base game includes eight maps, with two maps later added as downloadable content. The DLC maps were initially released for free in an attempt to prevent splitting up the playerbase, and were later made purchasable.

• Aquarium
• Container City
• Reactor
• Refuel
• Resort
• Security Tower
• Shipyard
• Terminal
• Labs (DLC)
• Founders' Tower (DLC)

Security Campaign

• Day 1: Hostage Rescue (Aquarium)
• Day 3: Smash and Grab (Terminal)
• Day 4: Dirty Bomb (Container City)
• Day 5: Prison Break (Security Tower)
• Day 6: Early Launch (Shipyard)
• Day 8: Fallout (Reactor)
• What-If: Chopper Down (Resort)
• What-If: Grand Theft Aero (Refuel)
• Day 21: Lab Rats (Labs, DLC)
• Day 23: Founders Keepers (Founders' Tower, DLC)

Resistance Campaign

• Day 1: Getting Answers (Aquarium)
• Day 2: Breakout (Security Tower)
• Day 3: Chen's Plans (Terminal)
• Day 6: Black Box (Resort)
• Day 7: Attack on CCity (Container City)
• Day 8: Airborne (Refuel)
• What-If: Operation Babel (Shipyard)
• What-If: Critical Reaction (Reactor)
• Day 21: Synthesise This (Labs, DLC)
• Day 23: Tower Defense (Founders' Tower, DLC)

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

• 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.

Soldier

Keeps their team fully stocked with ammunition, is in possession of explosives to destroy barriers which unlock short cuts, and can impede the enemy with various types of grenades.

Active Abilities

• Molotov Cocktail (grenade) - Replaces the Soldier's frag grenade with a more powerful molotov cocktail.
• Flashbang Grenades (grenade, R2) - Replaces the Soldier's frag grenade with a harmless grenade that temporarily blinds all enemy players.
• Satchel Charges (deployable, R5) - Deploys remotely-controlled explosive devices that can be detonated with the Grenade button. Soldiers can only have three active charges at a time. The charges themselves can be destroyed by enemy fire.
• Napalm Grenades (grenade, R5, requires DLC) - Replaces the Soldier's frag grenade with a grenade that temporarily blankets a short area with damaging napalm.

Passive Abilities

• Armor Piercing Ammo (R2) - Allows the Soldier's bullets to negate enemy Kevlar Armor.
• Grenade Mastery (R2) - Speeds up the recharge timer for the Soldier's frag grenades.
• Scavenge (R2) - Allows the Soldier to recover a supply pip by interacting with a dead enemy's corpse.
• Kevlar Vest (R3) - Adds extra resistance against enemy bullets.
• Extra Magazine (R3) - Ammo Boxes now increase the recipient's total ammo capacity.
• Frag Blast (R4) - Increases the blast radius of the soldier's frag grenades.
• Grenade Damage (R4) - Increases the amount of damage for the Soldier's frag grenades.

Medic

Helps keep everyone on their team alive and in the fight, and can even give them health boosts to extend their longevity on the battlefield.

Active Abilities

• Adrenaline Boost (buff, R2) - Temporarily makes the recipient invulnerable, inflicting all damage withstood once the effect wears off. Cannot be self-administered.
• Metabolism (buff, R2) - Increases the recipient's health regeneration rate. Cannot be self-administered.
• Transfer Supplies (buff, R2) - Adds one pip to the recipient's maximum supply count. Cannot be self-administered.
• Speed Boost (buff, R3) - Increases the recipient's running speed. Cannot be self-administered.
• Lazarus Grenade (grenade, R5) - Replaces the Medic's frag grenade with a harmless grenade that revives all friendly incapacitated targets in its radius.
• Field Regen Unit (deployable, R5, requires DLC) - Deploys a stationary robot that increases the health regeneration rate of all nearby friendly players.

Passive Abilities

• Increase Supplies (R2) - Increases the Medic's maximum supply count by one pip.
• Improved Increase Supplies (R3) - Increases the Medic's maximum supply count by an additional pip.
• Improved Life Buff (R4) - Healing syringes now increase the maximum HP by an additional pip.
• Self Resurrection (R4) - Allows Medics to revive themselves when they are incapacitated. Lengthy cool-down.

Engineer

Capable of boosting their team's weapon damage and armor, can also plant land mines and turrets on the field, is also capable of repairing/constructing most objectives to help their team progress.

Active Abilities

• Landmine (deployable) - Deploys a small proximity mine on a flat surface, which is normally hidden to the enemy team. It can be spotted by enemy Operatives, which can then be either detonated by enemy fire or disarmed by enemy Engineers.
• Extra Kevlar (buff, R2) - Increases the recipient's damage resistance. Can be negated by enemy Soldiers with the Armor Piercing Ammo ability. Cannot be self-administered.
• Light / Medium / Gatling Turret (deployable, R2/3/5) - Deploys an automated defense turret that tracks onto enemy targets and fires a hail of bullets at them. When damaged, friendly Engineers can repair it. Players must purchase the Light Turret ability before buying the Medium Turret ability, and must purchase the Medium Turret ability before buying the Gatling Turret.
• Pyro Mines (deployable, R5, requires DLC) - Deploys a small proximity mine similar to the Landmine. It is separate from normal Landmines and deals increased damage.

Passive Abilities

• Gear Head (R2) - Decreases the amount of time required for the Engineer to build and repair turrets, deploy Landmines, and build MG Nests.
• Nerves of Steel (R2) - Decreases the amount of time for the Engineer to disarm enemy Landmines and HE Charges.
• Command Post Upgrade (R3) - Allows the Engineer to upgrade captured Health and Supply Command Posts (by accessing the Command Post wheel for a certain amount of time). Upgraded Command Posts add an additional pip to all friendly player's health or supply count.
• Improved Weapon Buff (R4) - Increases the amount of damage Weapon Buffs.
• Extra Landmine (R4) - Allows the Engineer to have two active Landmines at once.

Operative

Can "tag" targets for all of their team to see, is capable of hacking enemy turrets to use against them, can disarm and plant sticky bombs, and can take on the appearance of a fallen enemy.

Active Abilities

• Sticky Grenade (grenade, R2) - Replaces the Operative's frag grenade with a deadlier grenade that detonates shortly after it's stuck on an enemy. It can be thrown on the ground, where it's either destroyed by enemy gunfire or stuck on an enemy that walks over it. Stuck grenades can be defused by enemy Operatives.
• Caltrop Grenades (grenade, R3) - Replaces the Operative's frag grenade with a unique grenade that disperses sharp spikes that damages enemies that walk over them. Enemies can bypass it by moving across them slowly (by crouching or aiming down the sight).
• Control Turret (deployable, R4) - Deploys a special device on a friendly Turret that allows the Operator to remotely control it.
• EMP Grenades (grenade, R5) - Replaces the Operative's frag grenade with a harmless grenade that temporarily disables enemy Turrets, Mines, Radars, and the progression of some objectives.
• UAV (deployable, R5, requires DLC) - Deploys a stationary spy drone that passively mark enemies that it sees for the team's radar. The Operative can then control the drone remotely and, optionally, can detonate the drone like a frag grenade.

Passive Abilities

• Firewall Command Post (R2) - Allows the Operative to add a firewall to captured Health and Supply Command Posts (by accessing the Command Post wheel for a certain amount of time). Command Posts with firewalls increase the amount of time it takes for enemies to capture it.
• Homing Beacon (R2) - Adds a red outline to enemies targeted by the Operative, revealing disguised Operatives and allowing all teammates to temporarily see the targeted enemy's location through walls.
• Comms Hack (R2) - Allows the Operative to temporarily reveal enemy positions on all teammates by scanning a dead enemy's corpse.
• Hack Turret (R3) - Allows the Operative to reprogram an enemy Turret to become a friendly Turret.
• Cortex Bomb (R4) - Allows the Operative to martyr themselves by exploding a frag grenade when incapacitated.

Universal Passive Abilities

• Grenade Shooting (R1) - Allows the player to detonate their own thrown frag grenades in mid-air by shooting them.
• Battle Hardened (R1) - Increases the player's maximum health by one pip.
• Supply Max Increase (R1) - Increases the player's maximum supply count by one pip.
• Combat Intuition (R1) - Shows a directional marker on the player's HUD when they are targeted by an enemy and that enemy is both not in sight and not on the player's radar.
• Sprinting Grenade (R1) - Allows the player to cook and throw grenades while they are sprinting.
• Sprinting Reload (R1) - Allows the player to reload while they are sprinting.
• Sense of Perspective (R1) - Activates a controllable third-person perspective while the player interacts with certain objects.
• Resupply Rate Increase (R3) - Increases the player's supply count regeneration rate.
• Silent Running (R4) - The player's sprinting will no longer make them show up on enemy radar.
• Downed Fire (R5) - When incapacitated, the player can shoot their Secondary Weapon on the ground.
• Tactical Scanner (R5, requires DLC) - Displays the buffs of enemy players by aiming at them.

Weapons

Handguns

Can only be carried as secondary weapons for all body types.

• Kalt Pistol
• Tokmak Pistol
• Belgo MP
• Sea Eagle Pistol
• Ritchie Revolver

Light Weapons

Can be carried as primary weapons for all body types and as secondary weapons for Medium and Heavy body types.

• Drognav Light Rifle
• Barnett Light Rifle
• Kross SMG
• Galactic SMG
• Bulpdaun SMG
• CARB-9 SMG
• Tampa SMG

Medium Weapons

Can be carried as primary weapons for Medium and Heavy body types and as secondary weapons for the Heavy body type.

• Gerund AR
• Euston AR
• Rhett AR
• Rokstedi AR
• FRKN-3K AR
• Lobster GL
• Mossington Shotgun

Heavy Weapons

Can only be carried as primary weapons for the Heavy body type.

• EZ-Nade GL
• Maximus MG
• Chinzor MG
• Gotlung MG
• Hjammerdeim Shotgun

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.

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.

Body Types

• Light (unlocked at LV. 7) - Although Light players have the weakest health and limited weaponry, they have the fastest and most acrobatic movement in the game (allowing them to vault over anything at head level and wall-jump).

• Medium - The game's default body type, with average speed, health, and weapon selection. While they cannot wall-jump, they can still pull themselves up on ledges.

• Heavy (unlocked at LV. 5) - Although Heavy players can wield every kind of weapon and have the strongest health, they have the slowest and least acrobatic movement in the game (only able to vault over things at chest level).

Weapons

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.

Pre-Order Bonuses

There are 4 different retailer specific bonuses, all of which were later made available as paid downloadable content.

Doom Pack (Available through GameStop in North America and in GAME and Gamestation in the UK) Cross-promotion with the Doom series. 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 (Available through Best Buy in North America and Play.com in the UK) Cross-promotion with the Fallout series. 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 (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 (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