Since starting Brink:
 - I've had to forward ports to be able to host games
 - My characters now all speak with the same accent regardless of which one I chose during creation
 - The game has crashed during server or menu loading
 - I've been unable to join games for no clear reason
 - The sound has vanished entirely for entire matches
 - Enemy bots have turned invisible for entire matches
 - AI teammates won't even provide basic support to me while I'm finishing all the objectives they are too stupid to manage
 - I've sunk about 100+ hours into it and I'm having a blast

Most or all of the criticisms I've heard about Brink are completely accurate, and yet they just aren't inhibiting my fun with the game the way the metascore implies they are ruining everyone else's. Then again, maybe I'm just playing for different reasons – evaluating on different merits. While shopping for games in recent years, I set a few simple requirements, and found Brink to be the closest to realizing all of them at once:

1) Story. This is not why I got Brink, naturally, since it's story is more like a weak veneer than an actual reason to play, but the fact that it has any story at all is enough to vastly improve the immersion for me. It's just more satisfying to think that my actions are having some (albeit fictional) weight, rather than being wholly context-less sporting matches. Fulfilling a mission objective with previously established importance, rather than just killing the other team, capturing a flag, or holding a territory node, makes all the difference in the world.

2) Cooperative multiplayer. Multiplayer means that my friends will be able to fill in where the game falls apart (as they do in Brink more heavily than other titles like it). More importantly, Brink contains a cooperative mode, which is where I dwell almost exclusively, because cooperative is better. I understand that many gamers prefer killing an actual opponent rather than AI, but speaking as the person perpetually at the short end of that particular stick, I don't see the appeal. Co-operative modes mean that everyone wins or loses together, resulting in camaraderie instead of rivalry.

3) Character aggrandizement. Better known as "RPG mechanics". While Brink offers a fairly substantial amount of customization for the appearance of the characters, the more important thing is the ability to customize the perks, weapons, weapon loadout, the character build (i.e. silhouette size, health, mobility, and weapon accessibility). Messing with these kinds of variables and finding the preferred combinations thereof is perhaps my most favourite thing to do in any game, and without it I might never have noticed Brink in the first place. 

In spite of more or less meeting my exact specifications, Brink is still far from a perfect product. I would, given the choice, play something better, something that doesn't have me oscillating between satisfaction and vexation - so what I want to know most of all is this: if Brink really isn't worth my time, then what mission-driven, cooperative multiplayer shooter with RPG mechanics ought I to play instead?