Sneak Peek 'Hands On' Look at Brink with Edward Stern from Splash Damage

I recently sat down with Edward "BongoBoy" Stern from Splash Damage, the Lead Writer of Brink for an intimate "hands on" look at Bethesda Softworks' highly anticipated parkour style team based shooter. "In Brink we're taking everything we love about first person shooters and improving it," Stern told me - and he wasn't exaggerating either.

The background to Brink is that players are on "the Ark", which is a floating city that is on the "brink" of war. Players can either choose to help save the Ark or escape it. Your character appears as an extra in all of the cinematics.

Like other first person shooters such as Halo Reach, your health bar will slowly regenerate when your character isn't in any danger. One of the best things about Brink is that you can play single player, co-op, or multiplayer with full drop in and drop out support for up to 17 players. That means if you a friend playing online you don't need to wait for the round to be over - you can immediately join in on the action replacing one of the bots. Additionally, you don't have to be on the same side as one of your friends - you can join the opposing team.

There are three main ways to play Brink. There's the main campaign, "free play" which allows you to play levels from the campaign in any order, and challenges. You'll have to play Brink's many challenges in order to unlock special outfits, abilities, weapons, and gain valuable XP bonuses.

Brink features three main classes of characters, and each class can be custom tailored to your specific play style. For example, a Medic an heal other players, a Soldier can give additional ammunition to comrades, and Operatives can plant and disable mines. While playing the game you can change your class at a command outpost or upon spawning.

You'll encounter many different objetcives in each level, some of which will require specific classes to accomplish (such as planting a bomb with an Operative). One of the key objetcives on any level in Brink is acquiring (and defending) command outposts. Thats because taking over enemy command outposts often yields a small bonus for your team.

I played with a Medic at length, following around my teammates and healing them from afar by using some of my "supplies" which refill over time. Brink's HUD is intuitive, and lets you know when your squad is in need of assistance. One of my squad members was about to die and a pop up appeared on the screen telling me to "heal" him with the appropriate button on the controller. My teammate lived long enough to finish off nearby enemies, and I gained a small bonus of XP.

Although I was quick enough to save my teammate from death, another member of our squad wasn't as fortunate. Luckily for him I was still nearby; using the Medic I was able to resuscitate his body so that he didn't have to spawn back at at not so far away check point. As a Medic my firepower was somewhat limited and I was also easily damaged from enemy shots while helping to resuscitate my allies. Due to my class though, I could heal myself (without gaining any XP).

No matter what class you currently are, pressing up on the D-Pad will show what the best thing you could do at that time to help your team. During my hands on demo of Brink I found myself using this feature several times in order to help my squad progress forward in the level.

One interesting feature that I loved about Brink is that there aren't many one shot kills. No more annoying spawn deaths! Grenades deal damage based on your class. Rather than suffering from annoying snipers who find a good place to camp, players experience more knockdowns. While it is possible to pull off a one shot kill through the "Bully Tyne" feat, the trade offs come with playing a weaker character.

"We've taken a first person shooter and added RPG Depth," Stern excitedly told me. "There are three main body types to choose from: heavy, medium, and light. A heavy body type will let you sustain more damage at a trade off of being slower (and vice versa)."

Players spend their XP to purchase abilities for their characters. There are universal abilities that every class has access to, and then there are class specific feats too. For instance, one of the Operative specific abilities is called sticky grenade, and it lets an Operative throw a grenade on a person or on the ground for an enemy to run over. Only a teammate that's an Operative can remove the sticky grenade before it explode.

Another ability called Adrenaline Boost is specific to the Medic Class. It lets you make an ally temporarily invincible then take all of the damage they suffered at once. Adrenaline Boost can particularly advantageous when trying to capture opposing team's command post.

Players can set a preferred class so that every match their character starts off as the class that they tweaked their stats to. Additionally, players can have up to eight preset characters to choose from. No matter how much experience you've accrued or what level your character may be, only three abilities can be taken into combat with you so it is important to make your choices and spec your characters accordingly to your play style.

In addition to abilities, there is a wide seletcion of weapons to unlock and upgrade. Each weapon can have multiple attachments. For example the silencer will make it so that you won't show up on an enemy's radar when firing your gun. The trade off is that your gun won't inflict as much damage with the silencer on. There are two versions of each gun - the normal and the resistance version - and each has a different sound effetc. Another interesting feature to note is that while using any gun in iron sights there is a different audio mix than normal.

Between so many different weapons, attachments, and abilities, Brink allows players to play exactly how they want. Want to make a medic that stays back and uses a sniper riffle? How about a character who's incredibly tough and fantastic at melee combat? Knock yourself (or your opponents, rather) right out. "We're letting the players decide how to play the game," said Stern.

In Brink the insanely wide level of customization also extends to your appearance. You can change your apparel, colors, and etc. One quirky thing about your appearance is that tattoos are permanent (just like in real life), as well as facial scars.

Without an Internet connection players can still play through both story lines. There are really two stories for each level. For instance while playing on one stage one side is told that the objetcive is to obtain an important vaccine, while the other side is told that it is a biological weapon. Just like in real life, there is no clear black and white in Brink. However it is online where Brink excels.

Even without headsets, players are able to easily help each other out and gain extra XP by using their skills on teammates rather than killing enemies. Playing online yields a higher amount of XP than playing locally by yourself, which adds an additional incentive to enjoy Splash Damage's latest masterpiece with others.

At the end of the level kills aren't even shown. Instead, you see more positive stats such as the number of times you healed an ally. According to Stern, "We want players playing with each other and not independently. Cooperation is key to fully experiencing Brink, and we want to reward it." And that they do.

My time with Brink was short but sweet (just under an hour), and I already can't wait to get my hands on it again.

Brink will be hitting store shelves on May 17th, 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC.

For more information about Brink, visit www.splashdamage.com and www.bethsoft.com.

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