Brink is an upcoming first-person shooter (FPS) being developed by Splash Damage and published by the good folks at Bethesda, and it looks like it could take the FPS world by storm. Brink seeks to merge a FPS, a plot-based storyline, and cooperative online gameplay, with up to eight players in co-op. Other games have attempted this, with Borderlands arguably being the most successful in recent memory. Even so, no one can really say that Borderlands had a storyline as much as it had a backdrop that facilitated the looting of everything in sight.
Brink’s premise may make for an interesting story. The setting is a floating city called The Ark. The Ark was designed to be a fully self-sustainable city that could inhabit 5,000 residents. As the story opens, there are currently 50,000 residents on The Ark, and tensions are rising between Ark security and a resistance group. They are literally on the “brink” of a civil war.
Another innovation that Brink brings to the table is the implementation of a fluid-motion system. Traditionally in a FPS if a character faces an obstacle the only real options is the jump over it or walk around. Sometimes there is a climbing element, but it usually removes one from the fluidity of gameplay. Brink incorporates a system called SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain), which allows the player to face obstacles in various, fluid manners. In one video, the character is in an airport and needs to get around laser-grid security checkpoint without setting it off. In the first run, the player points the reticule at the top of the booth and runs toward it while holding down the SMART button on the controller. As the character approaches, he hurdles the booth and is immediately on the other side back in action. The second run through has the player aiming the reticule at the floor in front of the booth. This time the character slides underneath the lasers and is on the other side, again, ready for action.
Brink is currently set to be released on September 7, 2010. If the game works as expected, it could redefine the FPS genre, which, with the exclusion of a few mega hits, has begun to grow stagnant as of late.



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