Brink

I've had this sitting on the shelf since release as I wanted to wait for my brother to pick it up. Finally got to grips with it yesterday and spent the whole day bashing away at it.

I'm liking it but it's fallen a little short of what I was expecting. The campaign just feels like a string of MP games against bots with added cut-scenes to give it a sense of continuity. I know it was designed to be entirely playable online but most games are expected to have separate SP and MP; mashing them together doesn't really work. Although being able to rank up and earn unlocks in both is a nice bonus because you're always working towards something.

In terms of gameplay it's solid without blowing me away. Matches/levels can be a little chaotic but are still strongly objective driven and working as a team (even the retarded AI) pays off big-time. So far I haven't been too impressed with the, much hyped, S.M.A.R.T. features but I'm not going to condemn it yet. I don't think the game really requires you to use it so, up to now, I've just been ignoring it and moving like I would in a normal shooter. Other players may find it helpful and mastering it gives them an advantage online.

The other feature that was shouted about was the customisation and, to be honest, it is pretty sweet. Maybe there's some part of me that just wants to play with dolls and their clothing () but I love being able to mess about with every part of a character skin and create something unique. And the range of options is awesome. The gun unlocks aren't as varied but do affect the performance of the weapon and (more importantly) look cool!

And while on the topic of guns, I might as well add that it's a pleasure to shoot the things. For me, the sound effects in a shooter are one of the most important aspects and limp audio will kill a game in my eyes (ears?). It's one of the reasons Dice are on my Christmas card list. Brink also nails this nicely; hails of bullets were rattling my sound system around the room and explosions put ripples in my drink. 

Apart from the SP/MP campaign there's a challenge game mode that is really just a set of tutorials. The difficulty is laughable and I suggest anyone interested in the game does these first as they're just throwing unlocks and XP at you.

As always, the above is not intended as a review but is simply my impression after spending an entire day with the game.

Also, once I have most of the trophies dealt with I'll be looking to play through the game on hard and as I'd like to have to rely on the AI as little as possible I'll be looking to put together a predominantly human team. So anyone that's interested can give me a shout here or on PSN.