In an already overcrowded market of First Person Shooters (FPS), it’s admittedly difficult to fathom the logic of releasing yet another one into the console universe. In a land where ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘Halo’ are rightful kings, even a very solid ‘Battlefield’ faces a continuously uphill battle in getting due attention.

Thus, Bethesda’s decision to unleash unheralded ‘Brink’ was a bit questionable. While flawed, Brink – however – introduces some novel concepts into the genre, ones that with a little more tweaking and/or experimentation could go a long wat in advancing it.

To begin, Brink has a plot…albeit a placeholder one at best. The world of the future is one of apocalyptic flood, where a floating city (‘Ark’) survives said disaster yet slowly dissolves into isolated degradation and chaos. Citizens are given the option to fight for survival within its walls…or die trying to escape for what lies beyond.

In turn, Brink offers players the option – via three gameplay modes – to adopt police force or resistance affiliation. Campaign, Freeplay and Challenge operate separately yet somewhat interdependent, such that experience garnered in one mode can carry over (via upgrades) to its counterparts.

Related, Brink allows three character body types – light, medium (default), and heavy – each with tradeoffs (agility/weapons/hit points) in selection. Experimentation ultimately yielded medium as ideal, with light simply too fragile, heavy too damn slow to properly execute.

Third – and mirroring sister titles of the genre – Brink offers multiple character classes: solider, engineer, medic and operative. Each features unique upgrade capabilities, likewise an ability to swap between genres within missions (via Command Posts). Akin to ‘Resistance 2’ multiplayer, each character class can maximize experience accruement in aiding teammates via healing, buffing of weapons, and/or supported kills (native to a class).

Easily Brink’s most value add component is its adaptive movement engine, or S.M.A.R.T (Smooth Action Across Random Terrain). S.M.A.R.T. automates – powered by an intelligent physics engine – character interactions with environments to include slides, jumps, grabs and hurdles. Thus, staccato like obstacle interactions (i.e. in ‘Medal of Honor’) are replaced by dynamic engagements, where running starts chain grabs, leaps and obstacle clearances if appropriate body type and preceding movements operate in tandem. Think freerunning with an SMG.

Finally, Brink aspires toward offline/online 1:1 similarities, such that Bots capably replace the absence of human clan members to accomplish said tasks. This feature becomes vital, as nearly every single mission in Brink requires unit operations comprised of multiple character classes toward singular goals. Logically, selecting either side of Ark allegiances will pit characters against ideological and combat counterparts.

Based on the above, it’s clear Brink (and developer Splash Damage) had high aims for the title, likewise truly wanted to try something different with the genre. While massive kudos is in order for intent, execution unfortunately falls a bit short.

Bot – friend and foe – artificial intelligence is a sad mess, a damning reality that impacts several nuances of gameplay. For starters, teammates do little to assist in mission fulfillment, a key hiccup as this is not a game where solo assassins get very far. Moreover – and as a player who prefers non-soldier types – more technical character classes are always one step behind the survival curve. On the same token, the enemy swarms en masse, sniffing poor protection of your compadres like a trained hound.

In all fairness though, Brink is arguably the most accessible FPS I’ve played in some time. This welcome mat appears via sensible and robust character customization options, also a somewhat deep engine and control scheme that never overwhelm. Moreover – and combined with the aforementioned S.M.A.R.T. nuance – Brink is easy to jump into, stay in, and level up during challenging baby steps of low character experience levels.

Similarly – and while I definitely reside on an FPS island in this regard – I prefer multiplayer with mates and/or select clans only. Simply put: the FPS Community – at large – are a bunch of ass clowns. Finding rewarding FPS, multiplayer gaming experiences is about as likely as finding gold coins in your pants pockets, pre-wash. It does happen, but more of the exception variety.

Thus, I am thankful for a solo option to emulate the multiplayer experience, even more so as I kept getting booted from Brink servers only seconds into mission. Discussion boards point to server lags plus small community sizes as culprit bedfellows in this regard. Yes, the solo experience is flawed for the reasons above, but I welcome the ability to play it, period.

Character classes – while well intentioned – emerged as a disappointment. Not enough upgrade differentials across them, or incentive to truly marry progress to one type. Not surprisingly, combat differences stemmed more from body type versus class variations. This redundancy confounds a fair bit, as ‘Team Fortress 2’ – nearly 5 years old at this stage – nailed this nuance brilliantly. It’s no wonder Team Fortress 2 communities remain happily married to this obscenely good, always novel, FPS offering.

In sum and in closing, Brink is an ambitious title that has its heart in the right place…but can use a bit of Cyrano de Bergerac guidance in execution.  My gut, however, tells me Splash Damage’s next FPS will be magnificent. In the interim, consider Brink akin to trying a new cuisine, expectations accordingly.