Brink

Played on: Xbox 360
Available on: PS3, Xbox 360, and PC
Played it for: roughly 20-25 hours

RATING: 3/10
This game is terrible. Just...don't.

Summary:
Bethesda's first try at a generic FPS puts you in the position to choose the fate of the future of the planet. The Arc is the last bastion of humanity, and it has fallen into political turmoil, with riots across the city and no order anywhere. The people living in the slums have taken up arms against the government, and your choice is to act as a member of The Arc's military or as a rebel seeking to leave The Arc.

Review:
Well, it could have been good.
There are many very detrimental problems with this game. First, it is a complete rip-off of Team Fortress 2. At first, this doesn't really pose a problem, as you can choose to be something like a Heavy Medic, (presuming that you have unlocked the "heavy body type") and continually buff your own health. However, no matter how big the health bar is, an SMG can still take you down in just a few shots. Yes, this game falls into the trap of "SMG's are the greatest guns on the planet, and cannot be beaten, even by a 300lb minigun." However, unlike Call of Duty, there is no compensation for this in Brink, and this is the second pitfall. Even if you yourself pick up an SMG in order to beat the AI, you find that your's is majorly downgraded, and it can sometimes take up to a clip and a half of ammo to put down even one enemy, while it takes only six or seven shots for you to die.

Thirdly, the AI difficulty is just wrong. The enemy works objectives like clockwork, setting up a defense full of mines, auto-turrets, miniguns, and SMG soldiers so that not even a fly can get past. Your team, on the other hand, only shares one single brain cell, and sprints around the map taking secondary and tertiary objectives that have no relevance to the primary one that will finish the mission.

Finally, the graphics and controls just don't work. The controls are very sticky, and the layout is a bit troublesome on console. Once again, this would not pose an incredible problem, however the graphics ruin the experience. It is very difficult to pick out much beyond roughly 15 meters in front of you, and this is incredibly difficult when you are trying to get to an objective. If this weren't bad enough, the good and bad guys (red and blue for the militia and security, respectively) have so many outfits that they are nearly impossible to tell apart in the heat of battle. This poses a large problem when you realize that the person you were shooting at is your teammate, and the person standing next to you is about to kill you.

All in all, Brink could have been good, but it has so many factors that just ruin it. Poor engine mechanics, hastily put together graphics, and a horrendus AI make the experience just...bad. If you have bought the game, trade it in at a GameStop or sell it online, and if you are thinking of buying it, DO NOT DO IT. It is a waste of both your time and money.