partybox

• 2011-05-24

  some thoughts on brink

  brink is good. it’s good, not great. some maps are pretty well designed from a ‘reality’ point of view, in that i could conceivably see myself standing in the places they depict in real life. the problem with this is that if there’s only one staircase that leads downstairs because only one staircase would exist in real life, it makes for some horrific chokepoints that can be really difficult to overcome and the game degrades into a series of corpse runs.

  weapons feel good, customization is fun and feels like it has way more purpose than it does. movement can be a little jerky/janky, but i’m not sure how much of this is due to lag or just general console non-fluidity.

  waiting for that patch to ‘fix’ the lag.

  so far, i’ve got a rank 5 medic/engineer hybrid, and am working on a heavy soldier - he’s a blast.

  Brink Rank 5 Medic/Engineer Build:

  Body Type

  Medium - This is necessary to be able to carry assault rifles, and the Rokstedi is simply too good to ignore. I ran as light for a while with an SMG/Belgo, which was really nice. The extra parkour came in handy. Switching to medium gives it a little more kick, and while you lose some fancy parkour tricks and a bit of run speed, it’s worth it for the longer range capability and the underslung grenade launcher. Lights can use the Dragnov with rapid-fire/red dot, but it’s way less stable and requires finesse I don’t have.

  Weapons

  1. Rokstedi - Four-Vent Muzzle Break, Underslung Grenade Launcher, C-U-Gone Red Dot Sight, Rapid Fire - the whole reason that I switched back to medium from light. The Rokstedi is an awesome weapon - very accurate and packs a nasty punch. Being able to launch grenades is a huge added bonus, really helps when you need to suppress a group or clear a room.
  2. CARB-9 - Suppressor, Speed Sling, Adjusted Iron Sights, Duct-Taped Magazine - right now, the best SMG in the game. Perhaps the best gun. Aesthetically, I like the Kross more, but until this gun gets nerfed it really outclasses the other SMGs and most of the ARs, too.

  Universal Abilities

  1. Battle Hardened - when playing as medic, you can guaruntee that you’ll always have three extra pips when you spawn.
  2. Supply Max Increase - buffing and laying traps ain’t cheap.
  3. Combat Intuition - great ability, nice to have a danger indicator in an FPS that doesn’t require you to get shot first.
  4. Sprinting Reload - can’t see not taking this.
  5. Resupply Rate Increase - that supply meter ain’t gonna fill itself…as fast as if you didn’t take this

  Medic Abilities

  1. Adrenaline - requires good timing and co-ordination to use, but when used at the right time can help secure objectives or make that last push.
  2. Increase Supplies - obviously
  3. Metabolism - a nice ‘always-on’ buff, a shame you can’t buff yourself but make sure you pass it around to everybody else (Update: I have some new thoughts on this since playing some more/doing some more research. See below.)
  4. Improved Increase Supplies - obviously
  5. Improved Life Buff - you’re going to be buffing health all day, so you might as well pump it as high as it’ll go.
  6. Self Resurrection - get the hydro, run like hell, get shot, res yourself, get the hydro, run like hell, win the match
  7. Lazarus Grenade - res people at a distance! res from behind cover! res multiple people! - res people in otherwise inaccessible areas! opens up a ton of options.

  Engineer Abilities

  1. Extra Kevlar - like metabolism, a nice buff to pass around
  2. Gear Head - even with this talent, you’re gonna be exposed for a few seconds when deploying equipment, so keep your head down
  3. Light Turret - pew
  4. Medium Turret - pew pew
  5. Improved Weapon Buff - everybody loves more damage
  6. Gatling Turret - pew pew pew

  The skills I took should be mostly self-explanatory, so it’s probably better to discuss what I didn’t take and why. I don’t take Grenade Shooting or Sprinting Grenade because the underslung grenade launcher fires grenades that explode on impact, so they can’t be cooked and I don’t need another way to detonate them. Sense of perspective is an okay talent - I had it for a while, but being able to strafe around is way more useful in places like repairing the crane on Shipyard. I left out Sprint Speed and Supply Transfer because the other three abilities are more useful more of the time. Since you can’t map more than three, having the other two lets you swap out between matches but this is a hassle. In any event, Transfer Supplies seems pretty useless to me - you can buff somebody’s health or revive them with the pip you’d be giving away. I suppose if you really needed ammo and the solider you were healbotting had no pips left it might be useful, but beyond that I don’t really see a need for it. As far as medics go, their pips are the most valuable ones in the game, so trading down doesn’t really offer any benefit. I feel like this skill would be better off as a soldier ability, as they have ways to recover their supply meter faster and it fits with their whole unlimited-free-refills thing. Sprint Speed is a better ability than Transfer Supplies, and definitely a useful skill in the right situation, but for the most part doesn’t have the make-or-break factor that Adrenaline does.

  Update: After speccing out this build, some more research has turned up the fact that Metabolism is, for all intents and purposes, useless. It increases the speed of the auto-regen by 100%. Not a huge deal, since it recharges so fast to begin with. If somebody finds you hiding behind cover while you’re regenning, you’re pretty fucked anyway. Sprint Speed should probably be taken in its place, but it isn’t really necessary.

  This leaves two points leftover. They could possibly go into command post upgrade (though I rarely stop by command posts, so this might be a waste. Another possibility is extra land mine - very situational but very useful. Still deciding on these.

  My original version of this build had Silent Running - I haven’t reinvested in it yet it since bots apparently don’t notice and I’m not sure how many people consult their radar that often. Might be useful to mask my approach on maps like Reactor when playing Resistance, or to sneak around the light-only places in Shipyard. It’s one of those intangibles that’s impossible to really know the value of.