It amazes us – in the goggle-eyed, attempting to blink reality back into existence, shaking our heads in rabid disbelief sense – just how many online multiplayer shooters fail to understand what players really want. Now we’re not suggesting that the likes of Call Of Duty, Halo and many others aren’t for the most part great fun, rather that there exists two identifiable problems with them; firstly, that their multiplayer elements are disconnected from other, important parts of the game – such trifles as the entire story, for example. And secondly, that these games really don’t work hard enough to ensure that the vital cog of teamwork digs in and winds the gameplay forward. How can we possibly make such wildly ludicrous claims? Well… because we’ve seen Brink close up.

Ostensibly at least, Brink is an online and offline shooter. Set in the semi-distant future – one in which the polar icecaps have finally melted – a segment of humanity is cut off from the rest of the world in a floating city known, biblically enough, as the Ark. It is the human race’s final refuge from the rising waters, but one that has gone from self-sufficient ‘green’ eco-experiment to an overpopulated, rusting hotbed of political unrest. One that is on the ‘brink’ of civil war.

Normally, we would separate a preview of a game such as Brink into talking about the single-player campaign and the multiplayer separately. Here, however, we cannot. They are one. Playing through the main game, players will be able to pick from one of two factions; those attempting the coup and those defending it – the officers. The story campaign as such has all of the bells and whistles you’d expect; great characters, NPCs, lots of punchy dialogue and so on, but the real kicker is that in doing so, up to seven of your friends may join you at any time with no break whatsoever in the gameplay, or indeed the story.

Your character will be entirely user-created, giving you the chance to be totally unique. Our short demonstration pointed to a customisation engine that appeared to ensure your character looked damn cool no matter what you did with it – quite a feat. And although it was not entirely apparent exactly what benefits could be gained from levelling your character, experience points are gained during all game modes – single, multi-versus, and co-op. Food for thought: what if someone on your friends list is playing Brink and you knew you could drop into his or her game at any point no matter what they were doing, no matter where they were, and always increasing their enjoyment of it? This is what Brink offers.

With so much going on in the background – contextual missions, friends dropping in and out – you may find it doubly surprising to learn that this is, visually, one of the finest-looking games we’ve ever seen on the 360. The screens adorning these pages are testament to this, since they do not lie. Not even one bit. Splash Damage has built its own proprietary engine to drive the action, using a tech it’s calling ‘Virtual Texturing’. The developer is thus far reticent to explain exactly what this means, but to be honest, we care not. The visuals most definitely do the talking.

… continued