Brink dev bellows Portal praises

By Robert Purchese Published 22 July, 2011

"Greatest" design "we're ever likely to see."

Few people will praise Portal higher than lead Brink writer Ed Stern.

During a Develop Conference talk he called Valve's creation "the greatest combination of premise, setting and player interaction we're ever likely to see".

Portal 1 came as part of The Orange Box in 2007. But the bite-sized compliment to Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2 quickly whipped up tumultuous applause of its own, scoring 9/10 in Eurogamer's Portal review. "One of the most interesting and delightful things Valve has ever done," Tom Bramwell wrote.

Portal 2 had big shoes to fill. But step into them it did, by earning 10/10 in Eurogamer's Portal 2 review. "It's a masterpiece," wrote Oli Welsh.

Ed Stern's comments about Portal were made answering whether Splash Damage overwrote Brink, a multiplayer-focused game.

"Brink is about frantic running and shooting, it's not exploring this world we've set up. It's a shooter," stated Stern.

"It's not about its setting in the same way that BioShock or Dragon Age or, God help us, Portal is. Portal, for my money, [is] the greatest combination of premise, setting and player interaction we're ever likely to see.

"All of this concepting and agonising and rewriting was for a shooter game that could have been red versus blue," Stern added. "Arguably we did not need a story in the first place."

Stern said Splash Damage chose a story because "we wanted to demonstrate as a story studio that we could do this stuff". Splash Damage wanted to add meaning to proceedings, although the mid-fight chaos often negated this.

"But I'm really glad we tried," said Stern. "I do not think Brink would have been a better game for having less world [built] into it."

Brink, released in May, tried to seamlessly weld single and multiplayer gameplay. Persist past its obtuse opening and you'll discover "an exceptional team shooter", wrote Simon Park in Eurogamer's Brink review - "smart, supremely well balanced and with a unique, exciting art style".

Brink: PS3 versus Xbox 360.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 10 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • metalangel #1 10 months ago

    You should have done something more interesting with your world. Brink and the Ark itself would make for a great strategy game... managing your limited resources, trying to find more and contact the outside world, keeping the population happy.

  • superfurry #2 10 months ago

    Phew! I was starting to worry that we'd gone a few days without a Brink story.

    Actually, did they ever get around to fixing their game breaking lag? I see it's on sale for €22 in GAME, might give it another go if I can actually play online without bots.

  • kinky_mong #3 10 months ago

    Brink dev bellows Portal praises

    This is the equivalent of Uwe Boll saying how much he loves The Godfather.

  • carlitoswagon #4 10 months ago

    Does Brink work now (console)?

    Edit: superfurry got in there first. £14.99 on Amazon, was considering a purchase but only if its playable online.

    Cheers, won't bother. Better games on the horizon.
    Edited by carlitoswagon at 22/07/11 @ 15:11

  • Progguitarist #5 10 months ago

    lol Kinky!

    So true.

  • SandyMcD #6 10 months ago

    #3
    most perfect games forum quote of the year

  • Eraysor #7 10 months ago

    Make Quake Wars 2, the original was ace!

  • Murton #8 10 months ago

    Quite liked Brink, just a shame that despite the delays the game still felt unfinished. Technically sound, graphically polished and most importantly exceptionally well balanced, but with piss-poor netcode and borderline retarded AI.

    Only thing missing for me was the ability to explore, I have run a couple of maps purely solo in custom matches with no bots and the environments are fantastic but massively under-used, such a shame.

    A strategy games as metalangel suggests would have been brilliant. A sort of world map metagame where you can choose the next story mission or go on a resource raid or defend a given location would have been a nice touch. In fact some sort of Security vs Resistance metagame for ranked online would have been nice, with each location being under the control of one of the factions based on which side was winning matches at that location on a global scale. Something to think about for the sequel perhaps.

  • Boki #9 10 months ago

    I still can't play online (pc) it's always a hit or miss scenario when I try to join a game. Sometimes it works, sometimes I get disconnected as soon as I join a game, sometimes during the loading screen or time out straight away. When it works it's fine but it's very rare that it does

  • Murton #10 10 months ago

    to answer the question of online play

    The lag is largely fixed, but it's still limited to 4v4 with bots picking up the slack and the matchmaking (on PS3 at least) doesn't find people to play with most of the time, a team based shooter like this really needs a server browser.

    Hopefully the upcoming (and free) DLC will bring back some interest, but I fear too many people may have abandoned the game after getting all of the trophies/achievements. I still have it and play matches with friends, but the community is utterly dead.

  • TopKatt #11 10 months ago

    Whats with the character design in Brink? Really strange choice that. The weird shaped faces just made the world seem that much less real.
    Edited by TopKatt at 22/07/11 @ 16:06

  • HL706 #12 10 months ago

    "Persist past its obtuse opening and you'll discover "an exceptional team shooter", wrote Simon Park"

    Simon lied.

  • riz23 #13 10 months ago

    As much as I admire Portal 2, to say it is "the greatest combination of premise, setting and player interaction we're ever likely to see" is a depressing assessment of the current and future state of gaming. Surely we are just getting started?

  • Ziggy_badMonkey #14 10 months ago

    "I still can't play online (pc) it's always a hit or miss scenario"
    errrr..try the server browser its been in and running for a while and I've had no probs!
    There are still a lot of people playing the pc, ps3 & 360 versions
    Lag was fixed month or so ago and it is an amzing team shooter if you get some mates together

  • melch #15 10 months ago

    i tried so hard to like brink but it just frustrated the hell out of me :( struggled to find a game half the time as well.

  • TheEarlOfZinger #16 10 months ago

    I have been playing brink all week. No lag for me, not bad multiplayer game. 7.5

    Single player SUCKS ASS, the ai is fucking retarded.

  • Daeltaja #17 10 months ago

    Loved the game when it worked, but I'm getting old and don't have time for broken, buggy games anymore. Since when was charging 50 quid to be a beta tester a good deal? Shame though, it could have had legs, Brink.

    He's right about Portal of course. It's a master class in design.

  • TheEarlOfZinger #18 10 months ago

    Also - when you kill someone in Brink, it's the most unsatisfying thing ever. There's no fanfare, zero, zilch. Player just drops in a heap and some yellow points briefly appear.

    Lame.

  • Subdominator #19 10 months ago

    Portal 2 is a great game, yes. But it's not the greatest ever. If you've read Geoff Keighleys Making of Portal 2 you know that Portal 2's development was a lot of trial & error and they actually had no idea how the game should look and work until one and a half years before release. So if anything Portal 2 is more a result of luck. Hell, even some of the greatest voice actors are only in there because the one they originally wanted was not available. So while it is amazing how Portal 2 turned out, it should not be an example on how to design a game, because Valve failed hard there.

    If anybody hasn't read it please do. It reveals stuff like for two years during development Portal 2 was supposed to be anything but that: It had no portals. On purpose.

  • Zander #20 10 months ago

    Personally i thought portal 1 was better than portal 2. I found the first had a better blend of comedy and game whereas the second had a little bit too much comedy that it feltw like it was trying too hard to make me laugh. But both were stand out experiences.

  • arcam #21 10 months ago

    Portal 2 was a polished, mainstream, family-friendly version of Portal. Still a great game, but Portal 1 is where the magic truly was.

    I know it's churlish to complain about a score of 9, but anyone who didn't give Portal top marks simply got it wrong :)

  • rob_of_the_robots #22 10 months ago

    "If you've read Geoff Keighleys Making of Portal 2 you know that Portal 2's development was a lot of trial & error and they actually had no idea how the game should look and work until one and a half years before release. So if anything Portal 2 is more a result of luck."

    Isn't that how game development works?

  • FogHeart #23 10 months ago

    Yes, Mr Purchese, I did notice you using compliment instead of complement again.

    This makes four times. I know now that you do it deliberately to drive me insane.

    But it won't work I tell you. It won't! Haaaaahahahaha!

    /scratches own forearms vigorously, swats at nonexistent flies etc

  • technicianTed #24 10 months ago

    Portal 2 was excellent but i have to say i thought it was slightly overrated.

    It was pretty much more of the same from the old portal game with longer storyline moments mixed in between the levels.
    The goo was great though, bouncing and speeding up as you went over it.

    Classy game for sure but with batman 2, uncharted 3, gears 3 and a few others coming, it certainly won't be my game of the year.

  • Mister-Wario #25 10 months ago

    technicianted: you don't complain when Call of Duty features more gunplay, do you?

  • Tyrhinis #26 10 months ago

    "It's not about its setting in the same way that BioShock or Dragon Age or, God help us, Portal is. Portal, for my money, [is] the greatest combination of premise, setting and player interaction we're ever likely to see."

    Portal. Not Portal 2.

    Read the article, people...