My rifle’s chunky, deep report chops through the red bar over a stray defender’s head as he rushes to disarm my explosive charge. The lanky engineer should have brought friends, because on Brin🌟k’s floating city, one-man-armies may as well slurp up a bowl of bullet soup and call it a day.

Th🎃e chinny, dreadlocked man crumples to the ground, flailing and praying for a friendly medic. His team isn’t far b♈ehind, and the confusion of battle might afford him a Revive Syringe and another attemptat disarming mycharge, so I stand over his body and chug rounds into his head until he goes limp and colorless.

As I reload and look up, I realize that the bold, dead engineer unwittingly gave his team the upper-hand on🃏 me. It’s too late to reorient myself as his backup rushes through a corridor🌜, and a Molotov cocktail sails into my face, chucking my feet into the air. Too overwhelmed to stand up, I fire maniacally at the invading team as it struggles against my own.

Each mission is sectioned into two or more timed objectives which are completed in order, and are supported by secondary objectives. To accomplis𓄧h the objectives, the teams must utilize Brink’s four classes in tandem, though each individual task will fall to one class' specific skill -soldiers plant explosive charges, engineers repair structures and defuse explosives, medics revive hostages to keep them moving, and operatives hack devices.

Secondary objectives include🦹, among others,building barricades and machinegun nests, escorting other players,and capturing neutral, team-stat-boostingCommand Posts, one or more of which are scattered throughout the map.

From the team’s mainCommand Post (which cannot be captured) in its impenetrable spawn area, players can switch classes and weapons, and see how many members of each class are currently in play. That last part is Super Important, because if the team is heavy on medics, engineers, and soldiers when the objective requires hacking, you know that it’s up to you to become on operative and get theꦐ dirty work done. If, however, you’ve got four operatives on your team and no medics, you might be most useful in a suppoꦰrting role.

Were Brink not so well-balanced, the whole team might instantly choose the primary objective class and rush it en masse. An army of soldiers versus one door that needs explodin’ ought to work, right? Not so much. It only takes a few players to complete an objective (some allow for combined efforts – engineers, for example, can repair struct🐓ures faster with help), and the rest of the team is on protectღion duty. With no medics to revive downed soldiers, your team’s effectiveness will be crippled, and with no engineers building automated turrets and planting mines, your line will be easily breached – everyone has a role in the success of the team.

Above: Building a turret to defend an area - also notice the mine planted at the door

To better their contribution, players can bolster their character’s skills by earning experience and purchasing skills. Initially, only universal skills, such as the ability to shoot grenades midair or reload while sprinting, are available, but as players gain levels, they can begin to customize their favorite classes. Engineers, for example, can initially only ꧟lay landmines, but can upgrade earns them turrets, which can then be upgraded further.

Above: Buffing your teammate's stats as a medic or engineer, or resupplying their ammo as a soldier, is much appreciated. It feels good to give!

Brink is complex, and I've only lightly dustedover the intricacies if its classes and objectives, so do yourself a favor and watch the game's painfully long introductory video before starting. I got the hang of everything pretty quickly, but a bit of pre-battle studying definitely helped, however dull it may have been. Once you know what you're supposed to be doing, and your motivation is secured,🙈 you can focus on the visceral activities of free running througꦐh the maps andpumpingbullets into yourgoat-faced enemies.