Best Shooter Nominees - Golden Joystick Awards 2011 – Brink, Bulletstorm– Part 2
With the early favourite, Activison’s mega million blockbuster, Call of Duty: Black Ops and THQ’s gritty alternate timeline title, Homefront, out of the way, it is now time to look at some other games that pushed the boundaries of the shooter genre.
Brink
Take any standard objective-based first person shooter and then take Electronic Arts’ parkour title, Mirror’s Edge. Make both of them ‘do it like they do on the Discovery Channel’ and in short you have yourself Brink.
Combining first person shooter gameplay with class based multiplayer, throw in team objectives and add in parkour, Brink was ambitious on every level. Developers Splash Damage and the game’s publisher Bethesda Softworks looked to break ground in the stagnating
genre but instead they ended up breaking their own legs in the process.
The game felt broken, had plenty of glitches, especially in the single player mode, where it seemed that teammates shared the AI of a computer released in the Stone Age i.e. none.
When it came to multiplayer the game was only slightly better. The shooting was average, the parkour was glitch and did not feel as smooth as one would have liked and overall the entire experience did not come together as a complete package.
Fans who played the game felt frustrated and critics slammed the title as well.
Our verdict: A certainty to not win, Brink will struggle to earn enough votes despite it being a multiplatform title. Brink was great in terms of trying out new ideas and attempting to redefine the first person shooter genre but sadly, it failed in the process.
Bulletstorm
Another title which looked to ‘bend the laws of first person gaming’ by forcing the player to be creative in the way he killed the AI, was Bulletstorm. Developed by People Can Fly and published by Electronic Arts, Bulletstorm succeeded where Brink fell short.
The witty, fast paced and immersive title which the world known as Bulletstorm hit shelves on the 22nd of February for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 earned itself the reputation of being something different from the Call of Duties and the
Battlefields, which dominated the genre.
The story is irrelevant here as the game was all about coming up with creative way to eliminate the enemy soldiers. Players could still play it as a standard FPS but the game really came into own when full advantage was taken of its eccentric gameplay mechanics.
The game went on to parody a number of popular titles such as Call of Duty and Halo. Critics seemed torn about over the game, with a minority rating it at 80% and a majority rating it over 90%. This is a good thing as the discrepancy was a result of the
experimentation.
However, what is important is that fans loved the game.
Our verdict: We doubt that Bulletstorm can compete with the likes of Killzone 3, Halo Reach and Black Ops, but expect it to give those titles a run for their money.
Readers can continue reading about the nominees for the Best Shooter category in the next article:
Best Shooter Nominees - Golden Joystick Awards 2011 – Part 3
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of Bettor.com
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