Character Customization [Brink]

David Hodgson returns today with part 2 of his “On the Brink” series that previews Prima’s Official Game Guide for Brink.

Customization is a massive and constantly-evolving part of Brink; your character is continuously changing in terms of appearance, abilities, and the types of weapons utilized in the struggle for the Ark. The Official Brink Guide furnishes you with these details too, and in this blog post, we reveal some of the nattiest gear, best abilities, and finest character builds you’ll find in the guide. The character you choose to play as can flip between factions at the touch of a button (literally; it’s the Y one on the Xbox 360). This means you’re creating two different variations of the same sinewy killing machine; and many of the accouterments you can plaster all over your fighter showcase the different looks for each faction: The Resistance goes for a tattered, post-apocalyptic look while the Security sports the latest in police special-forces wear and scary facial gear. As your career in the game progresses, more and more shirts, jackets, pants, head gear (and let’s not forget facial hair and scars) are unlocked enabling you to create some incredibly “cool dudes”, or incredibly horrific “style atrocities”.

It’s often important to remember that some of these additions to your character are permanent. You may want to rethink your full-body Nedosegaem tattoos: Not because this doesn’t create an imposing muscled psychopath (because it does); but because it clashes with your Mayan Face Tattoo, and we can’t have that. Except we can; you can do whatever you want to your avatar, from affixing surgical staples to inking Vault 101 on your torso with the appropriate pre-order unlock. Every single character-changing element is shown in our in-depth catalog.

The Character Creation chapter of the Official Brink Guide wouldn’t be complete without some research into each of your character’s Abilities. These are unique and important skills that you choose for your character through a series of purchases as you level up. Naturally, it’s worth knowing which Abilities work well with your preferred Class, the Abilities that augment each other, and what to obtain first: Especially as you can’t unlock every Ability for a single character. It’s here that you’ll learn the fine art of “Grenade Shooting” (the next evolutionary step from Grenade Cooking), whether the Sprinting Reload Ability is really worth purchasing (spoiler alert: “yes, it is”), and what vital Abilities your Medics, Engineers, Operatives, and Soldiers should be focusing on.

Focusing on the type of character you want to be, and how well your favorite Classes gel with the rest of your team, is vital knowledge. But if you don’t want to spend time perfecting your character’s role in the combat zone through trial and error, you can always use one of the guide’s nine character builds as the basis for your badass. This selection of Splash Damage’s favorite characters tailored to fit a particular role includes “The Wall” (a Soldier/Engineer built to defend strategic points with heavy hardware); “The Speed” (an Operative built for hit and fade attacks on enemy strongholds); and “The Tank” (a Medic built as a bullet sponge to distract the enemy from the rest of your team). This guide was designed to help you quickly and easily create the exact type of killing machine you want storming through the Ark’s battle locations.

Join me one last time for my final Brink guide blog post, which details the finest parts of SMART (Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain) techniques, as well as some of the finest pieces of combat equipment available.