OK so before I get started, I should probably mention that I have been watching this games development since I first heard of it almost 2 years ago.  Ever since then I have been super excited about it, so this review may be biased. ...I still haven't figured out if that will affect things in a negative or positive way... :P

now, Brink.  At its core, this game is a squad based/objective/attack and defend game.  There is no TDM mode (that i have yet found) and, at launch, only 10 maps which you can join on either side.  The amazing thing is that the maps have a chronological progression to them, and are all part of the same over arching story.  What this allows you to do is to play the same game in any of three modes, Solo, Co-op ( you and friends against bots), and Multiplayer.  The AI is very good, and individual bots will assist eachother, as well as scaling with your level, to always present a challenge.

The basic premise (story wise) is that you are on a floating city known as "the ark".  The year is around 2040 and the Ark has been cut off from communications with the rest of the world.  Drastic over-crowding from a massive influx of refugees has made resources scarce, and tensions have reached the breaking point.

The two factions that are now fighting for control of the Ark are the Security forces, and the Resistance.  The Resistance wants off the Ark, to try to reconnect with the outside world and find out what happened.  The Security wants to maintain order, and see destroying the resistance as the only viable way to do so.

Gameplay is a fast paced FPS with bright, vivid visuals, and very fluid character animations.  The game strikes a balance between Team Fortress 2 and Bad Company 2, with class based special abilities, a slightly cartoonish character style (more caricature-ish, actually) and a wide variety of primary and secondary objectives.   When you get into game, you can choose from any of 4 classes (soldier, medic, engineer, operative).  Each map features 4-5 objectives that must be completed in sequence by the attacking team (for example, destroying a barricade, escorting and repairing a maintenance bot, hacking the security console that the bot breaks into, and ferrying the information retrieved to an extraction point. )  Each of these objectives can only be completed by specific classes, as their special abilities dictate (engineers repair things, soldiers blow things up, operatives hack things, and medics keep everyone breathing).  All along the way, there are numerous secondary objectives that you can elect to complete for a nice chunk of xp.  There is a nice objective menu (they call it a wheel) that you can quickly snap up and select from, even mid firefight.  

Brink introduces a new style of movement, one that will bring tears of joy to anyone who misses slide tackling enemies in FEAR, or though that Mirrors Edge needed more guns.  Called, SMART (smooth movement over random terrain), the system analyses the terrain and where your reticle is pointing, and tries to determine where you are trying to get to, and when the SMART button (which is also the sprint key) is held, it will jump, slide, vault, wallrun and climb your way across the map.  It is a fairly smooth system, and is quite easy to learn and apply.  

At time of writing, there are a number of problems and glitches, as with any freshly launched game.  The VOIP is completely inoperative, there are glitches with the sound on some of the levels, and Bil4Short and I could not get the co-op to work for the life of us (tho that could all be down to our relative lack of intelligence ).  We finally did get general multiplayer to work, and proceeded to bring the BK hurt to the masses.  That said, I was completely blown away with the sheer difference of this game.  It is a sharp contrast to any other shooter that has come out recently, spurning gritty realism for brightly colored fun.  

Final Thoughts: I have barely scratched the surface of this game, and it is well worth a further look.  If your interested, CLICK HERE, and peruse the SMART series of videos to get more of a feel for the gameplay mechanics.  If you do get it, I highly recommend playing through the challenge maps first, as these will give you a great tutorial on the various gameplay mechanics, as well as unlock most of the attachments for the guns.  As with the rest of the game, you can run these as either single or multiplayer.

I think that this is a great game, and as there are essentially 20 maps, I think I will be entertained for quite some time.  Yes, it needs some work, but I think that can be said about pretty much any multiplayer game that has been supported by BK.

Go Get Some!
SSG.Braxis*BK*

Good to hear you are enjoying it. I real like everything it promises, but sent it back for full refund. Your review is the only encouraging one i've seen on the net....(granite, most were based off of consoles).  If reported problems are addressed I'll repurchase when it's on sale.
Doesn't sound like you encountered the AI bot problems that everyone is screaming about, particularily in solo mode?

I think a good part of the bot stupidity is that the AI difficulty scales with the player level, so until you get to a higher level (of which there are only 20) they are a bit silly.  But you can always turn the difficulty up... on the PC at least.

also, check this review out ->Link<-  they seem fairly positive about the PS3 version of the game, so i think we might just be seeing the xbox's hardware limitation finally.

I'm waiting on more reviews before deciding on buying now or waiting until later...I too have been watching this for some time...to me it's basically a marriage of Borderlands and Quake Wars...