So yes, after reading a lot of negative reviews (I love the game, I don't need to be reminded why it rocks) saying that this game has no story, I did wonder to myself why that is so.
After listening to the audio logs, the different views, the conflict, the changing opinions and motivations, quite simply put, the reason why this civil war broke out was made all the better due to the logs of the main players in the story. Sadly put, this is a game...

I believe one of the main reasons that people playing for 2 hours and hating the story is mainly due to lackluster cutscenes with Security saying "My word old chap, those resistance fellows are ruining our bully day" and the Resistance saying "Funky Monkey, those disco spoiling Police aren't being fair Old Bean" Quite frankly, having a 20 second intro and a 10 second outro doesn't leave enough time for the three main characters of either side to develop or even get know. From my experience the only character I remembered was the asian dude who complained in EVERY DAMN CUT SCENE how they were all poor and the founders were all rich.

EVERY TIME!

That shouldn't be a reason for me to remember, and certainly not a good way to get me to like him.

Another reason the story doesn't come across well is due to the excellent audio logs being unlocked tied to level, rather than campaign. This causes a problem that until you max level a character, you have these random logs being unlocked that you can't properly follow until they are complete. In a game, the story should be the thing you see first, rather than when you've played the game for the dedicated amount of hours and find out just why the hell these two sides are fighting; to be honest when in my first week of playing the game, I was wondering why the Security were making such a big deal over a band of rebels wanting to leave. Obviously I know why now after getting to Rank 5, but I should have had no confusion at all at Rank Zero.

Yes you see the three main protagonists from each side on the field playing as bots but again, it's not like they were certain classes or behaving in a way that set them apart from any other bots. They were just skins with names on top, and even then I didn't have any idea WTF to call them or identify them when their name was mentioned due to trying not to get shot at.

Then you have the what your asked to do in campaigns, I am still questioning why the Resistance wants to demolish the Founders Tower. Does it aid in their escape? Does it help the Ark itself? I don't know but I Should know by playing the game and having more incentive than some mad dude shouting into my mic that the founders are the heart of all evil. Surely if it's such a powerful landmark, the resistance would have better luck seeking escape to and help from the outside world securing the Tower as a base rather than kicking it over? Again, I'm sure there's a reason but I shouldn't have to guess or assume these points. If the Resistance is ballsy enough to run headlong into SecTow, why would doing the same to the Founders Tower be any different?

How to improve this in future DLCs and possible sequels? My thoughts are that firstly, the Audio logs shouldn't be the sole aspect of the story in this or any game, I Loved listening to them, but it was still an hour I was playing a game without pressing buttons or actually *Playing* the game. The intros should be less about banter between squadmates and more about the characters importance and why they are doing what they are doing. I'm not asking for a lot, I'm simply asking to understand why I'm defending a hackbox with my life and the reason it's so important for me to save THE ONE SOLE PILOT ON THE ARK!

I'm told there are 45,000 refugees living on the ark and only ONE of them is a pilot!!? GAH!!!

Beardy,

SD should get you to write the next bunch of audio logs (which hopefully are just supplements to meaty cutscenes!) in the sequel =) Once again thank you for the very entertaining read ^_^

I agree with everything you just said. The audio logs felt very much like an afterthought and tacked on. One has to wonder how many players did actually go back after hitting 20 to listen to them. Perhaps SD was trying to take after Bioshock, whose audio diaries were a great hit. But the crucial difference is that those audio diaries were just used to flesh out the story a little better. In Brink's case, they are the be all and end all.

Maybe SD also didn't want to ram the story down our throats, thus making it 'optional'. Gawd knows how ludicrous, unengaging and quite frankly boring, most shooter campaign storylines are so maybe SD didn't want to fall into the trap of making Brink taking itself too seriously, so much so that people just switch off.

Or maybe they were just lazy and/or were rushing to meet deadlines -_-

To sum up, the poor execution just seems like a waste of a perfectly good story. They were so close to greatness, so close...