Splash Damage: Brink to reward more players for altruism in co-op

Splash Damage boss Paul Wedgwood has told VG247 that super-shooter Brink will reward selfless players in co-op games.

Speaking in an exclusive interview at Bethesda's pre-E3 event in France last week, he said that as little as standing near a buddy would start "ticking" XP into the player's "retainer".

Using an example mission, shown alongside the studio's media director Richard Jolly, Wedgwood told us:

"So to take an example, lets say at the start of the security tower, Richard takes the mission to plant the bomb on the conduit. If I then go into my mission, that’s when I play as a medic, when I go into my mission system, the number one thing it’s going to ask me to do is escort Jolly.

"Now, if all I do is run over and stand near him and engage in combat near Richard, I’m going to start to get XP ticking into my retainer, going on just like five, five, five just because I’m near Richard and I’m doing stuff."

Wedgwood also added that something like giving a health pack to an ally can get you more XP, stating that if team-mates started to heal you - and vice versa - you would only use one power pip in the game compared to two, making it "cheaper" to heal one another.

"Of course we still reward you for just general kills and stuff that you get done," said Wedgwood, "but almost everything that you do in the game, any mission you take on and complete, actually does end up helping your squad in some way.

"And in the end, it feels like your kind of playing as part of a coordinated team, even though you could be a bunch of strangers just playing together online."

Get our full interview with Paul Wedgwood here.

Brink releases this fall for PS3, 360 and PC.