Brink is promising to bring many things that we have never seen before in a First Person Shooter, and one of the most entertaining is the free running, parkour style system called SMART.

SMART stands for Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain and is designed to get you from point A to point B is the slickest, smoothest way possible. It allows players to easily and intuitively perform a bunch of acrobatic maneuvers through the playing environment.

You will engage this system while on the run, when you approach an obstacle the system analyzes the type of obstacle, where the player is looking, and tries to navigate the obstacles. The picture below shows the various ways to navigate the obstacle that the system will analyze.

As you can see you can either climb over slide under or wall jump many obstacles in the environment. You can also disable the system and attempt the moves manually.

The picture below displays how depending on where your character is looking you will perform different moves on the upcoming obstacles.

This picture shows how different approaches will affect how quickly you get past the obstacle. Mastering this system will make you one of the fastest players on the map and will be a huge advantage.

Its not a magic button

The SMART System is not a magic button that will do everything for you it is a tool, your velocity will have a great impact on what you do. Depending on how fast your character is moving and your approach on an object the move will be different. Also lighter characters will traverse obstacles faster then heavy characters, and use more acrobatic moves. So matching your moves with your character and play style will be a huge factor in your success. Sometimes if you are a heavy character it might be to your benefit to not use the button at all since some of the maneuvers will not be quickly performed by your character.

The Maneuvers

There is a variety of maneuvers the system will use to get you around below is a list of what the moves are.

Wallhop
Jump off nearby walls to cross larger gaps or reach higher ledges.
Slide
Slide to slip under low obstacles or surprise your opponents.
Mantle
Pull yourself up to higher ledges – the smaller your body type, the higher up you can reach.
Vault
Get over waist-high obstacles with ease while maintaining your momentum.
Slide to Break Fall
Avoid taking damage when jumping off high ledges by stylishly sliding as you reach the ground.

So there you have it, this system promises to be one of the main “cool” factors of Brink. Becoming proficient with this system will make you one of the biggest threats in a multiplayer match and will prove to be a huge advantage when trying to get from one end of the map to the other or when playing in capture the flag or command post modes in the multiplayer. Not only will you be moving quickly across the map but a enemy who is chasing you will quickly fall behind if there movements are not as advanced as yours.