Splash Damage details some of the environmental highlights in Brink

Splash Damage's art director Olivier Leonardi and senior game designer Ed Stern, have provided a glimpse at the concept art behind Brink along with Stern's idea of visual storytelling, through a discussion of a one of the maps and some of the environmental hightlights included in the upcoming shooter.

Posted over on IGN, the map discussed is Aquarium, which is the first map players will discover when playing one of the campaigns as either the Resistance or Security. It's a modern style building, and something Stern said will be a "microcosm," of the game's story.

W"e're trying to tell several stories here," he said. "We've got to sell the fact that there's this eco future dream, but also one of the big things in this game is hubris, that technology is not going to save us. So here's this beautiful thing [the Aquarium], and we wanted to show that when it worked it was wonderful, but that that hasn't been enough, and it hasn't been sustained. Thematically, it's a criticism of these boutique, luxury solutions - if you're rich that's great but how's it going to work for the great unwashed?

"This tells that story of eco visionary luxury, and then of that sense of decay."

Other highlights of the game's environment discussed in the piece include the Security Tower, which is a large wall separating the slums from the Ark - where the rich folks live, as well as the Airport Terminal, the Shipyard, and the Cooling Tower.

It's all very interesting, and the post includes art work of each area mentioned.

Brink is due on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in early May, and you can watch the latest video tutorial released for it here.