Mirror’s Edge Review

Will You Like What You See In The Mirror?

by darkmurder:

©2008 Noel Schneider

As if the Xbox 360 didn’t have enough first person shooters.  Then comes along Mirror’s Edge, an ambitious title by DICE, that isn’t your typical run and gun FPS.  Rather, it tries to reinvigorate and re-energise a genre flogged to death like an abused overworked lame horse.

Rather than focusing on the core concept of shooting, the game instead features fast paced running, jumping, balancing and climbing gameplay. What makes Mirror’s Edge unique is the way that DICE have managed to make a first person shooter fun, even if you don’t fire a weapon.

The gameplay of Mirror’s Edge is relentlessly fast and requires extremely quick, nimble fingers to be able to escape from the “Blues”, aka the police. You play as Faith, a “runner”, in a controlled city dominated by extreme censorship and propaganda.  After your sister Kate is framed for a murder, you quickly run to her aid (no pun intended).

Mirror’s Edge sees you running and jumping over obstacles, ducking under pipes and disarming or killing enemies to proceed to the next way-point. The game is based in a seemingly Utopian city and the only way to get messages across uncensored is through the use of “runners”. The game primarily takes its focus up high in the skyscrapers and high-rises, however it occasionally throws in different environments to challenge your fingers and brain.

When lost in a city, a quick press of the B button will nudge your camera in the direction you must head, whilst in the meantime, red is splashed upon certain objects you can use as a path to get to your objective. Getting lost occurs rather frequently in Mirror’s Edge and this can be a major drawback. However, the more you play, the more your senses can guide you where you are supposed to go.

The combat in Mirror’s Edge is quite bland and repetitive, with the game only offering three types of hand-to-hand combat and rather basic shooting. It’s clear that while DICE tried making the title focus on running away and not the combat, the lack of diversity in attacking options has drastically hurt the game. Disarming is always fun and with bullet time available at the press of a button, timing the weapon disarm is made a hell of a lot easier.

The focus on the running gameplay is a refreshing twist on the first person genre but unfortunately while this game looks pretty and polished on the outside, once the core gameplay has been tried and done to death, the game becomes like making lemonade and skimping on the sugar, leaving a sour taste. Soon enough the gameplay takes on a fairly repetitive feel.

When you see a wall, you automatically think run and jump to the next platform. The problem with Mirror’s Edge is that it had such a wonderful concept, but DICE did not fully exploit the potential that was there. The lack of diversity and repetition ultimately hurts the game, leaving the gamer wondering what could have been.

The repetition factor also continues with the environments, even though the graphics and lighting engine are spectacular. The city is a bleached white with the occasional dose of colour splattered around the rooftops and the city.

The game makes full use of its lighting engine, with light and shadow being beautifully and accurately rendered, even surpassing Far Cry 2. While the graphics are good for the majority of the game, the lack of colour change makes a real impact on the game’s ability to hold your visual interest.

The city can be compared to an Albino in a white suit who wears bright coloured socks that are mostly hidden under the white slacks. The game’s outside shell of the city becomes bland and whether this is laziness from DICE or supposed to help you find your way, it’s difficult to tell.

Every single room you go in seems to throw colour awkwardly around the place. If DICE has done this to make a statement about the authoritarian nature of the city or if colouring buildings was just too hard at the end of the day, in the end it just ends up looking odd.

Mirror’s Edge may contain many repetitive areas, but the audio is one solid component that always seems to fit perfectly and set the ambiance. The music for the game is a hybrid of the chic aura that surrounds the city and an easy on the ear flying tune that is suitable because half the time you spend airborne.

The music is always right on cue, never missing a beat when its required during fight scenes or nearing cut scenes and will always fade in nicely without even being noticed. The sound effects are pretty standard, but the amazing shooting noises that were in DICE’s previous title Battlefield: Bad Company are frustratingly missing. Nevertheless, the sound fits in perfectly and is extremely solid overall.

For a game that had so much potential, Mirror’s Edge unfortunately just falls short of being an accomplished, ground-breaking game. The groundwork was strongly set, but the repetitive action of the game always comes back to haunt it.  Without the true feeling of an open environment you are often confined to the somewhat linear path to the goal.

No doubt Mirror’s Edge is a great rental at the very least, but the lack of longevity is the real worry as the campaign only lasts on average 5 or so hours going through at medium pace. Once completed, the game doesn’t really invite you to complete the game again taking different paths, as unfortunately the different paths are just a jump instead of climbing up a pole.

This is a classic example of a game with an interesting concept that had the potential to be ground-breaking and revolutionary, but just was not executed properly.

“7.5/10

©2008 Noel Schneider

Mirrors Edge mini-review attachment

by GrathiusXR

©2008 Arthur Kotsopoulos:

It’s unique, it’s frustrating and it’s fluid. DICE, known for Battlefield : Bad Company, and every other Battlefield game, have gone for a different FPS style this time around. Mirrors Edge, inspired by the infamous parkour, sees you as a female runner named Faith, instead of the usual Battlefield butch soldier.

A training grounds mission here and a prologue mission there and the story is well underway to unfolding. You won’t have to much trouble figuring out the story; someone gets killed, your sister is framed and bingo your job is to go in search of why she was framed and why there was a murder.

A good 3-5 hours in and you can finish the game, as easy as that. Why so short you ask? Well mainly for the quick smooth motion the game maintains. You’re a runner so you’re able to jump fences with ease, slide under ledges, and wall run and jump. Mirror’s Edge is built around fluid motion.

If your good enough certain levels can be done in under 10 minutes- yes it is possible. Each mission sets you in a different part of the city with many possibilities on how to tackle each one. It’s usually a run here then run there and done.

The simple ‘go straight forward’ isn’t the best option in this case, so you need to think and use your brain to figure out alternate routes that provide a safer and/or faster alternate way to get there.

In most cases though, you can come close to finding yourself in a bit of a pickle.  Sometimes you will get stuck not knowing what ledge to grab, what wall to run on and in some cases failing to latch onto certain objects. Thankfully, those who aren’t the best at this have the option of ‘Runner Vision’ where certain objects of interest glow red to show you what you need to jump on to proceed.

It’s good for some but for experienced gamers who want the challenge it makes it too easy. Upon finishing the single player you unlock ‘Time Trial’ and ‘Speed Run’ which offer some level of re-playability, at least until you get bored and frustrated. Enjoy Mirror’s Edge in short bursts as much as you can, as in the long run the enjoyment doesn’t last.

Pick it up, give it a run through, try different things in each level and enjoy an experience that is refreshingly unique to what other regular FPS games provide. Great innovation DICE, but maybe just offer a bit more next time.  Too many will get bored with the repetitiveness nearing the end of the game.

“7.5/10

©2008 Arthur Kotsopoulos:

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