EA Games Boss Swears to God He Didn't Kill Mirror's Edge

[Grey_Focks]

....I respect that. Agreed it was a good game, but good grief did it have it's issues. FAR too many "jumps of faith" and trial-and-error gameplay. Find ways to fix that, and you've got a buyer out of me. As for guns...eh, I really wasn't bothered by the few gunfights, but they did feel kinda out of place. I say either cut them all together (probably not gonna work, and I wouldn't recommend it anyway) or just refine it a bit, and that doesn't mean copy CoD, dammit. Ironsights does not a good shooter make!

 

[JediMB]

It sold 2 million and EA finds that mediocre O.O

Funny thing, that. 2 million is enough to qualify for Wikipedia's list of best-selling games.

Unless the game had a much higher budget than you can tell from the visuals, I fail to see how 2 mill could be anything less than very good sales.

 

[JediMB]

Mostly agree here. I didn't mind the platforming, I just found the levels to be somewhat contrived. They were more like a deliberately designed mario level than the recreation of a city.

I was under the impression that things looked the way they did (ramps, plank bridges, etc.) because people like Faith had been setting up those delivery routes for years. Normal people don't really spend time on the rooftops, so their things were mostly left undisturbed.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Maybe if it had cutscenes instead of the animatics that shipped, people would be able to get a little more on board with the story, eh?

Regardless. Mirror's Edge needs polishing and refining, for sure. I don't think it's a case of expansion - which is what you'd have to do in order to bring any "new" audience. Tighten the wavering appeal, EA. You have to win over old fans and those who passed it up the first time - not old fans and everyone.

 

[UnravThreads]

4) No vent sections please. You're selling a parkour game and the vent sections defeated the idea of parkour (which is freeRUNNING), IMO.

Did you not pay attention to the story? It quickly became less about the 'parkour' aspect and more about Faith investigating, so she had to use vents to get in/out of places.

What I'd suggest for Mirror's Edge 2:
1. Continue the storyline from the first game. There's got to be more to it.
2. Make the game a little longer - The first game ended before it outstayed its welcome, which is good pacing on DICE's part, although the last section of the last level was infuriatingly annoying (The server room).
3. Get rid of the combat. Disarms, sure, but using weapons? It disrupted the flow, which brings me to...
4. If we have to have weapons, give us a disadvantage but don't cripple us like in the first game. Faith, due to what she does, will be strong and athletic. There's no reason why she should become so much slower with weaponry.
5. If needs be, treat some sections like a stealth game rather than a fighting game. Encourage us to find a way to sneak past enemies rather than go through them.
6. Bring back Solar Fields for the soundtrack.
7. In terms of multiplayer, give us a race mode BUT make it work closer to the current system. Instead of racing on one server, which allows lag and interference, let us race on our own clients and then 'compare' the times at the end to see who won.
8. The CtF idea posted beforehand was quite good, although it may need some tweaks.

Regardless. Mirror's Edge needs polishing and refining, for sure.

Refining? Yes. Polishing? God no. It was one of the most polished games I've ever played.

 

[Dectilon]

It sold 2 million and EA finds that mediocre O.O

Funny thing, that. 2 million is enough to qualify for Wikipedia's list of best-selling games.

Unless the game had a much higher budget than you can tell from the visuals, I fail to see how 2 mill could be anything less than very good sales.

¨

Well, the projected sales were 3 million apparently, and the initial sales were quite low. The fact that they're planning a sequel suggests they did make their money back, but it's always good to look poor and sickly to attract sympathy

 

[Darkhill]

Is there anywhere specific we can send our feedback so it reaches EA or DICE? Most companies love feedback on their products. If we could all do this, I'm sure they'd get the message (if they haven't already) about the most obvious and common suggestions, which are:

More open world gameplay
Less interior levels
Expanded storyline
Limit or remove the gunplay
Reduce focus on combat

As for myself, I'd like to add:

Soften the collision detection a bit (making it much less hit and miss when grabbing ledges, pipes, etc. Means less fighting the controls and therefore less falling)
Include delivery missions because that's her job, after all
More social philosophy, deeper themes in plot
No more animated cutscenes, the game world looks so pretty it's going to waste if there's animated cutscenes

On the note of expanded storyline, for my part I suggest sticking a Tyler Durden-esque character in as the runners' primary client, explaining just why the authorities were so desperate to squash the runners. I agree the story really needs more characters, especially larger-than-life personalities, maybe even some celebrity voice acting? (But I doubt there's the budget for that)

 

[Gormers1]

There are so many ideas from users on how to change the game I dislike (some I do agree with too of course), that I wonder if its possible for DICE to make a sequel Ill not be disappointed with. Note that I really liked the first game, and one of its biggest flaws for me was the voice acting/characters.

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

Translated:
I can't release a sequel that won't make a lot of profit again, the investors will kill me! XD

 

[nipsen]

The fans won't have it, and they know that.

But the fans who like the game are not considered significantly many enough to warrant a sequel.

Your call.

 

[cabalistics]

Mirror's Edge 2 is the one game that I constantly search for information on.

I think the game might of been a bigger hit if they'd advertised it more or better because I had'nt even heard of it when I saw it reduced to about 34euros and i decided to take a punt on it.

Mostly what I want is more of everything that made the last game so intriguing

 

[Woodsey]

Its an easy game to fix for the most part:

- No shit animated cinematics
- Less/no combat
- No corridors/offices unless you're going to populate them
- No breaking the flow of running to turn a fucking valve
- More rooftop gameplay
- GOOD STORY/WRITING

 

[Spectrum_Prez]

Step 1) Make Mirror's Edge 2
Step 2) Include broken and buggy 3rd person view option
Step 3) Enjoy mass criticism for broken and buggy 3rd person option
Step 4) Claim 3rd person view didn't work, now focusing solely on FPV for ME3
Step 5) Ta-Da!

 

[Falke]

Do they still know that there are other perspectives than first person at EA? I'd buy this thing if I could actualy see what I'm doing.

 

[Angus565]

I'll probably buy mirrors edge 2.
I the only reason I didn't play the first one is because I heard a lot of complaints about it.
But I love sequels that fix the flaws of the previous games! It really shows that the developers listen to their players.

 

[gellert1984]

1) first person perspective, keep it

2) add a slider for the bloom

3) make it an open world game

4) ditch the guns

5) add more martial style moves, keep the sliding crotch kick, the sliding crotch kick was awesome

6) storyline: Either abandon the first games story entirely, or make it follow on from faith's perspective, don't jump characters or go 'hey this is what REALLY happened'.

7) keep the art style, refine it a little, but the pretty clean city made a hell of a change from grey/brown dirt

8) missions orient more around getting from a to b quickly without attracting attention, being fast changes the story, less people die, less cops on your tail, etc

9) observation and infiltration missions for variety, a working stealth system for the latter, maybe a sixth sense to indicate enemy movement (Thermoptics or directional hearing for example)

Personally I perceive the next game as being about revolution. The few remaining leaders of the freedom fighters mentioned the first game using Faith to send secure communications to arrange operations against the mayor and the po-po. Faith helping to bust sympathizers from jail, marking and tracking targets of opportunity (hey theres your bonus missions!) and infiltrating government buildings via stealth to steal troop movement and logistics details.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Do they still know that there are other perspectives than first person at EA? I'd buy this thing if I could actualy see what I'm doing.

As so many others have pointed out, first person play was the point of Mirror's Edge; 3rd person is already handled by the Prince of Persia and Lara Croft games as well as so many other platformers, and FPS games like (donning asbestos long johns) Half Life never really did handle jumping puzzles well.

I desperately want Mirror's Edge 2 to succeed, as I enjoyed the change in perspective that Mirror's Edge brought to platformers and I'd love to see more.

-- Steve

 

[dubious_wolf]

The story was trash the gunplay was a soggy pile of newspaper someones cat vomited in, and the level design was narrow and poorly planned.
And it was an awesome game.

edit: EA and DICE could use this as an opportunity to revolutionize the way we use and interact with first person camera games. They could dedicate the time and energy to create a new way of approaching this highly immersive camera mode. But they won't.