This has probably been posted here before, but I played all the way through Mirror's Edge and I never had a problem with the precision platforming, as far as landing on something precisely went. My leaps of faith were either because I misjudged the distance I could jump or because I failed on purpose.
First Person Platforming
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
I know I'm a bit late to the party, but there's a problem with the complaints (both from Yahtzee and others) about Mirror's Edge.
I hate to have to say this, but if you can't tell where your feet are in Mirror's Edge, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.
The game LETS YOU SEE YOUR BODY WHEN YOU LOOK DOWN. That's not just to make the game look pretty. While it's part of the reason, it isn't ONLY because it adds to the immersion when you're doing things either. It's a core element of what makes the platforming in the game work. Without it, the game WOULD be as broken as Yahtzee claims. With that one deviation from the usual, it works brilliantly if you learn to DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO IN REAL LIFE.
When you're running up to jump off a ledge, you LOOK DOWN before the jump, to check the placement of your feet. In Mirror's Edge, to be consistent, you have to do WHAT YOU WOULD DO IN REAL LIFE. When you're running up to a ledge, look down to check the placement of your feet, and time your jump based on what you can see (but wouldn't be able to see in most first-person games). You're used to playing SHOOTERS, and you're use to shooters NOT having this functionality, so when a game comes along with the same perspective and similar controls, many people fail to recognise the importance of this apparently small change.
If you learn to NOT PLAY IT LIKE A SHOOTER WHEN IT ISN'T A SHOOTER, the game works exactly as it should, and the "impossible" jumps become comfortably challenging and well-designed. I don't like having to tell someone they're playing a game wrong, but in this case, it's true. Because you're treating a non-shooter game as a shooter. I could try and tell people that Thief: The Dark Project is a terrible and bad epic fail of an action game because it should be third-person and you need more health and a dodge button, because without those things, normal difficulty is nearly impossible if you do what you're meant to and run around killing all the enemies. I could then continue with my complaint that the higher difficulty levels put stupid restrictions on who you're allowed to kill and that defies the whole point of the genre. I don't, because I appreciate Thief for what it is, and don't try to pretend it's something else.
The only "bad" parts of Mirror's Edge are the forced combat encounters. Most combat is avoidable, but some of it requires pretty stupid abuses of the game's AI. I'd rather they had a more legitimate-seeming way to circumvent a couple of those encounters. I also wish there wasn't a boss fight where you have to perform a counter with not only a narrower window for success than any other counter in the game, but also one that requires completely differently timing from every other counterable attack in the game. It particularly doesn't help when there's a visual prompt telling you to counter at the wrong time.
The game could probably do with a loading screen tip or something else that actually points out that, unlike FPS games, looking down in Mirror's Edge is actually helpful for perspective and spatial awareness. But a bad tutorial doesn't necessarily mean the mechanics themselves are lacking.
I hate to have to say this, but if you can't tell where your feet are in Mirror's Edge, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.
The game LETS YOU SEE YOUR BODY WHEN YOU LOOK DOWN. That's not just to make the game look pretty. While it's part of the reason, it isn't ONLY because it adds to the immersion when you're doing things either. It's a core element of what makes the platforming in the game work. Without it, the game WOULD be as broken as Yahtzee claims. With that one deviation from the usual, it works brilliantly if you learn to DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO IN REAL LIFE.
When you're running up to jump off a ledge, you LOOK DOWN before the jump, to check the placement of your feet. In Mirror's Edge, to be consistent, you have to do WHAT YOU WOULD DO IN REAL LIFE. When you're running up to a ledge, look down to check the placement of your feet, and time your jump based on what you can see (but wouldn't be able to see in most first-person games). You're used to playing SHOOTERS, and you're use to shooters NOT having this functionality, so when a game comes along with the same perspective and similar controls, many people fail to recognise the importance of this apparently small change.
If you learn to NOT PLAY IT LIKE A SHOOTER WHEN IT ISN'T A SHOOTER, the game works exactly as it should, and the "impossible" jumps become comfortably challenging and well-designed. I don't like having to tell someone they're playing a game wrong, but in this case, it's true. Because you're treating a non-shooter game as a shooter. I could try and tell people that Thief: The Dark Project is a terrible and bad epic fail of an action game because it should be third-person and you need more health and a dodge button, because without those things, normal difficulty is nearly impossible if you do what you're meant to and run around killing all the enemies. I could then continue with my complaint that the higher difficulty levels put stupid restrictions on who you're allowed to kill and that defies the whole point of the genre. I don't, because I appreciate Thief for what it is, and don't try to pretend it's something else.
The only "bad" parts of Mirror's Edge are the forced combat encounters. Most combat is avoidable, but some of it requires pretty stupid abuses of the game's AI. I'd rather they had a more legitimate-seeming way to circumvent a couple of those encounters. I also wish there wasn't a boss fight where you have to perform a counter with not only a narrower window for success than any other counter in the game, but also one that requires completely differently timing from every other counterable attack in the game. It particularly doesn't help when there's a visual prompt telling you to counter at the wrong time.
The game could probably do with a loading screen tip or something else that actually points out that, unlike FPS games, looking down in Mirror's Edge is actually helpful for perspective and spatial awareness. But a bad tutorial doesn't necessarily mean the mechanics themselves are lacking.