Mirror's Edge

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Khazoth

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Sep 4, 2008
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In Mirror's Edge you play as Faith Connors, a "runner" in a totalitarian controlled city that monitors all its residents vigorously, to cut down on crime while screwing over the personal privacy of individuals. If that sounds familiar then congratulations, you've watched the news at some point during the Bush administration. You deliver messages back and forth between revolutionary groups, because i'm assuming all the phones have been wire tapped at this point. A new politician raises, claiming that he wants to bring change, and is promptly assassinated. Your sister is framed and its up to you to uncover what the feck is going on.

As best I can describe the gameplay I would call it a racing game on foot. This doesn't exactly sound exciting but the sheer immersion that this game presents is staggering. Any game that can make me flinch every time I make a leap of faith is immersive. The game is fast paced and twitchy, requiring every move to be on the fly. This is helped by a thing called "Runner Vision" which highlights where you need to go in red. If your completely daft there is also a button that automatically spins your slow ass in the right direction, this button will be your best friend.

The first person perspective is immersive and worth the minor stab it takes at gameplay. Often your forced to make leaps of faith and it can become quite frustrating at times. Despite this the core gameplay of run and jump is solid, intuitive, and fun. All of the moves look acrobatic and if you sit through the game long enough it will suck you in like that fat girl sitting in the corner at the prom. Unlike the fat girl sitting in the corner at the prom you can actually be proud of letting this game suck you in.

The combat, while not a big aspect is rather fun, only, its not really combat. Yes there is an attack button and you can steal guns but most of the time its best to run up, tap your bullet time button, and steal their weapon. The gunplay is clunky, but its supposed to be as far as I can tell, it adds to the need to run. On quite a few levels your followed by a helicopter who's gunner was trained at the Stormtrooper academy of missing the broad side of a barn. After completing the game, I went through again and just stood there for a good moment and he didn't hit me. Then again, he is trying to shoot at me from a moving helicopter. On the other end the ground troops have rather excellent aim and will turn you into a lovely swiss cheese configuration if your not on the move.

The game is short, sadly, as everyone warned it was. Its not staggeringly short, just not as long as it could be. Overall it has replay ability over the time challenges, and just how fun the normal game was. Its fun to replay through the game again to see if you can get through the obstacles differently then you did last time.

Overall i'd suggest buying the game, if you can't buy then rent, but you must play this game at least once. For the love of all that's holy don't be a hypocrite and ***** about the lack of creativity and innovation in gaming today and then when an actual innovative and creative title comes out, you ignore it. You owe it to yourself to at least try this game and let it suck you in.
 

Earthbound

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Aug 13, 2008
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Overall, this is a well written review, but I feel it is lacking in a few parts. The most glaring thing is the lack of mention of the time trial mode. I enjoyed the time trial far more than the actual game. Also, I disagree with your opening statement in the second paragraph. It is only a racing game for a little over half the time. The rest of the game is split into vertical puzzle areas. Personally, I felt that the racing parts were far superior to the puzzle parts, but to each his own. I will agree on the combat though. I understand that Faith is better at avoiding battle than partaking in it, but at least make it have a high skill requirement instead of just making it clunky. Bad design choice on DICE's part.
 

13lackfriday

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Feb 10, 2009
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Goddamn, I have been waiting so long to play this game.
I've got to get my grades up to get that 360 and I've already got Orange Box for it waiting to go.
But I'll be damned if the first game I play on it isn't Mirror's Edge.

Excellent review, late as it may be (though no later than myself).
You've neatly confirmed all my previous impressions of how amazing a Parkour-based navigation game in first-person can be.
The music also sucked me in initially...the soft, ambient, yet kind of cold and impersonal feel to it's just chilling to the atmosphere of that bleached and sterilized totalitarian metropolis you find yourself fleeing through.