Report: Mirror's Edge 2 Open World and Combat Details Jump Out

Alex Co

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Dec 11, 2013
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Report: Mirror's Edge 2 Open World and Combat Details Jump Out


According to someone who has seen footage of Mirror's Edge 2 in development, the title's open world environment will be a persistent "always online" component and is targeted for a 2016 release.

Announced at last year's E3, DICE's Mirror's Edge reboot -- more commonly known as Mirror's Edge 2 -- has been kept out of the spotlight with details being kept close to the studio's chest. Fortunately, open world environment [http://www.rocketchainsaw.com.au/exclusive-mirrors-edge-83422-infromation/] will be a persistent "always online" component, that's also being made as a "multiplayer playground" where players can drop-in and drop-out seamlessly. You can read up on the details leaked -- which was verified by a NeoGAF mod due to the poster's track record -- below.


- Faking nothing, the E3 2013 Mirror's Edge 2 teaser was indeed entirely real time and generally unscripted, including the combat systems. Rocket Chainsaw has now seen both in motion in test environments, and they match up, graphically and mechanically.

- Target platforms are Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and Mac.

- Reiterating statements from DICE, Mirror's Edge 2 is a total reboot.

- Core goal of the reboot is to create an open world, living breathing city for you to explore.

- Part of this open world environment includes a persistent, "always online" component. The open world is considered a multiplayer "playground" where other plays can drop-in/drop-out seamlessly, freely choosing their level of interaction with other players and the game world. A comparison to Journey's online feature was given as the closest example.

- Other general multiplayer components include co-op and competitive modes, such as time trials

- Rebooting the universe means new enemies. Mirror's Edge 2 will include many AI opponents, some on equal footing to Faith. Among these are the standard cannon fodder Protectors, melee combat expert Sentinels, and armoured gun wielding Enforcers. We've been told that Faith does not have guns.

- DICE has taken on a lot of feedback from Mirror's Edge in shaping the combat system for Mirror's Edge 2. Heavy revisions have shaped the combat away from useless gunplay and one button combats (like the nut-punch) to a deeper system that emphasises speed and fluidity. Environment interaction is also a key feature of the combat system, Faith able to push, punch, and kick enemies out of the way, over ledges, tables, and railings. These physics driven interactions are combined with 1-2-3 punch/kick style combos, wall running, flips, and other martial arts moves, as well as brief grapples. Occasionally a third person take-down move will be used when an enemy is beaten, and "adaptive slow-motion" is used vary sparingly, mostly just to highlight cool sequences, like the E3 2013 trailer face punch. Rocket Chainsaw has seen all of these combat functions performed in real time, without scripting.

- While DICE are committed to providing a deeper combat system, melee combat is not the single focus of Mirror's Edge 2. DICE does not consider Mirror's Edge 2 as a brawler, but instead a racing game at heart. For the development team, the focus is on creating a game all about parkour: speed, fluidity, and mastery of your environment. Even these changes to the combat system are being done to prevent issues with Mirror's Edge where players would have a stretch of parkour with intermittent pace breaking stops to fight an opponent. DICE wishes to seamlessly integrate encounters and the combat system into the feeling of speed and parkour mastery, so players even while fighting are still on the move, making progress, and interacting with their environment.

- Its target release date is in 2016. Sorry kids. Fingers crossed it comes around earlier!


That last bit wasn't a typo. Mirror's Edge 2 is supposedly set for a 2016 release, which explains why EA hasn't been promoting it as much. When asked for a statement, an EA rep gave the standard, "We do not comment on rumors and speculation."

So, this Mirror's Edge reboot -- which we'll still call Mirror's Edge 2 until EA gives us a proper title -- will be an open-world, always-online parkour game with a revamped combat system? If true, then count me in. But do keep in mind that none of the details listed have been verified by DICE or EA, so don't be surprised if some things change.

Are you liking what you've read so far? What other improvements can DICE make to make Faith's PS4 and Xbox One debut a success?

Source: NeoGAF [http://www.rocketchainsaw.com.au/exclusive-mirrors-edge-83422-infromation/]

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Jul 11, 2008
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Always online and seamless multiplayer are redflags as far as I'm concerned.
Throwing server lag and forced multiplayer into something as twitchy and hard to pull off as firt person parkour is not something to be getting excited about.
 

Ed130 The Vanguard

(Insert witty quote here)
Sep 10, 2008
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Oh gods, 'Always Online' and EA in the same article is always bad news.

Lets hope you'll have the option to be able to putter around by yourself offline as I'm rather leery of those two words, especially with EA.

Having Journey style multiplayer is a plus however.
 

Grabehn

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Sep 22, 2012
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"always online component" This is going to seem a bit pointles but FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOU EA.

Online component? Really? Are they going to say that this will be a 4-people MMO? Why the hell do they keep trying to push this, it doesn't work, and the are just plain old liers when it comes to their "but it can't be done any other way" practices.
 

josemlopes

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Jun 9, 2008
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I think what they mean by "always online" is something like Test Drive Unlimited or Dark Souls where you dont have Singleplayer and Multiplayer as seperate entities, not necessarily "you have to have an online connection to play the game at all"
 

Vivi22

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Aug 22, 2010
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Kron_the_mad said:
Always online and seamless multiplayer are redflags as far as I'm concerned.
Yeah, I honestly just stopped giving a shit about this game. I didn't really give much of a shit before because I didn't trust EA to make it anymore, but I really don't give a shit now.

Why does Mirror's Edge need multiplayer? It was one of the best games I played last gen and it did that on the strength of the single player gameplay alone. I'm not going to play a game that forces me to play multiplayer when that's not what I want. Especially if it's going to be more always online bullshit. No thanks EA, I like to play my single player games whenever the hell I want. Not whenever the hell your servers are working.
 

kael013

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Jun 12, 2010
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mindfaQ said:
Oh please no open world crap. Like we don't have enough of this, already.
Yeah, because linearity in a parkour game that emphasizes fluidity and speed is a great idea. I had so much fun running around rooftops only to accidentally jump to my death because I wasn't following the EXACT path the game had laid out for me. (sarcasm)

OT: EA and always online are never a good mix; I predict a repeat of SimCity. I don't even understand why they need to make a shared overworld. On the other hand, having a gang of Runners doing a story mission together sounds like fun - provided co-op extends past time trials into the story mode.
 

circularlogic88

Knower of Nothing
Oct 9, 2010
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It says that their always online component will be similar to Journey, but that can't be right, because I played Journey offline. This just seems like another flimsy excuse for always-on DRM. Glad EA learned so much from the SimCity launch.
 

Me55enger

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Dec 16, 2008
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A game that had boundaries and built a brilliant game inside them. The answer is not always to go online and make it open world, and Mirror's Edge is one of those.

Then again I can't say the loss of Pratchett and the Emo-style makeover has impressed me thus far.
 
Apr 28, 2008
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Oh god no please no always online bullshit. As Kron_the_mad said this game sounds like it'll require precision and it's pretty hard to do that in an online game where you can lag at any moment. And please don't let this mean there won't be much of a story. I don't want multiplayer in this.

I can live with an open world, and the changes they're making to the combat/running sound neat... but please don't let the always online multiplayer world be true...
 

erbkaiser

Romanorum Imperator
Jun 20, 2009
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Crap.

Always online and forced multiplayer, on top of the earlier announced Sarkeesian involvement...

My interest in this game has hit zero.
 

searron

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Mar 1, 2010
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As long as the always online nonsense doesn't detract from the playing the single player offline ala dark souls, I'm ok with it.

If you can not communicate with the other players at all, as in you see them as other runners,not Faith, doing their thing, That could be pretty awesome. Jumping from across a gap, as another runner goes in the opposite drection with a quick nod. I'd be down with that.
 

LordMonty

Badgerlord
Jul 2, 2008
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Just please don't say the Jorney reference is a red herrying and this might not suck total balls. EA and online are two things that live to diapoint.
 

RealRT

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Feb 28, 2014
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So lemme get this straight.
It's a reboot to a game that is barely five years old.
It's now open world.
It has an always online component.
Take this all and add to it the fact that it's made by EA.

CHOO-CHOO! THE DISASTER TRAIN IS SET TO ARRIVE IN 2016!
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

I never asked for this
Sep 8, 2011
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Always online? So EA will never learn, huh? I bet the developer will soon come out and say how always online is totally their idea. Fuck this noise. I'm no longer interested. Unless I'm wrong and there is still an offline component.
 

Daaaah Whoosh

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Jun 23, 2010
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Everyone is complaining about the always-online, but I'm worried about the combat. I liked combat in Mirror's Edge, especially the wall-running-kick and the two in the balls, one in the chin approach.
 

Dire Trout

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Jan 6, 2014
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Alex Co said:
...the title's open world environment will be a persistent "always online" component--
...aaaaand I'm out. Seriously, EA, I don't know why I have to keep telling you to go stick your always-online games right back up your ass. I was sure you'd have gotten the message by now.