Review: Mirror's Edge

[Zaph]

Thirdly, and the most irritating bit of all - that bloody eye tattoo. To me, there's no point making your character realistically attractive if you're going to obscure that with an eye tattoo which causes instant disgust in my eyes.

For these very small and extremely pedantic issues, I will not be purchasing the game.

What.


Uhm, anyways, good review. I think the game looks somewhat tantalizing, so I'll probably
rent it or somesuch.

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

Free running, or free-style parkour is the term for setting up a specific route - get this, a route - and running it as stylish as possible.

I'm not saying the game doesn't resemble real life free running or parkour (definitely NOT free style!), I'm saying it DOES and it makes for a dull game! Why not a stylish cover system incorporated into the route you decide upon instead of soaking up helicopter fire? I really hate the way everything is magically labelled in 'runner vision' but still usually results in a fail, going back to my (I admit,poor) AC comparison, AC didn't need markers, if something looked 'grabbable', it was, and you picked your route on your own judgement.

I think that ME's bad points stand up on their own;

A 'Boss' battle that is literally 1 button press..(I concede it's unfair calling it a Boss battle, but the whole scene was kinda cheap)

Using elevators a lot, they had it right when you grab a lift off a chopper, it feels like something a rebellious runner would do and doesn't break the immersion.

The 'slow time' function, why not make the combat (in a game that relies on pacing) more accessible and sack off 'bullet time'?

I truly believe that this title deserved more of a sandboxy approach, this wouldn't have hurt it's theme, gameplay or aesthetic.

Well grabbing stuff was a lot more easy in AC wasn't it? You could just press two buttons and be on your way, just keep running and you'll always grab something. I think Runner Vision was a great idea since it makes you look at the whole environment differently, noticing certain objects might be used for certain things (springboards, pipes, bars you could swing from etc.) After you got shown around a bit as to what kind of object or set of objects could be used for X purpose, you had Hard difficulty wherein you had no Runner Vision and could use your pre-acquired experience to find your own way. Also if you found the Runner Vision a dick move from the start - in a game which is more puzzle-focused than AC so it actually drops a couple hints to avoid frustration but ok - you could also switch it off from the start and figure it out on your own.

Yes the 'Boss Battle' was a bit lame, but thank god they gave you a second boss battle which was a bit harder.

Hmm yes elevators. I'll go about this one from the character's point of view: Even the best runners in the world need a breather. Especially if they've just been shot at, had to climb fences, run immensely fast and jump inconcievable distances. I can't blame Faith for taking the elevator to be honest. Also it didn't seem like there was much choice in the large skyscrapers since none of the other rooftops reached that far, and news helicopters are a bit short in supply.
Also I personally appreciated the elevator breaks at some times. The game got to me that much - especially the intense shoot outs before you escape into said elevator - that I myself was in need of a breather as well.

Helicopter fire needs to be soaked up? I was relatively able to avoid getting shot by them by running through narrow passages and keeping my momentum up. And why does this need a cover system? it's no shooter where you're faced with shoot outs wherein you need to stay in cover to survive. If you want cover, crouch behind a circuit box or any other thing that breaks the assailants line of sight with you, seemed to work for me well enough, especially on The Boat.

Yes the game relies on pacing. Very fast pacing. Which is why the combat is also very fast-paced. And my opinion is to avoid making it feel like AC in which you could again press two buttons to finish someone off, they went for a faster, more fragile approach. Yes some of the disarms are next to impossible without reaction time which makes it hard to go without but it's not entirely impossible. I think it's more realistic seeing that making a split-second mistake will end up with you bleeding all over the boots of your enemy. It seems very real to me and I wouldn't have it any other way.

But then again I usually used my Reaction Time for timing my jumps and looking at very cool moves a bit more slowly so I could revel in the awesomeness.

It seems we both have a very different view on a lot of features, in that I believe you hoped for a first-person-ish version of AC and I enjoy the more old school trial and error gameplay of ME, and take its features you regard as faulty as actually quite good. That about right?

One thing I noticed in the Demo was that if you caught one bullet, suddenly the cops became world class marksmen. It was wierd, if the cops in the first encounter miss you at first they seem to miss the whole time, but if one hit you, then you get shot a whole lot more very quickly. Other than that I loved the demo and will pick up the game eventually.

 

[BoredKellon]

I found this to be one of the most thrilling and immersive games i have ever played. Call me an elitist or whatever but I have always been a fan of limited UI in game and I even played through without runners vision or the reticle which made the hectic pace and not knowing where to go quite exilerating. I also tried not top use B but sometimes you just have to.

Also:
"The type of quickshot tapping that running up a wall, turning 180 degrees and leaping to a ledge requires would be easier to do if you could simply map jump to one of the face buttons, but you can't."

I have to COMPLETELY disagree with this. There's a reason why all the important buttons are mapped to the triggers and bumbers. It's to make the game easier by allowing you to control the character with both analog sticks while simultaneously performing your manouvers. As soon as you move to the face buttons then you lose partial control of your character to press them. In a game like this where you have to aim many jumps in a very precise manner and make lots of small adjustments, that small fraction of a second to push the 'x' button or whatever could be the difference between making a jump or not. It's doubly important during things like time trials where every little inch matters. In a normal FPS it's not nearly as big of a deal as you can always sidestep/strafe to adjust but in mirror's edge that'll kill your momentum and incase you didn't notice, momentum is EXTREMELY important. Basically though it may work well in most games to have the jump button mapped to a face button, in mirrors edge it'd be a huge disadvantage. You may not even realize it while playing but it'd definately make the game harder. I also found the controls easy to use and intuitive, but I also play bumber jumper in Halo 3 so using the bumber to jump is actualy nothing new to me.

 

[Susan Arendt]

I found this to be one of the most thrilling and immersive games i have ever played. Call me an elitist or whatever but I have always been a fan of limited UI in game and I even played through without runners vision or the reticle which made the hectic pace and not knowing where to go quite exilerating. I also tried not top use B but sometimes you just have to.

Also:
"The type of quickshot tapping that running up a wall, turning 180 degrees and leaping to a ledge requires would be easier to do if you could simply map jump to one of the face buttons, but you can't."

I have to COMPLETELY disagree with this. There's a reason why all the important buttons are mapped to the triggers and bumbers. It's to make the game easier by allowing you to control the character with both analog sticks while simultaneously performing your manouvers. As soon as you move to the face buttons then you lose partial control of your character to press them. In a game like this where you have to aim many jumps in a very precise manner and make lots of small adjustments, that small fraction of a second to push the 'x' button or whatever could be the difference between making a jump or not. It's doubly important during things like time trials where every little inch matters. In a normal FPS it's not nearly as big of a deal as you can always sidestep/strafe to adjust but in mirror's edge that'll kill your momentum and incase you didn't notice, momentum is EXTREMELY important. Basically though it may work well in most games to have the jump button mapped to a face button, in mirrors edge it'd be a huge disadvantage. You may not even realize it while playing but it'd definately make the game harder. I also found the controls easy to use and intuitive, but I also play bumber jumper in Halo 3 so using the bumber to jump is actualy nothing new to me.

You may perhaps be right, especially in the time trials - which I know I'm too ham-fisted to attempt. Still drove me bonkers, though.

 

[jewru]

it looks like a interesting game. i like how the developers went with a first person game that doesn't completely revolve around shooting the crap out of things. kinda reminds me of assassins creed. ill give it a rent at least.

 

[mintsauce]

Nice review Susan, you picked up on a lot of points that I noticed as well. I'm still in love with this game.

 

[Miral]

I haven't played it yet (as I don't have a console), but the comments about there being One True Path bother me. In the prerelease videos they definitely mention that there are alternate paths, and that you don't necessarily need to follow the red lines (and that certain paths will only be available if you build up enough momentum first).

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

very fast paced, I had tons of fun with the game.

 

[Fordo]

I've watched my buddy play this game on the PS3 for about 3 hours. This will sound weird, but the gameplay kind of reminds me of Cruisin' USA or San Fransisco Rush. Before LOLWTF?! I mean, I like that on the levels I've seen, usually there's a regular, obvious route that you can master to get you to a point as fast as you can, but on the other hand, after some exploration you can find a faster, yet more technical route. This to me is why I would keep playing this game. Trying to get the best times by mastering the technical parts of the game.

On the other hand, I don't like the feel of the city. More than once I'll say to my friend, "where are all the people?" The look is also just bland to me. I know the coloring was done to help characters distinguish from a red route to an orange one, but I'd like to think there could of been a better way to do it without making it so blatant, or bland...Maybe the hardest difficulty has a completely different colorization to the town that doesn't distinguish anything as something you can interact with? (probably not).

Overall, I think this is a great game to see in the industry...not that I follow the industry, but a game that really focuses on your ability to get out of tight spots without guns ablazin' is a welcome site. I hope other similar games come out like this. I'd hate to see this concept pigeon-holed into never ending sequels to this one game.

 

[orberon]

Is this game more open world and free like assassin's creed? or is it more of a linear flow in levels? with the runner's vision i would assume it's a game of linearity platforming.

 

[chuckman1]

There's some serious problems with this game.

 

[Baneat]

I love this game, it's even better on my PC. It breaks barriers and is the right lenght for the kind of game it is.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

I see one major, show-stopping problem to mapping the "jump" function to a face button on the 360 controller; you'd have to remove your thumb from a thumbstick to do so. It'd force you to lose directional control for the period immediately before and after the jump, and that could slow you down and might even make some maneuvers even more difficult to pull off.

I did finish the game, though I'll confess to using a walk-through to get past a couple of the puzzles. Runner vision isn't perfect... and in at least one case the optimal jump path is hidden in shadow too dark for the red to show.

Overall, though, I found the game very fun despite the frustrations and I look forward to trying the "Test of Faith" achievement soon on replay. (And maybe beating some of my Friends' times on the speedruns and trials.)

-- Steve

 

[Novania]

Ok, the eye and arm tattoos really fit well with Faith's character and it helps to make her stand out from the rest of the people of the Mirror's Edge world. I think they also work for the goal of a different style of character for a relatively undiscovered first person gaming style. Maybe thats what EA and DICE were aiming for anyway, something new to stand out from as Yahtzee put it "The year of the sequels". I really hope that other developers will be inspired enough to create something similar but not rip the game of its uniqueness entirely.

I had a great time playing the game and died enough times to match, but it was worth it. To me the game stands out from the recent games i have played; Saints Row 2, Fallout 3, etc. So I feel that the game designers really achieved something memorable by finally dismounting the bandwagon and taking a "Leap of Faith" into a new style and you know what, it worked, it worked really well.

 

[Rosslar]

this game is unfortunately nowhere near its potential

i mean its a clean flowing game that is pioneering a new direction for gamin but...
and its a big but. why would you create a fantastic game that is narrow and squashed.
levels areas are short or compressed and single tracked there is no leeway in any of it. maybe and i don't like me saying this but if it were a sandbox game*shudders* then it could be a lot more interesting with you actually finding your own routes i think the consoles of today could handle it.

p.s i think the shoulder buttons are a nice change (gives your thumbs a break)

 

[Mak Min]

You know what's my (borrowed) definition of genius? It's someone who can say "this is not for me, but it's good"; or someone who can say "this is good, however it's not for me".

This article is written by a genius! Too many people complain and complain, and unconsciously neglect the fact that because they don't like it does not make it not good!