Zero Punctuation: Mirror's Edge Catalyst

Gatlank

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Dalisclock said:
I played the original a couple years after it came out and found it to be an interesting idea with some not so good execution. And now they pretty much remade it....and apparently repeated all the same mistakes(like the combat).

So yeah, I kind of feel like there's no reason to buy this one because I already played through it.
That seems pretty much it. I would expect that EA would correct the mistakes that made the last one frustrating/annoying and not just make a prettier story.

Darth_Payn said:
The new Mirror's Edge (that title still makes no sense) is a parkour sandbox? ANd Yahtzee didn't call it "Assassin's Creed without stabbing"? WHaaaaaaaaaaa?!
In AC you hardly have to stop for a minute to check your surroundings for the correct path while you have an entire squadron with better sense of smell than bloodhounds shooting at you from several directions.
That makes the parkour gameplay lose fun because you're supposed to be a nimble courrier that should have lost your pursuers 2 blocks ago.
Stopping doesn't make much sense and breaks the flow.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Miral said:
Johnny Novgorod said:
I thought this was supposed to be a prequel?
No, it's definitely a reboot. Faith's sister is completely different from the original game.
Then it sucks that they didn't own up to any of the several sequel hooks the original game set up.
 

Igor-Rowan

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I remember watching Elektra back in 2006, having met her through the movie Daredevil from 2003, and then I thought: "Is this a reboot or a prequel? Because she died by the end of Daredevil." Then I learned the movie IS a sequel and it WAS the same character to further f*ck with my mind, even though both movies don't connect at all; it was some sort of hybrid of sequel/spin-off with a hint of semi-reboot. I am facing the complete opposite scenario with this game. Did gaming companies went from not knowing how to name their reboots to completely forgetting how to reboot at all?
 

Thanatos2k

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Darth Rosenberg said:
Thanatos2k said:
It always baffles me whenever someone starts extolling the virtues of the first Mirror's Edge like it was some kind of secret masterpiece. Uh, no it wasn't. First person platforming sucks, the story was bad, the characters were bad, and the combat was bad.

I'm not sure if people actually know what they really want in a Mirror's Edge game, and judging by this game - neither does EA.
Pointer for the underlined: it's subjective... so it's perfectly logical and understandable for some to see the first game as a bit of a gem.
Every time I get into an argument about the quality of the first game I use Yahtzee's article about why it just doesn't work.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/columns/extra-punctuation/9796-First-Person-Platforming
 

Canadamus Prime

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Awwww... I was hoping for the E3 piss taking video this week
*sees end credits*
Oh Ok. I can wait.

Anyway I wonder if the irony is lost on EA (having a major corporation as a villain I mean).
 

emertonom

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It's "Angel Summoner and BMX Bandit," the game! You get to play as the BMX Bandit! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFuMpYTyRjw
 

Metalrocks

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Zhukov said:
I agree with most of what was said here, or at least can see where he's coming from.

Except with the combat apparently being too hard.

It... really isn't. So long as you pick your targets well, use the environment for the more potent attacks and make use of the dodge move then it's actually pretty easy. I died in combat a total of four times. (And died by falling dozens if not hundreds of times.)

I've seen a bunch of let's plays and such with people struggling and most of them were just plain shit at it. Not building up their "focus shield" thingy then charging straight at enemies with guns and wondering why it didn't work out.
i agree. i also didnt really have major issues with the combat. and i play on PC with M&K. the only once that are harder to defeat are these special KSEC guys who easily kick you away.
have seen some playthrougs as well and was just laughing how bad some are at the combat and say its so hard.

but yes, the game has its weakness but i personally enjoyed it a lot. the one thing i really wished for is that you can actually go down to the streets and be among the people but nope. you can only see them from a distance or the once you can see up close pretend you are not around. like this one mission you are in the building that has plenty of workers around and none of them bother to tell her off or even report her?
 

Dalisclock

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Miral said:
Yeah, most of the time the combat is fairly straightforward, and it's a lot better than in the previous game. Never had any trouble in the open world; the only time I struggled a bit was when they lock you in a small room with three of the elite enemies. (Had to resort to abusing the AI in that one -- climbed up onto a ledge and kicked them off whenever they tried to follow.)
Kind of glad to hear that, because my least favorite parts in the first game were the two parts when you had to fight a mysterious masked person with a rather high pitched grunt who kept trying to shoot you and you pretty much had to beat them up in order to proceed(which feels like the wrong way to do this in a game like this). Long, tedious and annoying in a game that's supposed to be about free-running.
 

RJ Dalton

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This game features a point where the main characters turn into pirate flamingos? I'm sold.
 

deadish

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Guess when it comes to free-running parkour there are better games - e.g. Infamous:Second Son, Assassin's Creed ...
 

Kingjackl

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I had fairly high hopes for this game; I replayed the first one a couple of months ago and thought about how much potential Catalyst had to improve the concept. But the mediocre reviews and reboot of the story suggest it didn't take the opportunity, which is disappointing. Hell, when I saw Yahtzee's review go up, I thought "oh that's right, that came out".
 

Ulquiorra4sama

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"Better do E3 next week"
You really don't have to.

Year in an year out of "why're you morons getting excited about things you like?" has gotten pretty fucking tedious and what with the delay of an E3 video this year and the general attitude of a lot of people i doubt there's anything new and insightful Yahtzee could say about what was shown off.

"Oh woe, a cinematic trailer, surely this means the entire gaming industry is about to die!"
"Kojima as Christ? The man's insane, why would anyone want to give him total freedom, this is never going to end well"
"A new Xbox? PC Master race keeps truckin' "
"Nintendo pushing a new Zelda? La-di-dum-de-da, who gives a shit"
"Last Guardian finally got a release date? Sony's really been rushing them towards the door, it's probably gonna be shit"
 

JagerBombastic

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With all of the superhero team up movies being popular in cinemas these-days I have decided to form my own superhero club that will consist of video game characters that where comprised to fail; Faith Connors, Aiden Pearce, Aerith Gainsborough, Lara Croft, Jamson Locke and of cures Batman.
 

Darth_Payn

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Igor-Rowan said:
I remember watching Elektra back in 2006, having met her through the movie Daredevil from 2003, and then I thought: "Is this a reboot or a prequel? Because she died by the end of Daredevil." Then I learned the movie IS a sequel and it WAS the same character to further f*ck with my mind, even though both movies don't connect at all; it was some sort of hybrid of sequel/spin-off with a hint of semi-reboot. I am facing the complete opposite scenario with this game. Did gaming companies went from not knowing how to name their reboots to completely forgetting how to reboot at all?
Well, in between movies, after she died, she was magically brought back to life, just like in the comics. She was, I believe, one of the first of many comic book characters to do that.
 

votemarvel

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As much as I hate to give something to the current VR craze, Mirror's Edge (both of them) would likely benefit from being a VR game.

First person Parkour doesn't work on a screen being of those silly thing like depth perception, peripheral vision, and spacial awareness. First person can not replicate those, which is why first person melee in games is always utter rubbish.

If the games had been third person they'd likely be in the same number as the Assassin's Creed titles, which to be honest likely isn't a good thing either.
 

Gladion

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I'm afraid it is my duty to point out that the Caspian Sea is actually a lake. So unless you're already in the Caspian Sea, there is no way to get there by ship. Despite this barely tolerable mistake, I enjoyed the video, however. Thank you for that.
 

Jburton9

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Thank you for the review Yahtzee : )

Ah bummer they went with the reboot route vs actually continuing the story. I guess you could say they lost Faith in the original story? *cough*

Anyway, when I recalled playing the original, I kept trying to run past the baddies at certain places and would end getting shot up at higher difficulties. So I watched a Youtube streamer The Playing Dutchman and I was like oh, so uh you do shoot some people. I remember the training parts about disarms and stuff but I never used it as I felt like I just need to haul ass and keep on the move.

Staying in one spot for a moment too long vs a large organized force with lots of information and communication systems ends up being a shooting gallery with Faith being the flying duck.

Well maybe next time they will opt to do an actual sequel.
 

Miral

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Jburton9 said:
Anyway, when I recalled playing the original, I kept trying to run past the baddies at certain places and would end getting shot up at higher difficulties. So I watched a Youtube streamer The Playing Dutchman and I was like oh, so uh you do shoot some people. I remember the training parts about disarms and stuff but I never used it as I felt like I just need to haul ass and keep on the move.

Staying in one spot for a moment too long vs a large organized force with lots of information and communication systems ends up being a shooting gallery with Faith being the flying duck.
It's possible to go the entire (previous) game without shooting anyone -- in fact there's an achievement for doing so. Though some of the levels (looking at you, Ship) make it harder than others. And of course not shooting people doesn't mean you're not killing them -- there are several times where you kick someone off a sufficiently high ledge that there's little doubt they're dead.

The reboot game doesn't let you pick up any guns (which is explained in-world by them being genetically locked), but I think it works out better this way. It does still have the same thing where if you stay too long in the open you'll attract too many enemies and get gunned down, but that's reasonable in-world too. (It's a little less reasonable that you can have all sorts of mooks on your tail who then instantly and mysteriously lose you when you enter a glass-walled building in plain sight, just because it's designated as a safehouse -- but it's hardly alone in that sort of obvious gameplay contrivance.) And again, despite the lack of guns there's still no shortage of people falling to their deaths.

Ultimately though I think the combat works better in this game than in the previous one. And you have more freedom to do the parkour outside of a mission context if that's what you're in the mood for as well.