In a city where information is widely followed, agile couriers called Runners transport sensitive data from prying eyes. In this utopian paradise in appearance, a crime has been committed and are now hunted. She is a runner called faith - and this innovative action and first-person adventure is your story. Mirror's Edge delivers you directly to the skin of this unique heroine as she traverses the vertigo of the urban landscape, with involvement in intense combat and prosecute high speed. With an unprecedented sense of movement and perspective, to be drawn into the world of faith. A world that is visceral, immediate, and very dangerous. Live or die? Soar or fall? One thing is certain in this city, you can learn to run.
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Fast and Fun with an attitude
This game is also made by the Battlefield team, so be assured the controls are spot on. Normally they love to shoot and blow up every thing. This time around; instead of going head on, they want us to run away. You even get trophies for not killing and not for getting shot. This is coming from DICE :).
The game is fast first person platformer. A fresh new adaptation of true and tried platforming. Rather than moving slowly and timing the jump from the edge. Speed is what counts here. You need to be moving at a constant speed to kick open doors, catch a drop wire etc. etc. Every thing is setup for constant nonstop movement. The level designs are so perfect; once you get hang of controls there is no need to stop. The game takes you through roof tops, A/C vents, malls, office walk ways and lots of other varied setups. At every stage there are multiple paths to move forward. There is a lot of freedom and it is tied well with risks. As with Battlefield risk reward balance is impeccable throughout the game.
The character is not a military marksmen. Neither are the enemies. They are just guards patrolling the building. So don't expect a epic gun battles. She is a fast and cute runner, so just run run. Don't waste time in gun battles. Your aim is to reach the check point not clearing the enemies. The game controls are very easy to pick up, yet very satisfying. I liked the time travel mode much more than the main game, mainly for the sense of accomplishment.
The game will take easily 10 hours to finish in the first run. I read reviews about 7 hrs, they must be super humans. Some of the latter levels do require you to try a few times. The real challenge comes in finishing the game without shooting any one. The main character can disarm, kick the guards un-conscious. If you really want to shoot them you can do it too. There is no penalties for shooting guards, you can't carry weapons while moving fast.
Audio is spot on. The art direction depicts the totalitarian regime. Every thing is cut out from a single template like old communism. It is a nice breath of fresh air. If you are tired of post apocalyptic burnt and brown backgrounds, join the party. The character models and physics are very impressive. Every thing moves as you expect them to.
It may take some time to get a handle on the game. Once you pickup the controls and nail jumps it is very addictive.
3.5;
Back when I first bought a Playstation 3, I played a game called Assassin's Creed which everyone before its release was hailing as a true next-gen action title. Only when it came out, people found it very repetitive, glitchy and even chore-like where you felt compelled to finish it but not necessarily falling in love with it either. Mirror's Edge is not quite there but it's still one of those titles where the more I want to love, the more the gameplay annoys me, the story is just uninteresting or certain mechanics don't feel well as it should. It's like other games where the "uniqueness" of the whole experience overshadows any faults the game has and while I do feel like I want to play it when it's not on, the more the faults just keep coming.
Story: In a totalitarian future, the world isn't dark, grey and dingey Blade Runner-esque but rather it's lifeless, sterile and looks almost boring. With the government controlling information flow and with its own degree of corruption, found along the city's rooftops are "runners", messengers/couriers with vital information and packages that they hand off to other runners. But when runner Faith finds her twin sister accused of a murder she didn't commit and a clue is found at the scene, Faith has to get to the bottom of it all, and running like hell.
Graphics: Whatever your thoughts on the game, there's no denying the game does have a sense of style. Largely in whites with the occasional bit of colour, it's definately a feat to have bland look great. The entire game is from Faith's point of view so unlike Gordon Freeman who seemed to float up ladders, Faith's entire body will be seen such as when you drop kick, climb ladders, do rolls and whatnot. It really helps the immersion factor and makes the game stand out on its own visually. What might turn people off is the cutscenes which look like a cross between the cutscenes from "Killer 7" and a more rounded version of "Samurai Jack". While they look fine, the tone of realism and cartoony might seem a bit too disconnected.
Sound/Music: The game's anchored by "Still Alive" (no not Glados' song from Portal) and that sets the tone for the rest of the music, a kind of electronical ambience. That is when there's actual music since most of it is actually just the city itself from car horns to engine sounds, the sound and music work quite well. Ditto for the voice acting with roles that aren't really standouts but the line readings aren't cheesy or melodramatic and it's nice to actually see a main character in an FPS do more than say a one-liner now and then (Master Chief, anyone?)
Gameplay: The game is a unique FP...um, there is shooting elements but it's more of a first-person platformer with Faith jumping over fences and low obstacles or sliding under them baseball-style with the feet right in front of her, which is perfect for low kicks on enemies. Controls take some getting used to but essentially it's up controls such as jumping or climbing up ledges (L1), down controls such as rolling from long falls or sliding under obstacles (L2), a quick turn-around uses for quick getaways or doing wall-runs to higher places (R1) and R2 which handles your kicking and punching. While it's different than X being jump, square being attack etc, it's remarkably intuitive.
But then comes the crux of the game's problems: interacting with the world itself. I will say this: when the game's on, it's ON with Faith doing so much acrobatic manuevers, you'd be hard-pressed not to look back and what you did and go "holy crap, I actually pulled all that off?" However this also comes with more frequent moments of missed jumps, ledges that should've been grabbed but Faith's hands just stay at their sides or trying to do one move only she doesn't seem to want to actually do that move. Yes it's fun when it gets going and I don't mind challenges but most of this game seems like you're trying to work around the game's control flaws rather than you just being a "bad player".
Enemy encounters will also be here and one way to deal with them is to, of course run, but on occasions you will have to fight some and pressing square triggers a Reaction time which is basically just bullet-time and helps with nailing the enemies with a drop kick or disarming them. However, sometimes the animation doesn't even register your move even when the gun is ready to be disarmed and making an enemy stagger doesn't allow a disarm either. So instead of getting rid of his gun when he's all winded, I have to wait for him to try to hit me before I can access the "disarming" part? Boo. While there is some gunplay, it's a lot more challenging to not fire a single bullet (and there's even a trophy/achievement for it).
One thing I should mention is that yes the game is short, depending on how quick you can get through the levels without constantly hearing your bones break underneath you but it's near 6-9 hours for the 9 chapters but with time trials and ghosts (characters entirely in red doing one route which you try to meet or best), there is a great replay value to shaving seconds off your time but as for the main story, it's not super long but doesn't really wear out its welcome either.
If it sounds like I'm being too negative then sorry but I know most people will automatically find this unhelpful and that my gripes are me just being a bad player or that I don't appreciate the "uniqueness" of it all but sometimes, a game with flaws is a game with flaws and Mirror's Edge has em, as much as I want to say it didn't.
Run Faith, Run
Mirror's Edge is an unique game, and I like unique games. It's always difficult for publishers to come up with a new idea and make it into a game that works, but with Mirror's Edge, EA / Dice seem to have managed it.
The basic premise is simple - you're Faith - a runner. In a city run like a police nation, runners take sensitive packages and deliver them via alternative means. In this case a highly athletic form of street running, or parkour. Each mission is an A to B affair but you have at your disposal the entire urban landscape from the bottoms of the sewers to the tops of the skyscrapers. Run, duck, slide, swing, wall-run, hop, skip and jump your way around obstacles that would, in any other game, be unpassable.
The majority of the game takes place well above street level, hopping from building top to building top, balancing on crane arms, and working your way around air conditioning units, pipes, construction materials and the other detritus you'd find on the top of any modern building today.
Gameplay.
Mirror's Edge is not only unique in it's idea, it's unique in it's presentation because it's a first-person game. You see through Faith's eyes, which means you see hands and feet, and unless you're in front of a mirror, nothing else. This is one of the game's strengths. Trying to use a third-person view just wouldn't work (as it doesn't work in Metal Gear). From a first-person view, you get a proper sense of speed and depth. As you run to slide under a pipe, you'll find yourself ducking in your chair. And if you've got a touch of vertigo, it wouldn't pay you to stand on the edge of a building and look down in Mirror's Edge - the effect is very convincing. The controls are pretty simple - run with the left stick, look with the right stick, and jump and duck. In addition there are basic combat controls to kick and interact with other objects, as well as a slow-motion effect for those hairy moments. You build up the ability to use slow motion by the amount of 'flow' you have. Flow isn't something with an on-screen meter, it's just a natural sense of making progress. If you stop before climbing every wall, and go everywhere at walking pace, you're not really making progress. But wall-run and then jump on to a roof, hop over to an A/C unit then drop off and slide under some pipes - that's a nice, flowing style of getting from A to B. Although when you first pick up the game, you'll be tripping over everything in sight and smacking your head on low-hanging objects all the time.
The game does mix it up a little with occasional encounters with 'Blues' - the police. You have some basic slide, jump and kick skills that can be used to attack them or disarm them but it becomes obvious that more time was spent in the control of Faith as a runner than as a fighter, as the sparse fight scenes are awkward to contend with and you'll often find yourself doing them over and over again just to try and get past the police. In some cases, you don't need to engage them though, so hop up on a container, jump over their heads and get away.
As well as all the rooftop acrobatics, there are many levels set indoors from the cavernous underground water tank in the first couple of levels (think the underground ice store in the film Total Recall) to the frantic subway chase which has you both dodging oncoming subway trains and riding their roofs whilst dodging rail tunnel infrastructure and jumping from train to train.
The game is short - 9 sprawling levels in all plus a training level - but it's exciting and fun to play and you'll find yourself going back and trying to better yourself on the levels you've already done. Having said that, the levels do get incrementally harder as you go through the game, and whilst the run/jump/slide gameplay might seem repetitve, there is always more than one way to get through a level. Crawl through the ductwork, or run through the office itself? Up to you.
You can choose to use 'Runner Vision' in the easier game modes which will highlight objects in red as you approach them to hint at the direction you should go and what objects can be used to achieve your goals. For example pipes light up red to indicate you should probably climb them, but as I said above, there are other ways of completing every task.
There's also trophies to be earned in Mirror's Edge, which is an added incentive to go back and do better. The tropies are nicely balanced between bronze, silver and gold. For example the easiest trophy is the bronze for just finishing the training level, whilst some of the harder silver ones require strings of moves to be assembled, such as wall-run to jump-tuck to slide.
Graphics.
The graphics in Mirror's Edge are excellent. The developers have created a unique art style which is mostly white with very pure colours here and there. It sounds dull, but it looks absolutely amazing when you play it. Your point of focus changes depending on whether you're looking at things up close or far away, and when you get up a lick of speed, there are motion blur effects that are added to the scene in a subtle enough fashion to not destroy the look and feel of the game. The usual sun flare and whiteout effects are present if you look the right way, and if you look down the cavernous canyons between the buildings, you can see people going about their daily lives as well as the occasional police cars parked up looking for you. The lighting and texture work is top notch with bump maps and reflections everywhere you'd expect them to be. Shadows are relatively well drawn too. The modelling of the levels is very very good and so far I have not noticed any popup in the game. That is to say, objects change detail or appear so subtly that your eye is never drawn to them. It's also worth pointing out the 'falling to your death' effect. Rather than simply understanding that if you walk off a tall building, you're dead, Mirror's Edge prefers to show you the ride all the way down to the pavement. As you speed up, the screen becomes more and more distorted until it suddenly goes black with a sickening accompanying sound effect. Whilst on your way to becoming a ketchup pancake, you still have full control, so if you really want to, you can pivot in the air and look at the rapidly approaching ground. But I wouldn't recommend it.
A final note on the graphics - read the signs on the fences before you jump over them, or at least get used to what they look like. Your first encounter with a high voltage fence will teach you that lesson quickly.
Sound.
There's a lot of breathing and panting in Mirror's Edge, as you'd expect from a game which is mostly concerned with running like hell. Other than that the environmental sounds are excellent. As you cross the rooftops, the background noise of a normal city is all around, from aircraft and helicopters overhead to the streets below and everything in between. Chain-link fences rattle when you jump over them. Steam vents hiss as you pass them. Bullets zing past and ricochet off walls if you're being shot at. Everything is properly in its place. The subway levels are made all the more nerve wracking by the sound of the train cars, and especially the train horn if you get too close. More than once, the horn took me so much by surprise that I fumbled a move and ended up as a hood ornament.
The music is very ambient for the most part. A lilting background accompaniment to your superhuman feats of dexterity. But it does change at the appropriate times. As you're getting close to an encounter with the police, for example, it starts to become a little more menacing, to ramp up the tension. And when you get in to a full-on foot chase over the rooftops and through office buildings, the music changes completely to an excellent run-for-your-life soundtrack, very similar to the style in the cult film Run Lola Run. The music in this mode alone is enough to stop you turning around to see how close behind you the police are.
Overall.
I wanted to take a star off my rating for this because of the somewhat clumsy fight mechanics. But the more I play the game, the more I can forgive that element of it because everything else works so well. From jumping over wire fences, to sliding down zip lines, to hopping over subway turnstiles and sliding under closing doors. If you're not sure, download the demo from the Playstation Store first - it's free and you'll get a feel for the game dynamics. I like it. 5 stars.
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