Mirror's Edge

Much like the game, this review should be on the short side. The game brings something new to the table: first-person free-running. But is that enough to carry this game into a worthy sequel?

Taking a step away from shooting everything that moves in most first person games, Mirror’s Edge plays off the adrenaline you get from running from “the ” When I first heard about this concept I jumped right on board. Running from swarms of enemies as opposed to stopping to shoot is part of the fun. Assassin’s Creed gave me the same feeling in the moments right after you eliminated your main target and the entire city was after you. Hell, it was one of my favorite things about the GTA franchise; get as many stars as you can and see how long you can run. Mirror’s Edge is banking on you enjoying the role of the mouse in this chase. For the most part, it succeeds at this very well. I could actually feel my heart racing as I tried to escape the grasps of other free-running adversaries with odds heavily against me. But this is easily the of Mirror’s Edge, a game that has more low points that keeps this game from truly breaking out.

 
Perhaps my biggest gripe with the game is the story. 

The plot to Mirror’s Edge is a joke. If it meant getting rid of the pointless story and the hideous E-surance commercial segments that were supposed to further the story in between missions, I plead for Dice to just get rid of it all together and make more maps for platforming.

 
My other big criticism is how linear the game is. A game built on being able to jump along rooftops and take weird routes to a destination screams for more than one path. But the game, for the most part, keeps you along the red-brick road. The seamless hint system is helpful in providing the next ledge to leap to but if there were more than one option to utilize in reaching your destination, the game could have truly broken the mold in platforming games, especially since it provides online ghost running and leaderboards. Instead the game is short with little replayability. You can finish it in a weekend and hope like I do that they take the promised sequel down a diverse and rewarding path.

 
In terms of presentation the game does a decent job. The lack of much dialogue, real cutscenes, and multiple paths makes it surprising that the game is so short and still has such a cookie-cutter view of the city. The plot justifies the buildings being stark white with red flashing over the areas of interest and blue over, well the cops chasing you. Close ups on some textures are really nice and the detail on the surfaces of shiny floors or metal pipes is great. The running is well done with bobbing or rolling giving a somewhat dizzying effect a person would certainly feel while doing this. But the presentation lacks variety, some blurry textures on the main character’s arms or other areas, and the crappy cartoon cinemas drag down the presentation. The voice work is forgettable. The music is not memorable but catchy at times, and the theme song is pretty awesome.

 
Overall, Mirror’s Edge isn’t a bad game, but it suffers from ideas that just weren’t completely flushed out and finished. It would have been better off without a story and more effort into making the experience more unique and replayable. Multiple paths or even split-screen racing would have made the experience more memorable. I’m not excited about the sequel but I’m hopeful that they try to do more to reel in an audience than using first-person platforming as the only gimmick.