Mirrors Edge: The Review
There are a few times in my life where a game has come out and taken me by complete surprise. Games that seemed to break the mode and show me what games can be. Unique, and superb, possibly a little flawed, but games that just keep you coming back.
Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Final Fantasy, and now I will add another game to that group. Mirrors Edge.
I was against this game from the outset. you can hear me spew hatred for it on my podcast. I trounced it evertime anyone mentioned that it could be good. How could they take something awesome in Like Parkour and put it in a First Person game, isn't parkour about watching the fluid motions of those jumps from the safety of your monitor.
The answer suprised me. Even after hating on the demo, I still gave this game the ole' college try.
This game is not about the game itself. Its weird saying that. You are going to die, you are going to get frustrated. But where this game shines is where you take Faith and do something amazing. When you wallrun and nail a jump that you tried 10 times already and knowning that you did it.
For a game to work like that it has to control great, and sometimes the control scheme you are used to has to be changed. The left bumper is up, the left trigger is down. Jumping, sliding, are your skills for the most part. They are the key to building momentum, taking out armed enemies and just making you feel awesome. Right trigger attacks, weather it be fisticuffs, jump kicks, slide kicks or guns.
Combat can be frustrating however, as you use the Y button to remove an enemies weapon from him, but sometimes it flashes red so quick that you catch it in the face instead of in the palm of your hands. But when you pull it off, it is very satisfying to take down an enemy. I found the guns to work well when I used them. I tried not to, but the last two chapters seemed almost impossible withour them. And more has to be the fact that I ran out of patience than anything.
The graphics are crisp, clean, and minimalistic. But anything important will turn bright red, completely standing out to you. And this saves much time and frustration. However when the game does not give you these visual cues, it suffers from "I am Lost" syndrome. You will just feel annoyed when you have to slow down to find out you went the wrong way, or that you have to climb to a higher location and you just cant find where to get started. Alot of the times this happens in the indoor enviorments.
The game also includes Races with leaderboard support. Where you can pit your skill against other to get the quickest times. Also there are several time trials as well. Each awarding you stars for completing the tracks in a certain amount of time.
This game was great. However at $60 there really is not much of a game there. If you are like me, the time trials you will mostly ignore and the main game can be completed in a scant several hours. But if the idea of time trials and races appeals to you then by all means this game is probably for you.
I give this game an A-
Feeling Robbed Moment: Getting to the last two chapters of the game and then having to give up my quest of not shooting anyone, because the game throws two many machine gun toating guards at me.
