Mirror's Edge has great platforming, but other elements fall flat
DICE is primarily known for its popular Battlefield series. Because of that, it's surprising they are behind Mirror's Edge. This game isn't focused on gunplay at all. In fact, the game encourages you to avoid combat situations at all times, and the act of shooting a gun isn't satisfying either, which is weird, since the guns definitely packed a punch in the Battlefield games. Instead of being a shooter, Mirror's Edge is based on Parkour, the sport that sees athletes moving from point A to point B as quickly as possible through the use of climbing, running and jumping.
It's a very clichéd story, but Mirror's Edge obviously was not intended to be remembered for its story, and it shows in its execution. The story gets told through animated cutscenes that I felt actually looked worse than what simple, in-engine cutscenes would look like. There is little story progression, and very little cohesion between the levels you traverse, and the bits of story thrown in-between. Mirror's Edge obviously has a story mode, but it might as well have been a simple series of levels without all the story stuff thrown in. For example, you'll play through a dark level because it's nighttime, then see a little story transition, and load up the next level. But even though the cutscene made it appear as though the next level is only moments after, you'll play in broad daylight, and you seem to be miles and miles away from the previous location, as the visual style is completely different. However, all these points aren't all that big of a deal, as the raw gameplay is what Mirror's Edge chose to center on.
Platforming is one of the oldest concepts in gaming. From Mario to Prince of Persia, there have been tonnes and tonnes of platformers out for a whole lot of systems. However, Mirror's Edge is probably the first platformer that's played entirely in first-person. This is both an advantage and disadvantage for the gameplay. The advantage is that you really do feel like you are taking these enormous leaps of faith, running at high speeds along rooftops, jumping over fences, sliding under pipes and so on. The first-person view really immerses you when you're playing. The disadvantage however, is that the actual platforming is less practical. When you are playing as the Prince of Persia, it's incredibly easy to time jumps because you can actually see the Prince running towards the edge. In Mirror's Edge, not so. DICE has done a really good job of fixing that problem though. If you look straight down, you can see about 80 procent of Faith's body. When you are sprinting, her arms will sway in and out of the screen. When you curl up in the air to make it over an obstacle, you can see her feet sticking out in front of you. And so on. These little touches make the way Faith moves much easier to understand and feel, in turn making the Parkour quite awesome.
The game knows this, and smartly employs a system called Runner's Vision to get around it. Mirror's Edge has an extremely sober colour palette, always consisting of white and another colour, depending on the environment you're in. That's it. When you're indoors, it's entirely possible to see one colour; green. Or orange or something like that. Now, what Runner's Vision does is mark objects that could and should be used to get further in bright red. This makes seeing where you're supposed to go, and how you need to go about things a whole lot easier, which fortunately eliminates a lot moments where you would get stuck. It doesn't get rid of the problem entirely, but it certainly helps.
However, as mentioned before, such problems are only present on the first playthrough. The second time you play a level, you'll have figured out a proper way to overcome obstacles. This is when the game kicks into high gear. Playing as Faith, and overcoming obstacles at an astounding speed is simply a joy. After you've completed the story mode, you can move on to speedrunning the individual storyline chapters, as well as do Time Trials. And both of these things are hard. The finish times required to get achievements on the storyline speedruns, and golden stars on the races are just about impossible to manage when you follow the Runner's Vision's cues, as it often offers a solution, but only a slow one. If you thought you were able to finish a level quickly, just wait until you see what some of the more dedicated players can do. Instead of simply getting good at overtaking the obstacles in red, they've thought of completely different ways to navigate whatever's in their way. When you see it, you'll realize just how versatile Mirror's Edge's platforming mechanics are.
Because the combat is so bad, and running and jumping is so good, you'll likely turn to simply running past guards and soldiers very quickly. Unfortunately, Faith is very fragile, and not only will she die very quickly when she's at the mercy of an assault rifle, but taking hits really slows you down as well. The consequence is that you may need quite a bit of luck in order to make it past a group of guards. If they decide to hit you all at once, you're done for. This turns those situations into pure trial-and-error, which again, can cause the game to grind to a halt. It's a shame the action sequences are so underwhelming, because it pulls the storyline levels in Mirror's Edge down from “fantastic” to “average”. Thankfully, it's nowhere to be found in the exhilirating Time Trials.
The game has a very appropriate techno soundtrack that really helps invigorate you during the levels. Voice acting is nothing special, but the story isn't relevant anyway, so it's all good. Overall, Mirror's Edge chose for seemingly basic presentation, but it's like that for a reason. This way the focus remains platforming at all times, which is smart.
Mirror's Edge is a game that does its platforming really, really well. However, all the other elements in the game pale in comparison. That said, Mirror's Edge is really enjoyable when it's got some momentum going. I'd say it's a game you should look for in the bargain bin.
6 Comments