Original and addicting.
Mirror's Edge is a weird game to me. I enjoyed the idea of it since it came out and only recently got my hands on it and played through the game. I have found myself strangly addicted to the game and, now that I've actually been working on time trial runs, I find myself trying to perfect what I can do in it.
With a concept that basically could be worded as "jump on stuff with style," Mirror's Edge sticks out of the general game categories in a way that I find very compelling. The best parts of the game are when you are running and jumping on a semi-obvious path that just makes it look and feel awesome. This reminds me of that exciting feeling you would get when you played Sonic way back in the day. Holding right and jumping was never so cool. Mirror's Edge emulates that except you are holding forward. Of course that is a pretty rough comparison, but I now see enough parallels that I am going to run with it.
The worst parts of Mirror's Edge (and the old Sonic games) is when the flow of action is stopped by a long pause on something. Things in Mirror's Edge that bother me include the following: Elevators, valves, buttons, ladders and pipes (going up), and too many Police folk. All these things cause the fast, exciting gameplay to stop or pause for just long enough to make you sit back in your seat again, if you were on the edge of your seat that is.
The best part about Mirror's Edge is that they totally know that the above aspects of the game suck and they give us a way around it. The time trials are the strongest part of this game (Yeah, this is true with NO other game ever made, but go with me here). Time trials stick you against a clock in what usually is a portion of the story maps. These maps are made to have you fly through them in stylish fashion and yet be very challenging to get perfect. It was not long before I got into the time trials and found myself honing my skills.
This is a game that at least deserves mention of the art style in it. The bright world of Mirror's Edge is a very clean and appealing place. I really like the white, red, blue, yellow, and green of the world. Sometimes it looks like the entire city only had 5 different paint buckets or maybe just 5 colors of Crayola Markers. I like it, let's just say that.
The reason I give Mirror's Edge a 4 over the 3 I feel I should give it is simple. Mirror's Edge is a game all its own. It made a genre of its own in a style of its own, and it literally ran with it. I have nothing to compare it to except what I was expecting from trailers for it. It is set far enough aside from other games that, in my opinion, it can be looked at on its own. Would I pay $60 for a copy of this game? Probably not, but I feel a rental is good enough. My only concern about that is that at some point down the road I may really want to play a game where I can jump from roof to roof like a crazy person, then I'll have to get my hands on this again for it to feel right.
Mirror's Edge does what it promises. Its only issues are pauses in the thrill and a couple little control issues. Overall, it satesfies what it promises and turns out to be a very, very addicting game.
