The beautiful yet strange mongrel child of the FPS and platformer
When I think of Mirror's Edge developer EA, the first thing that springs to mind is playing fifa on the megadrive and being amazed by the voice intro ('It's in the game'), the second thought that crosses my mind when i think of EA is the endless number of sports games littered with fashionable indie/rock "trax".
With this in mind I have found myself impressed and surprised by the recent upturn in decent new IP that EA have developed, first there was Skate- a reinterpretation of the skate-em-up that Tony Hawk had so much success with and then single handedly pummelled to death (i blame the introduction of Bam Margera). Then there was Dead Space, a genuinely scary alternative to Resident Evil that managed to take the good old 'trapped on a space ship with only mutilated corpses and aliens for company' vibe and make it feel fresh again.
Mirror's Edge is another bold change in direction for a company that until recently had decided that the world needed more Fifa Street. The story of Mirror's Edge revolves around a free-runner named Faith who, in the futuristic world in which the game is set, works as a courier for revolutionary types (well, that is what i assume but in the game you only ever deliver one package) that refuse to accept the dystopian society in which CCTV and "swift justice" are the norm. I'm not sure why courier companies have been banned by the government but we should be thankful for that because a Mirror's Edge in which you play a Fed Ex driver would be a little hard to enjoy.
The world of Mirror's Edge is a beautiful and striking one, this is helped by the simple primary colour scheme that offers a refreshingly bright and welcoming environment in comparison to the dirge of brown and grey lands that have become the mainstay of modern first person shooters.
The majority of the game revolves around parkour (a french term for 'not getting the bus' if i'm not mistaken) and the game excels in providing a smooth and fluid simulation of the sport. The only other games that I can think of that are able to focus provide such free-flowing and enjoyable movement would be Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed or Prince of Persia; these games, like Mirror's Edge, are able to transform the simple task of moving from A to B into an enjoyable process that rarely becomes a bore.
Mirror's Edge can often prove to be a very unforgiving game, whilst it is incredibly rewarding to string together a fluid string of moves together, it can also mercilessly punish you for a mistimed press of a button which leads to your character falling to her death.
The game, whilst it should be applauded for offering an original method and set of controls (be prepared to use the shoulder buttons, a lot) it proves to be sadly flawed by the half hearted (and much criticised) combat. When i first started playing the game i assumed that more hand to hand combos would be achievable as you progressed, a la Spiderman, unfortunately this is not the case and you, the spirited free-runner/delivery girl, must resort to the same pattern of 'slide kick, punch, punch, jump kick' through out the game.
Faith can thankfully disarm security guards/policemen with a simple quick time event move which looks nice when it is performed initially but quickly grows old. Upon the disarmament of your foe you can then use their gun and the remaining ammo to take out your other enemies. It is next to impossible to beat a group of guards in hand to hand combat so you are then faced with the option of gunning them down or simply running away. The shooting element of this game is by far the weakest part of Mirror's Edge, although this can be viewed as either a positive or a negative depending on your viewpoint; you can think that this ruins the game or encourages you to think more tactically whilst giving the main character a vulnerability that is rarely seen in a game protagonist.
A large part of the game (when not running away from the rozzers) is the need to work out how to actually scale a building, often it is simply a matter of climbing up a drain pipe or jumping up a wall but often the game demands that you attempt ridiculous combos to reach your goal. This 3D first person puzzle element reminded me of Portal and the need for experimentation to proceed, it never reaches the same level of Genius as Valve's output but it is still pleasing to see a company willing to place thought over violence, especially using the first person view point and the connotations that go with it.
The story line is fairly weak and unimportant and each level follows a fairly simple structure: get to this place, meet someone, run!!! The anti-totalitarian element, whilst hackneyed, is still relevant and apt for the world in which we live in today. Given such an emotive idea that has been powerfully utilized by other media in the past (1984 and Children of Men for example) it is disappointing that nothing exciting materialised from it as the game went on.
The tempo of the game is well paced often driven by the soundtrack that feels futuristic and hip enough whilst never becoming distracting enough to make you think about it. Oddly though the bgm seemed to sporadically drop out for periods of the game, I can only assume that this was designed to create tension, instead it just seemed like a glitch in the game.
Mirror's Edge is a strange game, there are certain elements of the game that i love (the way in which Faith kicks and barges into doors and the wobble of the camera perspective is a simple trick but effective) whilst other parts are laughable such as the cut scenes; I can see what DICE were trying to achieve, the simple colour scheme works but the animation is terrible and often seems tired (I personally would have gone for an Animatrix-esque style for the cutscenes).
Like I said, it's an odd game, it tries to create a new way of approaching the FPS and it succeeds in a number of ways, unfortunately a bold style and an element of uniqueness can only carry a game so far before basic faults begin to grate.
Despite EA's new venture into original titles I'd like to hope that Mirror's Edge will be given a sequel in true EA style. Now that DICE have established what works and what needs improvement, Mirror's Edge 2 could be a very good game.
With this in mind I have found myself impressed and surprised by the recent upturn in decent new IP that EA have developed, first there was Skate- a reinterpretation of the skate-em-up that Tony Hawk had so much success with and then single handedly pummelled to death (i blame the introduction of Bam Margera). Then there was Dead Space, a genuinely scary alternative to Resident Evil that managed to take the good old 'trapped on a space ship with only mutilated corpses and aliens for company' vibe and make it feel fresh again.
Mirror's Edge is another bold change in direction for a company that until recently had decided that the world needed more Fifa Street. The story of Mirror's Edge revolves around a free-runner named Faith who, in the futuristic world in which the game is set, works as a courier for revolutionary types (well, that is what i assume but in the game you only ever deliver one package) that refuse to accept the dystopian society in which CCTV and "swift justice" are the norm. I'm not sure why courier companies have been banned by the government but we should be thankful for that because a Mirror's Edge in which you play a Fed Ex driver would be a little hard to enjoy.
The world of Mirror's Edge is a beautiful and striking one, this is helped by the simple primary colour scheme that offers a refreshingly bright and welcoming environment in comparison to the dirge of brown and grey lands that have become the mainstay of modern first person shooters.
The majority of the game revolves around parkour (a french term for 'not getting the bus' if i'm not mistaken) and the game excels in providing a smooth and fluid simulation of the sport. The only other games that I can think of that are able to focus provide such free-flowing and enjoyable movement would be Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed or Prince of Persia; these games, like Mirror's Edge, are able to transform the simple task of moving from A to B into an enjoyable process that rarely becomes a bore.
Mirror's Edge can often prove to be a very unforgiving game, whilst it is incredibly rewarding to string together a fluid string of moves together, it can also mercilessly punish you for a mistimed press of a button which leads to your character falling to her death.
The game, whilst it should be applauded for offering an original method and set of controls (be prepared to use the shoulder buttons, a lot) it proves to be sadly flawed by the half hearted (and much criticised) combat. When i first started playing the game i assumed that more hand to hand combos would be achievable as you progressed, a la Spiderman, unfortunately this is not the case and you, the spirited free-runner/delivery girl, must resort to the same pattern of 'slide kick, punch, punch, jump kick' through out the game.
Faith can thankfully disarm security guards/policemen with a simple quick time event move which looks nice when it is performed initially but quickly grows old. Upon the disarmament of your foe you can then use their gun and the remaining ammo to take out your other enemies. It is next to impossible to beat a group of guards in hand to hand combat so you are then faced with the option of gunning them down or simply running away. The shooting element of this game is by far the weakest part of Mirror's Edge, although this can be viewed as either a positive or a negative depending on your viewpoint; you can think that this ruins the game or encourages you to think more tactically whilst giving the main character a vulnerability that is rarely seen in a game protagonist.
A large part of the game (when not running away from the rozzers) is the need to work out how to actually scale a building, often it is simply a matter of climbing up a drain pipe or jumping up a wall but often the game demands that you attempt ridiculous combos to reach your goal. This 3D first person puzzle element reminded me of Portal and the need for experimentation to proceed, it never reaches the same level of Genius as Valve's output but it is still pleasing to see a company willing to place thought over violence, especially using the first person view point and the connotations that go with it.
The story line is fairly weak and unimportant and each level follows a fairly simple structure: get to this place, meet someone, run!!! The anti-totalitarian element, whilst hackneyed, is still relevant and apt for the world in which we live in today. Given such an emotive idea that has been powerfully utilized by other media in the past (1984 and Children of Men for example) it is disappointing that nothing exciting materialised from it as the game went on.
The tempo of the game is well paced often driven by the soundtrack that feels futuristic and hip enough whilst never becoming distracting enough to make you think about it. Oddly though the bgm seemed to sporadically drop out for periods of the game, I can only assume that this was designed to create tension, instead it just seemed like a glitch in the game.
Mirror's Edge is a strange game, there are certain elements of the game that i love (the way in which Faith kicks and barges into doors and the wobble of the camera perspective is a simple trick but effective) whilst other parts are laughable such as the cut scenes; I can see what DICE were trying to achieve, the simple colour scheme works but the animation is terrible and often seems tired (I personally would have gone for an Animatrix-esque style for the cutscenes).
Like I said, it's an odd game, it tries to create a new way of approaching the FPS and it succeeds in a number of ways, unfortunately a bold style and an element of uniqueness can only carry a game so far before basic faults begin to grate.
Despite EA's new venture into original titles I'd like to hope that Mirror's Edge will be given a sequel in true EA style. Now that DICE have established what works and what needs improvement, Mirror's Edge 2 could be a very good game.
