Reviews: Mirror's Edge Review

Spot on (hah!) review, I completely agree with it and have felt this way all along watching it's development.  3rd person would've been the way to go, but maybe DICE thought they'd be able to be the first to nail a 1st person platformer.  Maybe when we're wearing VR goggles or plugging something into our head will peripheral vision be factored into a workable game like this. 

Perhaps some weird camera mod like the Quake command line where you could distort your view to see behind you will surface.  It looked like ass but you could see to your sides when others couldn't and it was a huge advantage.

I may go out and rent this game now, looks like it can be fun.

Ha! Noticed the e-surance ads near the end of the video. Awesome!

This review proved that many game critics can be pretty pedantic, if a critic isn't having fun and awesomeness every single second these days, then the game is faulted or is flawed. I do however, don't like the parts where you're locked to face some guards at a time, because for sure that's not Faith's strength. I never had a problem navigating the environments, it gave me some time to explore if I was lost and the Guide button is very helpful (B button). If you're stuck, you can always find these Bags to collect to pass the time away.

I'm surprised Ryan didn't mention that you get "Loading Level" points in a level, much like Half Life 2, where it really kills the flow of the game. That was annoying. And he didn't mention the awesome time-trials, that is addictive.

Nice review.  I'm definitely picking this up, though - the concept is just too damn interesting for me to pass up.

Great review Ryan - thanks :)

I am animated!

I like the soundtrack

lol at the end

man that esurence stuff was rude haha

ryan - how long is the game? what graphic engine does it use? is their online play?

I love this game. I bought it, everyone should atleast rent it.

Hmm i had high hopes for this game. Might check it out when it reaches the bargain bin.

DrewBruschi:  Exactly!  I think that's what made it hilarious!  lol

Great review.

I really wish I hadn't bought this game. And no, it isn't based entirely on this or other posi-negative reviews; it's more a combination of that plus the short length. Also, I tend not to finish games with frustrating moments. With so many games to play at the moment, I feel like I'll reach a part of the game I don't like so much, and then stop playing and switch back to maybe Left 4 Dead, or a harder difficulty of Gears 2.

more like 0/5 stars.

Great review! Great haircut (get a ZZ Top, will ya?)

Funny esurance bit. This is what makes me go to giantbomb.

*LOL*

Cute ending, but I believe you've turned the irony on its head.

Anyway, fair review. Probably a good start for a series that should be explored further.

endings made of win.

This game was great, but the peripheral vision is missing to truely feel like your running, unfortunately its just not that easy to pull off either...

Awesome ending!! LOL

Thanks for the Review, Ryan. Not my cup o tea.

Well, its got uniqueness

the girl in the pink is from a commercial

Absolutely love this game. DICE did a fantastic job. Can't wait for the sequel. :)

Gotta check it out

Way to slip in video advertising, GiantBomb! ;)
lol xoxo

Duke Togo, you haven't actually played Mirrors Edge have you? Well, it should NOT be third person for any reason AT ALL. It's simple... some people get it and some don't.

 I agree with some of the criticisms in this review but these levels are meant to be played more than once. Unfortunately, thats where my main criticism comes in. You play normal to unlock hard witch effects combat and there's no Runners Vision on hard which is great! The problem is that they don't use RV correctly and that's where most of the downtime comes in as you end up stopping to look around for something red so that you can keep 'free-running' through your first playthrough of the game. But, most of the time you don't see red... I remember seeing red when it was the only way to proceed. I was hoping for RV to show me the basic path throughout the game.  This isn't a big issue, it just cements the fact that the levels are meant to be replayed.
Fortunately, the levels are creative and have more than one path so this doesn't hurt the game too much for me but a better use of RV for a first playthrough would have been extreamly welcome.

My only other criticism is that some enemies are near impossible to dissarm, even when you slow down time... other than that I think that combat is well done but lacks variety. And like the 1up guy's said, you should be able to dissarm an enemy that is buckled over or knocked back or whatever. Solution? Kick him in the head when he's buckled over and then give him the 1-2 punch, works every time...

Maybe you should play the whole game before agreeing with someones review, especially when said reviewer isn't all that good at parkour. lol, jk. I think something that Ryan forgot to mention is the ability to slow down time, this is helpful for more than just dissarming enemies as it's also great for pulling off some very tricky parkour. It also has a very long cooldown time so don't worry, it doesn't play the game for you. Also, there is alot more variety in these lv than some people let on as your constantly moving to very different locations. So, your not freerunning on fooftops as much as you may think.... infact, most of the time your NOT! 4 starz from me but great review there.

Oh yeah, Ryan, try pressing the correct button when jumping off A CRANE THATS 35 STORIES HIGH!
And maybe turn up the sensitivity...

LONG LIVE BROWN!

lols @ the esurance bit. man i bet they hired the same company to do that or something haha.

Sense of humor is superior!

Good review, Ryan.  Mirror's Edge looks good enough to me, I'm gonna check it out once it's released for PC.

BTW, I've done a remix of the Mirror's Edge theme:

http://www.jamglue.com/mixes/6319543-Still-Alive-THA-DnB-Mix

It's energetic D&B stuff! If you would rate the track there that would be awesome. It's for a competition. :)

What I've noticed is that Mirror's Edge is either your thing, or it isn't. Luckily, it seems that if you like idea of the game, and the foreseeable lifetime you could put into perfecting timed runs of the game's levels, then you'll probably end up happy with your purchase.

As for this review though, I think Ryan was slightly over negative and too narrow focused. Game Trailers has a much more well rounded review that not only points out more of the games positives, it also delves into the game's over modes, which Ryan doesn't.

That being said, the quality here is as expected from the great people at Giant Bomb and I loved the E-surance reference. :)

Seeing the footage of Ryan playing Mirror's Edge does not convince me that it is not so great a game. However, seeing the clip where he pressed the crouch button rather than the jump button convinces me that Ryan struggled through this game primarily because... well, because he is bad at the game. Maybe I am not the right kind of person who needs to rely on reviews, but I've played Mirror's Edge with my friend and I loved it. It did not necessarily come out as a perfect game, but few games are and it should not be put down for that.
I understand Ryan's complaints about the game, but I do not agree with any one  of them. I just feel that if Ryan wasn't terrible at playing the game, maybe (a faint maybe) he would have cut the game a little more slack. And posting a philosophical piece on the main page's udates won't turn me around on it. I don't think games that try to be different should get special treatment, but shouldn't get completely beat down as well - unless the game is unplayable.
When listening to Ryan and other veteran members of the games press, I hear stuff like to the affect that it is good for developers to try taking risks and trying new stuff. After someone tries, it seems like their game is bound to be looked upon to be a destined failure. It just looks as if no one can truly make up their minds. Well, I have made up mine. Whether the game tries to be different or not, I won't label something it isn't and rate according to what I think it is trying to be. I also won't criticize a game or count it out because of its difficulty. And I will certainly not complain about a game because I may be bad at playing it.

Right now I have my hands full with GTA4, Fallout 3, COD4, and (as of today) Street Fighter II remix, but I'm really looking forward to playing this.  In certain games -- take Splinter Cell for example -- I don't mind dying if each attempts involve trying to find clever solutions to problems.  If the game world is consistent and the physics are good, it's a lot of fun.  There were times in Splinter Cell where I'd solve a situation by handling it one way, but I wanted to keep trying more fun ways to do it before proceeding. 

And who else isn't getting burnt out at pointing a gun in first-person games?  This is the only game where not having a gun feels natural.

lol Esurance

Game reminds me of the movie "Ultraviolet".  Same theme, colours and being a courier outside of normal society.  I like games that push gaming in a new direction and take that risk, instead of playing it safe all the time only to cash in.  Games like this open up the flood gates to new ideas and genres for games which imo is always needed to keep the industry moving forward.  Obviously the game has its problems, but games like this will do and only time will prefect these problems.

Great review Ryan.

Another great video review. Props to Vinnie for actually highlighting what Ryan is talking about it when he's talking about it - something waaaaaay too many video reviews fail to do.

Also, nice ending ;)

It's a lose-lose scenario.  They could either make the game really fluid but painfully easy, or challenging but disjointed (as they did).  Either way, they take a hit in the reviews.

Side note: Nice piggy back, Esurance.

I had to play the demo a couple of times to actually like it, because it is indeed different, but i didnt like at all the trial and error, besides everybody say that its a short game, so for me it will be just a rental, maybe PC version will add something else.

Just finished it last night. I was aiming for the "Test of Faith" trophy which means never shooting an enemy in the game. All I can say is that I was really tempted to use the guns at some points >_< the games combat is mad frustrating.

After seeing it through to the end and watching this review I acctually agree with all Ryan had to say about it. Srsly, everything. The game is beautiful at parts and while the rooftops got a little old towards the end, I was pleasantly suprised that you acctually reached street-level on some rare occations. The highest level guards could be BS to deal with in large groups (not shooting them didn't make it easier). So while I got stuck on some parts for 30 minutes plus because of this I also got stuck not knowing where to go regularly. Maybe where the hint button pointed me to was a button behind a wall, little did I know I had to go back a couple of rooms and find a small opening in a fence that I didn't see ( I partly blame my non-HD tv for that ) to reach the room that lead to it.

All in all a good solid game, and one I'm glad I played. Now I'm just hoping the sequel adds some improvements and doesn't just recycle everything from this one. Mirrors Edge 1.2 , no thanks.

Honestly, my only and main gripe with the game after having finished it multiple times, is:

Mmmh! No mention of the games awesome music. :<

Ha, lol, they put in a commercial from e-surence at the end, it does have a similar visual style as the cutscenes in mirrors edge.

I want to play through this game at the very least. Now that I'm caught up on the "must plays" on my list of games I'll probably give this a whirl.

well it's a new way of thinking for a game ill give em that but after ive tryed it a feew times ive stumbelt upon some ''dead'' ends where i whas like ... okay ... no indicator of what to do now okay im screwed

First-person Parkour, great concept.