Geekshow

Review – Mirror’s Edge (XBox 360/PS3/PC)

Mirror’s Edge is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, the game provides an exhilarating sense of movement and momentum, but on the other, certain design choices keep Mirror’s Edge from being a complete success.

Mirror’s Edge is set in a world of totalitarian rule, conspiracies, and underground organizations. The game’s protagonist, Faith, is a Runner, someone who uses the rooftops to travel “between the gloss and the reality”, delivering clandestine messages for clients who wish to remain under the radar. Early in the game, Faith’s sister on the police force (known as “Blues” in the Mirror’s Edge universe) is framed for murdering a promising candidate for mayor. Faith sets out to clear her sister’s name and track down the real killer, hassled by the Blues at every turn. Along the way, she discovers that the truth is much bigger than what she initially suspects.

Hey! Who put me in an E-Surance commercial?!

The story sounds much more interesting on paper than it comes across while playing the game. Most of the cutscenes are presented in a Flash animation style that fails to live up to the quality of the rest of the game’s visuals. These sequences pull you out of the action when the rest of the game seems focused on keeping you firmly inside Faith’s running shoes. The few scenes that unfold using the in-game engine are much more effective at helping you experience things from Faith’s point of view, making me wish the entire story was presented in this fashion.

The rest of the game looks absolutely gorgeous. Faith lives in a city that looks like something Apple would create if the company got into urban development. Glossy white surfaces are prevalent, accented by splashes of bright, saturated color. While this somewhat simplified visual style gives Mirror’s Edge a unique look, it is also functional in helping you navigate the environment. The “Runner Vision” system causes certain items such as ladders or pipes to become red as Faith nears them, identifying proper routes across the rooftops. Early on, Runner Vision is very abundant, showing you exactly where to go. However, the system backs away a few levels into the story becoming more of a confirmation that you are going the right way rather than outright showing you where to go. However, getting lost is rarely a problem as levels are usually fairly linear. There are usually only one or two correct ways to get to your destination.

On the surface, Mirror’s Edge appears to be a first-person shooter, but it has much more in common with a platformer. Throughout the game, you are running from one end of a level to the other with plenty of drop-offs, enemies, and other obstacles getting in your way. A majority of the time, Faith is required to navigate from one platform to another, oftentimes while being chased. However, sometimes getting up close and personal with your enemies is necessary.

Kick to the face? Yes, please!

Faith has the option to pick up dropped weapons, but the game actively encourages you to use non-lethal means to achieve your objectives. To this end, you have several options that allow you to disarm and incapacitate your enemies. When Faith gets close to someone, they will attempt to hit her with their weapon. For a split second, their gun will flash red, indicating when to attempt a disarming maneuver. A successful disarm results in impressive animations where Faith grabs the weapon and uses it to knock out her adversary. Different weapons result in different take-downs. For example, Faith disarms a shotgun-wielding enemy by kicking their gun into the air, catching it, and cracking them upside the head with it. The window for disarming enemies is pretty small, but Faith can also slow down time momentarily, provided that the ability is fully charged, giving you a bit more time to react properly.

Taking on multiple adversaries without a weapon is a big no-no and will quickly get you killed. However, sometimes you don’t have a choice, and you need to take out enemies quickly. Walking up to them and throwing a lot of punches will eventually get the job done, if you don’t get shot to death beforehand. It is much more effective to run up to an enemy and attack them from the air or from the ground. In general, the more momentum you have going, the more effective your attack will be. A few areas even lend themselves towards literally getting the drop on someone by jumping down from above and landing a well-placed kick to the head. The places where you are able to combine acrobatics with combat are much more enjoyable than taking on enemies in more open areas. For instance, running along a wall and jumping off to kick a guard, spinning them around in the process, never gets old.

Wheee!!

While Faith has many avenues available to her for engaging enemies, sometimes the best option is to run away. Running is what she does best, after all, and this is where Mirror’s Edge absolutely shines. The game does an excellent job of simulating movement to the point that it is a joy to navigate the environment, and it becomes a hassle when you have to slow down just to take out a couple of guys in your way. Unlike most games shown from a first person perspective, Mirror’s Edge does not merely feel like a floating camera. Faith’s arms and legs are visible when she is pulling off spectacular maneuvers, and the camera bobs and weaves to her every movement. The game even goes as far as flipping your view over when Faith performs a forward roll. At first, the immersive style can be a little disorienting, but the simple control scheme goes a long way towards making you feel comfortable in Faith’s shoes.

All of Faith’s acrobatic moves are divided into two simple categories: up and down. Upward moves are assigned to the top shoulder button on one side of your controller, and downward moves are triggered by the bottom shoulder button on the same side. The shoulder buttons opposite these trigger Faith’s melee attacks and a 180 degree spin. Placing all of the major functions completely on the shoulder buttons helps give Mirror’s Edge a unique feel while playing. There aren’t many games that allow you to almost ignore the face buttons. Using different combos of shoulder buttons allows you to perform different moves, creating a surprisingly deep system of movement.

In order to be successful in pulling off proper moves, you must keep up Faith’s momentum. For example, hurdling a medium-sized obstacle will give Faith a small boost while sliding under it will slow you down. It doesn’t take very long to get the hang of things, and keeping Faith at full speed becomes second nature. Part of maintaining your rhythm and momentum is learning to recognize different features of the environment and how to best take advantage of them.

See a couple of small boxes stacked next to each other? Use them to get a large boost in height when you jump off them. Need to climb to a platform above you that is too high to jump straight up? Run up the opposite wall, spin around, and jump to it with ease. Falling from a ledge slightly too high up? Trigger a forward roll just before you hit the ground to break your fall.

Neo said it best: Whoa.

Despite having plenty of moves available for almost any situation, you will find yourself missing plenty of jumps and falling to your death. Luckily Mirror’s Edge has a very good checkpoint system, so you will rarely have to replay large sections of the game over again. When you are running full tilt across rooftops, making death-defying leaps, or hitching a ride on a subway train, Mirror’s Edge is at it’s exhilarating best. The times when you are forced to stop and take out enemies are where the game can get somewhat frustrating, especially if you are attempting to play through the game without using any weapons. The game is made much easier when you actually use the guns taken from your enemies, even though they are only good for a few shots before becoming useless. There are no boxes of ammo lying around, so once the clip goes empty, you’ll have to acquire another weapon if you want to continue shooting. Holding a weapon also restricts Faith’s speed and her ability to climb, adding a little extra incentive to get rid of a weapon quickly.

Apart from the main story, there are several other modes to play through. Each story level has three hidden messenger bags to collect, and speed runs for every segment become available after your first play-through. Additionally, there are several videos, music, and pieces of concept artwork to unlock, but the meat of the extra content is found in the time trial mode. The time trials feature several courses running through bite-sized chunks of the different levels in the game. Depending on how fast you complete a course, you will earn a rating of one, two, or three stars. It is very likely that you will fail to meet the base time your first few times through a course until you discover the optimum route, something that isn’t always obvious from the get-go. To help with this, you can download and race against a ghost of any of the one hundred fastest times from the online leaderboards. Doing so will reveal the fancy moves and routes through a course that others have used, provided you can stay close enough to their ghost to see what it is doing. The good thing about the time trials is that you don’t have to worry about any enemies bringing your momentum to a screeching halt, but a lot of the courses can be fairly difficult to finish with even a one-star qualifying time, so expect to spend a lot of time trying to shave few seconds off your best time.

This should be easy...

Mirror’s Edge is difficult to pin down. It does so many things right that should add up to something great. In particular, the freedom of movement in Mirror’s Edge is unparalleled by any other first person game out there. Despite several aspects of the game bogging it down from being the free-flowing experience it should be, the game is still a lot of fun to play and well worth checking out.

Final Grade: B-