[Review] Mirror’s Edge

Mirror’s Edge follows the story of a Free-Runner that lives life on the edge. With some new ideas and a different take on first-person games, is Mirror’s a leap into a new territory?

When I first saw the trailer for Mirror’s Edge, I was immediately hooked. I loved the concept of fusing games like Prince of Persia into the First-Person world, making it seem like you were really pulling off all these awesome moves. Its style was unique and fresh. It wasn’t the gritty, destructive worlds we’re used to now with games like Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2, it was smooth, clean and relaxing. I downloaded the Mirror’s Edge demo the moment it was released and played it for hours, so far it had lived up to my expectations. As much as I loved the demo, I was worried that you could pull off all these leaps and risky moves only for so long until it got old, but did it?

First off, this game will create a love-or-hate relationship for many people. We are at a point in video games where almost every title out there has hundreds of guns, explosions happening left and right and at least two bad guys in every area are on the juice. Mirror’s Edge replaces all of that with a clean and simple environment. Enemies are simple, characters portray a more realistic human and the world feels life-like although life-less. Life-less because although buildings and other areas resemble well… buildings, etc. 99.5% of the time they are completely empty. It’s almost as if the whole world was created for Faith (the character you play as) and all the enemies that get trigger happy around you. It’s like you start the game after Aliens destroyed all humans, and you just happen to be one of the few survivors.

Faith is a free-runner, and the most badass delivery person since Paper Boy. She can climb almost any building and clearly has no fear of heights. Now what brings us to Faith’s little adventure? Her sister has been framed for a murder she didn’t commit, and after being arrested, it’s up to Faith to clear her name. That’s the story throughout the entire game. Simple? Yes. Been done before? Well… yes… anyway.

The team behind the game, DICE, did a good job making sure you felt like you really were Faith. Every time you make that huge leap you didn’t think you could make feels awesome, but you also get that nice tingly feeling after you fail a jump and end up plunging down 200+ feet straight to the ground. The latter is something you’ll be experiencing a lot during the game. You have to be very precise when jumping towards a pipe or a ledge, one inch off and it’s time to respawn. The game has plenty of checkpoints during all nine chapters, but it does get very frustrating falling to your death time after time, when you knew you almost had that jump. You’ll end up dying in this game by falls more than you will by enemies… although don’t get me wrong, you will get killed by enemies.

This isn’t Call of Duty where you can take a few shots from a Sub-machine gun, only to be back up and running moments later. Faith can only take two to three gunshots before it’s lights out. This leads me to the game’s most broken feature, the combat system. To be quite honest, I would have enjoyed this game a heck of a lot more if it didn’t have any enemies to fight against. Why? Because it’s just not fun. There are certain parts in where you have to fight them, or at least knock them down temporarily to progress. You fight by only pressing one shoulder button, although you can also flying and sliding kicks with other button combinations. There’s no actual difficulty in fighting the enemy, you just press the button until either you or they go down, then rinse wash and repeat. It’s like a current-generation game mixed with a NES game’s fighting mechanics. You’re encouraged to progress without any use of firearms, and for good reason. You can disarm enemies which is mildly fun, but actually using their weapons is useless and just shouldn’t be allowed period. They don’t feel responsive, not to mention that you can’t do your standard maneuvers with them. Once again, I understand that they wanted to do the “Avoid Guns” approach and I really like that, but if you are GIVEN the option to use one, make sure it’s at least half decent to use.

The game’s core, the actual free-running, is great. Leaping from building to building, mixing combinations of jumping, rolling, sliding and then hopping over a fence is very, very satisfying. This is where the First-Person Prince of Persia effect really kicks in, and it’s great fun. Even though combat might not be very fun, being shot at gives you that extra adrenaline rush that makes you think fast on your feet and looking for the next red marker. The game tries to avoid having you be lost by providing a guideline in the form of red obstacles. Ramps, pipes, bags, whatever you have to go through will usually be in the color red. While this does help, you will find yourself to be lost every now and then. You can also use an auto-look, which will have Faith look at the area you need to go, but it doesn’t work all the time. If you’re far from your objective, she will just look at the wall right in front of you which certainly won’t be of much help. You will have to depend on it sometimes, depending on your patience level. All in all the red markers and the auto-look do a decent job of letting you know where to go, but it could have used some more polish.

Where a lot of people might be disappointed in is the game’s length. You can actually finish it in about five hours. Coupled with the fact that there is no form of multiplayer, a purchase might seem out of the question. There is a Time-Trial mode with online Leaderboards and upcoming Downloadable Content for some extra juice, but it’s still a downer. If the game’s focus would have been in a modified Time-Trial mode, where it’s just more about Free-Running than it is a mediocre story, the outcome would have been a much better game with more replay value. There’s no real reason to go back to the story mode other than to try out the Hard Difficulty and unlock some extra Achievements or Trophies.

In the end, Mirror’s Edge could have been a great game and a strong Game of the Year candidate, but it isn’t. A different perspective in platforming and unique art-style made it stand out from other titles out in the market. The base for something different and special is there, but it just doesn’t come across well and might not appeal to a larger audience. While it is a great rental, I can’t see this being a purchase other than for collecting purposes. Sad that this had to be the result of such a great concept.