Mirror's Edge

Mirror's Edge is one of the few parkour/free run focused games out there. Not only that, but it's an action-adventure game that is ethereal, vibrant and beautiful in almost every way.

The art direction is vibrant and it works well with the overall atmosphere of the game which is relaxing, intense and grimy.

The gameplay, once you get the hang of the control scheme, is flawed but intriguing. The mechanics require a bit of time to master, but once you do it's a fluent game - for the most part. But there are rougher and unpolished elements of the game that do make it a slightly frustrating experience - especially when certain missions force you to utilize these unpolished aspects.

The story here, while not the best or most fleshed out, contains an interesting premise and plot within an interesting world of characters and organizations. It's like an original comic book story come to life - appropriate, since Mirror's Edge comic issues were released alongside the game. The tone of the story is serious, but soulful. The characterization throughout the story is brief, but relevant and the overall storytelling is compelling and well-paced.

Mirror's Edge is a game that you need to get used to in terms of its presentation, but it is a beautiful game that provides an interactive experience like no other. It's got a dreamy atmosphere, flawed yet thrilling gameplay and an interesting but very streamlined story.

As for me the best parkour mechanic in this game is 70% parkour, 15% story (with cartoons) and 15% action shooter (flashy with bosses).

And I'll tell you, I liked how the plot (it was even epic at the end), so the atmosphere of dystopia (even I would say it's not the same anti, I'd rather like it in such a clean city), but even though it's like 2110 in the yard, but the people are still the same, and I would rather give it to 2030, but oh well.

The graphics still look good, nice and playable, with the exception of one annoying incident (in the game at 4k resolution, the text in the menu becomes pixelated)

The game is divided into 9 chapters, introduction and tutorial, the chapter was completed in 7 hours, but there are also challenges for those who have not played enough, such as passing through time levels, etc.

Shooter mechanics are secondary here, and generally not needed at all, in the xbox 360 there is even an achievement to pass without football, and yes you can, but it turns out a little longer, it's rather a pleasant start to the battle with the cops, and you need to beat them on the skull, but you need skill)

The parkour mechanics are at their best here, and so that the player does not get confused, since the developers faced the task of preventing the game from turning into a game where a person thinks 1 jumps 7 times, and the action, after a while, jumps on the roofs of buildings on the go.

In fact, it's difficult, except for the difficult one (which opens after beating the game, which is correct), the places that you can catch on are highlighted, and in combination, and it's well woven, it doesn't get out of style =), and there are a few bugs or unpleasant moments (sometimes I was stupid for a long time for 3 moments, where I did everything right, but the character didn't cling, and then it's recommended for 10, everything worked out) in general, there is a gap for a "space", the result skipped cutscenes and the dialogue slider does not skip the volume of cartoons.

And finally, the music at the end sunk into the soul, and just a great soundtrack in the game

At the end, they let you know that there is a reserve for the continuation, but there is no actual continuation (catalyst remake)

Mirror's Edge could be described as this: a platformer With shooting elements. This game is good, but not great, it seems a little out of Place for a platformer here's why.

Set in the future, the story follows Faith, a very good freerunner who Works for the Runners who delivers bags and do Dangerous building jumps and parkour, but when Faith's sister gets kidnapped, it's up to Faith to save her before Faith gets killed by the Blues, a evil Corporation of police officers, on search to stop Faith from saving her sister.

The game is a first-person 3d platformer which focuses on the discipline of parkour, you use Faith's acrobatics to get to point A to point B. The combat is a mix between shooting and mêlée, the combat is awful, the shooting is very shallow, With AI being so ludicrous it pisses me straight to hell.

The platforming is good With a few issues, the Control Works but the design is the worst, it's a tough but shallow design Choices they've gotten to this game. The game biggest issue is the length, it's a short game taking roughly a few hours to Complete.

Mirror's Edge is a good but flawed game, it's story, length, combat and design is horrible, but animations, parkour and uniqueness makes this a game Worth buying.

7/10

A good and highly original game nearly ruined by unforgiving controls and sparse checkpoints, resulting in frustrating trial and error gameplay.

Graphics are nice, and I liked their ultra clean urban vibe. Environments are well designed and look more realistic than in many other games. The music is minimalist and fits well. The story is fairly short, but well presented and I liked the stylised cutscenes. Most of the story has you running away from a police manhunt, and reminded me of some of the story in HalfLife2. Gun combat is basic, but not bad, and this game is not about combat anyway.

The first person view can make it difficult to keep your bearings, but is fairly well implemented and refreshing in a market saturated with 3rd person views. The controls are a good concept and quite nuanced, but difficult to master, and can feel very inconsistent. You are either someone who quickly "gets it" and then is free to enjoy the game, or like me, you are not quite able to master them. In my case this is also partly because the parkour is inconsistently realistic and arcade at the same time (only someone with a Crysis style Nano-Suit would be able to do those wall running jumps etc). I think many gamers with perfectly normal keyboard/controller talent will still struggle, like I did. I found some segments a bit too difficult and the scripted events were harsh, also resulting in many frustrating re-attempts. The checkpoint save system is a pain if you are struggling with a segment, and in that respect, it renders this game inferior to something like HalfLife2 which has an excellent manual save system. I had so much trouble at times, that I had to look up some youtube walkthroughs for help. It would have helped if there were more advanced training tutorials. Maybe the random loading screen tips could also have helped, but I have a fast SSD, so never got to read them. Parkour controls in Assassin's Creed may be a bit too simple and forgiving, but at least it is a lot less frustrating most of the time.

Annoyingly, there is no way to pause or reload cutscenes, as it is easy to accidentally skip them. This game is a fairly good port to PC, with no mouse accel or lag, and rebindable controls. Fortunately, no Origin account is needed with the steam version.

It is such a pity this game has serious flaws, as it is otherwise quite good and I would have really enjoyed it. I look forward to Mirror's Edge 2, hoping the devs will have ironed out the issues without dumbing the game down.

Conclusion: Whether you will enjoy this game depends entirely on how good you are with your keyboard/controller, and how much trial-and-error gameplay you can tolerate.

You have to clear your police officer sister from a murder she didn't commit. That sets the tone for how stock the characters and story are… and it doesn't even have resolution, it doesn't end, just… stop. After 6 hours(or less, for others) that feel too long.

This has you maneuvering corporate buildings, streets, alleys, and sometimes(so it remains fresh) rooftops, by jumping, wall-running, zip-lining and the like. Heck, you move down more than one active train tunnel! At its best, it's immersive and exhilarating. More often, it's annoying, worse, boring, at times even frustrating. Many have given up on this, and it's no wonder why. There are a number of glitches where you won't grab a ledge or the like even though you did it right. This grinds to a halt far too often, where you have to shimmy, crawl through a vent, or, worst of all, wait for an elevator. Sometimes both before it arrives and as it takes you to another floor. Why not have it as something that you have to run into, as it slides closed and/or travels whether you're on it or not? Opening regular doors in this is done on the move, heck, almost everything is. So why stop?

If you find this appealing, I would redirect you to UbiSoft's TMNT. That doesn't slow down your rush or break the tension, it actually has replayability, and it has more complex gameplay, in part because of more options in mêlée. Here, that feels "off", you have to wait a little too long and be overly close, and you're engaging in flying kicks and such from afar, and if you don't hit just right, as with everything else in this, it's awkward. You may have to run circles around the SWAT that hunt you for roughly a third of this, luring them apart and such, even if you make the mistake of engaging in the poor gun-play. You have to disarm an enemy, and even then have no extra clips, and whatever you wield, it will slow you down by a factor corresponding to how heavy the firearm is. The supposed tension of them trying to shoot you becomes white noise as you try to find out where you're even going.

This requires you to build and maintain momentum – if you don't have enough for a leap, you'll fall short. Why isn't there a version of this for the Wii? This keeps you moving and has you not slow down as you parkour around. There are 3 difficulty settings, and it's challenging even on Easy, and right from the start. This does feature some satisfying, hard won victories. Then again, too often, you accidentally go a little too far or short and fall off, in part because you cannot see your hands or feet, and thus don't know if you are at the edge, if you can grab on, etc. There's a reason this sort of thing is usually from a third, and not first, person perspective. It's made worse by the very Assassin's Creed traits of a key sometimes doing something you didn't expect it to, response times being an issue, and you failing without understanding why. There not being a HUD, outside of the reticle, is well-done, and health loss is shown by the few colors of the visually striking city losing saturation… so why not have subtle hints like that for when you're in position to do something unusual?

The animated cutscenes clash with the regular look. Why not stick purely with what your avatar can see? Half-Life and F.E.A.R. make that work well, and when this goes for that, it's great – if there wasn't the quick white fade to let you know, you might sit and wait for it to let you helm the controls again. This has a real Tokyo, Japan look and architecture – it is sometimes reminiscent of Aeon Flux the film, or UltraViolet, and comes off as a game of the original Matrix. This is full of trial and error, you try out the different paths until you find the right one. It gets tedious to try over and over, and doesn't save often enough. You only learn by dying, failing. It has been placed by some in the racing genre, which makes sense, but this is not capitalized on with obvious co-op or multiplayer. Instead, the only replayability lies in the one type of collectible(the lack of customization does mean you focus on getting further, not looking for something or assigning points), and the Time Attack Mode. 23 small levels, earned either by completing the chapter it's from or doing well on one of them. You can grind these with the online leaderboards.

The thankfully short and skippable tutorial is restrictive, unforgiving and doesn't tell you what you did wrong. It's of the type that only trains you to pass the test, rather than teaching you how to play the game. It starts and stops, constantly. Retrying doesn't put you very far back, in case you wanted to. Why not let the player follow the trainer while moving, since the rest of this, you're supposed to keep moving(worse even, they do that early on, anyway, so they did know how to do it!). You do not get what would actually help, which is an area where you can practice and learn at your own pace. This is one of those where Every step of the way, the guy on the radio is *talking*. Meaning, he doesn't just pitch in every so often with "head to x", no, he snarks at you constantly, even when you're making progress! This was so much better in Enter The Matrix, where the character is funny, likable, and isn't yelling at you like a scolding parent.

There is some disturbing and violent content in this. I recommend this to the very patient – otherwise, a Let's Play of it will be more enjoyable. 5/10