AgtFox
11-21-2008, 07:07 AM
Mirror’s Edge Review
Title: Mirror’s Edgehttp://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=2691
Platform: 360/PS3
Developer: DICE (http://www.dice.se/)
Publisher: Electronic Arts (http://www.ea.com)
ESRB: Teen
MSRP: $59.99 (360 (http://www.amazon.com/Mirrors-Edge-Xbox-360/dp/B00149PCAO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1226955165&sr=8-1)/PS3 (http://www.amazon.com/Mirrors-Edge-Playstation-3/dp/B00149ND28/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1226955165&sr=8-2))
Editor: Loren 'AgtFox' Halek
What's Hot: The pure sense of running, jumping and hurting along with your character; story isn’t too shabby; anime-like cutscenes
What's Not: Physical confrontations clash with running/jumping gameplay; jaggies on edges, some really bright white; trial and error gameplay can frustrate
Early on while playing Mirror’s Edge I found myself thinking about how much this game was like last year’s Assassin’s Creed (reviewed over at Evil Avatar) in my feelings toward it. I sat there thinking this is a good and innovative game, but it just doesn’t have that extra piece in it that pushes it into the great category. For Assassin’s Creed it was the repetition after the third assassination that kept it from ascending to those heights, for Mirror’s Edge the whole “trial and error” may become frustrating especially early on, but then you reach the second half of the game and things start to just fall in place. You find yourself looking for lines and trying to get away from trouble any way you can at breakneck speeds. Had I not finished Mirror’s Edge I probably never would have put it above Assassin’s Creed, but after finishing it there is no doubt this is the better original IP game.
Much like the recently released Dead Space this is a new IP for Electronic Arts. This time it comes from the gang at DICE, best known for the Battlefield games. The two new IPs from Electronic Arts couldn’t be more different from each other. Where Dead Space was a more claustrophobic and serious action game with sci-fi elements, Mirror’s Edge is a first person point of view action game where the thrill comes from the pure exhilaration of basically running free and doing whatever you want. Now, the game isn’t as open as Assassin’s Creed since the levels themselves are rather linear with some options of taking a slightly different way to the same end. In many ways the path is laid out for you, you just have to find and execute the motions correctly. Although it feels as if you can go anywhere, you’re honestly tied down to that path.
You play as Faith, an apropos name since you will be making leaps of faith throughout the game. She is a runner who uses parkour style moves to get from place to place and through things any normal person would find impossible. You work with a group of underground runners and have an overall “eyes and ears” guy named Mercury (or Merc for short) that speaks to you through an earpiece. The police obviously don’t like runners in this city and you spend most of the game getting away from them, trying to avoid actual physical confrontation with them whenever possible. Early on there is a murder of a high powered man in the city and Faith’s sister Kate, a cop herself, is framed for the death. Faith takes some info from the murder scene and starts running away from “the blues” (the cops). Soon enough her escapades are plastered over the television stations as you run through buildings. It seems this murder is tied to a whole conspiracy of epic proportions that is spelled out as you go through the game. Faith spends the rest of the game trying to stay away from the cops, find out more information about who is behind the murder and ultimately free her sister. She gets some help from a cop, Miller, who believes Kate did not kill the man, but the trust between Miller and Faith is very thin. Between chapters there are well done animated cutscenes done in an almost Japanes anime style. I’ve heard people wonder why these weren’t done in the first person engine that you play the game in, but I think the story is told better with these stylized cutscenes.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/mirrorsedge/shot1.jpg
The graphics and sound in the game is top notch, although you will notice a lot of pixilation on edges and low-resolution textures here and there. You will also find areas that are almost a whiteout like situation with all the buildings around you being bright white. These do somewhat mar the graphics a bit, but overall this bright city’s graphics are well done. The character graphics and animation are also well done, although I did notice a slight delay early on in the voiceovers and actual lip movement when using the engine, but later on they seemed to sync again. There aren’t a whole lot of load times, but there is one roughly halfway through each chapter that is a bit jarring simply because you may have Faith running at a fast rate of speed only to have the game pause as it loads. There are also loads between each chapter that happen at the beginning of the animated cutscene (and you can skip if you want once the level is loaded) and on the fly loads as the game goes into an in-engine cutscene.
Obviously the big draw in this game is the fact that you are playing through the actual eyes of Faith as she runs, jumps, grabs and generally kicks ass. Faith starts off at a slow run, but as she continues on she moves faster. Oftentimes she will grab onto a ledge and you feel as if you’ve just hit a wall yourself. As you travel through the city you will often find objects that are red in color. This is considered “Runner’s Vision” and shows Faith where she can jump to continue on. The red color doesn’t always show up in every section, so sometimes you are left with figuring out where to go next. Faith can do such things as use padded objects as a springboard, slide under low objects and do other general parkour moves.
The fighting sections are okay when you are faced with them, although they take you out of the general feeling of the game. They are relatively easy to get through, since the key is to disarm them and knock them out. You will see their weapon turn the color of red and you press the Y button to disarm them and knock them out. Another option is running towards them and either dropkick them or slide kick them and then punch them out. You will usually pick up their weapon after you are done and be sure to drop it because Faith doesn’t want to kill anyone and there is an Achievement to not shooting anyone in the game worth 80 Gamepoints. You can certainly use guns if you like, but there is certainly a pacifistic feeling to what Faith does because she’d like to avoid fights if at all possible. You will use guns at certain times to break glass in order to continue, but be sure to drop it once it has served its purpose.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/mirrorsedge/shot2.jpg
The control system on the 360 version is pretty straight forward once you are through the tutorial. I’m not sure how keen I am on using the left button in order to jump and lift Faith up in the game. It just seemed like overuse of that small button, especially considering most games don’t use it to the level this one does. In fact, the buttons and triggers are used a lot in this game, probably moreso than the face buttons. Arguably this could be considered a similar control style as Assassin’s Creed, but it had been a year since I played that game and I wasn’t used to using those buttons as much as I did here.
There are points in this game where you might get frustrated by having to repeat the same section over and over just to get to the next area. Early on in the nine chapters presented in the game I found myself going through one section multiple times before I finally made it through and later on during the more busy areas I found myself having to play it over and over. Trial and error games can either be fun or really frustrate you and I found this game to be somewhat frustrating at certain points, but generally not too much of a problem. The exhilaration of getting through a part you’ve tried over many times is a great feeling and you’ll probably have many times you’ll feel it.
Another slight fault with the game is one you will realize once the game is over. If you think about all the time you spent replaying sections until you beat them you’ll figure out that the game overall is really not that long. I’d say it took me with all my restarting somewhere between 10-12 hours to beat. If you were to go through it a second time I’d bet it would take you less than half that time now that you know all the jumps to make and how to go about evading the police. This does set the game up into possible rental territory because once you’ve beaten it you may not want to play through it again. There are the time trials and speedrun challenges you can take on though to get even more Achievements if you like.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/mirrorsedge/shot3.jpg
My thoughts on Mirror’s Edge certainly changed from early on in the game to the latter half of the game. Early on I was thinking this was a good, but flawed game with the constant repeating of failed sections and the total stupidity of how physical confrontation took you out of the core gameplay of running around and trying to evade everything. By the latter half things started to meld together, although the physical confrontations were still a source of headaches since I was going through the game trying not to kill anyone versus using a gun and blowing everyone away. The story is quite involving once you get into it and the total feeling of running, jumping and your adrenaline pumping as the blues and the other runners are chasing after you is just something you have to experience for yourself. DICE has made an excellent game and the door has been left open for the supposed sequels that were talked about not long ago. There are still some things they could tighten up, especially revolving around the physical confrontations, but overall this is simply one of the best gaming experiences to be had this year. Electronic Arts has certainly turned the industry on its head with really good or great original IP releases this year in Dead Space and this game.
Score: 4.5 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG4_5.png
Loren says, "The production values will entice you, but the trial and error gameplay may frustrate you enough to not finish the game. Give it at least a rent, but I honestly think this is one of the most unique gaming experiences of the year and everything gets better as you continue through the game"
- Review this title yourself (http://www.playitreviewit.com/reviews/write) over at Play It Review It (http://www.playitreviewit.com), part of the CoG Network
*Note - Review based upon 360 version of game
Title: Mirror’s Edgehttp://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=2691
Platform: 360/PS3
Developer: DICE (http://www.dice.se/)
Publisher: Electronic Arts (http://www.ea.com)
ESRB: Teen
MSRP: $59.99 (360 (http://www.amazon.com/Mirrors-Edge-Xbox-360/dp/B00149PCAO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1226955165&sr=8-1)/PS3 (http://www.amazon.com/Mirrors-Edge-Playstation-3/dp/B00149ND28/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1226955165&sr=8-2))
Editor: Loren 'AgtFox' Halek
What's Hot: The pure sense of running, jumping and hurting along with your character; story isn’t too shabby; anime-like cutscenes
What's Not: Physical confrontations clash with running/jumping gameplay; jaggies on edges, some really bright white; trial and error gameplay can frustrate
Early on while playing Mirror’s Edge I found myself thinking about how much this game was like last year’s Assassin’s Creed (reviewed over at Evil Avatar) in my feelings toward it. I sat there thinking this is a good and innovative game, but it just doesn’t have that extra piece in it that pushes it into the great category. For Assassin’s Creed it was the repetition after the third assassination that kept it from ascending to those heights, for Mirror’s Edge the whole “trial and error” may become frustrating especially early on, but then you reach the second half of the game and things start to just fall in place. You find yourself looking for lines and trying to get away from trouble any way you can at breakneck speeds. Had I not finished Mirror’s Edge I probably never would have put it above Assassin’s Creed, but after finishing it there is no doubt this is the better original IP game.
Much like the recently released Dead Space this is a new IP for Electronic Arts. This time it comes from the gang at DICE, best known for the Battlefield games. The two new IPs from Electronic Arts couldn’t be more different from each other. Where Dead Space was a more claustrophobic and serious action game with sci-fi elements, Mirror’s Edge is a first person point of view action game where the thrill comes from the pure exhilaration of basically running free and doing whatever you want. Now, the game isn’t as open as Assassin’s Creed since the levels themselves are rather linear with some options of taking a slightly different way to the same end. In many ways the path is laid out for you, you just have to find and execute the motions correctly. Although it feels as if you can go anywhere, you’re honestly tied down to that path.
You play as Faith, an apropos name since you will be making leaps of faith throughout the game. She is a runner who uses parkour style moves to get from place to place and through things any normal person would find impossible. You work with a group of underground runners and have an overall “eyes and ears” guy named Mercury (or Merc for short) that speaks to you through an earpiece. The police obviously don’t like runners in this city and you spend most of the game getting away from them, trying to avoid actual physical confrontation with them whenever possible. Early on there is a murder of a high powered man in the city and Faith’s sister Kate, a cop herself, is framed for the death. Faith takes some info from the murder scene and starts running away from “the blues” (the cops). Soon enough her escapades are plastered over the television stations as you run through buildings. It seems this murder is tied to a whole conspiracy of epic proportions that is spelled out as you go through the game. Faith spends the rest of the game trying to stay away from the cops, find out more information about who is behind the murder and ultimately free her sister. She gets some help from a cop, Miller, who believes Kate did not kill the man, but the trust between Miller and Faith is very thin. Between chapters there are well done animated cutscenes done in an almost Japanes anime style. I’ve heard people wonder why these weren’t done in the first person engine that you play the game in, but I think the story is told better with these stylized cutscenes.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/mirrorsedge/shot1.jpg
The graphics and sound in the game is top notch, although you will notice a lot of pixilation on edges and low-resolution textures here and there. You will also find areas that are almost a whiteout like situation with all the buildings around you being bright white. These do somewhat mar the graphics a bit, but overall this bright city’s graphics are well done. The character graphics and animation are also well done, although I did notice a slight delay early on in the voiceovers and actual lip movement when using the engine, but later on they seemed to sync again. There aren’t a whole lot of load times, but there is one roughly halfway through each chapter that is a bit jarring simply because you may have Faith running at a fast rate of speed only to have the game pause as it loads. There are also loads between each chapter that happen at the beginning of the animated cutscene (and you can skip if you want once the level is loaded) and on the fly loads as the game goes into an in-engine cutscene.
Obviously the big draw in this game is the fact that you are playing through the actual eyes of Faith as she runs, jumps, grabs and generally kicks ass. Faith starts off at a slow run, but as she continues on she moves faster. Oftentimes she will grab onto a ledge and you feel as if you’ve just hit a wall yourself. As you travel through the city you will often find objects that are red in color. This is considered “Runner’s Vision” and shows Faith where she can jump to continue on. The red color doesn’t always show up in every section, so sometimes you are left with figuring out where to go next. Faith can do such things as use padded objects as a springboard, slide under low objects and do other general parkour moves.
The fighting sections are okay when you are faced with them, although they take you out of the general feeling of the game. They are relatively easy to get through, since the key is to disarm them and knock them out. You will see their weapon turn the color of red and you press the Y button to disarm them and knock them out. Another option is running towards them and either dropkick them or slide kick them and then punch them out. You will usually pick up their weapon after you are done and be sure to drop it because Faith doesn’t want to kill anyone and there is an Achievement to not shooting anyone in the game worth 80 Gamepoints. You can certainly use guns if you like, but there is certainly a pacifistic feeling to what Faith does because she’d like to avoid fights if at all possible. You will use guns at certain times to break glass in order to continue, but be sure to drop it once it has served its purpose.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/mirrorsedge/shot2.jpg
The control system on the 360 version is pretty straight forward once you are through the tutorial. I’m not sure how keen I am on using the left button in order to jump and lift Faith up in the game. It just seemed like overuse of that small button, especially considering most games don’t use it to the level this one does. In fact, the buttons and triggers are used a lot in this game, probably moreso than the face buttons. Arguably this could be considered a similar control style as Assassin’s Creed, but it had been a year since I played that game and I wasn’t used to using those buttons as much as I did here.
There are points in this game where you might get frustrated by having to repeat the same section over and over just to get to the next area. Early on in the nine chapters presented in the game I found myself going through one section multiple times before I finally made it through and later on during the more busy areas I found myself having to play it over and over. Trial and error games can either be fun or really frustrate you and I found this game to be somewhat frustrating at certain points, but generally not too much of a problem. The exhilaration of getting through a part you’ve tried over many times is a great feeling and you’ll probably have many times you’ll feel it.
Another slight fault with the game is one you will realize once the game is over. If you think about all the time you spent replaying sections until you beat them you’ll figure out that the game overall is really not that long. I’d say it took me with all my restarting somewhere between 10-12 hours to beat. If you were to go through it a second time I’d bet it would take you less than half that time now that you know all the jumps to make and how to go about evading the police. This does set the game up into possible rental territory because once you’ve beaten it you may not want to play through it again. There are the time trials and speedrun challenges you can take on though to get even more Achievements if you like.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/mirrorsedge/shot3.jpg
My thoughts on Mirror’s Edge certainly changed from early on in the game to the latter half of the game. Early on I was thinking this was a good, but flawed game with the constant repeating of failed sections and the total stupidity of how physical confrontation took you out of the core gameplay of running around and trying to evade everything. By the latter half things started to meld together, although the physical confrontations were still a source of headaches since I was going through the game trying not to kill anyone versus using a gun and blowing everyone away. The story is quite involving once you get into it and the total feeling of running, jumping and your adrenaline pumping as the blues and the other runners are chasing after you is just something you have to experience for yourself. DICE has made an excellent game and the door has been left open for the supposed sequels that were talked about not long ago. There are still some things they could tighten up, especially revolving around the physical confrontations, but overall this is simply one of the best gaming experiences to be had this year. Electronic Arts has certainly turned the industry on its head with really good or great original IP releases this year in Dead Space and this game.
Score: 4.5 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG4_5.png
Loren says, "The production values will entice you, but the trial and error gameplay may frustrate you enough to not finish the game. Give it at least a rent, but I honestly think this is one of the most unique gaming experiences of the year and everything gets better as you continue through the game"
- Review this title yourself (http://www.playitreviewit.com/reviews/write) over at Play It Review It (http://www.playitreviewit.com), part of the CoG Network
*Note - Review based upon 360 version of game