Mirror's Edge (EA : DICE)

So, I have this friend. And this friend just happens to have a copy of the game Mirror's Edge. And this friend just happened to be willing to lend me said copy for my personal enjoyment at home. And I played it with much anticipation. And it has become the game that I hate to hate.

It's not that Mirror's Edge is a completely terrible game. It's that the hype machine caught my nether-regions and instead of massaging them gently, they eviscerate.



The Story
You play intrepid young Faith Connors and you are a Eurasian-American (?) runner. You live in a very Orwellian city that didn't really do any research on how to become an Orwellian city. The powers that be think that Big Brother is just a TV show. Your job is to deliver packages secretly for your secret clients by the last secret routes left, the roof tops upon hulking skyscrapers.

While listening to the police feed, you hear your sister, an officer herself, gets into some trouble. You and your kung-fu prowess goes out for the rescue. When you meet up with her, she's practically hovering around a dead body. He's the new and wonderful Mayoral candidate that was killed for his good heart. He's famous, you don't recognize him, and you practically grew up with him.

You're spotted at the crime scene and are instantly fingered as a suspect in this obvious doctor-up. You're sister is caught and you, armed with your Parkour skills, very little fighting skills and your secret decoder ring, set off to play detective.

Action! Betrayal! Thin plots! Guided by your trainer, your master if you will (and by that, I mean, dead man), run, jump and spin kick your way to uncovering the truth, and gaining freedom for you and your sister!

The Game
This game was garnered THE innovative game of the year for it's First-Person Parkour action. And indeed, for that, I find it all mostly true. The actions of running and jumping, spinning and climbing your way up buildings, down wires and across vast expanses to be quite exhilarating. Timing is everything, as well as aim. If you miss that pipe your lunging for, or don't let go of the wire at the right time, you're splatter. The game really makes you think about how to get to point B sometimes, which is quite refreshing.


The mechanic is used best, however, not in the single player, but in the time trials and free-runs. You're not being bogged down by pesky cops trying to kill you. And it is they who are to start my anger a-flowin'.


The other mechanics in the game revolve around fighting and disarms. For a woman who apparently know how to fight, there are very little moves you can make, and they are really stiff. Grabbing an opponent also takes some effort as you have to wait and perfectly time your grab to coincide with their gun turning red. This is much harder than you think. If you kick your opponent, or hit them, you have to wait until that whole 'OOF!' animation ends for you to start the grab and more often than not, the cops are so fast that it's nearly impossible to grab and flip. You die a lot when other games just let you finish your attacks seamlessly.

The other problem that arises is that for a game about freedom of movement, you aren't really free. There are only a few predetermined paths for you to take to allow you to get to point B. Sometimes if you fall and grab a ledge that you apparently are 'not supposed to', there's nothing you can do, even if you know that your way up is right behind you. The game won't let you turn around. Time to accept your fate and plunge into the abyss. Even the time trials, you have to move along fixed paths to reach the markers, even though the area has more ways to get to the end. Frustrating indeed.

In The End...
Rent this game. Perhaps wait until it's reasonably priced. This is not a game you should spend hard cash on. If you want games that don't have poorly undeveloped stories, fighting mechanics and a lot more freedom, I recommend the new Prince of Persia game or Assassin's Creed. If the people at DICE are smart, they will listen to the players and not make the same mistakes in the second installment. If they can pull it off, and I can make more money than I do, I'll consider Mirror's Edge 2 for purchase.