It’s surprising how long it took for the gaming industry to catch on to free running, given how popular it has become in the past few years, mostly thanks to YouTube. Our first proper glimpse at the potential a parkour-themed game could have was probably in Assassin’s Creed, as the protagonist was able to climb walls, swing from rail to rail and dart across thin beams. It wasn’t a fantastic parkour experience, but it was certainly an introduction to the style that may well have created the hype the industry needed for them to base a game on it.
Mirror’s Edge is a first-person action/adventure game, dominated by the colours red and white. Its primary objective is fairly simple, but the game’s plot isn’t one I was expecting, or glad to see: You take on the role of Faith, one of many networked runners in the city that rebel against the government, who heavily monitor electronic communication. It is the job of the runners to evade surveillance and deliver messages between groups in the city. Not far into the game, the plot begins to unravel, and before you know it you are being sent to various places above and below the town, on a quest to solve an assassination mystery – and this is where Mirror’s Edge loses it what it could have been.
Mirror’s Edge is an extremely fast-paced game. So fast, in fact, that it often leaves itself breathless; as you are able to see an entire cityscape on the horizon, but you’re much too busy with your mission to explore its intricacies. At no point during the game are you freely able to take a time-out and simply explore the city, one life-threatening leap to the next, from building to building. Even once you have completed the game you cannot simply explore until you feel like the lord of the bleached city, and given that (on average) the game takes about 8-10 hours to complete, that’s something of a let down. I’m not suggesting that the short game time is much of an issue – Portal demonstrated how an uncanny title with a small amount of playtime, and a fantastic narrative, can provide all the enjoyment you’ll ever need from a videogame – but unless time trials take your fancy, there isn’t a lot to do with your [insert retail price] once you have finished, unless you’re an achievement hoarder. Even Assassin’s Creed allowed you to put the story on standby to enjoy the crisp beauty of the world from the highest point you can climb to.
Personally, I would have hoped that Mirror’s Edge would have been completely open-world, vaguely similar to how the more recent of the Tony Hawk’s titles are. At the beginning you start out as a trainee free runner – you’re not very skilful and you are quite prone to falling off of things and injuring yourself, but as you progress through the game, naturally, your ability improves, unlocking new parkour techniques. However, I’m not here to digress and drivel on about how Mirror’s Edge isn’t how I would make it, and therefore I will copyright this idea and move on…
Getting from point A to point B in Mirror’s Edge is based heavily on being set an objective and following various red obstacles to get there. As the entire city has been white-washed, it is fairly easy to pick out something red in the distance and head towards it. Further through the game, red objects become more of a marker than a path to follow, and you simply end up staying close to them but build your own path, as that often works out best. There are times when the red object you are looking for is almost impossible to find, and given an item of any mass could be red – from a floor title to a crane – you will often find yourself cursing at the game because you don’t know what you’re actually looking for. Eventually you will find a small red button that you can push, but in this element, the game doesn’t really provide a large enough indication.
The first-person camera is relatively new to the action/adventure scene, and is very uncommon to be seen in a game that doesn’t involve a lot of combat, however it does Mirror’s Edge a fair amount of justice. I was a little undecided as to whether it would work before playing it, as I imagine you are as well. Running along narrow surfaces and jumping long distances is considerably easier when the camera is ahead of you, and when you’re in the motion of getting from one side of a rooftop to another, you certainly get the feeling of fast-paced movement, which is what Mirror’s Edge is all about.
There are many occasions where Faith is held at gunpoint, and it is here when the Matrix-style bullet time mode comes in handy, as it can be used to make precise judgements on when to attack enemies, or disarm their weapons. Unfortunately the combat system is indescribably shoddy, and thankfully you are able (and often advised) to avoid any combat situations, which I would stress doing. Wielding guns slows you down, and prevents you from performing a lot of the abilities you are capable of, so don’t expect to be carrying one for extended durations anyway. In fact, I’d strongly advise against picking one up entirely, and if needs be, administer a swift kick to the face to any oncoming attackers, which does the job just as well, and often better.
The Mirror’s Edge soundtrack oddly contains a song titled “Still Alive”, which has no relation to Portal’s Still Alive, but really this is the best thing going for it. I’d recommend turning off any music and setting yourself up with some industrial drum and bass, as whilst that genre isn’t really my thing, it fits the game very snugly.
Loading times are fairly unnoticeable, especially if you install the game to your hard drive, which is something of a relief, as you’ll no doubt spend a reasonable amount of time plummeting to your death and having to respawn.
Overall, I enjoyed playing Mirror’s Edge. I loved the idea and the concept. The simplicity of having a white city with red objects to guide you further along your mission was a fantastic idea, and regardless of the fact you’re always busy and not able to take a time-out to explore, it works fantastically. Unfortunately I feel as if DICE have gone the wrong way about developing the game’s plot, and therefore have missed out on something special.
WIRED Original play mechanic, instantly accessible, endlessly enjoyable
TIRED Occasionally confusing and/or invisible objectives
Minimum
Minimum system requirement
- Windows XP or Vista
- Processor: Pentium 4 at 2.4 GHz
- RAM: 1GB
- Video: GeForce 6 Series with 256MB VRAM or better
Recommended system requirement
- 2.4+ GHZ Dual Core Processor
- 1 GBytes of System RAM
- NVIDIA 7800GTX+ or ATI x1300+ Video Card
- 8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space
- Note: These recommended requirements do not include a DX10 card and Mirror's Edge will be DX10 compatible. To run Mirror's Edge on DX10, you will need a DX10 card and Windows Vista installed
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