Late in the game review: Mirror's Edge

Game Title: Mirror's Edge
Consoles: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Developer: DICE
Release Date: November 11, 2008


Pregame:
When Mirror's Edge was released, it was something of a novelty, and still remains that way today. A first-person platformer. First-person shooters are everywhere, but how often do you see the ever-so-popular parkour protagonist from inside their head? Seeing arms and legs pump while running along in a game is still a fairly unique experience.

Players take on the role of Faith, a baggage courier who is somehow opposing the oppressive, militaristic government in a world that's very shiny. Around every turn are cops in riot gear ready to shoot you for delivering a package.

Play-by-Play:
There were more uncommon occurrences in Mirror's Edge as well. Namely, it shied away from combat. Oh sure, DICE touted the close-quarters takedowns in the trailers, but gameplay harshly discouraged combat in favor of running. This is something Assassin's Creed tried to do, but that just ended with countering-attacking all the guards to death instead. In Mirror's Edge, running headlong at a group of armed guards is a death sentence.

It is possible to steal a gun from an enemy and use it to kill the others, but this isn't a shooting game. Guns run out of ammo fairly quickly, and a small amount of health keeps you from kicking in a door and spraying a crowd of enemies with bullets.

What Mirror's Edge tries to do is fantastic, and if it had actually accomplished it, it would be a much better game. A fast-paced, adrenaline-pumping game that lets players run flat-out while getting shot at (instead of returning fire). What actually happens is this: the moment you get a little momentum, when the bad guys are right on your tail, one of the game's many design hiccups occur.

Maybe you jump a little too early, or slightly to one side, or Faith doesn't feel like climbing that particular wall today. Whatever it is, it completely derails the entire flow of the game, and often gets you killed. Getting blasted apart by riot cops or falling to her death is a very common thing in Faith's life. Thankfully, there are checkpoints everywhere. It's like the designers knew they'd be killing players over and over again, and  instead of fixing the game, they just put in more checkpoints.

The setting is an interesting one, but it's not fleshed out. You don't know what you're delivering or why, all you know is there's a fascist, 1984-like government to oppose. From there, a plot occurs in which Faith must save her sister who is framed for murder, hunt down the real killer and those involved in the conspiracy and get some answers. All of this would have been much more enjoyable if there had been some kind of setup. At all.

At the end of the day, this game doesn't focus on the story, it fixates on running and climbing. Neither of these were perfect, and the best we could get was mediocre for both.

One of the most confounding things about Mirror's Edge is the control scheme. It's so utterly different from other platforming games that it's easy to forget about it and press the wrong button at a crucial moment. For example, jump-kicking an enemy is fairly simple: just run up, press jump, press attack. But wait, that's not the attack button. That's the 180-spin button. Now I'm on my back, eating a machine gun sandwich. Great.

One of concepts of the game is that the cops have their guns, but they're slow. I have legs that actually run, and can use them to avoid getting turned into Swiss cheese, and yet in a couple areas, I'm forced to defeat a group of enemies before continuing. This is clearly not my strong suit, and not the focus of the game, yet the mechanics force me to do it anyway.

Near the end of the game, there are other parkour-y enemies with guns. This destroys the whole advantage players had over their enemies for the other 90% of the game. Granted, these enemies don't use their pistols often, but they can catch and corner you. Your only hope is to out-parkour them! Hiccup. Well, now fighting is the only option. What's that? They're invincible?

This is where those hiccups really come into focus, because there's nothing like a high-energy, adrenaline-filled death scene.

In my opinion, Mirror's Edge subscribes to what I've started calling the Assassin's Creed Doctrine. You start with a brand-new concept for a game, or a twist on an existing genre. The first game is good, but it could have been much better. The second game is fantastic. Bugs are fixed, gameplay-balancing mechanics are added, and fans start telling their friends "just start with the second game."

Thus far, there have only been rumors of a Mirror's Edge 2, but I remain hopeful that DICE can take this concept and make something truly great out of it, instead of settling for good.

Final Call:
Despite its frustrations, Mirror's Edge has enough unusual concepts that it's worth a play. It is, however, a very short game. It might not have been worth the original $60 price tag, but that was three years ago. Now it's possible to get a copy for under $15, which is much closer to getting what you pay for.