Mirror’s Edge – 360 – Review

When you think of a first-person
shooter, you usually have a certain concept in mind. More often than not, the
idea includes a fixed view of running down paths and corridors with a gun in
hand and hordes of enemies blocking your way. This has worked out for years now,
but now EA and Battlefield developer DICE are looking to change up the formula
with their latest new IP, Mirror’s Edge.

Mirror’s Edge is a game that owes
more to platformers like Prince of Persia or Assassin’s Creed than it does its
FPS brethren, as the title features an emphasis on free running, or parkour, as
opposed to shootouts with enemies. You’ll perform moves like wall runs and
jumps, leaps from rooftop to rooftop, and a variety of other moves in order to
get the drop on your foes. While the game is not perfect and suffers from a few
design flaws and shortcomings, the game is a great first installment for what
hopefully will become a franchise, as well as a pretty revolutionary entry to
the FPS genre.

Mirror’s Edge puts you in control of
Faith, a “runner” in a totalitarian society where the powers that be control
information and communication. As a runner, Faith’s main job is to carry parcels
of information from place to place, utilizing some pretty acrobatic moves in
order to escape the police or get to her destination quickly. However, when a
prominent politician gets assassinated and her sister (a police officer) is
implemented in his death, things get personal and Faith must discover who is
behind the conspiracy.

Mirror’s Edge deals primarily with
getting around as fast as you can. Most of the levels will have you getting from
one spot to another, and then becoming a pursuit scene where you must run from
the cops. The controls are pretty easy to grasp, as you’ll primarily use the
trigger and bumper buttons to jump, crouch, fight, and turn 180 degrees on a
dime. The game is pretty intuitive as to what Faith will do at specific times,
performing a wall run or grabbing onto certain items like pipes when she jumps
at them and so on when the situation requires it.

The game features three distinct
difficulty modes. Both the easy and medium difficulties will give the player
hints in red as to where they need to go or what environmental items they need
to use in order to move forward, with the medium difficulty ramping up the
number of cops you’ll have to avoid. The hardest difficulty not only keeps the
number of cops from the medium mode, but removes all of the red hints, requiring
you to be a bit creative in order to proceed through the game’s platforming
puzzles.

Aside from the main story, you can
try your hand at time trials, where you try to get from one location to another
in the fastest way possible. You’re graded on how fast you complete the time
trail, and can gain Achievements for getting certain scores.

While the concept of the game is
sound and actually executed very well, there are a few shortcomings. For
starters, combat is pretty underwhelming. You can perform some pretty
interesting moves like slide kick, chest stomps, but when it comes to
hand-to-hand melee combat, it feels pretty unintuitive. The game also does a
weird thing when you get too close to an enemy by auto-aiming on them and
centering your crosshairs on them. This can be frustrating when you’re trying to
run through a corridor full of enemies, as you’ll sometimes inadvertently center
on an enemy who’s trying to shoot you down instead of blowing past them like you
wanted to.

Another issue in the game that’s
disheartening is the linear feel. While you have some freedom in terms of how
you get to certain areas and have a few different options for solving the game’s
platforming puzzles the whole affair would benefit from a more open feel that
would take better advantage of the large world.

Graphically, Mirror’s Edge looks
great, with a very stylized aesthetic and color scheme. Aside from the red
objects that stick out as areas of interest, there are several solid colored
areas and items throughout the game. The sterilized environments are mostly
stark white, lending itself well to the dystopian theme of the game’s storyline.

The sound is also nicely done, as
the voice work is pretty solid and the trance-inspired soundtrack works very
well within the game’s theme.

Mirror’s Edge has a few
shortcomings, but its revolutionary gameplay and contributions to the genre as a
whole cannot be denied. Check it out if you’re a shooter fan looking for
something that breaks the mold.

Review Scoring Details for Mirror’s Edge

Gameplay: 8.5
The game’s free-running mechanic is intuitive and feels natural, offering a
nice change of pace from other titles in the genre. However, the game’s story
mode feels a bit too linear and combat is underwhelming.

Graphics: 8.5
The game’s aesthetic is very stylized, with a solid color scheme and some
fine character model details. The large environments look great.

Sound: 8.5
The trance music score lends itself well to the game’s theme, and the voice
acting is pretty well done.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 9.0
The game’s storyline is great and helps pull you in to the game, and the new
gameplay elements are a very different and well-executed take on the shooter
genre.

Overall: 8.8
Mirror’s Edge is a great take on the shooter genre, introducing some
revolutionary new elements to the genre and carries them out very well. While
there are a few stumbles, the game is generally a very solid and innovative
entry to the genre.