It's been a while since I posted, I have been super busy. Actually by super busy I mean I have been working and playing video games. I have not been on my computer much as a result. I have quite a bit of material for reviews now though so I should be able to catch up on my posts in the next week or so.
The first game I would like to review is Mirror's Edge. I picked up Mirror's Edge at Walmart for twenty bucks. A good deal in my opinion, I really do love Walmart's discount bins. Mirror's Edge was released on November 14th, 2008. The game is a first person shooter type game with a twist, instead of your standard military guy carrying lots of guns, blasting away anything that moves. Mirror's Edge you play the role of Faith, an appropriate name given that she is a "Runner", or a person who is an avid parkour messenger. For those who are not familiar with this sport, it involves jumping from roof top to roof top and performing death defying stunts. There are many times in the game where it feels like you just have to take a leap of faith and thus why I believe Dice chose that name for the character. Dice has definitely done a good job with Mirror's Edge in simulating the parkour experience. The gameplay experience of running and jumping and climbing twenty stories high is an adrenalin building experience definitely worth twenty bucks.
The Good:
As I first mentioned, the parkour engine is extremely well done in my opinion. Mechanics controlling Faith's climbing, running and jumping are easy to pick up and are surprisingly versatile. Once you get used to the control scheme, making Faith do what you want is mostly just point and press with the majority of your moves being done via the R1 and R2 buttons.
The environment is also well executed for the genera of the title. It is great to see a game that takes a different direction in the first person genera other than dark dingy dungeons and desert cities. The world of Mirror's Edge is a clean sparkling city that well suits its dark underlying story of betrayal. Clean rooftops which are mostly white except for the occasional red or yellow which is designed to guide you through the level towards where your next objective is. This is what Dice has labeled as "Runner Vision" and is only available in the easy and normal difficulty settings. This is useful to get used to the levels as the game is extremely difficult on the first run through. Some would say that this difficulty that requires you to attempt the same section of a level 10 to 20 times before being successful as a deficiency in the level design or pacing of the levels, however in Mirror's Edge it is very satisfying when you are finally able to perform some jump or defeat some set of enemy challenges that the designers have placed in your path after about 45 minutes of attempting it. Generally deaths in the game I found did not feel cheap as some deaths in difficult games can.
I think that one of the reasons for the difficulty of the game is that Mirror's Edge, although could be placed in the first person shooter genera due to its inclusion of guns, is really not your typical shooter. Your character does not carry weapons standard, and the only weapons that you can get are those that you take from your enemies. The use of the weapons also have a debilitating effect on Faith's ability to run or jump, which given her size as a eurasian female, makes a reasonable amount of sense.
Story in the game was quite enjoyable in my opinion, if not a bit predictable. The cut scenes art style was interesting, done in a 2d vector art style. I actually think that those were done in 3d with cell shading to make them look cartooned.
Finally, I also think that the music that they chose was very modern and appropriate, and it provided a great ambience to the setting. I am actually considering buying the soundtrack if I can find it.
The Bad:
For everything in Mirror's Edge that I thought they did well, I think there is equally something that they could have improved. For starters, the mechanic of taking weapons away from the enemy is a bit rough around the edges to say the least. The time given when the weapon turns red in which you can attempt to take their weapon is a bit to short in my opinion. You can however slow down time but if you grab to early, it is basically lights out for Faith.
It was brought to my attention by a friend of mine that was playing my copy of Mirror's Edge right after I beat it myself, that sometimes when you miss grabbing someone's weapon, if you mash the triangle button (the one used to grab), about half the time Faith will take the weapon anyways. It is usually really amusing to see this happen as it messes up the "smooth" animation change from a swing to a grab.
The fighting engine in general seems a bit rough around the edges in my opinion. I did like the fact that weapons were not Faith's primary skill, but it seems that sometimes it was just impossible to not fight people. I think that the level designs should have given more options to avoid fighting as this seems like a primary feature of the game, almost an ethical choice that sometimes is unavoidable.
I would have liked to see the levels that didn't have enemies be a part of the original game instead of downloadable content. It seems a bit ridiculous that you would need to spend additional money to remove content from levels. In this age of micro-transactions in games, it does not surprise me that a company such as Dice, backed by big time publisher EA would go this route to make additional sales from the game. I still feel that this is a disservice to the fans and consumers and that if they had provided truly additional content, then it would have been worth the money.
Predictability in the story line was also a bit of a let down for me. I enjoyed the world that the developers constructed, but I felt that plot twists were a bit telegraphed and that left them a bit anticlimactic. I would love to see a sequel to this title as I felt the end was also quite anticlimactic and felt too much like a cliff hanger without trying to be one. A lack of a wrap up to the "lose ends" in the conspiracy left me feeling like the game should not have ended the way it did. As of the time of this writing, it is the case that EA has announced the future development of a sequel to the title.
Overall:
In overall, for a while i was not sure if I liked Mirror's Edge. I did immediately enjoy the mechanics of the parkour, but was unsure of the fighting in the game as well as the quickly ramped difficulty level. However, once I started getting past areas that I found extremely difficult, the satisfaction of beating it was, in my opinion, worth the effort. On a second play through of some of the levels, I felt that the game was much easier since I knew the right paths and the right methods of getting through the obstacles. I was also much better at the fighting. I think this improved my impression of the title as a whole. I think once you are familiar with all the levels, it might even be possible to complete a run through of the title in about 2-3 hours. It would be interesting to see what the fastest speed run of this title is.
Overall, I think I would have to give this game a favorable review, not perfect by any means, but for the twenty bucks I paid for it, well worth its value. I would say that the replay value is also high, which I think helps the games review in my opinion. I will probably play the sequel when it comes out, and I hope that they are able to improve on the game without corrupting its original vision with feature creep.
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