Retrospective: Mirror's Edge

By Steve Haske Published 10 April, 2011

Fun run.

Until five or six years ago, I had never heard of Parkour. My sister, a professional in the field of athletic strength and conditioning, first described it to me as something of a balletic aerobic sport with all the complexity and conditioning of a martial art -one used for clambering up the side of a building in seconds, or clearing two-story jumps without any messy bone breaking.

I still remember how incredulous I was when she acquainted me with David Belle videos on YouTube: this was astounding, real-life vertical platforming, performed by an actual flesh-and-blood human being. How was it even possible for someone to manipulate their body like that?

Even today, it's still marvellous to watch these type of athletes effortlessly Nate Draking-themselves up or across or through urban infrastructure, unhampered by either physics or basic human limitation.

It didn't take long for the art (I don't know how else to classify it) to develop a greater pop-cultural presence. It appeared in Luc Besson's District B-13 (which starred Belle) and 007 reboot Casino Royale, and played a part in the core design for Assassin's Creed.

1

There's nothing like freefalling.

Yet it wasn't really until Mirror's Edge came along that gamers got their first (and really, only) taste of a game which completely embraced this so-called art of movement.

DICE took the template of a first-person shooter and created a game that was less about the worn, combative conventions of the genre and more about running. The result was an experience as striking as it was divisively original. Still, when the first reviews hit, it was obvious that a lot of people didn't really "get" it.

Probably my favorite complaint about Mirror's Edge from these types is the harping on about the shooting mechanics. You've probably heard the criticisms: The guns feel too heavy. They're clunky and inaccurate. Shooting isn't fun. The game is too hard.

These are somewhat ancillary to the other gripes about the game's trial-and-error design and what is sometimes frustratingly vague linear path. Whinges like these miss the point; Mirror's Edge is about as much a first-person shooter as Portal is, and the supposed inability to find your way through any given scenario is little more than a blithe dismissal - whether intentional or not - of the game's true design strength.

I won't argue that Mirror's Edge is an easy game. Its level layouts and learning curve require you to flex your mental muscles within the game world in order to figure out just how the heck you're going to scale what seems to be an impossible height, or sprint through an army of Blues with as little direct confrontation as possible.

2

That's what you get for insulting a girl with one red glove.

But if you're treating it like a first-person shooter (for anything other than a speed run) and ignoring its conceptual basis - and therefore the fact it's an experience based around the Parkour's tenets and the mantra of momentum - well, you're doing it all wrong.

This probably isn't apparent to most players at first, although it should be. Unlike more typical first-person fare, Mirror's Edge doesn't just put a gun in your hand and send you on your merry way. (In fact you will never have a gun with you unless you forcibly take one from an enemy.)

Instead you're treated to an obstacle course set across the stark, monochromatic rooftops of the sprawling urban dystopia that is the alpha and omega of Mirror Edge's world.

As a Runner, Faith is an underground information smuggler. She constantly skirts the totalitarian law and its omnipresent philosophy of censorship; it makes sense that these network "criminals" would function and operate between the cracks of society, in remote places that are easiest to quickly navigate and move through on foot.

The only combat training involves learning a few basic melee strikes and effective defensive disarms; otherwise it's about working out how to slide and jump over obstacles, and perform tricky wall runs, safety rolls, 180-degree jumps and the like.

From the get-go, Mirror's Edge tells the player how to best use (and maintain) a constant speed, moving through the environment as quickly and fluidly as possible with the least amount of resistance.

And like stubborn mules, most of us willfully didn't get it at first. Distilled down, the point of the training level is really an exercise in breaking established design paradigms, when all we wanted to do subconsciously was play the damn game like a first-person shooter. (You can't at this point-there aren't even any guards in this level.)

Although Mirror's Edge does a great job of initially hitting you over the head with what you should be paying attention to, chances are all that immediately goes out the window once you start in with the game proper.

Mirror's Edge has what most would call a high learning curve, only instead of the difficulty ramping up right off the bat, you need to have a certain degree of finesse to even to make it through the first level.

3

This really isn't how I expected this day to go when I got up this morning.

Like most people, I was intrigued by the idea of a first-person game based around platforming, but still found the game challenging when I actually began playing it. I missed jumps. I had no momentum. I spent a lot of time looking at the scenery, wondering what I should be doing to get past whatever part I was stuck on.

The first few times I encountered Blues, I instinctively tried the disarms only to find the weapons felt extremely sluggish, adding what felt in the game like 50 lbs. of dead weight to Faith's fleet-of-foot presence. I lost count of how many times I sent Faith plummeting to her untimely and aurally sickening death, half out of miscalculated judgment, half mistaken trial-and-error.

The insane number of times you die when starting out is the threshold which most people who give up on Mirror's Edge reach but do not surpass. If my personal list of mistakes wasn't enough proof, there's a definite procedure to the game, even though it feels frustratingly stop-and-go when you first go at it.

4

Don't look down...

Although it may not seem like it, the very concept seems to trigger some subconscious response in most players that goes against the grain of almost everything we've all learned about video game conventions over the years. Without a practical basis of comparison, DICE's design has the effect of a creating a psychological stumbling block that's hard enough to negotiate, let alone master.

Undeterred, I pressed on. I continued to die (not a small amount), and levels became progressively more difficult to solve. Even Runner's vision, the slick visual cue that paints nearby Parkour-able objects a rich, glossy red, only gave me a vague idea of which way to go. There were times I wanted to quit, thinking this brilliant idea was perhaps nothing more than a failed experiment.

What I didn't realise then is that what I was experiencing was normal - a necessary part of the Mirror's Edge process, if you will. Obviously there are innumerable games that require players to figure out the flow of the gameplay before they can ever hope to be truly successful.

Mirror's Edge takes that idea and runs with it. Aside from death itself, the most obvious case of this is Runner's vision: DICE doles this out sparingly, showing you where you may springboard to gain speed, or what pipes you can climb up. It's a trail of design breadcrumbs for you to follow, and there are still several instances where it's not going to immediately feel like enough.

There's an ingenious methodology behind all this, however. For all the times you come up against a building that looks improbably scalable or don't know what direction you need to go when faced with a number of building tops, you're slowly and perhaps painfully undergoing an initiation.

The developers shrewdly refuse to spoon-feed you the answers to the architectural puzzles of their level design, forcing you to adapt to your current in-game situation and shaping your mind into a different mode of action. Even the hint button, which sporadically points Faith's gaze in the direction of your current goal, isn't helpful when it comes to specific navigational issues.

In essence, the entire time you're playing Mirror's Edge the game is not teaching how to think like a Runner, but how to be a Runner.

It's not a process that will happen at the same pace with any given player, but when it does, the effect is nothing short of extraordinary. Suddenly everything in the game word just clicks; you start to move faster and more efficiently, and can more skillfully navigate a given situation.

The most amazing effect is the way you begin to visualise any random bit of architecture and discern exactly how it's navigable. Much like Neo is able to "see" the Matrix for the first time when he ascends to (for lack of better terminology) enlightenment at the end of the first film, the level design in Mirror's Edge opens up once you gain your personal Runner's vision.

Obviously this doesn't work with every obstacle in the game - crafting a completely open-ended experience with Mirror's Edge's end goal in mind would be a nightmare for level designers and in-game logistics personnel alike. You may still surprise yourself by finding alternate routes and solutions to puzzles.

More on Mirror's Edge

In my own experience, I was already floored enough after I realised that I could look at a high structure with scaffolding and know I had run up this wall, spin around in mid-air, use momentum to jump forward, move from this platform to a higher one, turn to jump again and so on.

Once you reach this experiential plateau, Mirror's Edge almost becomes an entirely new game. The first-person perspective takes on an entirely different level of meaning, heightening your senses and adding a visceral edge to movement.

Speed, too, becomes a quantifiable factor (albeit one that's sometimes hampered in the heavily-indoor later levels) - it is an exhilarating experience to simply execute complex strings of moves, and doing so quickly is just icing on the cake.

For me, this also meant embracing flight from the Blues. I hated the few times when the developers forced me into direct confrontations, though eventually I earned the trophy for beating the game without firing a weapon (only worth a silver, sadly).

One my favorite memories is sprinting down a long, multi-level set of stairs toward the end of the game, rushing past a number of Blues in SWAT gear, too fast for them to even get a shot off; the brilliant part is that by merely hopping over the top railing of the first staircase going down and following it with a proper landing, I shaved off just enough time in my escape to bypass all the spots my enemies would be before they had time to properly take their places.

Thus probably most important distinction about Mirror's Edge over a standard action game is that it's always about movement. It's essentially interactive kinesthesis, and it ventures into a mode in gaming that's really unparalleled in the industry.

Even when you're standing still, you're conceptualising exactly what that movement will look like. Chances are that if you're good - and if you've been paying attention you will be - the transition between that instant flash of visualisation and its nimble execution will happen in little more than the blink of an eye.

Picture of Steve.

About Steve Haske

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Comments (123) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • SuperBas #1 1 year ago

    ME gave me motion sickness, joining Doom and GoldenEye on my list of games I can't play for more than half an hour. Anyone else had this problem?
    Edited by SuperBas at 10/04/11 @ 08:00

  • djed #2 1 year ago

    Superbas,

    The Japanese are famous for it. They easily get motion sickness from any FPS.

  • knightmt #3 1 year ago

    Maybe they should put this on the 3DS. I found it very difficult but it also was quite short from memory?

    Edit
    I am not being ironic. The 3D reviews were blazing.
    Edited by knightmt at 10/04/11 @ 08:15

  • suicida #4 1 year ago

    Loved this game, hope the recent rumours aren't true and they are in fact going to do a sequel

  • thelatestmodel #5 1 year ago

    Wonderful article. Mirror's Edge is one of a select few games that I truly fell in love with. It's a game that isn't afraid to challenge people and offer them a new experience, a new way of presenting the game world.The visual design is spectacular, and the soundtrack is an all-time classic.

    And although it is challenging, sometimes frustrating, this rarely detracts from what is an unforgettable experience. The game conveys an incredible, tangible sense of motion that almost feels like you really are running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. You actually get a sinking feeling in your stomach when you miss a high ledge and plummet to your death. Few games can hope to match the level of immersion that is achieved here.

    Mirror's Edge was a true breath of fresh air in 2008, and I truly hope that EA recognizes the importance of games like these.
    Edited by thelatestmodel at 10/04/11 @ 08:45

  • Baz_the_great #6 1 year ago

    About 3 days ago I got in the mood to play this again and ordered it online for under £10 brand new. Even more eager to play it again after reading this article.

  • Demiath #7 1 year ago

    It's difficult to put into words how much I like this game, and I'm not even one of those players who enjoy time challenges and repeated attempts to climb the leaderboards. I've played through the story mode once on the PS3 and once on the PC, and despite the occasional frustrating segment both playthroughs were equally memorable and immersive experiences. The combination of viscerally satisfying platforming mechanics with a refreshingly bold and consistent art design becomes something truly unique, and the whole totalitarianism-by-IKEA plot device worked really well despite some bland writing. Also, I've always felt that the problems with the shooter elements of the game have been somewhat exaggerated, given that it's never too impractical to simply avoid using weapons altogether (which I certainly did during both playthroughs; I couldn't even tell you what it feels to fire a gun in this game).

    It's amazing that this technologically unremarkable Unreal Engine game still impresses me so much on a visual level that even recent releases such as Killzone 3 and Crysis 2 pale in comparison, but it sure does. No new IP from this console generation deserves a sequel more than Mirror's Edge does.
    Edited by Demiath at 10/04/11 @ 08:33

  • Jonny5Alive7 #8 1 year ago

    I wouldn't class Mirror's Edge as retro, but that aside it was an enjoyable article. I played the demo but never went for the full game, I would be tempted to pick it up now though.

  • Wheatley #9 1 year ago

    This game was at its best when it was just about the free-running. As the Pure Time Trials DLC showed, when you took out the combat, story and cutscenes you were left with a really immersive platforming experience.

  • crickson #10 1 year ago

    It's one of the few truly original games released in the last few years. As one commenter has said it can be picked up new for next-to-nothing and is well worth a go. Also, the DLC time trial courses are good enough to warrant their own stand-alone game.

    I think it's clear ME has gone 'cult'. I think we'll get our sequel one day...

  • dancingrob #11 1 year ago

    I've still got a save on 'normal' sitting around the end of chapter 7, but I found the shootouts with unavoidable police consistently frustrating, and have given up on it three times at various stages of the game.

    Having read this, I'm very tempted to re-start from the beginning on easy and go for the 'no shots fired' thing...

  • GordonBennett #12 1 year ago

    There were two big reasons this game didn't sell as well as it should have done. The first - as this article touches upon - was a number of critics who simply didn't understand it; treating it as a first-person shooter because it looks like one. The second was EA's decision to release it slap-bang in the middle of the 2008 pre-Christmas rush, just a couple of weeks either side of the likes of Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Resistance 2, Fable II and others.

    Had Mirror's Edge been released in June, it would have been all anyone was talking about for months. As it was, it got lost in the crowd. If there is to be a sequel - and I think few games would benefit more from one than this - I hope EA think harder about the scheduling.

  • ManicDrunkMonk #13 1 year ago

    Amazing game in my top 5 of this generation. I really hope they get a chance to create a sequel to take the concept further.

  • Waffleaber #14 1 year ago

    Completed this on pc without firing a shot, don't remember it being that hard but maybe I was just enjoying it so much I didn't notice.

    The writer is right that the moment it all clicks together and you blaze through a big chunk of game without dropping a beat is magical, only stopping when in one of the hateful indoor sections to reflect on all the lovely dystopian scenery you've just missed.

  • richarddavies #15 1 year ago

    SORT A SEQUEL OUT EA, YOU SLAGS!!

  • Mister-Wario #16 1 year ago

    "Obviously this doesn't work with every obstacle in the game - crafting a completely open-ended experience with Mirror's Edge's end goal in mind would be a nightmare for level designers and in-game logistics personnel alike".

    Really? Because I've been playing inFamous and you can basically do this in the game: climb on anything, travel across the city. It's not as elegant as Mirror's Edge, of course, but it is possible.

  • super_monty #17 1 year ago

    loved this game i hope the next one has more free running and less indoor platform jumping stuff

  • HisDudness #18 1 year ago

    The time trials were definitely the meat of the game. I finished the campaign and never looked back at it. However, achieving 3 stars on the obstacle courses obsessed me for weeks - and led to some serious hand cramping!

  • PixelPirate #19 1 year ago

    Mirrors edge was great in a field of constant sequels, that required genuine effort on your part to learn the game before you could be successful, for me thtis is exactly the time of game I love.

    The helicopters were a maddening addition though, pointless and probably the reason a lot of people abandoned the game. It was hard enough trying to work out your way through the level the first couple of times without being rained down upon by tons of bullets. Once you knew the levels you were too fast for them to even be an issue, so why include them?

    It was certainly EA fault this did so badly releasing it in the middle of some triple A games in the run up to Christmas, the scheduling was bonkers and it was clearly a big misstep.

    I would love a sequel, but I think it's never going to happen, due to poor sales.

  • drhickman1983 #20 1 year ago

    Mirrors Edge was a flawed almost-classic for me. The movement, as highlighted in the article, was awesome. The thing that ME did that other games didn't do was make the movement an intrinsic part of the gameplay, by which I mean the free running wasn't automatic.

    Look at Assassins Creed. It's a great game, but the free running and climbing is pretty much achieved by holding down two buttons, you rarely need to time jumping and grabbing. inFamous, as mentioned by Mister-Wario above, looks like it had a similar level of automation in it's climbing and so on as AC, but having not played it I can't judge.

    I found ME to have a pretty high level of replay, getting perfect runs in both the time trials and the actual campaign became a small obssession for me. Shame I doubt a sequel will ever happen.

  • turtl311 #21 1 year ago

    I never got why people didn't like this game. I loved it immediately, and only after reading this article do I realize how some people didn't get this and how hard it was for some. I seemed to get it pretty fast, and never had a problem getting stuck, just took a brief moment to quickly decide which way I want to go. But of course, after more playing you just get faster and it becomes that much smoother and more exhilarating.
    Plus I always thought this was the easiest Platinum of any game. Not that I'm complaining. I love that Platinum. And was eagerly anticipating a sequel. Still am... D:

  • Torkin #22 1 year ago

    I enjoyed Mirror's Edge from the start, maybe because I wasn't looking for an FPS, I don't like FPS but a few ones.

    With this game I had fun with time trials after many, many years. The Time Trials DLC was superb.

    And I don't remember it being that difficult, but as someone said, it's probably because I was enjoying it despite the constant deaths.
    Edited by Torkin at 10/04/11 @ 10:07

  • Laythe_AD #23 1 year ago

    As was touched upon above me, this article was the first to really explain to me what people did'nt like about Mirrors Edge. It is a fantastic game, one of my favourites, and easily the most under-rated of recent times. ...And now I have the urge to play it again. My only moment of genuine "argh!" anger in the game came when made to wait and fight in a room full of blues as an elevator took its sweet time. It felt like an odd betrayal of the rest of the game. But really, I wish more people would give this a chance. It looks stunning too.

  • jamhead #24 1 year ago

    I fell in love with this game. I am amazed there hasn't been more use of the parkour stylee running in FPS's since this came out.

    I could have used a bit more help as a fall back once in a while though - like Runner Vision for crap people. Also, was very happy not to have to use guns, but would have also liked the disarms to be a little easier to pull off. Very exhilarating when you did mind.

    Maybe I was just a bit crap. I would deffo buy the sequel though EA!

  • Incarta #25 1 year ago

    Played it. Finished it. Admired it more than I loved it. Would like to see a sequel.

  • Murton #26 1 year ago

    Mirror's Edge was a fantastic game, it joins a short list of "elite" games that I truly believe advance the FPS genre and indeed the games industry as a whole. Mirror's Edge to me has more worth than the entire Call of Duty franchise and indeed even the technical marvel that is Killzone 2 and 3 simply because Mirror's Edge dared to be different, and while EA may not have understood what ME was about someone over at Splash Damage was clearly listening because Brink is in an odd way a sort of successor to ME and is shaping up to be a great game in its own right too, I'm really stoked for that one.

    As for the learning curve, I seemed to pick it up quite quickly, much quicker than any of my friends did and quicker that the author too. I guess that says more for the variation in people's gaming habits than anything else. Before I bought ME I had played through the demo several times simply because I enjoyed it that much, when I did get the game (GAME did a price slash about three weeks after release) I put it straight in and played from start to chapter 5 in one sitting, I think this sort of prolonged exposure helped me to get into the Runner's way of thinking much quicker than I would have playing in fits and starts of 30 minutes to an hour as many of my friends had to at the time.

    DICE have gone on record as saying that they'd love to do a sequel and are always talking about ideas and drawing up concepts, perhaps with the success of Infamous, Assassin's Creed and the soon to be released Brink EA will see that there is a value to ME that resonates well with gamers and maybe they'll let DICE loose on that sequel that we all want so much.

  • CaptainQuint #27 1 year ago

    Runner Vision OFF: The only way to play this game.

    Sounds like the writer really struggled with this game. Whilst it did have its difficulty spikes, the game was very rarely frustratingly hard.

    I most certainly "got" it. Great game.

  • metalangel #28 1 year ago

    I remember playing through the demo over and over, trying to get it just right.

    I played the full game to keep me entertained after a motorbike crash. As a consequence, I found the sheer physicality of the game (the way you sometimes crash face first into a pipe as you leap to it) very unnerving, especially a mistimed jump leading to a moment of helpless flailing as you realize what's about to happen and then *CRUNCH*, blackness. It made me wince.

    It feels tiring, too. The footfalls, grunts, impacts and fabric sounds as you leap, slide and climb through the city feel like real exercise, no doubt aided by the fact your own heartrate rises in sympathy to Faith's troubles.

    Then you get to the later levels. The terrifying police runners are gone, which is both a disappointment and a relief, and you're instead faced with the huge heavy weapons guys. If you were trying to be a purist and play without guns (not least of all for the achievement) then you, like me, undoubtedly faced several swearing hours in that final room, trying to get that final guy without him blasting you to shreds in a split second.
    Edited by metalangel at 10/04/11 @ 10:28

  • andy10 #29 1 year ago

    One of the most memorable games from this generation. I truly respect it for what it set out to do.

    Personally, I feel this article is a bit too kind on the things that hindered the gameplay. I have no problem with controlling an intentionally underpowered character (I loved the Thief games for this very reason); it's just there are too many sections where it forces you through a clunky 'combat' section. I'm also not sure I buy into the hypothesis that the game is simply trying to make you think like a runner. There were some truly amazing moments in this game where everything 'clicked' and I smoothly traversed the urban environment, but they were few and far between. A little more refinement and some better visual cues could've made a big difference for those of us who aren't willing to plough hours into learning each level off by heart.

    However, I stand by what I said: brilliant game and I wish more people had played it.

  • SteveHolt #30 1 year ago

    Fantastic game.

    Unfortunately, there are a couple gameplay flaws that become very apparent when you try to get the 3 stars or complete the hardest chapter speed runs. A first person platformer is bound to be less accurate than a 2D one, I guess.There are times where you need "pixel perfect precision", but the game doesn't really allow that.

    But I really loved this game - and would instabuy Mirror's Edge 2.

  • Inmediasress #31 1 year ago

    There certainly will be a sequel. The problem is that I read somewhere that they want to make it available to a bigger audiance.
    Which in theory means it will be a shooter with an extended jumping ability. When I hear theat a develpoer/publisher says that something needs bigger audiance I just run and never look back.

  • patchbox360 #32 1 year ago

    excellent game, its a breath of fresh air running away from gun fights.

  • menage #33 1 year ago

    The game would have worked for me as a racing game. Running was greta. It's when it tried to be something else (fighting) that it got bad for me.

    The animations in between didn't fit the game either. And the story was pretty crap.

    Also, I really got lost half the time. The signposting at times was terrible. Pretty illusion shattering if youré running form the cops and your going circles in a building because you didn't know you had to climb up to a small vent. Made it too much trial and error
    Edited by menage at 10/04/11 @ 10:53

  • Stomp224 #34 1 year ago


    SuperBas: +1,
    Doom on the 32X and Goldeneye both gave me horrendous motion sickness. I don't get it so bad now, but some games still set me off, and this was one of them. A pity, cos I really wanted to get into it. :(

  • O11Y #35 1 year ago

    Loved Mirrors Edge. I thought it was a fantastic concept, brilliantly executed, and I would like a sequel Mr Electronics-Arts-Dice man

  • Vermillion3000 #36 1 year ago

    Oh Mirrors Edge... So close to genius.

    The bits that let you "play" are often magnificent. A true realisation of a new vision for gameplay.
    Then the boys decided that in order to make it exciting, you probably need some men with guns in it.

    Nothing in games has made me angrier than this horrifyingly unnecessary mistake.

    The pleasure of movement and reading the environment was so compromised by the presence of the same identikit SWAT men that you've seen in a hundred mediocre 3rd person Playstation games.

    I still long for a sequel, one that simply allows me to play the game that DICE created without the Naughty Bad MENWITHGUNS turning up to spoil things.
    DICE made a magical, wonderful game, then put a tedious mediocre one on top of it. Patch out the bad guys and I will love you forever.
    Edited by Vermillion3000 at 10/04/11 @ 11:01

  • lucky_jim #37 1 year ago

    Great game. I bought the DLC in the recent XBLA sale, haven't got around to playing it but I was sold when I realised they were just time trials, with none of the misjudged shooty bits. I agree with Vermillon3000, I can't help but feel the inclusion of guns was to placate the marketing men (or perhaps they didn't trust us to "get" it?).

  • danjfor #38 1 year ago

    Good to see Mirror's Edge getting some press, I really enjoyed it, though I remember being utterly disappointed with the crappy plot and horrific dialogue. Seemed really odd that a game with such inventive design and visuals would have such a lame cookie-cutter GAP-revolutionaries type plot. Ah well, great fun bombing it about the rooftops anyway.

  • tvcasualty #39 1 year ago

    I like the fact that the guns are clunky and unrefined, the game is using its mechanics to say "you're not playing to the strengths of your character". However I'm not sure if this was a conscious design decision and it obviously falls down when you're forced into combat situations.

    I spent a lot of time (frustrated) in the server room at the top of the Shard going for the no kills achievement, but it was worth it. While it was very unforgiving it was not unfair, I feel. Going for Veteran on CoD reminded me that there's a fine line between the two.

  • ardamillo #40 1 year ago

    One of my favourite games this generation, and one of the few I completed more than once (3 times, iactually!). It just gets better the more you play it.

    Also. bitter-sweet to see ads for Brink in this article when a true sequel seems far away.

  • Ducklord #41 1 year ago

    The time trials for me, once you really got into them, were absolutely amazing. Constantly shaving off less than a second to beat a friend's time is superb...perhaps a sequel would go perfectly with that feauture used in the new Burnout game - the name escapes me, but it's the one where you get alerted when a friend beats your lap times?

  • Yuroko #42 1 year ago

    I did really enjoy this game. I just hated the trial and error nature and the load times between deaths. At least with say trials hd it may be super frustrating but you can retry instantly. Mirrors edge is frustrating then the added loading times when you miss a jump by one pixel made me want to snap the controller in half. For that reason I sadly never finished it. It's better than assassins creed though which has zero challenge and loses any thrill of performing parkour moves.

  • AlexKidd3490 #43 1 year ago

    I always get excited when i see an article related to Mirrors Edge.
    I love Mirrors Edge, i cant see or understand how people can dislike it, i really struggle with it so i dont think about it, although i believe this article may have given me some slight insight into this.
    Still to this day, i constantly replay it, if only there was a "hardcore" mode.

  • dominalien #44 1 year ago

    This is one platinum trophy I'm probably the most proud of.

    Fantastic game, despite the awful, awful story.

  • Alkeno #45 1 year ago

    This game was a small gem, but too much of a niche product. I tried the demo and understood pretty well what DICE mean to do, I just couldn't get much enjoyment from it: The flow of the game was great, the speed, the momentum... I just couldn't stand the feeling of playing a continuous QTE, to me it felt more than "just getting the buttons pressed in strict timing to advance".

    I'm all sort of crap when it comes to precise timing, so I just couldn't enjoy the game. Or become good in Street Fighter, for the matter. I guess it's something that also happened to many people.

  • Hunam #46 1 year ago

    ME is one of the best games around to be honest. This is a great article about learning the game to be honest, says a lot of what I felt when I first started playing it, though I think I gelled to the controls faster than a lot of people I still had to take a while to really be able to see routes and get runs perfect.

    Also, it's worth mentioning the actual meat of the game is the time trial mode, which is the series of short runs, not the horrible speed runs that are just doing he main levels of the game with a clock. Working through each time trial requires tons of scouting and effort to shave like half a second of each bit, then having to learn tricks and quirks for each run to be able to conquer it. The scores for these are brutal and this could put people off, but I've probably spend 80% of my game time with Mirror's Edge on the time trials over the actual campaign which is, as this article kind of hints at, more of a way to get you into becoming a runner, with the time trial being the real work.

  • ForozM #47 1 year ago

    This game success(or lack thereof) kind of proved how homogenous this industry has turned.

  • Sgt_Petter #48 1 year ago

    For me, the learning curve was normal, as in easy in the beginning and progressively harder. I remember some of the later levels to be annoying where it seemed like I had to take out several enemies in an area to be able to progress. The reason might have been that I knew what the game was supposed to be like.

  • dsmx #49 1 year ago

    The whole game should of been the time trials.

  • local_celebrity #50 1 year ago

    A retrospective...for Mirror's Edge?

    How about we have one for Crysis 2? That game's been out for at least three weeks.

  • Paul_cz #51 1 year ago

    Love this game and eagerly awaiting sequel. Screw Battlefield 3!

  • anamenos #52 1 year ago

    good movement from EG to put pressure to EA and announce a second game!!!!

  • TexMurphy01 #53 1 year ago

    Very interesting game.

    When it let you run free you could almost feel the wind in your hair. It was at this point when you were really playing the game I felt. When you were struggling inside some narrow room to find where you were supposed to go, that was often frustrating.

    I never finished this game because it became rater frustrating later on, but be in no doubt, I would be very much in favour of more games like this.

  • captainCandy #54 1 year ago

    Tunnel vision

  • Vortex808 #55 1 year ago

    This game was so good, it NEEDS a sequel to iron out the minor issues the original had. Please let Dice get on with it EA!

  • cwk27 #56 1 year ago

    I think the only part that really frustrated me intensely and eventually led to me putting down the game for a week was a bug that cropped up on this one particular level.

    I'm not sure which one it was again, but I think I started off by having to kick off two snipers, and then had to zipline down towards some storage facility which had a dog as a logo. As soon as I entered the building and ran up the stairs, the game would crash out on me and I would have to hard restart my PS3.

    But then I kept looking around and eventually found an alternative route that let me bypass it all so it all worked out in the end :D

  • skuzzbag #57 1 year ago

    "Probably my favorite complaint about Mirror's Edge from these types is the harping on about the shooting mechanics. You've probably heard the criticisms: The guns feel too heavy. They're clunky and inaccurate. Shooting isn't fun. The game is too hard."

    Patronising statements aside - my main complaint was indeed about the shooting. It would have been a considerably more entertaining game if they had managed to figure out that there was no need to have any kind of conflict whatsoever. It's this obsessive reliance on combat in a lot of games that spoils many a good idea.

  • CrunchinJelly #58 1 year ago

    A poor mans Free Running.

  • Murton #59 1 year ago

    I'd like to go back to what the author said about guns adding like 50lbs of weight to the character. It's not so much that the gun weighs so much, more than parkour relies so much on the arms to gather momentum quickly to pull off all those fancy tricks.

    Make Faith take a gun and she's effectively lost her arms, that means no momentum boost in sprinting or jumping, the unbalanced weight of her body will making slides difficult while the physical bulk of the weapon obstructs tucking and rolling and obviously you can't mantle up onto things while holding onto a shotgun/assault rifle. It's not "clunky" or "clumsy" it's realistic, and a welcome change over the normal FPS games in which we play a floating camera with a mounted gun.

  • Phishfood #60 1 year ago

    Hardest fucing time trials in the world, I would would not give up on them until I got the full three star rating. I remember spending 6 hours on one of them and by the end of it I was ranked 2 on the leaderboards with 3 other people below me who managed to achieve 3 stars.

  • JoeBlade #61 1 year ago

    The article motivated me to fire up ME again quickly, still a lovely game. I especially enjoy the visuals, it's a welcome relief for a game to not try and be all "gritty". I also caught myself ducking and bobbing my head like an idiot while playing this, always a good sign! :p

    Even having finished the game twice I'm still struggling immensely with the disarming mechanic though, despite slow motion. Perhaps it's just me but a slide-kick or jump-kick followed by a couple of punches seems to be just as effective yet doesn't require expert timing.
    And I just hit a complete cunt of a save point too. Having to repeatedly go through a hot pursuit and two fights only to plummet do my death because my aim on a gravity-defying jump was off by a couple of degrees is sheer frustration.

    Assuming those quirks can be sorted out and combat - which is mostly an unnecessary distraction IMO - toned down a bit, a sequel could be a wonderous thing.

    Edit: removed borked tags.
    Edited by JoeBlade at 10/04/11 @ 14:33

  • Pwnsweet #62 1 year ago

    Metaknight da bess

  • dieffenbachj #63 1 year ago

    I liked Mirrors Edge until two moments happened. After that, I was unwilling to keep playing for a third moment.

    First moment: there was a very simple obstacle, an exposed (red) pipe on a wall that you had to jump across a gap from a ramp to grab. Well, I must have tried that damn obstacle 20 or 30 times before I could get it to work: each time I would clear the jump, and those stupid first-person hands would just slap the wall NEXT to it (on both sides of the pipe--I would have dead center aim and it would still miss!) and I would fall to my death. Every time. Perfect aim, but since I didn't hit the invisible hitbox or whatever correctly, it would just slap my hands on the pipe or around it as though it couldn't detect it and I'd die. Very frustrating, a game-killer, but I pressed on.

    The second moment was getting chased by a helicopter with a minigun. It was really cool and desperate and it felt like an awesome scene. Until I accidentally tripped up and got caught behind a piece of geometry. The minigun whirred, blasting apart the wall next to, above, below, and behind me... but they obviously took stormtrooper training, and couldn't hit a stationary target 20 feet away. I turned around and slowly walked toward the chopper, and I realized: there was no actual danger of dying in this mission. The helicopter couldn't hit you at point-blank (well, it could, but the rate of bullets hitting you was less than the rate of health regeneration). I realized that the ONLY part of the game which had actually felt cinematic and desperate was just a cheap fakeout. It disgusted me.

    I played a little while longer, getting to an excessively complex and repetitive sewer-jumping phase. I turned off the game to go to dinner, and when I came back I never turned it back on.

  • Super_Zee #64 1 year ago

    Interesting article, but it was more about what Mirror's Edge should have been rather than what it was. For all the emphasis on running and avoiding combat, the sections where you *had* to fight, or couldn't enjoy the scenery because yet another helicopter was hounding you, completely ruined it.
    Also, some of the worst cutscenes ever.

  • zm26 #65 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 13:15:51 16-05-2012

  • septimus #66 1 year ago

    Great game. Frustrating at times to almost controller snapping levels, but once you get passed that and more used to it the game does shine.

  • digitalash #67 1 year ago

    Set us up with an open-world style sequel and ditch the ludicrous storyline and EA will conquer the world with ME.

    As for that storyline, what a bunch of self-important nonsense. I remember never really being given a persuasive reason why the generic totalitarian bad guys were so evil, for starters.

    And what is Faith actually couriering anyway? She might be bravely shipping child porn for all we know.

  • BigDannyH #68 1 year ago

    They nailed the "they're right behind me" anxiety of a chase scene. I'd like the sequel to have no combat at all, just vary the pace by having some parts where you need to keep momentum in order to scale an object (more tranquil) and other section where you're running for your life (batshit scary)!

    I'm surprised no FPSs have had scenes where you don't have a weapon, leaving you with no choice but to peg it.

  • JoeBlade #69 1 year ago

    @BigDannyH: The opening sequence of Half Life 2 was actually exactly like that :)

  • Veracity #70 1 year ago

    Bestest game ever where you play a terrorist, and bestest on the latest batch of TV boxes.

    I'd probably buy a sequel if it just fixed the more questionable physics and not much else (cool as double jumping always is, I'm pretty sure Faith shouldn't be able to do it). Still, almost hope it stays indefinitely shelved because there's too many ways it could easily go horribly wrong.

  • coomber #71 1 year ago

    Sorry, but did I miss the point of this? Wasn't there a review posted when this game came out? What does this add to that, other than three pages of "but I liked it"?

  • spekkeh #72 1 year ago

    While I liked Mirror's Edge, not once did I think it would be your average FPS. I also can't really recall most reviewers doing that, so that instantly makes 75% of this article moot.

  • mooseti #73 1 year ago

    Sequel. Please. Now.

  • photoboy #74 1 year ago

    One of my absolute favourites, I still think this is the best looking game of this generation. Sure it might not be throwing around as many polygons as some of the more advanced games out there, but the artistic style of the game trumps that by a mile. I love how everything looks real... the walls are pitted but shiny, like they've been slathered in glossy paint, the painted artworks have thick, swirling brush strokes on them, shiny polythene wraps boxes ready for shipping, even the metal walls of the lifts have a brushed aluminium sheen...

    Then of course there's the sunshine that bathes every level with blinding light and the brilliant use of bright greens and oranges and reds in the levels. It's a masterpiece to behold. Next there's the music, which is beautifully minimal and atmospheric, a perfect accompaniment to the peaceful quiet found on the deserted rooftops.

    Great graphics and sound mean nothing if the game isn't fun, and here is where Mirror's Edge really is quite unique for me. I hate the story, I hate the characters, I hate the disarm mechanic and I hate every encounter with an enemy. For such a long list of problems it surprises even me that I love the game so much.

    I think it's partly because I've been able to mitigate many of the problems. Turning the voice volume down to minimum (yes, they have a separate slider to shut the characters up!) and skipping the cut-scenes means the only thing I have to put up with is the dis-arming and combat. I say combat, I avoid fights at every opportunity, but sometimes you've got to disarm a guard or two and that's where the game really stumbles. The disarm mechanic requires such precision timing that even after dozens and dozens of play-throughs I still regularly fail against the tougher enemies. The worst offender for this is probably the bloody boat level, there's two sections in there that I often have to do over and over.

    However, in spite of all that, the parkour platforming mechanic is so good it overcomes the bad. It's so liberating to go flying from rooftop, running along walls, down escalators, up fences that you can easily put up with the bad bits and appreciate the breathtaking graphics and fantastic platforming gameplay.

    The iPhone/iPad version of Mirror's Edge got rid of the gunplay and annoying disarm mechanic, and I often wonder if that is not what the original vision was for this game. The gunplay is so bad, I remain convinced some exec insisted on having it added because they cannot envisage a first person game that doesn't include the word "shooter" in its description.

    I remain convinced a sequel could easily fix the flaws and be an absolute smash hit for EA, but they seem loathe to take the chance, and that's a real shame. :(

  • Collymilad #75 1 year ago

    Amazing game.

    Seriously deserves a sequel. I've always found most of the problems people had with this game were petty nitpicking. Or they were just shite at it, I try not to say that, but for this game it rings true imo.

    For example, half the people who moan about the controls don't seem to know that if you just tap the RB your character automatically faces 90 degrees away from the wall. There are other misunderstandings about the controls as well, but people chose just to moan about the game rather than actually take the time to learn the intricacies of the control system.
    Edited by Collymilad at 10/04/11 @ 19:00

  • Ravenger #76 1 year ago

    One thing that's not really been mentioned is how beautiful the game is.

    There's a sense of hyper-realism - more real than real-life - in the starkly lit rooftops with the crisp clear blue sky.

    I loved the game, especially because the sense of being there is second to none. It's only marred by some seriously difficult bits of navigation later, the clunky gunplay, which is very difficult to avoid in later missions, and a story which isn't really that epic.

  • Voffvoffhunden #77 1 year ago

    I have to wholeheartedly agree with so many other comments. This is one of the most engrossing games I've played, and I have a hard time figuring out why so many people didn't like it. Thanks to the author of this article for shedding a certain light on that mystery.

    Now, maybe I'll finally be inspired enough to get those final three speedrun trophies...

  • kimchibaka #78 1 year ago

    1) It's absolutely ridiculous to do a retrospective on a game this age imo.

    2) Why on earth are Eurogamer reviews not longer? A retrospective of three pages, but a usual review is just two. Three's the sweet spot for both I reckon.

    3) An extraordinarily patchy 're-review'. Just for example, (Parkour is) ''unhampered by...physics'. WTF?

    4) Despite all the gushing, and three pages of it, I'm no more inclined to try the game than I was when the first reviews hit. So the article seems almost completely pointless for me.



  • TackyCheeba #79 1 year ago

    "The developers shrewdly refuse to spoon-feed you the answers to the architectural puzzles of their level design"

    Other than the brightly luminescent drain pipes and sheeeeet!
    Edited by TackyCheeba at 10/04/11 @ 22:32

  • adamholymoses #80 1 year ago

    Most things seem pretty pointless to me, that's why they are fun.

    I loved this and I rarely get into score attack games and stuff, my competitive nature was beaten out of me by my early 20s yeah...I think what I loved most was that they had a pretty lady character who you couldn't see, which made her even hotter, and I did the train section in about three goes after the luxury of watching my mate fail at it for about 2 hours (resulting in a controller hitting the wall at some velocity).

    God, it looked so nice too. Like how I thought the future would look like when I was 6. I have tried doing a parkour though and it is both tricky and frustrating. Wow, like the train bit...

  • Laserbream #81 1 year ago

    Fun game this one. Will never finish it thanks to motion sickness.

  • Azhrarn #82 1 year ago

    A game in which the player can shoot, is about shooting too. To state otherwise is absurd. Mirror's Edge may be more about running than shooting, but that does not matter. When there is shooting in the game, the experience should be convincing and fun to use. Nevertheless I felt Mirror's Edge to be a refreshing game that deserves a sequel and a chance to evolve.

  • FWB #83 1 year ago

    Great game. If you didn't like it, you're dead inside.

  • FWB #84 1 year ago

    When there is shooting in the game, the experience should be convincing and fun to use. Nevertheless I felt Mirror's Edge to be a refreshing game that deserves a sequel and a chance to evolve.

    I really liked the feel of the shooting in ME. It felt clunkier than your average FPS and that was perfect for a character who was not supposed to be an ace with a weapon.

  • WizenWolfBain #85 1 year ago

    Loved this game. I haven't got motion sickness since Crimson Skies: Road to Revenge on the original Xbox. I thought this game was truly original, and the graphics were a beauty to behold. The only gripe i had was the plot at times, that seemed to interrupt important action sequences.

    But i would definitely buy a sequel. It's probably one of the most risky and original successful games of the past decade.
    9/10

  • dnd #86 1 year ago

    how does anyone play this for more than 5 minutes and think that it's a shooter?

  • FuzzyDuck #87 1 year ago

    I think it's cool that DICE crafted a first person game without guns so brilliantly and also made the only FPS that i'd say i love (BF: BC2).

    ME seriously deserves a sequel. How can one of the most striking games of this generation be allowed to (wall run, vault, climb, sprint) slide into obscurity?

  • ilmaestro #88 1 year ago

    Retrospectives on current gen games. D:

  • beatwolf #89 1 year ago

    a bit early for a retrospective imo.

  • 43n1m4 #90 1 year ago

    Great game and yes, I believe a lot of people didn't get it. Those of us who did was in for a treat, though.
    To a possible sequel: less fighting, more running. However, if the disarm gameplay mechanic was a bit more 'loose', combat situations could've been more fun.
    Edited by 43n1m4 at 11/04/11 @ 07:56

  • PlugMonkey #91 1 year ago

    They nailed the "they're right behind me" anxiety of a chase scene.

    They sure did. I just wonder if the guys chasing me had to succeed in killing me quite so often. If I'm already pegging it away from them at full tilt, then their objective in the game design is being fulfilled. They don't actually need to keep fucking shooting me. I'm already running!

    Compare it to the opening of Half-Life 2, which created exactly the same sensation, but did anybody actually get caught?

  • FWB #92 1 year ago

    Of course people who didn't like "didn't get it". So many people rave about it, more so than complain. It's not a problem not getting something. Plenty of games I didn't enjoy, but many others did. It happens.

  • carlitoswagon #93 1 year ago

    Would look forward to a sequel.

    Edit: Considering some of the comments in the article i wonder sometimes how good some journos are at playing video games. I do wonder.
    Edited by carlitoswagon at 11/04/11 @ 08:48

  • Meh #94 1 year ago

    i can't beleive he had to complete the game to get the pacifist trophy, you can get that on the very first mission, just don't use any firearm for ONE mission and you got the trophy.

    Just run... like your supposed to do,not f*** about diasraming someone and going OMA against 3 dudes, then realinsing that you still have 2 buildings to scale, 9 flights of stairs, 5 doors and an air vent to get through then using one enemy as a spring board combo shield to pull off the almighty dynamic entry on the dude behind packing a shotgun, all the while picking up these golden bags along the way and trying to do it all in 15 mins....


    i love this game.





  • Sodding_Gamer #95 1 year ago

    I absolutely loved this game. Fresh, gorgeous art design and soundtrack was immense. One of few games that sticks in my head to this day.

  • oerhoert #96 1 year ago

    "Mirror's Edge has what most would call a high learning curve"

    Mirror's Edge has what you would call bad signposting and a flawed concept.

    I understood perfectly well the concept of the game, you seem to be making som broad/strawman assumptions about why some people didn't like it. It was the execution that was lacking.

    That said, it was a very interesting attempt and the world would be poorer off without it.
    Edited by oerhoert at 11/04/11 @ 09:34

  • Gumersindo #97 1 year ago

    Four things:
    1) No "bugs" (I mean aliens, monsters, whatever...)
    2) No gun aiming (I am the worst of the worst in FPS)
    3) Tension (LOTS of it, some pieces of it almost made me feel like running a marathon)
    4) Beautiful urban landscapes.

    For me it was ace.

  • dwalker109 #98 1 year ago

    I just bought a copy thanks to this article - sounds like this is something worth experiencing, at least. Wish I bought the Pure Time Trials when they were on offer now!

  • iamtheoneneo #99 1 year ago

    amazing game. shame the masses didnt get it.
    a sequel would be amazing.

  • photoboy #100 1 year ago

    @Meh

    I could have sworn when I first played the game that the pacifist trophy was for completing the whole game. I'm almost certain I had to finish the game before it unlocked for me. Could they have changed the conditions for the achievement in an update or am I just mis-remembering?

  • ISeeEverything #101 1 year ago

    The game was so good , I played it 3 times in a row . I hope there will be sequel and that DICE will not water it down , just to feet to some low IQ brains .

  • andromeda #102 1 year ago

    These retrospectives dont help a late 30s man get things into perspective!
    Christ, Mirrors Edge was only out a couple of years ago!!

    anyway, one of all time favourites. Had a SOUL this game, I think it was also one of the only games Ive bothered to complete!
    And the music worked perfectly.

    [link url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Ky40VCg7M&feature=related
    ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Ky40VCg...[/link]

  • Dogs-not-Gods #103 1 year ago

    For me Mirror's Edge looked great and free running was a joy; but when it tried to be a game and not a fabulous tech demo - ie. when any form of combat errupted, it fell flat on its face.
    Edited by Dogs-not-Gods at 11/04/11 @ 11:41

  • ShiroBen #104 1 year ago

    Here's how much I love Mirror's Edge: every single time I see a copy for sale, I have the urge to buy it. I've said a lot about this game before, so I'll just say this; the fact that it has a 'discard gun' button is wonderful. The fact that you can get through the whole game without shooting anyone is fantastic. And the feeling of satisfaction you get from disarming an enemy and then casually discarding their gun is just splendid.

    All right, I'll say one more thing. I love that it presents an actual challenge. Not many games do, these days. Maybe I'm old and cobwebby and remember fondly the days when games didn't hold your hand and mollycoddle you, but I actually enjoyed failing again and again, especially in sections that might've been easier if I'd given up my stubborn refusal not to use guns (I didn't even know about the achievement at the time!). Finally succeeding, through my own skill and thought and planning, was always immensely rewarding and fun. I'm thinking especially of the section where you're faced with three guys with machineguns in a relatively small area--run straight in and you'll be shot to death in seconds, but there are obstacles there, and if you're cunning and quick and skillful at disarms and hand-to-hand you can lead them off and take them out one by one. Died about thirty times, but on the final attempt I took out all three in less than ten seconds without any of them getting a shot off. That was, simply put, fantastic.

    Brilliant game. In my top five for this generation. That it hasn't had a sequel yet is basically like a crime.

  • Zephro #105 1 year ago

    I loved this game.

    Still I didn't find the concept that jarring or feel a need to drop into FPS mode at any point... maybe it's because I played Thief so much?

  • FuzzyDuck #106 1 year ago

    A quick press of the PS button (i think Eurogamer is the only website that doesn't crash the PS3 browser!) and it looks like there's a trophy for not firing a gun for an entire chapter (Pacifist), and one for the entire game (Test of Faith).

    I own this both on the PC and PS3 so despite it's flaws DICE made an impact on me with it.

  • Frankie_Lee #107 1 year ago

    To me the most enjoyable aspect was being chased. Really exhilarating stuff.

  • apoc_reg #108 1 year ago

    One of my favorite games. The style, graphics, movement and challenge make it terriffic.

    Only mistake they made was letting you pick up the guns... inever have!

    Go play it and dont fire a single bullet, game is so much better! The time trials also rule

  • MarketZero #109 1 year ago

    I really tried to like tis game but it was so dismally frustrating in th end. I say 'the end', I mean about half way through.

    It was dull.

  • Kaminari #110 1 year ago

    Like most people, I used to hate this game with a burning passion -- until I stopped listening to the critics and started playing the game by myself.

    I hate to admit it, but this is now one of my favourite games this generation.

  • frazzl #111 1 year ago

    Mirror's Edge was one of my favourite games of 2008. I personally found the campaign to be overly short and easy though; the bulk of the challenge lies in the time trials. Having downloaded some of the top ranking ghost runs, I am truly humbled at how amazing certain people are at this game. I don't think there is a platformer out there (and that includes even the venerated Mario titles), that places as much of a premium on skill as Mirror's Edge does! Here's hoping DICE get bored of churning out military shooters and make a sequel.

  • captain_saturn #112 1 year ago

    I enjoyed Mirror's edge, but never completed it. I thought the controls were a little flawed, and also that the gameplay was too linear when I expected runner vision to be more of a hint system rather than a system which highlights the only path. Perhaps that's just me not being observant of my surroundings enough but that's how it felt playing the game. And, like Sonic, when you lost your momentum and suddenly ground to a halt everything seemed stilted. This wouldn't have been a criticism but there were way too many of those guards that you arbitrarily needed to defeat in order to progress, for no discernible reason.

    Also the last level was a little stupid in terms of design. The only way to do it seemed to be by shooting the place up, but damn I wanted that trophy. Either way, I would definitely buy Mirror's Edge 2 because the first one had a lot of potential and originality, and if they iron out the flaws it could be a great game.

  • icanus #113 1 year ago

    Awesome game mechanics. But seven hours on normal on first playthrough (and that's total time played, dying and everything) - that's way short! Still, it being priced at 1.5 movie tickets now - worth the money.

  • henrys_cat #114 1 year ago

    Great parkour mechanics, but would have been better if it ditched the terrible cutscenes and generic story, and completely prohibited gun use. Must dig this out and replay it.

    I'd love to see a reboot / sequel, possibly extending the game to have a more open world (but not too huge). Make the whole thing like a super elegant version of Crackdown, or a futuristic Assassin's creed. Might be nice to extend it to having bikes too? I'd love something that felt as tight to control as this, but with the possibility of Danny MacAskill skills.

  • Alestes #115 1 year ago

    I love this game. Already from the beginning I liked the game a lot, but after playing it more and getting better and eventually good enough to run thru the whole game without firing a bullet and minimal violence the game became gold.

    It's been a long time since I played a game where I just keep replaying the same level for better times and to improve myself, besides ME the last time must be some racing game from the mid-90s.

  • Farzlepot #116 1 year ago

    I love the game, but a retrospective on a game this young? Seriously?

    How many other forgotten gems are there that could benefit from a spot like this!

    There are so many old games that so many gamers could have played but didn't! Or did play and could use a reminder! Mirror's Edge is still on the shelves for crying out loud!

  • GordonBennett #117 1 year ago

    With all due respect to those questioning the wisdom of doing a retrospective on a game less than three years old, I would ask these people to check the definition of the word 'retrospect'. It means to look back. You can look back at yesterday, if you want.

    While I'm not suggesting that someone does a retrospective of Bulletstorm just yet, please remember that 'retrospective' doesn't always mean Commodore 64.

  • Farzlepot #118 1 year ago

    Of course 'retrospective' means taking a look back at something in 'the past'. But semantics aside, no respectable website would consider doing a 'retro' piece on CoD5, so why ME?

    Personally, I figure that if it's still on sale on the shelves, it's not a retro game!

  • acmilan1899 #119 1 year ago

    What a brilliant game - gonna get back into it again. Even the Missus enjoyed watching me play this. EA please make a sequel. Do it for the artistic merit even if it probably wont sell.

  • walidb123 #120 1 year ago

    I'm glad this article was written because it reflects quite well my own experiences with the game except, like some others, the learning curve wasn't as steep for me as it was for the writer.

    Mirror's Edge really is one of the best games I've ever played and just finding out that EA might scrap it has kind of upset me because I enjoyed it for so many reasons: the incredibly beautiful aesthetic and design elements, the innovative gameplay which captured the free running aspect so well with the focus on adapting to the games 'runner vision' to tackle the environment and utilising it to your advantage against enemies, even the dystopian story that held it together. It's one of maybe 3-4 games where I've gone back and played through the entire thing more than once - it gets better once you understand it.

    It would be a real loss if Mirror's Edge 2 wasn't to materialise because of the strong foundations laid out by the first game, and I wouldn't mind waiting another year or two for that happen. In terms of multiplayer, I don't play online in the first place.
    Edited by walidb123 at 14/04/11 @ 23:06

  • steveb07 #121 1 year ago

    I finish very few games this was one of them. Loved it even when I got stuck or died over and over again.

  • dwalker109 #122 1 year ago

    To add to my previous comment - I fucking love this game. It has more atmosphere than most other games I've played in the last 10 years, the visual design and soundtrack is stunning, and I even quite liked the world and general storyline - even the cutscenes. Constantly plummeting to my death wasn't much of an annoyance, and once you know how to deal with the baddies they aren't too bad either.

    It is, simply put, breathtaking. DICE are geniuses.

  • blabla123 #123 1 year ago

    Having played many Tomb Raider games over the years, I felt quickly at home here. Aside from being first person, this game is really quite similar. The protagonist is a woman. She talks to her colleagues through a headset, as Lara does in some of the later games. The gameplay is about about your moves and less about gunfighting. There's a time trial, also a part of Tomb Raider games, particularly Legend. That game also includes urban settings and vertical scaling of buildings, particularly the Japanese level. If anything, compared to some of the Tomb Raiders I remember, Mirror's Edge is a little easier. The controls are quite refined and responsive, playing on PC with a pointing stick mouse, which is possibly ideal. There is a very good balance between where runner vision helps you out and where it doesn't. You really feel like this is Faith's trained mind, rather than a hint system.

    Where the game falls short is the sketchy story and the relative lack of people, other than Blues shooting at you. Again, this is not unlike the early Tomb Raider games, but I would have liked more story (and with the main game engine, not animations). Where it scores is in the rush that comes from being under threat and, well, being able to run away from it. As in many games, this is also a good trick to detract from a linear level design. It's not about exploring, it's about quickly finding a path and solving the 3-dimensional puzzles.