Mirror's Edge Pure Time Trial Pack Review

By Tom Bramwell Published 3 March, 2009

Have more Faith.

Version tested: Xbox 360

At its absolute best, Mirror's Edge transformed bloated, couch-weary gun-lovers into rooftop ballerinas, ennobling those usually-enfeebled and seldom-even-rendered first-person appendages - your character's legs and hands - with the elegance and precision of Super Mario, and not just any Super Mario, but the Super Mario of perfectly vaulted piranha pipes, crouched slides beneath anonymous coin-bearing bricks and perfect, fortress-tall finishing-line breakthroughs. It's little wonder that Faith, pointedly envisaged as a plain-chested spokesrunner for forgotten delight, has already been re-imagined in 2D.

But for many, the game's short campaign and recycled time trial routes were insufficient to bridge the gap between imagination and reality. Elegance was elusive, with precious little time to accumulate experience before the choking urgency of the obnoxiously basic narrative and paralysing combat knocked you back off your feet - tautological clutter in the light of which the smog-free clarity of the game's brilliantly sun-baked play areas felt like something of a cruel joke. It clearly wasn't the punch line DICE had in mind either, because the Pure Time Trial Pack - available for about seven quid on Xbox Live and PSN - is nothing less than a carefully worded apology. I totally accept.

Made up of seven new maps (with two substantial deviations making nine separate tracks), the Pure Time Trial Pack sends you back to school, and this time you really fancy teacher. The first level, Chroma, sets out the pack's stall with a mixture of simple vaults, slides and wall-runs, paying out with a few more reclaimed seconds as you throw in turning jumps and wall-springs, and adjust to ramps and lines that nurture momentum. It's difficult, but 90 seconds should be achievable within a couple of runs if you spent more than a few hours with the main game, and there isn't an air vent, ventilation unit or pipe jungle to be seen. Even the red doors are gone, but you won't realise until someone points it out, even though you really liked them.

'Mirror's Edge Pure Time Trial Pack' Screenshot 1

Given the need for experimentation, a Guitar Hero-style option to practice individual parts checkpoint by checkpoint might have been welcome. Next pack, maybe.

Then it's onto Flow, and, not for the last time, a radical change in character if not pace. Flow wants you to tease every last pace out of wall-runs to inch closer to faster slopes, which sing to your screeching rubber soles like a choir of WipEout-fused SSX references, before you clamber through gantries at the foot of the run in a spiral of rebounding wall-springs, arcing wall-runs, dips and dives to a finishing line submerged beyond banking steps.

Like the red doors, the red-equals-optimal despotism of the main game's guiding force is gone from the Pure pack's Day-Glo pleasure parks, deposed by Designer's Republic squiggles daubed to suggest certain moves intuitively. Your language of movement may by now be uniform - and hopefully fluent, at least in the basics of Faith's death-defying lexicon - but by the time you reach the likes of Razzmatazz, Velocity and Actino, the platforming is a blur of competing dialects, as horizontal bars whisper suggestively in your peripheral vision while other, more obvious routes cry out to be augmented and, at last, experimented with. You can combine things in ways the host game seldom accepted or invited, despite its pretence.

And it's beautiful. Hinged blocks dangle across the sky like a children's train set thrown across washing lines; curved glass is hung beneath cool, red and white eyebrows of solid ground like Ray-Bans in the sun; and the sinister, green-yellow floating cubes of the hectic (and slightly malignant) Kinetic track beg to be parsed by the chattering, split-toed plimsolls you keep swinging up to your chest to avoid perilous snags, even though each of the tracks has seemingly been designed to avoid the original game's worst excesses, like barbed wire and electric fences.

'Mirror's Edge Pure Time Trial Pack' Screenshot 2

Although all the tracks are distinct, DICE has been busy in the background, splashing forgotten glass panels and blocks around like splodges of paint at the edge of the canvas. (Er, sorry.)

Without the context of streets below - just a gaping, oceanic abyss - depth perception sometimes abandons you in the face of leaps into space, as does your spatial awareness when the levels occasionally tighten into hard, nondescript blocks, but with runtimes seldom in excess of two minutes after a few practice runs, and newfound clarity of focus, your sense of direction is only fleetingly problematic, and overruled by the desire to improve. These levels want to be played, and you want to play them, not least because you never have to bloody well kick anyone in the head or track down Top Cat or listen to Merc rabbit on about 'blues' from his rooftop burrow.

And for those who really want to push it, the Pure Time Trial Pack can be hard. Getting to the end of the finisher, Reflex, and its follow-up Reflex Redux, is impressive enough, but to conquer these stages and take away three-star ratings will require experimentation, invention and focus. The new Trophies and Achievements (accounting for 250 Gamerpoints in Xbox 360's case) are daunting, insisting on elaborate chains and massive star totals. If someone on your friends list has the full 1250G, their fingers are worth calling on if you ever tangle your hair in an outboard motor. PS3 owners too, and they even get an exclusive, free map.

Mirror's Edge wasn't for everyone, and the Pure Time Trial Pack doesn't change that. But it's not only for people who loved Mirror's Edge; it's also for people who almost loved it, or perhaps only half-liked it. These levels are more imaginative, varied and inspiring than anything in the original game, stripping away the clutter to deliver something I'd half-expected not to see until the presumably nascent sequel leaps from the drawing board into the disc tray. This is a new high watermark for premium downloadable content, crowning an already memorable game with the wisdom of hindsight. The Faithful have been rewarded.

9 / 10

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (53) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • TiTaniXNEz #1 3 years ago

    So it's more like Super Monkey Ball now, without the balls, and monkeys?

  • Cloudane #2 3 years ago

    I bought it on the day of release and finished it in two hours but those two hours were some of the most joyful moments in ages.

    It is tricky at first but once you 'adapt' to the new time trials - each of them being very different - it is great fun.

    More Mirror's Edge love is needed in this world.

  • Triggerhappytel #3 3 years ago

    I was really split over this game when I rented it - I loved the freerunning, hated the combat - but I find myself really tempted to buy it now. I've even downloaded the free map off PSN incase I do get it again.

    Either way, I would sincerely love a sequel, provided DICE listen to the criticism.

  • kwesleyb #4 3 years ago

    Is there a demo for Mirrors Edge PC?

  • trav #5 3 years ago

    I enjoyed Mirror's Edge. The combat was broken and the story was secondary to everything else, but when you were doing the rooftop acrobatics it was one of the most fun games I played.

    The fact that his DLC is focused on that aspect is a winner for me.

  • dsmx #6 3 years ago

    I never really got what the designers were thinking with mirrors edge. Lets make a game about free running then put in interiors which stop you from free running and then put in enemies which stop you from free running.

  • Toothball #7 3 years ago

    I bought this but haven't had a chance to fire it up yet. It looks stunning though, and it's good to see that the rest of it works too.

  • Zelos #8 3 years ago

    Is that a giant mouse top right in the first screenshot?

  • Darren #9 3 years ago

    @kwesleyb - Sadly, no, but the PC version is much cheaper than the console versions plus it looks and runs better on a reasonably decent setup that can handle the Unreal Engine 3 which this game uses. It works perfectly with the 360 controller and the PhysX effects are pretty cool (if you have a newer NVIDIA graphics card).

    I bought the game cheap (£18) two months ago and I'm enjoying it in short bursts but it's certainly no classic and can be frustrating at times if you're unsure where to go (even though the game attempts to point you in the right direction). It's distinctive and a bit different though so if you're open-minded then it's worth a look.

  • Cloudane #10 3 years ago

    disc: - the Pure time trial pack costs £6.19 mate.

  • dominalien #11 3 years ago

    Wow, I wasn't planning on getting this, but now I just might. As soon as I get all the trophies from the main game, that is.

  • jambolio #12 3 years ago

    Great! Loved ME, though still havent squeezed the full gamerscore out of it yet, I may well attempt to once I have re-run through Mass Effect.

  • Sonic_D #13 3 years ago

    I got The game for the 360 for £15 just before Christmas and because of that I was't too annoyed by the short nature of the game. I enjoyed playing it even though it did need to be longer for a full price purchase. I will be buying this DLC asap, been looking forward to it and it looks like it has delivered by focussing on the best part of the main game.

  • menage #14 3 years ago

    I tried getting into this 3 times now, and gave the new free map a shot. My problem is that it's just waayy too much trial and error (left, plunge, repeat, right, plunge, repeat) and I don't know where I'm supposed to be going 50% of the time.

    Damned if it's too short, I can'rt even get myslef to finish level 3. It's just uninvolved for me.

    Would work better as a rooftop racer a la Wipeout. 8 Player run to finish could be cool


  • andywilkie35 #15 3 years ago

    @menage

    same as me, I couldn't get past level 3, I just got too pissed off with the trial and error of it

  • YobRenoops #16 3 years ago

    Just playing through this now on the PS3 and I'm loving it. The Time Trials are racing crack.

    "Oh, so someone beat me by 3 100ths of a second on this level? Right you bastard!"

  • YobRenoops #17 3 years ago

    @menage, andywilkie

    The problem with this game is first run through it really is trial and error. The amount of times I've been lost as hell and dying every 30 secs... However once you know the basic route, thats when you can embellish. This is what makes the time trials so good. Stick with it, we all know how short the game is.

  • menage #18 3 years ago

    @KingsXKIng

    ???

    I'm not a particular fan of this game, but Dead Space was also discounted, that looked pretty decent.

    Those 2 games were just released at the worst time.

  • Widge #19 3 years ago

    Mirror's Edge is a proper marmite title.

  • dominalien #20 3 years ago

    After getting the 50 star trophy in time trials, I'm replaying the game on hard and finding it laughably easy (speed runs are killing me, though).

    For people complaining about the combat: I don't know what the problem is. First time through, I attempted (and succeeded) to get the "don't shoot at anyone in the whole game" trophy: the disarms were very die-repeat-die-repeat, I'll admit. But now that I don't mind shooting people I just disarm the first guy in slow-motion and shoot everyone else and they just die. What's the problem there? I find combat easy - and fun!

  • schachmatt #21 3 years ago

    Not only the first sentence is a mess and I'm not a native speaker, but I don't think you can just arbitrarily replace "enabling" with "ennobling".

    Or maybe the text should symbolise how you most often stumbled through the levels looking desperately for the next target, already sprinting before you've even got a plan-in-this-style-over-substance-world.

  • dominalien #22 3 years ago

    @schachmatt

    The first sentence is a mess, but I believe "ennoble" is used correctly in this case. If anything, "enable" would be less suitable. I'm not a native speaker either.

  • ccfb #23 3 years ago

    I'm sure you think you're crafting poetry here, Bramwell, but your writing is a confused arythmical mess.

  • Tomo #24 3 years ago

    I reckon I'm going to pick this up from Sainsbury's on the way home if it's still 15 quid.

  • lasersrule #25 3 years ago

    Shame on EG for not recognising the clear Demoscene influence on this DLC. DICE has its fair share of ex-demosceners, you know.

  • Zelos #26 3 years ago

    @schachmatt

    It is a bit of a messy sentence, but ennobling is fine there.

  • ReFresh #27 3 years ago

    Mirror's Edge was a first of its kind and as such many struggled to get to grips with the gameplay, but I think anyone who put the time in to the game to master the controls will attest to how easy and natural the whole running and jumping process becomes. By the time you've gotten your first 3 star rating on a time trial (and the time trials are a great place to hone your skills) it all becomes second nature and you realise just how much potential there is in the gameplay and mechanics.

    The implementation and execution of these into the actual game that was Mirror's Edge are subject to personal tastes but I don't think it will be long before ME will be recognised as a pioneering effort in taking the first person action game forward. If game makers have any sense they will realise just how much DICE have advanced the genre with the slick and intuitive control scheme and excellent sense of speed and momentum that the game incorporates. Soon we will hopefully see not just a Mirror's Edge 2 but several more titles that incorporate the basic mechanics of the game to give new life to the first person perspective in gaming. The moving tank controls of pretty much all other first person titles have become glaringly stiff and uninspiring since playing this game - which is a great credit to it. The author's harking back to Mario's "perfect, fortress-tall finishing-line breakthroughs" were not just flowery flights of prose, they were a recognition that there is genius in ME's core gameplay and all it needs now is a Miyamoto type to really execute on its promise. These pure time trials are another positive step forward in that direction and we can only hope that more ME type first person awesomeness is on the way.
    Edited by 2 at 03/03/09 @ 16:27

  • Krelle #28 3 years ago

    mm hindsight

  • schachmatt #29 3 years ago

    dominalien; Zelos: You're right. "Tending to exalt" as a possibility given by the Thesaurus you linked to seems appropriate.
    It just sounded very awkward to me, and while I like Bramwell's zanier articles, I think he overshot the mark here, probably trying to symbolise the feeling of "flow" you could have when playing a level for the fifteenth time.

    I may also be a bit prejudiced, having only tried the game out and never gotten into the "flow".
    On the one hand just a few buttons let your character do all those crazy aerobics, on the other you're desperately only looking for the right way. "Two Thrones" and "Warrior Within" did the exact opposite and felt more engaging and less aimless to me.

  • mazzl #30 3 years ago

    how did the mouse get into the screenshot?

  • ReFresh #31 3 years ago

    mazzl - It sprinted in to a wall-run followed by a jump, sprint, wall-run, turn, jump, wall-climb, sprint, wall-climb, turn, jump, sprint, wall-climb, turn, jump, sprint, jump, jump, jump, wall-run, jump, sprint, wall-run, jump, wall-climb, turn, jump, sprint, long-jump, and a final scamper of a wall-climb. Time - 39:12 seconds.

  • smelly #32 3 years ago

    this reminds me.. i never did bother to complete the full game...

  • Batfink #33 3 years ago

    Awesome flowery language :D

  • dr_faulk #34 3 years ago

    I traded in Mirror's Edge for Left 4 Dead.

    Kind of regret it, now...

  • Tomo #35 3 years ago

    I thought that was an absolutely bonkers review. There's some nice imagery, but it's wayyyyyy too convoluted for me.

  • StrayBezza #36 3 years ago

    This game is currently £13 in Asda on PS3 and 360.

    Believe its nationwide..........

  • TheLittlestHobo #37 3 years ago

    LOVED Mirror's Edge, was in my top 5 for games of 08. The look and feel and the fact that you could play it without firing a single gun was a breath of fresh air. I even liked the much maligned combat! Even though I enjoyed the time trials, I prefered playing the single player i.e. the chases and the fights. Weren't that keen on the abstract style of this DLC, but seeing as this scored so highly I'll pick this up when I get the chance.

    Can't wait for the sequel!

  • JayScott #38 3 years ago

    Isn't it a rat? They are scurrying all over the place in the main game, and sometimes give you an indication of where to go. Still, rat or mouse, good effort to get itself up there...

  • polaris70 #39 3 years ago

    I dowloaded the demo for this game and was pleasantly surprised by the overall look and feel of the game. I'll get this from Asda if it's only 13 pounds. I would like some advice- would you play the time trials or the main game first?

  • adz #40 3 years ago

    As much as I hate to say it - there are other ways to write an intelligent, informative, interesting article than the over-the-top (admittedly elegant) pure wankery of this one. I don't think I've ever read a more pretentious article. I mean, if this were a review for a literary professor at Cambridge or something, maybe...
    I found myself thinking more about the writer than the game he was writing about.
    Sorry if it's just me.

  • ardamillo #41 3 years ago

    Well I think the style suits the game. It has a kind of breathless exuberance to it.

  • JayScott #42 3 years ago

    @ polaris

    I'd play the main game first. The trials are more a way to maintain your addiction.

  • 3william56 #43 3 years ago

    Just started on the copy I bought in the sales over Xmas, and am firmly in the AAARRGGHHH not more effing combat camp. The rooftop running is joyous, but every time I hear "Blues ahead" on the radio my heart sinks. This DLC sounds like a big slice of what makes Mirror's Edge great.

    Really, though an "apology" like this should be free. But it does bode well for inevitable Mirror's Edge II, which we can pray ditches the combat and interior sections altogether, and finds a better way to get past the instadeath trial and error gameplay and puts the Freedom back into the Free Running - mistakes should equal delay, not death and reset.

  • metalangel #44 3 years ago

    I might finally get this, given its a tenner.

  • ShiroBen #45 3 years ago

    I just read an interview about this the other day--the bloke being interviewed said they approached this like "What would Faith dream about?". I think that's excellent.

  • Zebula77 #46 3 years ago

    I agree wholeheartedly with the review. Mirror's Edge never should have had guns or flying kicks or disarms. The best parts were the freerunning, figuring out how to get UP THERE and chaining moves together. This DLC is just that, and altho I hated the Kinetic level (simply just cos it was so hard!) I thoroughly enjoyed this. Well worth the cash.

  • septimus #47 3 years ago

    Loved Mirrors Edge and this has just about convinced me to pick up the DLC.

    Hope they either fix or remove the combat element from the hopeful sequel. So much right about the game, yet it almost had me breaking my pad in frustration at points.

  • jonsaan #48 3 years ago

    OHFFFFSSAKE. I traded it:(

  • Reihn #49 3 years ago

    1. Tom, you can have my babies. (Seriously, have them..) This is why I read Eurogamer and and not -every other gaming site out there-.

    2. Dear DICE,

    I loved Mirror's Edge, but here are my wishes for the sequel:

    a. Bring the plot back to the original setting. You'd have to prequel it to do this, but still.. I found the whole starting setting - a distopia where electronic communication was controlled, so underground couriers were required by freedom fighters and humanitarian NGOs - far more interesting than the 'my sister's been framed for murder' business.

    Make the plot more about being a gang of low-down underground couriers, operating under the city's radar, and PUT THE YELLOW SATCHELS BACK IN THE GAME! (There's cool concept art of Faith et al carrying the courier bags which can be seen when you've played the game through.) For example, at the start of a mission, send the player (Faith) to pick up a hidden satchel from where it's been stashed by an informant. A perfect example would be an office building. Say that sensitive data has been pilfered from the office by an employee, who's not able to get it out the front doors. They've stashed the data in a bright yellow bag, and hidden in a ventilation duct up near the roof.

    The player then has to work out how to reach the rooftop, (which is a vertically challenging puzzle) and then they can grab the bag. After that, you have to deliver it to the client across the city - which is a glorious free running decent . . but having the bag hinders your top speed and maybe even your maneuverability. Once you've made the drop, if the cops see you, you've got do evade them and run like hell to make it back to safety - and free of the bag's weight, you can really shift it.

    b. You've got to leave the combat in! Sure, please improve it where possible, but the game is so, so much more for making you want to *choose* to not pick up a gun. It wouldn't be the same if there was no option to do so. Besides, you need the cops/security to give you something to run from, and to make you feel awesome as you vault over a railing and leave them in the dust, knowing they'll never be able to follow you.

    c. Could you *please* give Faith a wristband with carrabiner attachment, to hang on to when zip-lining?! If she tried to do all those long slides down wires and ropes with just her hands (one without even a glove) the friction would have burnt her hands to raw, bloody stumps in no time. It's the one thing about the game that totally screwed my suspension of disbelief.

    There - those are my ideas. Sorry for typoes I'm sure I've left in, but - I'm giving you this science free 'n all... ; )

  • Reihn #50 3 years ago

    Oh, and a further sequel suggestion:

    d: On the believable world front, populate the streets below this time! It would be make the game world much more rich - not just visually, but in the audio. When you're close to street level on a low roof, there should be a lot of crowd and traffic noise, but when you're higher up it would be quiet and peaceful, with only a the occasional sound (like a car horn etc) floating up, like you'd left the maddening crowd far below you..

  • ParanoidZombie #51 3 years ago

    Good review. ME is really something special. Once you managed to get rid of story mode's questionable design decisions and focus on time trial, you really have a stellar game in your hands.

  • Bander #52 3 years ago

    "b. You've got to leave the combat in! Sure, please improve it where possible, but the game is so, so much more for making you want to *choose* to not pick up a gun. It wouldn't be the same if there was no option to do so. Besides, you need the cops/security to give you something to run from, and to make you feel awesome as you vault over a railing and leave them in the dust, knowing they'll never be able to follow you."

    I agree completely. I loved the feeling of being chased in this, especially later on when there were opponents who were able to jump and climb almost as well as Faith. It's like today's equivalent of a 'forced scrolling' stage in a 2D platformer, and those were often my favourites then as well. No stopping, no collecting, very little room for error, just play!

    As such I thought it was a bit odd that so many people didn't like the 'combat'. I guess many are now of the mindset that everything that moves must be murdered without exception, even if it's not the way to proceed that the designers intended. Stupid 100,000 kill achievements!

  • Fleeby #53 3 years ago

    £13? Have bought. Bargain.