Mirror's Edge Comments by Christian Donlan

@ryohazuki1983:
It being short is more of a positive for me (strange I know!) because I don't have a hell of a lot of time to play games, I'd prefer to play it from start to finish rather than leave it unfinished.

I actually prefer that it's not very long too, especially when there are so many other games due out this month.

"Its not too short at all. This is a game with old school kind of gameplay. There are challenging time trials, leaderboards and achievements. This is a game about playing the levels over and over until you get it perfect. It willl take ages to beat the timetrials. I know gamers that will love this and gamers that will hate it ( Darren). "

So he's right then, it IS too short. Anyone who couldn't care less about time trials and perfect run throughs (which I imagine is the vast majority) will only play through it once.

"And yeah how people can be be spunking their cash on Generics Of War 2 when this brilliant title is out there, staggers me. "

It's called preference and strangely different people have different preferences. Honest, no kidding different people like different things! ;)

TBH tho, I love MP gears (never cared for the SP much) and only played MP gears2. Still it's pretty slick (well, except for that REALLY cheesy stupid missile weapon) and, even tho I've not touched SP yet, I know which game I'm happier with. Is that wrong or something.....

The PC version is delayed into 2009 that's why no mentioning / demo.
On the plus side this version will probably be cheaper when it comes out than the console versions especially if it doesn't sell that much. So PC gamers like me win in the long run. :)

I had the same impression than the reviewer based on the footage I saw. I would compare it to "The Club" which also is a game to love or hate without much middle ground. Time trials sound like the ones in "The Club".
Since I'm a sucker for story it will mean 7 hours and I don't pay full price for that.
The review reads like a 7 indeed but the reviewer clearly states that he liked the game besides its shortcomings so the +1 is ok.

I was expecting more, but I think I'm going to pick up the PC version of this anyway - I played it at the EG Expo and I can't believe I'm not going to get my money's worth out of it

I can't be spending £50/40 on a game that doesn't deliver on content. Value for money has become increasingly important to me.

I've been hearing a lot of negative feedback driven by the view that a game is linear. Well alot of the best games are linear. They all start the same, end the same and are filled out with the same middle and yet are brillant. Gears, Halo, LittleBigPlanet and Resistance: They're all linear experiences. So how can Mirror's Edge be critised for being linear? From what I've read, the whole experience of ME is to pull of a succession of tricks to traverse the level (with the ultimate goal being to do it without a fail). It's about the exhilration of overcoming one obstacle after other. It's about that dymanic. Games can be linear without criticism. A linear experience isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think it's about understanding linearity as a design choice and whether it's a successful decision in context to the devs aims.

preferring games to be short because "there are so many other games due out this month" is crazy. Stop falling for the marketing hype.

Another style over substance game if you ask me, which seems to be the way of things these days.

Rash': I think it's more about how you get from A to B, not just that you're doing it. With fewer random chances (basically less AI etc. to worry about), the gameplay will obviously vary less.

merkdot. Yes but it's your skill that will vary on a level until you feel you've mastered it.

Good but flawed, kind of what I was expecting.

Though I'll still probably end up getting it once its dropped in price a bit.

After playing the demo, this is a must have for me. Even if it does have its fair share of flaws.

Wow, nice review; very well written. Mirror's Edge is staying on my shopping list :)

I wish the review had dwelled on time trials more. Previews suggest that this is the life and soul of the game. There's little satisfaction blundering through a level, but lots of satisfaction in practicing it until you can dash through smoothly and quickly. Previews also suggested that there are alternative routes, and the time trial interface compares your distance covered against the shortest possible route.

On game length - I personally prefer a game I can "complete" (i.e. reach the end of the story) in 12 hours or so (and being crap at games, that translates to 7 hours for most gamers). I'd prefer a small bowl of delicious food, to a huge bowl of average food I stop enjoying half way through.

If I can then squeeze out more value through replays, then so much the better.

I was gonna wait til this was reduced to about £20 in a few months time, sounds like that's the right thing to do

review reads more like a 4/10. I liked the demo tho...

I'm in the loving it crowd. I love how it looks, how it sounds and how it plays. It feels a little old school in execution, which I like. It was always going to be a Marmite game though.

A lot of people won't blast through it... many people can't devote hours at a stretch to gamesplaying anymore. For some, they will get 30 minute chunks maybe twice a week. So the game might last them a month or so... who can say? I certainly start to grit my teeth now if anything takes over 15-20 hours to finish because of the backlog of games I have...

As for the game itself, I fell in love with the demo. I suspect this will be one of the games I get early on when I finally get around to buying a 360...

beautiful technical engine in the demo but the constant dying from falling because I didnt hit the trigger at the right time got (for me) old real fast. Back to Dead Space.

@bad09:" "IMO it's one of those games that looks so much better when you watch someone else play it but it's a whole lot less fun when I have to play it"

My mates used to say that about Resident Evil (the bastards!)."

that's so true i used to love watching my bro play resident evil even though i was the on who bought it. this game looks like it would frustrate me too much and its way too short. i hate games that use a time trial mode or something equally as frustrating and repetetive to beef out their games. no dice!

Nice, Im getting this.

Demo was completely meh. Anyone else find zip-lining utterly unintuitive and frustrating?

Seen a Tv review on this on Bravos Playr2.

Basically you die ALOT and end up wishing you could just FPS your way thru the game as it feels tacked on when you eventually get a gun. Also they mention that theres no multi player, and if you think about it, even tho you can save your ghost on the best runs you can play against a real person in real time running across a level which would ahve been super fun.

The story is apparently extremely predictable, the cut scenes are like flash movies and they said you never get to attach to the main protagonist. They ended saying it was a gloried tech demo for the inevitable sequel where they will probably fix said problems.

Read like a 7? What the hell does that even mean?

I was also a bit puzzled by the lack of mention of time trials. I've pre-ordered so I got an unlock code for the demo, and I spent almost an hour on the two short demo time trial tracks last night - and I still wasn't even remotely close to getting half decent times (in fact I only managed one star ratings on the two tracks).
As I practiced my line got better (though I couldn't for the life of me manage to pull off the much needed short cut I watched a downloaded ghost file take) and the feeling of flow and fluidity multiplied, and that feeling does indeed seem to be where this game shines - and it sounds like the time trials are where you'll really reach that.

I generally have a very low tolerance for trial and error gameplay, but I do however love racing games, and it feels like this could be a rather unique addition to that genre - even if you're the only runner on the track.

I thought the demo was pants. Not enough guns.

@Miths

Where did you pre-order from?

I've pre-ordered from GAME. Haven't got a code though.

I just searched, I spose you get code when you pre-order from EA store only?

@ryohazuki1983

A Danish online store. I did have to send them an email to remind them though, as they didn't send me the code on the day they had claimed on their site they would.

@ThePissartist - the whole game is based around Parkour and Hand-to-Hand, not weapons, you can use them but they purposely made them a burden.

I swear "screen tearing" is the new in thing. Who really cares?
"Oh no, look..."
/sobs
"What?"
"..the..the wall!"
"What?!"
"It doesn't ALIGN!" /cryface

Read like a 7? What the hell does that even mean?

I hope the esteemed teacher-wannabes here would answer that question too! It's amazing what their minds can come up with for criteria to rate things. Almost psychic.

This game is never an 8.
It also made me feel very very ill.

Would it be cheeky to suggest that the score may correlate with all the advertising on this site for Mirror's Edge?

Some people just didn't like this game from the get go. Earlier complaints of, platforming is impossible to do well in first person, have now been replaced with, its too short.

To me this is prob the most original game out for Christmas so I look forward to picking it up and especially trying the time trials.

@SilentScream

I miss chainsaws and lasers too.

@Pulsar_t

I suppose its because the review seemed to mention a lot more negatives than positives which would usually indicate the game gets a low score.

I don't see why this review was so good. It was well written and shows a good command of the English language, but other than that, it told me little conclusively about whether this is a good game or not. Donlan writes as if he believes videogame journalism to be some precise science, and grasps furtively at some objective "truth", when some "faith" (pun somewhat intended), his own gut feelings, would have served him better. That is why so many of you are writing stuff like "...reads like a 7".

An 8 in my non-inflated view of scores I take to be a very good title.

He does add that it's a love it or hate it kind of game, and if he hates it, I think he should say that, it should be allowed. He's spot on about the "anodyne Californian" voice-over of Faith though, that wasn't quite right.

Anyhow, I loved the demo to bits. This game is the first TRULY next-gen feeling game - whatever that is, I guess I feel it's next-gen cos it made me believe I was actually leaping off buildings. And I would love to do stuff like that, but you can't because then you'll die. The vertigo I was feeling, like never before, told me DICE achieved something next-generational here, I guess.. The visual design feels really new. To me, that's important. But it does not alone a good game make, of course. What did make it good, was the relative difficulty in getting the jumping and leaping right - fuck casual gaming, i want some challenges. When I got past the learning curve, it slid into this really nice flow. I felt a sense of mastery. Also, the story works for me, that the view of a nasty future for once is squeaky clean and white, and not some drab-grayish brown hell-hole, is a refreshing change. I also love the "pacifism" of the runners, grab the gun, chuck it out of reach. Guns kill people, and are the tools of the oppressors, away with them.

I can't say whether it's too short yet.

Well written review...?

'But a more serious stumble is the indoor bits'

Oh dear...

Anyway, apart from that I enjoyed the review and really looking fwd to playing this. Something a bit different, bold and new.

Bring it on...

'But a more serious stumble is the indoor bits'

Oops. Missed that one.

Mostly well-written review then. Heh. ^^

An 8 is a validation for me. I could wait for someone to come along and do all the great stuff in Mirror's Edge right, or I could have what I enjoyed in the demo with the bad stuff I could already see under the thin veneer here and now.

Except the PC version is a few months away. Tits.

I hate the first-person viewpoint and look forward to it becoming a thing of the past in all games...

OMG a none 10/10 review for a over-hyped game!

Eurogamer is now 0.01% towards redeeming itself after some of the worst reviews seen in the history of gaming (and yes, I'm including Official Magazines in that).

I'm prepared to take the plunge... (no pun intended) but I'm a bit disapointed re: the game length.

btw... is it just me or is the comments threads now littered with idiots that have nothing better to do than criticise reviews of games that they havn't played whilst holding some bizzare personal grudge against E.G./the reviewer ?

Please - if opinion offends you so greatly then can I suggest you go somewhere else your delicate sensibilities won't be so easily offended... North Korea maybe ?

I know I could be the only poor gamer here but has anyone else experienced their SD TV almost blowing up when playing this game, especially when approaching the red highlighted objects?

Great review, Christian.

I feel like buying Mirror's Edge to support the creativity, but I don't think I can afford it for two evenings or less. And I know the foibles (which are more than present in the demo) will annoy the hell out of me.

In the end, I don't think the idea is a strong enough factor to support a game without a solid story, and with unforgivable game mechanics, as Christian points out - the trial and error aspects, the railroading, and the brevity.

mingster wrote: So, to summarise: reads like a 7, plays like an 8, looks like a 9, lasts like a 4, sounds like a 10 and demos like a 6.

+1. Apparently 'reads like' is the hip new way to point out lack of reading comprehension.

"It's probably only a dystopia because the bed linen costs a fortune."

LOL!

I was hoping this would rise to a 9, at least. Never saw a 10 out of it as it's a bit limited in scope by design, sort of a unique specialty item (Shadow of the Colossus comes to mind... except that was a plain 10.)

I'll probably buy it once it's selling for a bit less than retail. That'll take the sting off the short length. It seems like the kind of game you'd want in your library for the long haul, if you like the gameplay. Not like you'd finish the story and never want to see it again, more like you'd enjoy the mechanics and want to take it out for a spin from time to time. Again like a racing title.

However, it's definitely not a game to be playing while you're concurrently finishing up with Tomb Raider Anniversary and toying w/ the Tomb Raider Underworld demo. The control discrepancies were giving me fits! :)

"Poor old Bioshock. I get half way through...Am I ever going to find out the secret behind Rapture?"
Don't bother. If you think Bioshock has gotten boring, that's because it has. It was never a great game, and a good movie will more than make up for whatever you miss.

"IMO it's one of those games that looks so much better when you watch someone else play it but it's a whole lot less fun when I have to play it"
That's true, now you mention it. Watching a friend made me a) want to grab the controller out of his hands so I could play it, and b) hurl.

"There should not have been any combat."
+1. And exactly what I've been saying about the Tomb Raider franchise for years now.

"First thing I did in the demo was swap the shouler controls. Did that before even playing the game, as I oculd tell from the control setup screen that the setup was wrong (don't ask a player to consistently and simultaneously use triggers and stick on the same side). So that shouldn't present an issue for anyone."
Good idea, thanks!

"because I have been playing it almost every night for the past couple of weeks and putting in some serious weekend quests and I'm still not at the end"
LOL seriously. How DO people finish these games in n hours per their complaints. I have "6 hour games" I've been playing for months!

"This game is the first TRULY next-gen feeling game - whatever that is, I guess I feel it's next-gen cos it made me believe I was actually leaping off buildings."
I'd say it's tied in first w/ Tomb Raider Underworld. There's nothing as revolutionary in the POV in the new TR, but it's hands down the prettiest 360 title I've seen yet.

"I hate the first-person viewpoint and look forward to it becoming a thing of the past in all games..."
I'm all about 1st person. It's the closest approximation of real experience. But I have come to realize that a 3rd person perspective is necessary in some games to give you a sense of your body relative to your environment. That's why this game is so interesting to me: the combination of a 1st person view point with well-executed body awareness.

Seriously who the **** is reviewing the games here at Eurogamer? After reading that I could not believe you have put an 8 at the end of it???? Is it just me :D sort it out Eurogamer....

As I was going through the review I thought "what the hell is this guy talking about" (based on my demo experience) but then I got to the part where he says "Perhaps, then, Mirror's Edge is a game that's easier to love than like" and I realised he had completely nailed the review (exellent job by the way), I guess I am one of the guys thats in love with this game and has preordered 5 minutes after playing the demo, but that's not the point.

I read many comments saying "it read like a 7" or something along the lines, or "its too short, i won't buy it", who cares, maybe I am too old a gamer and too financially independent to care about such things, but I still believe you can't sum up parts of things to try and make a whole sometimes you just know something is right for you even if there is every indication to the opposite.

I know this is a great review even if I don't agree to most of it but I agree with one crucial part of it, just as I know this will be a great game for me even if I become aware of its shortcomings.

Sorry for the long post and feel free to boo me of the stage.

@Crofot :

"OMG a none 10/10 review for a over-hyped game!

Eurogamer is now 0.01% towards redeeming itself after some of the worst reviews seen in the history of gaming (and yes, I'm including Official Magazines in that)."



It seem that the game needs to be:

a) over hyped
b) have pretty graphics
c) have lots of shooting

This game is missing out on c...

@hahayou
"So, to summarise: reads like a 7, plays like an 8, looks like a 9, lasts like a 4, sounds like a 10 and demos like a 6. "
Heheh very funny :)

Well written review (I say so because it seemed thoughtful).

The game looks great but how much better if it was a true free running "sim" - with a proper sandbox working with the running jumping, integrated with perhaps a GTA influenced mission structure/delivery/killing people among a living breathing city kind of deal. Still it sounds fun though. Hopefully others will pick up and run with the whole "in body" perspective for other FPS's. And hopefully we will see some more free roaming FPSs to go a bit off topic.

As others have already said, great review.

Personally, I loved the demo - it really convinced me to give the full game a go, whereas before I was a bit uncertain. I definitely agree that the fun comes from maintaining momentum and speeding through levels you've learned - much the same as WipEout or... well, any racing game really.

Thing is, I still find corners in WipEout that catch me out and frustrate, yet it only took me one playthrough of Mirror's Edge before I felt able to start experimenting with the layout of the level; finding different routes and moving quickly from one rooftop to the next, chaining moves together to keep my speed up. It was all very enjoyable - and I'm someone who usually can't be bothered to race tracks again and again and again just to shave a few hundredths of a second off my lap time.

The biggest tragedy as far as I can see is that the story didn't live up to expectations. I already feared that the characters and voices would end up a bit rubbish from the demo, but I had hoped they'd save the best for the full game. Ah well.

Still a "buy" for me, I think.

I was actually expecting the 8 - probably because of the 'runner up' tagline!

I think the reviewer wanted to make it clear why he was marking the game down, but didn't put in enough of why he loved it all the same. Although I agree it is well written.

Slightly in two minds now. I wanted to buy this, but it might well be worth waiting for it to come down in price - which I suspect may not take that long. Assassin's Creed was available for £25 not long after its release. I don't mind if it's a bit short - I have a pretty tight schedule most of the time and don't complete anything like as many games as I would like. And although I never played the demo, I really like the idea behind the game (I'm probably one of the +1 crowd in that regard). It's also very nice to see something genuinely original.

I'll leave it for a little while. Either that or I'll ask someone to buy it for me for Christmas. :)