Skip to main content

Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

More on DICE's parkour inspired Mirror's Edge

Rejecting FPS principles.

Tom Bramwell avatar
News by Tom Bramwell Former Editor-in-Chief
Updated on
33 comments

DICE hopes that Mirror's Edge will do "what Prince of Persia has done, but in first-person", according to producer Owen O'Brien, as more details of the next-generation action-adventure spill onto the Internet.

The game's female lead, Faith, will sprint, climb and, of course, leap around a utopian metropolis where she's among a small faction of people who've rejected the corrupt, authoritarian methods of those in power.

That's according to a preview in the latest issue of UK magazine EDGE, which also fills in other gameplay details.

A far more physical game than the average first-person shooter, Mirror's Edge aims to give you a better sense of being in a body, paying attention to things like acceleration and deceleration, the way your head moves as you walk or come to an abrupt stop, and of course as you climb and jump.

Many of Faith's moves have been inspired by parkour, and controls are being kept deliberately simple - with movement kept away from the face buttons in service to fluency - and a "Reaction Time" slow motion feature, as well as a system of timing button presses, that dictate your success on the run and in combat.

Despite DICE's background, Mirror's Edge doesn't care so much for the "shooter" bit of FPS, either, claiming to use guns as tools rather than the focus, bias combat odds in favour of your enemies, and enforce realistic restrictions that are seldom seen in games, like being unable to perform acrobatic moves while holding a heavy assault rifle.

The final game won't actually be free-form like Crackdown or GTA (it'll simply have big levels), but that's not putting us off. Multiplayer, built around chases, is planned, but with specifics still some way away.

According to DICE, Mirror's Edge is due for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, although a release date has yet to be confirmed. The full EDGE article also includes some concept art that illustrates the player's movement options (highlighted by splashes of primary colours in-game), so have a flick through for more.

Read this next