Though frustrating at times, Mirror's Edge gives a new and refreshing experience never before seen in first-person game.
The game's plot is set in a city where a totalitarian government runs it with an iron fist. The government keeps an eye of its citizens by keeping track of them through surveillance, watching their every move so that they can reduce the city's crime rate, and keep anyone who's willing to challenge their power, at bay. The heroine of this game is Faith Connors, a runner trained in the art of parkour. Her job as a runner is to deliver messages to other revolutionary groups scattered throughout the city, while staying out of sight of totalitarian authorities and move around as fast and as flawless as possible. An election for mayor is almost underway, and the corrupt incumbent Mayor Callaghan seeks to be re-elected to maintain his power, as well as his control over the city. A candidate named Robert Pope challenges Callaghan and seeks to bring change to the people, but Faith finds out from her sister Kate that Pope has been murdered, and asks her to find out more on what happened. Faith goes on a mission to find out more on the murder and attempt to clear her sister's name.
Overall, Mirror's Edge has got a decent story. More of the plot is revealed slowly during the cinematic events, and even in the game's unique, stylish cutscenes. Most of Mirror's Edge's story is told in Faith's perspective, and the game is told somewhat from her feelings. To sum it all up, the game's storyline is direct, so it's not a deep, emotional story, but one that's told in a way easy to understand. The game does end with a sort of a cliffhanger, and obviously pointing out a continuation of the series, but the story is nonetheless satisfying.
Gameplay is simply focused on giving the "ultimate parkour experience" to the player. It is all about speed and momentum, and how the player can put all of these things together to make everything flow. The game is entirely in first-person perspective, although it is not actually a shooter. It also brings camera and the player's movement, such as when the camera moves or bobs that depend on Faith's current actions. Faith can leap great heights, scale buildings, and perform wall-runs with great fluidity. She can also perform hand-to-hand combat controls, such as disarming an enemy and using their own weapons against them.
The way the game progresses is by the means of "Runner Vision" to indicate where the player needs to go next. Objects that are highlighted in red are where Faith needs to go to get to the next objective to the next. The colors make it easy for the player to progress towards their goal, but at the same time, it limits the liberty of moving around the city because the missions seem more linear than free roaming. Aside from that, the game does give you a huge amount of free movement that is seldom present in first-person games.
What brings Mirror's Edge down is the extremity for little trial and error. Mirror's Edge's gameplay is all fun and fast-paced, but it can be too unforgiving in some or many times. When you mess up at least once during gameplay, there's a big chance you miss a ledge, and end up falling to your death. Many times the game can be nerve-racking because you have to get everything right, and if you even slightly mess up the flow of things, you have to start over at whatever the last checkpoint you were in. You might lose a few hairs and break a controller or two when you're constantly trying to perfect a combination of death-defying movements, and in the end, you always fall short.
Close hand-to-hand combat is satisfactory, but the gunplay is very poor. When Faith disarms an enemy, she only equips the gun for a brief period of time, and then discards it. There's no reload option; just disarm, fire, aim, and discard, and that's about it. Although that particular part of the gameplay is weak, the game's main focus is the parkour experience anyway.
What makes Mirror's Edge fun though, is the speed runs and time trials. Time Attack Mode is where the player can attempt to complete parts of the game as fast as possible. The replay value of this game is pretty strong, and repeating missions and chapters can occasionally be fun, but that's all there is to it. Well, at least you earn trophies/achievements as you beat more speed runs and challenges anyway. The game also has online features, and can race ghosts to allow the player to beat these ghosts and find the fastest routes possible and attempt to rise to the top of the leaderboards.
The music in Mirror's Edge is just great to listen to, and it is one of the many finer points of the game. The game's soundtrack is composed mainly of different remixes of the game's main theme, "Still Alive," and it is captivating to listen to. Some of the music provides the flow during missions and can sometimes sound intense and even energetic. The game also has outstanding sound effects. When Faith is walking, you can distinctively hear her footsteps as you move her forward, and when running and performing acrobatic stunts, you can hear her breathing heavily. You can also hear her grunt in pain sometimes when you cause her to do something wrong, whenever she's engaging in close combat, or when she barely makes a ledge and hangs on for dear life trying to get there. It gives you the thrill of how tense and exciting the experience gets. Gunfire, explosions, and other sound effects are done well, and feel just right. Enemies sound believable, so Faith doesn't really stand out and feel like an outcast. Mirror's Edge also has a great voice cast, and actually makes the game's atmosphere colorful.
Mirror's Edge has an outstanding visual presentation. It is awe-inspiring to look at the entire environment around you. The buildings around the city look realistic when looking at it as a whole. Everything is so clean and organized, and has the similar designs and same colors, giving you the feeling of what a dystopian or totalitarian-run city would look like in a unique perspective. Running around and performing tricks from building to building gives you a fun and intense experience of what parkour and free running are all about. With the game entirely in first-person, the game gives you that experience in ways you would find exciting and thrilling.
Every time the player hits "runner vision," everything in the screen blurs, indicating that the player is picking up speed and gaining momentum when attempting to jump a long distance. The player's gameplay movements when jumping, wall running, or even engaging in hand-to-hand combat are extremely realistic that the camera bobs whenever Faith runs, jumps or performs any movement. You can even see her arms and feet flail whenever you make her perform acrobatic moves. At times it can be disorienting, but the game gives you an experience on-par with what you would actually witness in reality. The game does not fail when it lets you have the thrill of seeing everything with your own eyes.
Mirror's Edge is a great game that introduces us to a new kind of freedom never been experienced before in a first-person perspective. While it lacks in combat and dealing with little trial and error can be frustrating, Mirror's Edge definitely makes up for its great visual presentation, and an awesome soundtrack. It's highly recommendable to those who are looking for and want to enjoy the total freedom of movement and its intense experience.