A bold new direction for both the first person genre and platformers...
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DICE is known for its insanely popular multiplayer shooter series, Battlefield. Battlefield is known for its wide open environments and high player counts, an experience that other shooters often find hard to replicate successfully. Although DICE has continued to make new forays in the Battlefield franchise through Bad Company and Heroes, many were surprised when they announced that they were working on a completely new IP that attempted the idea of first person platforming. Many doubted DICE could pull off what nobody else has managed to do before, but the game ended up being released anyway. So, does DICE's experimental foray succeed in doing what many thought impossible?
From the start, Mirror's Edge (ME) leaves quite an impression of uniqueness. Set in a pristine, near-future metropolis, ME presents a world that stands in sharp contrast the dull, dark and brown settings that developers seem addicted to. It's a breath of fresh air, and it helps sustain an experience that some might have found to be not worth their time. You play as Faith, a messenger of sorts, whose daily hijinks consist of carrying messages between rebelling elements in what seems to be an area under oppressive rule. Your daily adventures are interrupted by the assassination of a sympathetic candidate for mayor. It just so happens that your sister (who works for the same security forces that chase you) was framed in the assassination. The plot builds from there. Unfortunately, the narrative is not one of Mirror Edge's strengths. Characters have little to no personality, important plot points are communicated through mediocre animated cutscenes (looking like low-budget E-surance commercials), and the campaign has no solid, satisfying ending.
It's a shame, because the actual gameplay that this below-average plot surrounds is usually quite good. Each level throws you into varying environments within the city that have Faith using some serious acrobatic skills. As you run, you pick up speed and become able to string moves together. Everything from wallruns to pipeclimbing is used by Faith to zip across levels. All of these moves are quite easy to pull off no matter what control scheme you're using, although the mouse and keyboard combo does make it slightly easier to aim Faith in the right direction.
At its peak, Mirror's Edge is a pure joy to play. Running, jumping, and sliding over environments without pause is truly exhilirating as DICE has captured the sense of movement quite effectively, with Faith's hands swinging appropriately and the camera bobbing as if it was attached to an actual head. To help players, DICE gave Faith "runner vision" (disabled on higher difficulties) which highlights interactive objects with a bright shade of red. While it seems like a feature that hardcore gamers would regard with disdain, it is not obnoxious enough to make the game feel like its holding your hand. It's only helpful enough to ensure that you won't make frequent pauses that break your momentum. Unfortunately, things do get bogged down a bit too often by a variety of other factors.
The chief of these is the game's liberal use of armed enemies, that take potshots at you as you try to navigate the environment. Usually, you can try to avoid and go around them, which further boosts your adrenaline, but you'll often find yourself running into them. The combat mechanics should be as smooth as the actual movement, but they're not. Stopping an enemy involves either pounding him dead with your fists (by which time you'll be dead yourself) or disarming them during the split second their gun is highlighted red. This is often difficult to pull of and will leave you with the gun in your hand. While players might be encouraged to empty it into the enemy's friends, they're going to run into Mirror Edge's questionable gunplay. DICE are one of the masters of multiplayer combat, so why weren't they able to preserve the solid gunplay from the last few Battlefield games is beyond us. Guns are inaccurate, floaty, and just don't feel satisfying to use. You can throw one away, but as said before, this ruins the flow of the gameplay.
Mirror's Edge is also quite unforgiving when compared to other recent platformers, most notably ones like Prince of Persia. Whereas you pretty much didn't have to watch where you were jumping in POP, be prepared to die and restart sections A LOT in ME. The game awards those who make precise movements but punishes those who are even a degree off from grabbing a ledge. It can become very frustrating for impatient players. If you want to play Mirror's Edge, then prepare to have your ego hurt a bit.
Beyond the story mode, there are several modes to play around with: record-beating races and speed runs. There are leaderboards for those interested, so the game may or may not be worth the price depending on your interests in such features.
Mirror's Edge is simply a beautiful game. Its world is one of sharp contrasts, containing stunningly clean white environments sporadically highlighted by bright colors. While it may not break any technical ground, it contains an ambitiously unique design that's a breath of fresh air after coming from this generation's bevy of dark and slimy corridors. It looks great on PS3 and 360, but be sure to play it on a PC if you're looking for some serious eye candy. For the PC version, DICE added Physx support, which helps liven up the environment with things and materials like plastics and ripping cloth. It's not a huge difference, but when added with higher resolution and AA support, it gives the PC version a real edge.
Sound design is great, with ambient effects like Faith's breathing and footsteps further immersing you in her adventures. Voice acting is above the bar most games set, and the soundtrack is hypnotically rhythmic at the right times.
While not for everybody, Mirror's Edge is a breath of fresh air for the first person genre. Unforgiving and badly written, it will turn off a lot of players. But it is bold, beautiful, and ambitious enough to be considered, especially if you're a fan of the whole free-running thing.