Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is a game that offers a refreshing re-imagining of the platformer genre. This is far from an arcade style, hop and bop platforming adventure; instead offering a grittier, more realistic approach to the concept. It’s not perfect, but Catalyst’s particularly commendable aspects such as a great sense of world building, fantastic graphics, and interesting (if slightly repetitive) gameplay keep this game going strong throughout it’s 15-20 hour runtime.
Narratively, the game paints a very dark picture. We pick up with our heroine, Faith, serving the last day of a prison sentence. We then find out that she was imprisoned by KrugerSec, (a corrupt organization led by Gabriel Kruger) that seems to have an iron grip on society, controlling nearly everything that the citizens of Glass see, hear, or do. Keep your head down and stay in line, and you’ll be just fine, you may even live an easy and prosperous life. But anyone who, like Faith, dares to question KrugerSec’s totalitarian rule gets a one way ticket to prison, exile, or worse. As Faith, players join a ragtag resistance known as “The Runners” who aim to undercut KrugerSec’s plans and win freedom for all of Glass’ inhabitants. It’s a solid premise that leads into many twists, side plots, and even some genuine tear jerking moments. And though some may find the game’s overall tone a little on the grim side, it is, at least, a plot that will likely keep you invested until the credits roll, which is the most important role of a story in the first place.
Catalyst’s presentation shines more than some may expect, giving a more than suitable foundation for the story and gameplay to stand on. Developer DICE has really pulled off something special here with the Frostbyte engine, as the game features fantastic reflections, particle effects, and background details across the board. The city of Glass is a brilliant, futuristic landscape, with primary colors and sleek textures helping the game’s map to really stand out amongst the sea of open world maps seen in today’s gaming climate. In addition, a virtually flawless 60 frames per second (on PS4 anyway) really helps to sell the game’s style and helps to give Mirror’s Edge Catalyst the feeling of being a very tightly constructed and thoroughly polished product. As for the audio side of things, while there isn’t a constant backing soundtrack, what music is there usually serves to highlight what is going on, and it does this to great effect. Fast-paced, percussion filled pieces play during frantic getaways, while slow, drawn out, lighter melodies will come to inject a sense of awe into the occasional wide-sweeping camera shot.
With these points out of the way, we are left with the gameplay, and I’m very pleased to write that it holds up well… for the most part. I’ll explain what I mean by that later, but I’ll begin by outlining the core mechanics of the game. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is, at its heart, a platformer, but it plays much differently than the standard Mario or Crash Bandicoot style games that people instantly think of when they hear the term “platformer”. In reality, the best way to describe this game is a “parkour” game. You see, the game constantly incentivises the player to, above all else, keep moving. For example, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with KrugerSec officers from a stand still will almost certainly end in your untimely demise. However, using Faith’s wide range of flowing free-running moves in combat adds a whole new dynamic to how you deal with Kruger’s goons. After all, why punch from a standstill and take out only a miniscule chunk of an enemy’s health when you can get a running start, initiate a wall run, and push off, using your force to drop down on the enemy, instead?
It is the game’s unique and interesting movement system that really defines Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. This same sense of flow and rhythm carries over into (and is, in some cases, even magnified during) sections of simply traversing the open-world map on the way to your next objective. The city of Glass is comprised of several fairly large and visually distinct districts, all of which are packed to the brim with walls, cross-beams, railings and more. These combine into a sort of futuristic jungle-gym, and it really is a joy to run, jump, slide, vault, and climb your way to your next objective on the map. Once you reach a mission objective, you will usually be funneled into places that resemble more traditional, more linear platforming stages, and it is here where some of the game’s most interesting set-pieces, as well the game’s biggest challenges, lie. When the parkour formula and the controls all click together, the game can be a wild rush. Skilled players can even achieve feats like traversing the whole map from end to end in one rhythmic, fluid run.
Despite all of this praise, the game is, alas, not perfect, and the main culprit that holds this game back from glory is the control. Now, fundamentally speaking, everything here works as expected. The problem here is not input latency or controls that are simply broken and don’t work properly. The problem is that, for a game that puts such an emphasis on flow and movement, the controls and momentum can, at times, feel far too sluggish for what the game expects you to do. DICE attempts to insert a realistic momentum and physics model into the game; which, in concept, is far from a bad idea. The problem is that, in this writer’s opinion, it was not pulled off as well as it could have or should have been, and the gameplay suffers as a result. Faith’s acceleration feels just the slightest bit too slow and truck-like for such a nimble game. Jumping from a stand-still will (understandably) get you practically nowhere, and the idea is that Faith’s jump height and distance increase the more momentum you have going into the jump. Again, the idea is sound in theory, but in practice it lends a certain off feeling (a jankiness, if you will) to the controls as a whole. Players will almost undoubtedly run into several occasions where they feel confident in a jump, only to go almost nowhere upon actually executing it and fall to their doom.
Though these control quirks do take away from the experience, they don’t show up too much in the course of a playthrough, and are forgivable overall when looking at the grand scheme of the game. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst still remains a very enjoyable experience that is sure to captivate players with its emotionally gripping story, striking presentation, interesting world, deep combat, and unique mechanics. The occasional control frustrations stand out as the only true downer in the game, but the good most definitely outweighs the bad here. If you haven’t checked it out, Faith’s romp through the city of Glass definitely deserves your time, and considering that the game is now available at a heavily discounted price at most retailers, there’s never been a better time to join the revolution.