Still is a game that I can recommend for almost every player and, believe me, will be a unforgettable experience.
Mirror's Edge can be divided in three main aspects that will link all elements together, that I'll name: Mirror's Edge, Faith and Feeling.
In the Mirror's Edge…
… Is how the runners call the way they live. The huge control in the cities of all forms of communication made these so called runners "born" in the middle of the perfectionism, order and oppression. Being like an underground form of communication, Runners are used to deliver crucial and sensitive information through the cities.
For a Runner, they don't see a city like normal people would see. Fences, boxes, pipes, walls, rooftops and even cranes are all seen like an opportunity to reach some places, like a passage, like a improvised road in the vision of the Runner, that use that kind of places and objects to travel between the delivery places.
A clean city is what we see through the runner's vision. Amazing buildings rising like high passage ways full of reflexes from the mirrors and windows. Details that would not be relevant will do all the difference when looking through that specialized vision. Every time that a runner approaches of some usable object, it will turn to a vivid red. This is how the runner's vision works.
Vivid colors always indicate passage and objects that can be used to perform runs and maneuvers, as to escape and flee from danger or even just to reach point A to point B.
Technically, Mirror's Edge presents amazing textures and great models. The perfect use, balance and combination of the colors are what most capture our eyes in any moment. Also, is a reference in the use of the PhysX.
The leap of Faith…
…Faith is a runner and the main character. The history will involve her sister being charged of murder of an important political candidate. Trying to uncover all the conspiracy against her sister, she will, literally, run against time.
Running through rooftops, offices, malls, construction sites and even a cargo ship, the levels have a good variation. Short, but with a satisfactory variation, it gives her a lot of places to run through and, most of times, escaping from the police or avoiding security and breaking places.
Unfortunately, because of the player don't having the experience of being a runner, the first playing can be, inconveniently, a lot of trial and error. This gives an arcade air to the game, where, late, the players have the option to time the runs and, if on-line, post its results and compare to other players. At least, after beat the game once, one second run through the game can be more fun then the first time, because will be easier to "link" the jumps and keep the pace.
Like most will say, this can break the moment and, here, we have a wasted idea. Running gives us the idea of freedom. Freedom means chooses and chooses mean more complex stages and puzzles that isn't the case of Mirror's Edge. It's too much straightforward and, occasionally, will force the player follow single passages, looking more that we're running a race course than a normal level.
To reinforce that "race" feeling, all the extras will be in time trials or time attack based courses, where we must reach all the waypoints as fast we can or beat some stage in a time limit to unlock another courses and so on.
Feeling alive…
… Control Faith while running through the flow is a unique experience. Not if those other games don't give this kind of feeling but, in Mirror's Edge, Dice pushed this to one amazing level.
Remember the Runner Vision? Faith has it, of course, but, for having the pleasure to be in it, we can see it too. Vivid colors will be alive in front of us, the vision will be focused when running, and amazing blur and distortion effects will take place instead of the "normal" view and, together with all these visual, we also have the amazing sound effects.
Faith's footsteps and breathing are the main aspect of the sound effects. More we run, more we can feel her breath. Know that sentence "hold your breath"? In Mirror's Edge it turns alive. And, is so immersing, that, in my own experience, I just got myself holding my breath in the running moments, where Faith was being pursued or in a frenetic run, when she was holding her breath too and, when was over and she releases her own breath than we just "Ops! Why I'm holding my breath too?"
This is the kind of experience that Mirror's Edge proposes to any player who tries it for even a single stage. Also, the controls help a lot, even when it gives the sensation that isn't good enough.
Here, I will also let know my deception about the combat system. Worse than miss the flow, breaking the running moments, is to be shot down by enemies. Faith is too fragile and just a couple of shots is enough to put her down. In the begin is easy to fight the common cops but, through the progress of the game, heavy equipped security guards will appear, making Faith's attack useless, making the only option to us be to disarm them in a quick event, where the enemy weapon becomes red. But, is so hard to get the right time that disarm enemies will be our quickly way to death.
But I have to admit that, if the player is able to do and connect all disarms, then, will be one awesome feeling. Also, the animation of Faith disarming enemies is really good, mainly for the fact that she is a girl and the ones that she disarms are all strong and well trained man.
After consider all this, I finally have a conclusion for it. Dice has probably spent a lot of time in many elements that gave Mirror's Edge a unique appearance, in a way that is impossible to be compared to any other game ever made. For other side, they let a lot other elements without a descent level of polish, where a side of game is a solid adventure first person game with a unique experience and, in the other side, it have a lot of holes that just make it draw before reach the land of the masterpiece games. But still is a game that I can recommend for almost every player and, believe me, is unforgettable.
Now, my verdict: Unique experience, innovative, great sound effects and music, superb visuals, disappointing combats, limited levels, poor history, uninspired extras, low value and replay. I could easily gave a "6" for it. But, I recognize the work from Dice to create this pearl and "7" is what it deserves.