The early levels of Mirror's Edge are the ones that best communicate the joys of the game, because they're the ones that best deliver the free-running dream.
That is: you, in an urban environment, gracefully inventing your own path from point Here to point Over There. You hop over fences, slide under pipes, run along walls, rebound off buildings and vault from ledges - all of it ideally without breaking stride and all of it from a first-person perspective. It's smooth, fast, exhilarating, and its creators do it wrong, all wrong.
The main character is Faith, a Runner. Runners are acrobatic postmen, travelling via rooftops to illegally deliver messages the sender doesn't want intercepted by the spying government regime. Faith's sister is on the other side, a police officer who's framed for murder. That prompts Faith to investigate. Cue lots of running. While that's all fine, the real star is the unnamed city in which all this takes place. It's the playground you'll be bounding across, its insides a mixture of primary colours and modernist furniture, its outsides sparkling like a glitterball. Most dystopian futures in computer games are bleak, ruined worlds, but there's a tangible reason why more of this city's residents haven't rebelled: because it's a really, really nice place. Who wouldn't want to live here? Even the rooftops are swept clean.
You're assisted by something called Runner Vision, which highlights certain items of scenery in red. A ropeline that can be slid down, a pipe that can be climbed, a handily placed chair that can be used as a springboard. Runner Vision makes snap decision-making easier, but the levels still encourage a thoughtful mode of play. You want to stop, look around, work out how to get up there and then implement your solution. You want to play it like you might play Portal, as a series of environment-based puzzles.
Instead, the game becomes infested by cops and snipers and SWAT teams and helicopters, all serving to hurry you along. The initial levels are direct enough that you can work out where to go while sprinting, but as the environments become more complicated, the red objects also become less overt. You want to stop more, but the enemies never let you.
Imagine you were playing arcade racer TrackMania and while arcing from one ramp to another, police started shooting you. More directly, imagine you were having fun and then people came along and started shooting you while you were having fun. Running is great, being constantly pressured in to running away is not so much. Yet it proves unavoidable. Each chapter is structured in basically the same way, with you bounding to the top of a building and then having to flee when the cops - or 'blues' - burst in to bust you. This frequently involves them coming through your only exit point, meaning you either have to run past them or go through them.
Going through them means punching and kicking them to the ground, or performing a disarm move. Disarming is essentially a quicktime event, accomplished by hitting the right-mouse button when their weapon turns red mid-attack. The addition of Reaction Time, better known as bullet time, slows their movement and makes this much easier. Regardless, it's satisfying to watch your leg appear from the bottom of the screen and slam your opponent's head in to the ground. You can then either use your newly acquired gun to dispatch the other enemies or toss it to one side immediately. The weapons are forgettable, but discarding them lets you affect the same awesome, nonchalance of characters in The Matrix.
Note that I'm saying nothing bad about the implementation of combat. It's clear that the developers don't want this to be thought of as a traditional shooter: there's no way to reload your gun and carrying it slows you down, hindering your ability to perform jumps. Yet although you're armed with the perfect skills for evasion, this also isn't a stealth game where you can avoid alerting enemies. While it's possible to complete the game without firing a single shot, for pure reasons of convenience you'll likely turn to aggressive solutions before too long.
The issue is that the combat hinders rather than enhances the core pleasure of the game. It's precisely because the rendering of free running is sublime that its constant, violent interruption is so frustrating. The world feels physically solid in a way other games don't. Walk close to a surface and your hands will raise and press against it. Fall slightly short on a jump and your arms will reach out and scrabble at the surface to pull you up, while falling slightly shorter still has you gripping the ledge with just your fingertips. Try to wall-run on an uneven surface and you'll slip and end up on your backside. Not hurt if the ground was close, simply embarrassed by your clumsiness. The quickening screen bob as you gather speed, the sound of trainers slapping on concrete, even the way your screen tilts and turns: there's an attention to detail here that places you firmly within this beautiful city. And it gives you the means to perform stunning acrobatic feats.
Recently, when walking past a nearby building site, PC Gamer's Production Editor Tony Ellis remarked about how cool it would be to run along the tops of the cranes, like in Casino Royale. Mirror's Edge has a level where you do exactly that. That made us all very, very happy.
I just want to make it clear, though: at no point did Tony suggest that it might also be cool to use those same physical talents to run away from a bunch of snipers. That would be rubbish.
Let's also make it clear that when attempting that moment of crane leapery, I fell to my death half a dozen times. You're not always going to time those jumps correctly. You're going to fall and die sometimes, forcing a retry, and there's no quicksave. This proved occasionally frustrating, particularly when a death happened after a scripted ambush I was then forced to walk into a dozen times, but mostly checkpoints are well placed, quickly re-loading and sending you back to just before your failed leap.
That scripted ambush is one of the situations where the game takes control of your viewpoint for the sake of a brief cutscene. Although the loss of control is abrupt, it's preferable to the game's occasional and jarring leaps into 2D animation. Faith is likeable, a rare humble protagonist who's willing to express something other than detached sarcasm. There's even some thematic nuance, though much of it is derivative of other work. But when the game is beautiful and steadfast in its commitment to the first-person perspective, suddenly jumping to 2D is bizarre and ugly.
What will annoy some of you far more is the length. The story mode is short - I completed it in around six hours. But this is only slightly less than it took me to complete Call of Duty 4 and it doesn't feel unfairly truncated, despite the room left for the inevitable sequel. I must say that I appreciated it for not padding the experience needlessly.
Also similar to CoD4, it's improved on the PC, being easier to make jumps using a mouse and keyboard and with PhysX support, it makes fist-smashing through glass even more satisfying. But then, this is a world wiped so clean that I frequently walked into glass walls without realising they were there.
Despite the lack of multiplayer, there are two other modes that extend the life of the game: Speed Run and Time Trial. Speed Run is the story mode levels with an added timer. This forces you to complete each level flawlessly in order to reach the end within the time limit. Time Trial, meanwhile, is set in specific areas of those same levels and is entirely devoid of enemies.
Hey, wait a minute, devoid of enemies? Time Trial essentially turns the game into the aforementioned TrackMania, placing a series of checkpoints on a level that must be hit in order and giving you times to beat to earn either one, two or three stars.
Did I say devoid of enemies? Reach the end once and the next time through you'll be racing against a ghost of yourself. NO ENEMIES? No enemies at all! The Time Trial mode removes the game's one major irritation, turning it into a game purely about movement and iteratively improving your performance.
Playing the story mode is worthwhile, and you'll need to complete it to unlock all the Time Trial levels anyway, but there's an argument to be made for this mode being Mirror's Edge distilled into its pure form. Which only serves to underline the key frustrations of the game. It's ambitious in a multitude of ways, both in making a platformer from a first-person perspective and in its implementation of free running. It succeeds in both these things, creating an essential experience in the process. But it's stymied by its attempts to combine those new ideas with the traditional first-person shooter model.
It's as if someone told them that people were scared of new things and that they should instead take something familiar and put a clock in it instead. In other words, it's really, really good and you should play it, but damn, it could have been superb.
I actually just completed the game last night on PS3. I have to say I personally think the game is amazing. Original, exciting....everything. Really great game all around.
Despite the flaws this was my favourite game from last year, and I'm looking forward to playing it again on PC. The combat is rubbish though, make sure you play it on easy or you'll be frustrated very quickly!
Playing through the 360 version at the moment and it really is the enemies that pull it down in Story Mode. Its still a great game though, and if they ever release a level editor of some kind for the PC version I'll have to pick it up.
All you people whining about the combat and not being able to run because of it must be pretty bad at the game.
Most if not all combat in the game can be avoided one way or the other. I've completed the game without firing a shot, if you are a good enough "runner" these "irritations" are easily gotten around.
I also didn't find the combat hit and miss at all. Here's an idea, how about instead of trying something, not being able to do it then moaning - you actually try ADAPTING to the game, you know, something gamers used to be able to do. Every game has control nuances (one in mirrors edge being that it's very easy to misjudge distance in combat usually resulting in punching air) - yet rather than making sure you move closer in future (something that comes naturally about 10 mins after realising) the combat is simply branded as "hit and miss"
Remember this one phrase in this review PC gamers: It will be the phrase that be on PC Gaming's headstone:
'Although some may say it's too short, the fact it lasted longer than COD4 meant I wasn't bothered by the 6 hours to finish the game.'
So there we have it: As long as it's not the shortest game in history, then it's okay. So when we get that one hour £40 game, all those 2 hour gameplay games will be fine in CVG's stable of magazines reviews.
Read reviews on any PC game more than 10 years old and you'll see RTS's with 40 missions and 40+ hours of gameplay. You'll see FPS's with enough missions for that same 40 hours or so of gameplay. Then finally, think of the Railroad Tycoon's and Civilization type games that came out back then, and the wargames and flight/space sims, etc, all with 50-100 hours of gameplay. Finally, the RPG's, full of intelligent, mature storytelling. Both fantasy and Sci-Fi, all with 100 hour+ gaming.
That was the peak.
Today, with 6 hour £35 PC games that reviews say is fine and other 12-15 hour games that are now 'standard' and the odd 30 hour+ game that is now seen as 'exceptional' we see PC gaming getting to a low point.
The above sentiment that 6 hours for Mirror's Edge is 'fine' because it was at least as 'long' as COD4 is a statement for our time. A sad time for PC gaming.
I disagree entirely with Cvgs "no enemies" stance. I found the combat broke up the action a bit and it felt like I was in the Matrix or something being pursued by swat teams. It made some parts of the game tense and exciting while I desperatly scramled over fences, pipes, slid down the side of buildings etc trying to evade my pursuers. The mixture of this and the otherwise tranquil moments where I could take my time to explore made Mirros Edge a joy to play for me. If the game was slow paced all the time and just had you running around climing, vaulting and sliding, after a couple of hours it would have got boring, but the enemies spiced up certain parts of the game and keep me interested til the end.
Also at no point in the review did it mention the sheer quality of the graphics. The textures are absoluetly amazing and particually in some indoor corridors if you stood still and looked the game was bordering on the photorealistic with that serine steryle look the game has gotten to be known for. I found it strange that the extreamly high quality textures were not mentioned in the review.
No matter, I really enjoyed Mirrors Edge from start to finish and am looking forward to a sequel.
I actually like the review, it outlines many of the best and worst parts of the games and in essense I agree wholeheartedly. Mirrors Edge was a game incessantly being talked up as 'The Future' and as a potential GOTY, but for all it's innovation- and it is an innovative and dare I say it;Groundbreaking game it's let down by it's failure to know what it is- is it a Parkour, balls out experience of running the ceiling of a living city; is it a clumsy first person shooter with enhanced acrobatics? Is it a QTE melee game with running in? Is it a story? Is it a playground.....it's almost like we're playing the tech demo and EA are standing behind a magic mirror hastily jotting down what we're experiencing with the game in order to make the next game even more profitable.....erm.....I mean Better!
I've always said this game needed the mouse and keys to truly stand out, so I'm glad to see that the controls are a marked improvement, but the shabby and disappointingly short story makes it extremely unjustifiable as to why I'd pay so much for so little. PC RPGs usually give over 20 hours of gameplay, Multiplayer FPS on PC pay for themselves in the hours of multiplayer you get after the single player (Call of Duty 4 is an excellent watermark, in that it's Singleplayer was for all intents and purposes simply a training session for multiplayer; but it was such a damn well executed one with a cracking plot, killer pacing and great maps and set pieces that we overlook this.) but on the point of Call of Duty 4, and games in general; when a game has both a Singleplayer AND a Multiplayer solution; we overlook the fact that the Singleplayer will be a relatively short experience; Mirrors Edge doesn't have that excuse and I think that should have been taken into account more. As recession bites, players have to be more discerning with what they buy, and on balance- making a 6 hour long single-player game with a few side distractions, no multiplayer, no leaderboards and little else in this day and age is unforgivable. Keep it in dev until it's ready, but don't rush out a short single-player game into a crowded market of top level titles and expect support to be massive. Tomb Raider suffered this fate too.
I have to say that I actually hugely enjoyed the combat, but that's cos I took the time to develop strategies and timing. I could have ran straight through many of the combat sections but I was enjoying them so much that I didn't want to.
If you're willing to have an open mind and experiment with it, you'll realise that it's supposed to be essentially a game of cat and mouse in a lot of scenarios. You lure guards around obstacles and then sneak up from behind, or drop down from above. Or you charge down lone guards at high speed, slide or wallrun kick them and then do a disarm or punch combo to take them out. Once I got competent I got through many sections where there were upwards of 10 guards on my first attempt.
I'll never forget the first time I ran at full speed, jumped down a flight of stairs and landed on top on a guard, chest stomping him unconscious. Good times.
Anyway, my point would be that I think a lot of the issues surrounding the combat stem from the fact that the tutorial is too basic and the initial reviews gave out about it, so pretty much everyone went in with the impression that the combat is shit and never bothered actually trying to master it. A lot of reviewers went in with the impression that this game was supposed to be solely about free running, which it isn't. It's a good balance of free running, combat and environmental puzzling.
On a side note, I was going for the trophy for playing through without shooting an enemy and right at the end of the game I accidently picked up a gun and shot a guard in the leg. I quit and went back to the last checkpoint before it happened but the game had already logged it and I never got the trophy :'-(
What's with everyone saying they beat it without firing a shot? In one of the levels you HAVE to shoot a gun. Anyway, great game the sequel should be even better :D
I'm with Collymilad - I really enjoyed the combat on the PS3 once I got used to it, and I expect it'll be easier on PS3 with mouselook controls. I resent all the people saying the combat is crap, because if dice take that feedback on board then the sequel will feature either much less or much easier combat, which would be a pity IMO.
Humorguy: What? FPSs with 40 hours of gameplay? I don't remember any being that long...
Duffhead1010: The sniping bit doesn't count because you're not shooting at a person, and you don't actually kill anyone.
The combat is totally cool and badass. Like you said, you get to emulate the awesome nonchalance of Matrix characters. You get the whole Matrix deal, wall-running, acrobatics, and badass gunplay. I love the combat, it makes the game involving. Trackmania is a boring game, thanks. Who wants to do boring time-trials? I want to invest in the story, in the narrative, I want to be able to be in a story myself, live in the world, play the role, and I want the role to be the role of someone who is adept not only at running, but at shooting, because shooting is cool and fun, and being able to shoot in the amazing world of Mirror's Edge makes the shooting even cooler! I love grabbing guns off dudes, shooting other dudes, then running up a wall. Please don't take by guns away you horrible man! How the hell can anyway say the guns should be taken away? The game is about being cool, and being cool ALWAYS involves fighting! I could understand it if the enemies were difficult to beat, but they totally aren't! Disarming works every time once you know what to expect. The game would be so boring if it was just running through environments, that wouldn't be a game at all! Having both the agility and the ability to shoot makes the character awesome and powerful, agile yet powerful, that is great, I love being that in a game. Being chased gives the free running context, excitement. Without being chased there would be no hook, no involvement, no point. I can't believe all these people saying take away the combat, the combat is integral, essential. You're saying that you would replay a time-trial mode anyway, so why not replay the story mode levels until you are skillful enough to evade all of the enemies? Wouldn't that give an amazing feeling of coolness and awesomeness? Better than beating a stupid timer or a silly immersion-ruining ghost!
Every positive thing that has been said about the combat, especially by UltraVioletZero (excellent post) I wholeheartedly agree with.
It is very important that DICE and the folks at EA don't remove it for the, assumed, sequel.
For those folks finding it difficult, try this on almost ANY enemy:
*Run towards, slide and attack to kick in the nuts.
*Wait till you stand and hold attack to kick the, now doubled over, enemy in the head.
*Finish off with two quick jabs to the face(only needed on real hard guys).
...If you don't enjoy that piece of gameplay you may hang up your controller/mouse&KB.
I accept the criticism that the special cop dudes can't be beaten but by that stage in the game I kinda expected it.
Thanks DICE for having the balls to take a risk on a game like this and I have no doubt that loads of games will try and emulate it in future. Keep up the good work!!
I just counted up the opinions on the combat given in this thread, and have found that 8 people here think the combat was great, as opposed to only 4 people who complained about it. Hopefully EA/Dice will listen to us and not the crazy reviewers :)
I'm not sure what you mean - which special cops? I didn't come across any enemies who can't be beaten. Do you mean the ones that freerun after you? They're actually not that hard to beat - 3 or 4 kicks and punches on medium difficulty took them out for me.
thiss game was wet pants. i played it for about 2 hours and lost complete interest. The initial experience of free running is fantastic, but when the entire game is built around it, it just gets plain boring. They should have introduced other puzzles or elements to it rather than just running everywhere. After a while it got incredibly repetitive. yet another disappointing game.
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