2008 will go down as an impressive year for consumers in the video game market, as the sheer amount of quality titles that they’re given to choose from this year are overwhelming. In the midst of sequels and sports titles, Mirror’s Edge emerges.
Mirror’s Edge is set in an environment of censorship and conformity, which is where the hero, Faith, comes in. The background of the story details how her mother was killed in the “November Riots”, and our heroine now finds herself trying to save her sister from a corrupt government. Faith belongs to a group of individuals known as “runners”, who carry and deliver messages for those trying to avoid the “Big Brother” feel of the government.
The runners are essentially masters of the phenomenon that is known as parkour. Set in a first-person perspective, Faith relies on speed and momentum to navigate throughout the city. With the heights that you tend to scale and leap to and from, the stringing together the two is extremely important. To help gamers maneuver throughout the world, “runner’s vision” showcases the most desirable path in highlighted red elements.
The controls are presented to you in opening tutorial of sorts, and once you master them you’ll soon realize how incredibly well they mesh. Faith relies on her quick movements and Mercury, her trainer and guide, to help navigate her through the world unharmed.
The game takes the route of Dead Space in a sense, using no HUD during the gameplay. Rather than having a meter on the screen telling you how high or low your health is, the game gives you a visual indicator of narrowing your field of view upon taking damage. In a title such as Mirror’s Edge, you find that the HUD-less environment works extremely well to keep you engaged in the action. As bullets zip by, the music starts to subtly kick in, and the true sense of speed in the game begins to feel realistic.
Throughout the game as you encounter enemies, you’ll quickly learn that it’s much more beneficial to avoid them, or at least to fight them one at a time. Attempting to fight a group of enemies at once will surely lead to your demise, as you’ll need to incorporate your runner’s vision and brain to find the best way to beat each scenario.
Runner’s vision doesn’t cheapen the game at all, surprisingly. You’d think that being able to see red objects would make the game easier, but that’s just not the case. Most of the time you’re running, you will get an initial red item to get you going in the right direction, but a lot of the puzzle solving is going to be up to you. Using wall-runs, slides, speed jumps, and a good bit of luck you’ll feel a large sense of appreciation upon completing certain areas of stages.
As you’re progressing through levels, there’s no doubt that you will encounter cops. Cops are basically either in a regular form, or in a S.W.A.T. team form, but deciding to fight them or not ultimately depends on if they’re glowing red or not. Enemies that are glowing red are designed to be ones that you need to either zip pass, or disengage their weapons from them in order to make it easier to progress that part of the level.
Upon approaching one of the glowing enemies, they’ll typically stop shooting long enough to attempt to hit you with their gun. Depending on your difficulty level, the weapon will quickly flash red for a small period of time, allowing you to press the Y button to trigger a counter attack. While sounding like it would not be the most difficult task in the world, it’s definitely not easy to do when you have multiple enemies shooting at you. A failed press of the Y button will lead to you being smacked by the gun forcing you backwards, which usually means you should run for cover.
Visually, the game takes a slighter different approach than what we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in titles recently. The game doesn’t feature a grayscale, and is primarily white with colors such as orange and red standing out quite easily. The game seems to be slightly above average in terms of what you see on the market for graphics, but it’s truly the sound that helps bring the title to life.
As you make crucial jump to crucial jump, the impact sounds and the small details to Faith’s breathing are what help make this game feel realistic. As you race through levels and have the bullets race past you, hear Faith’s breathing pattern increase, and have the music subtly kick in, It’s apparent that the team at DICE took a good bit of time to make sure you not only see the rush visually, but you feel the rush of the chase.
The game lays groundwork for a great title, but the short story and intriguing but not groundbreaking time trial mode are going to leave a lot of gamers on the fence. However, in the time you do spend with Faith and the conformist society she lives in, you can’t help but enjoy the creative levels and be amazed at the sense of vertigo that is created. Mirror’s Edge is an inspiration to creative games, and I truly think you’re doing yourself a disservice if you do not play this title.
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