Mirror’s Edge First Impressions

     There was a substantial amount of hype when Mirror’s Edge was being developed. I, too, was taken in by the beautiful trailer when it first came out and was pretty psyched to get my hands on the game.

     So the game came out and reviews were written. Surprisingly, they weren’t as high as I had hoped, but it didn’t stop me from wanting to play it.

     Fast forward to the present, Marv gave me Mirror’s Edge as an early Christmas present and I couldn’t wait to try it out! Here’s my first impression of it after playing it for 4 hours so far (no, I haven’t ended it yet).

     I won’t elaborate much of the story for now, I just want to focus on the gameplay and don’t want to make this a very long post.

     Mirror’s Edge is, at its core, a platforming game. You play a runner called Faith who gets around the city via parkour. You run, leap and vault across buildings, scaffolding, pipes, etc. What makes it significantly different from platforming games of old is that it’s played in First Person view with beautifully detailed graphics in full 3D. And I tell you, the environment is GAW-JUSS!

     Getting right down to it, the game is fun. Not only is it fun, it’s damn addictive. I played it until my thumb felt like it was starting to blister. I didn’t care that I had to do things over and over again until I got it right. I didn’t find the combat system that awkward, nor did I find disarming the cops of their weapons tough. Are reviewers becoming sissies or something?

     Also, the game is about running. Expecting it to perform like an FPS is completely missing the point. This is not Counter Strike or Call of Duty, people. If it performed as such, it would become an entirely different game.

     Granted, there are points in the game where you have to confront cops and can’t run from them lest you find yourself riddled with bullets, but you just have to stop and press the right button in time to disarm them one by one. Have patience, and it will reward you.

     Jumping around the city is not only fun, it’s really quite an experience. Once you get to the point where she’s running at full speed and you’re stringing moves one after another; leaping, climbing and bouncing off walls; it just feels so…perfect. It’s like a well-choreographed dance, alebit way more dizzying (in a good way). From time to time you may find yourself stuck but that’s where the challenge lies. Once you overcome a roadblock, it feels so rewarding.

     The only thing that I have a gripe about are the 2D cutscenes. I know that it’s stylized and all that but I’ve seen cartoons look better, and I expected it to actually look like the in-game graphics. But that’s just my personal taste. Oh, and what’s up with always depicting asian chicks with bob cuts? Look at Gi from Captain Planet or Grace Nakamura from the Gabriel Knight series. Either way, Faith’s character design is still awesome:  

     I suppose it all just boils down to taste. It just saddens me that people see the review score then decide to not pick up the game at all. In fact, sales of Mirror’s Edge aren’t that high.

     There is no other game out there like this and it’s a shame that so many people are missing out on it.

     Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll get back to playing the game.