Mirror’s Edge Review
Played on Xbox One (base)
Developed by DICE
Released 11th November 2008
As an attempt to diversify their catalogue of creations, DICE were eager to work on a project that subverted much of the first-person shooter craze that was prevalent in the mid-to-late 2000s. After tinkering with the Battlefield 2 engine with the first-person animations, the Swedish company decided to take their prototypes into Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3, as their own Frostbite engine was still in an ongoing development phase, and proceeded to start developing a dystopia with a protagonist that appealed to both men and women and used their own physicality as a weapon, opposed to the high-tech weaponry that other games would rely on. DICE was clearly onto something when Mirror's Edge was labelled as "genre-defining" and they nearly won Best Action Adventure Game of the Year, only losing to the groundbreaking Grand Theft Auto IV.
Story
The story of Mirror’s Edge is intriguing and somewhat unique. You play as Faith Connors, a runner who delivers messages about the corrupt city she lives in that oppresses the truth. This setting alone was able to intrigue me into playing it (alongside the fact that the game notoriously gets plenty of accolades and praise). The narrative overall has good pacing with predictable twists and turns along the way, however, the game does feel like it loses its flow when it has an abrupt ending that left me annoyed. The storytelling format is odd as well. When the cutscenes aren’t in the fascinating first-person, they are done with strange, budget-cut animations.
Gameplay
The gameplay consists of enjoyable, fluid parkour. Considering you’re a messenger that rapidly traverses across the white city, speed is key and the quick build-up to acceleration that can lead to pipe swings, slides and more are satisfying. While it is unclear where to go most of the time even with the bright red objects used to indicate your path; when you string up multiple badass moves in a row, the adrenaline build-up feels unique and unmatched. Unfortunately, the fluidity sometimes is unresponsive which led me to die a couple of times. The game also features some form of combat. While it is preferred to run and dash away from trouble, you can activate Runner’s Vision to parry and disarm in slo-mo and even shoot the weapons that you took off of the bribed police. This combat didn’t feel as refined as I would’ve expected, especially when I did land a perfect disarm and I didn’t feel the impact of coolness as I should’ve. There is also a form of melee combat that involves slide and jump kicking, punching, and well, that's it. While it was fun to box a police officer unconscious for like the first 2 times, the limitations on the form of offence, bring the gameplay enjoyment down, even if you're supposed to run away. The AI of the enemies is also not great at all. They spend most of their time just standing there instead of moving around, all while their aim ranges from pinpoint deadly to trash.
Characters
The characters in this game have some monotone voice acting but the dialogue spoken is interesting and pretty damn good. Merc is the most interesting and unique character out of them all and probably the only character I remember as everyone else didn’t come across as significant enough. Faith herself does seem to have an explorable deep side to her but the game doesn't do that justice by only scratching the surface of her character and motives, which were still impressively good.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere of this game is great but with a couple of flaws. The music is beautiful and magnificent and genuinely gives me vibes of the freedom of a free bird that's being monitored and watched. The bland city does put me off at some moments as it looks the same as the previous level, but it manages to perfectly encapsulate the oppressive tone DICE was going for. The overall feel of the OST will definitely age like fine wine as it'll always sound futuristic, regardless of the year you're playing the game in. While the character models could look better and the animated cutscenes still piss me off on how bad they are, this game has a well-made, unique atmosphere.
Story- 6.5/10
Gameplay- 6/10
Characters- 5/10
Atmosphere- 8/10
Mediocre
Mirror's Edge seems to be one of the few "cult classics" that has aged in an overrated fashion, with much of its storytelling and undeveloped gameplay holding it back from achieving the greatness that people remember it for.
