Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Review
Played on Xbox One (base)
Developed by DICE
Released 7th June 2016
Announced as a prequel, Mirror's Edge Catalyst would end up in quite a predicament on launch. While the now-open-world game found much success in its sales, being the second best-selling retail game in the UK in its first week of release, only behind Overwatch, it would receive quite negative reception from fans and a mixed attitude from critics. As a result, it wouldn't be hard to imagine that this sparked the death of the Mirror's Edge IP as no new entries in the series have been announced or even leaked.
Story
The story of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is ok. You once again play as Faith Connors, this time in a prequel setting as Faith is balancing the troubles of Kruger Sec who are slowly causing a mass runner extinction, while paying off her debts to a black-market boss, all soon after being released from prison. This idea is so much cooler and unique than that of its predecessor. However, it’s a huge miss, with the narrative carrying dismal baggage that doesn’t convey immersive emotion. The plot points along the way do strike some interesting storytelling that I would’ve loved to see done properly but this half-baked attempt with contradicting plot points is the best we'll get, especially when it has yet another annoying, abrupt ending.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is incredibly fun with rare reoccurring frustrations. The first-person parkour is once again back, with more fast-paced action and movement. The sliding, jumping, climbing, and overall mobile versatility, is a lot more fluid in presenting the player with speed and adrenaline, but at times it became too fluid, causing some frustrating deaths caused by automatic wall-running, climbing and/or too much speed being built up too fast causing buttons to be unresponsive or delayed. This was a rare reoccurrence that mostly happened towards the 3rd quarter of the game.
The combat is this time a lot more aesthetically satisfying, more involving, and overall, better compared to its 2008 counterpart. The combat is mixed with some parkour, allowing mixes and matches of zipline jump attacks, dash barges and more. On the basics of attacks, you can light attack, heavy attack and more, which can generate adrenaline alongside the generic runner manoeuvres. Adrenaline is a bar that negates bullet damage temporarily, allowing for swift ways of taking down enemies, lasting a little longer. Enemies consist of different variations that require different forms of takedowns. Sentinels match your speed and damage, requiring stunning them before being able to attack them while Shock Protectors require more dodging around and timing against their shockwave attacks and more. While the variety of enemies is kept minimal, I would’ve loved to see more melee variants like a swordsman or juggernaut. The mixture of mobility and striking is well made and gave some variety to begin a fight, but not to end one.
The game also features a form of navigation that is brilliant and a step up from its predecessor, as this time around, I was able to navigate the now open-world city, without breaking the flow to check for which way to go unlike previously. This navigation is great and doesn’t overshadow the open world’s limited versatility in the traversal. You can also bolt across the city with the MAG, a grappling hook-like gadget allowing for tense swings, grapples and more. If a game has a grappling hook, it's most likely a blast to play.
Characters
The characters of this game are treading the thin line of trash and borderline below average. Characters like Icarus and Rebecca offered a possibility of depth and nearly did expand on it in a great way, before being quickly cut off by the other terribly made characters like Gabriel Kruger or Plastic, lowering their qualities. Dogen and Noah were the only characters I enjoyed from the get-go, Dogen more, but their short screen time and inconsistent significance damaged their whole status. Faith as a whole came across annoying and was written in a rushed manner.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere was ok. The music felt like it was recycled from the first game, good in general, but for an anticipated sequel, disappointing. The whole game is so amazingly beautiful, still holding great visuals 5 years later, in a world that now has raytracing in basically everything. It is all well-animated and while it sacrifices some textures for a better, never-dropping framerate, it still impressed me and didn’t lower my outlook on the game. The drab world, however, doesn’t convey the immersive connotations of freedom among the oppressive primary colours like the first game, which is unfortunate to see as, while it wasn’t visually awing, it was still great.
Story - 5/10
Gameplay - 8.5/10
Characters - 4.5/10
Atmosphere - 6/10
Mediocre
Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a painfully mediocre game that, at best, feels like an entertaining demo, and at worst, consists of some of the blandest writing I've seen in a hot minute.
