Bullshot
I've been meaning to write about my recent surplus of games for awhile. Because of said surplus I've been far too preoccupied. First and foremost is Mirror's Edge. I demoed it on PS3 but decided to purchase it for the 360 since the controller is far superior. Mirror's Edge. A gorgeous landscape of (mostly) rooftops in which we are urged to run, jump, wallride wallrun, swing, and slide. The game mechanics are simple to understand and after learning the basic control scheme is a lot of fun when it isn't being hindered by flawed hit detection and button mapping that is not customizable. Why EA, why do you give me a game that is saturated white in mostly light bloom and add to it by having the option to raise the brightness? Instead, I'd love to replace my gamma/brightness calibration with the option to make some button changes. Seriously, I can't begin to describe the frustration of playing a game in first person view that uses a trigger bumper instead of a face button (A! The A button is always jump!) in order to jump.
But I digress. Wait, no I don't.
Here's an early production shot of the main character, Faith, as seen in the glass reflection of a building's facade. Cool, nothing amazing or anything but it certainly isn't ugly and the design is straightforward - a woman of a questionably Asian background with tattoos has paused from her daily routine to admire her reflection in the side of a building. From the skyline in the background we get the impression that she's high above the streets of a city. She's rather fit, carries a yellow messenger bag and wears only one red fingerless glove. Where's the other one? Did she lose it? Where did it go?
There is a story here. Somewhere. If you can call it that. We're fighting the government, or something, maybe the future-cops? We fight baddies by delivering packages of . . . stuff. We transport the packages over roofs and through buildings by running and jumping and being pretty radical all the time to . . . someone at . . . somewhere. I think. I would have enjoyed the entirety of Mirror's Edge much more if the story were cut from the game completely. Combat is nonexistent when it isn't essential to advancing - like making it to an exit that is guarded. You'll find more often than anything else that you'll be running around baddies and away from combat.
Mirror's Edge plays much better when you get it in your head that it's just a puzzle game and nothing else. Problem: Guards on left roof. Solution: Run over to the roof on the right. Problem: Guards in front of only door to the room I need to be in. Solution: Use crappy combat system to take 'em out or use window. Problem: I need a gun because I'm forced into combat. Solution: No you don't you pussy. Just fight 'em. Since you can't carry a gun take one from that guy. Pew pew pew. Problem: I can totally make that jump. Solution: No you can't because I said so. Go the other way that makes no sense.
This is the only shot of rendered Faith in the game that looks good. Out of the two. After each mission we're treated to a horrible cartoon cutscene (go on, see reference) which screams, "This is totally not important, we threw it together so you'd have something to look at instead of a loading graphic. Please ignore it. We copied the style from those E-surance commercials but our story is way worse. We aren't sorry." It wouldn't be so bad if we weren't presented with a wonderfully beautiful introductory video, portraying Faith in her fully rendered glory, and a snippet of what could have been a much broader plot. Instead we get the comic book thing which would have been fine if that was how it presented the storyline throughout the duration of gameplay.
Unfortunately Mirror's Edge can't decide what it wants to be. It wants to be the cool fully rendered three dimensional character populated cityscape but it loves to be a poorly done comic book. It wants to be an immersive free running puzzle platformer but it really likes sub-par combat and gunfight mechanics. It wants to have a deep and unpredictably intense storyline set in a futuristic environment inhabited by diverse and well-rounded characters that develop with the plot. It is a B-movie production ruining what could have been an A-list title. There's potential in Mirror's Edge for a great game but it runs the blade.
Simply put, Mirror's Edge is a lot of fun if you can live with all the bullshit it comes with. It's a very quick game - maybe eight hours at best and it will leave you wanting more. Not in the sense that you'll want to play it a lot more once it's over but in the sense that you'll say, "Wait, that's it? Really? I thought there was more." It doesn't go that deep.
Comments
nice review