Mirror's Edge - 4/10
First thing you have probably noticed about this perhaps harsh analysis is the 4/10 at the top of the page. Why the remarkably low score for a game that looked and promised so much? Well why not? Is it a fun game when you explore a clean city empty of any form or life other than the stale muffled audio of distant traffic, planes making noise in the skyline or rooftop ventilation systems puffing out steam? Granted, Faith and co are rooftop messengers, basically it is their job to give and recieve information, they make their living by communicating and their home is the rooftops. So in that regard maybe it's a little harsh of me to say that the game world feels lifeless and dead, but story and guessing aside here, those looking for an action game that is actually fun will not find what they're looking for here with DICE's attempt at unique gameplay.
You'll be checking your watch, letting out a few yawns and possibly thinking about doing something else while playing Mirror's Edge, the intro is not exactly attention grabbing, you get a big clean white stunning city as the scenery and a few ugly bad attempts at an anime movie with laughable comic style cut scenes which should not have made it into the final game to begin with. Okay, so we start Faith's mission with a tutorial, this is where you learn the basics of the controls so if you want to master your wall running, sliding, melee fighting, pipe balancing etc, you will need to play through this tutorial to get the grips, but if you're like me and want to get into the nitty gritty, you will press start and skip this pointless time filler and most likely refer to the manual instead.
Now let's talk about the fashion, or in this case the way the game looks. Granted, the city is quite a spectacle in its scale and atmosphere, it looks like something you would see out of action movies like Aeon Flux or Ultra Violet (both which were rubbish movies, can you feel a trend here?) But i had a problem with the colour choice of the city, being too white and clean makes it quite dull and less awe worthy, which is why i let out a little sigh of false relief when i saw some of the indoor levels which wash your eyes with reds, blues, yellows, oranges and greens. Some of the colour choices for some of the environments match well, where as some look ugly and completely out of place. For example, in the outdoor stages of the city, you have bright blue skies, white sky scraping buildings then you see ugly bright red pipes and red valves which just look completely out of place. It's a strange mix and in my opinion, it didn't work too well. Oh well, you get that with flop games.
Furthermore on the topic of dressing to impress, Faith certainly does not know how to dress like the sexy street cat shes meant to portray unless a black bogans singlet, grey old man's tracksuit pants and ugly red bowling shoes is the new in, style wise? For a game with such a futuristic storyline and environment surely it wouldn't have hurt DICE to give Faith a suit more fitting for the vibe, maybe a silver tight body suit, blue hair or white knee high boots? But the rags she wears makes her look more like a run away child that forgot to take off her backyard clothes. Someone like Celeste who looks more classier would have been a better role for the lead in my opinion.
Now what can our ears expect from Mirror's Edge? Well, the intro song is pretty relaxing and the overall musical score is quite pleasing. But the same cannot be said about the voice acting. Faith looks Asian, yet talks more American than actual Americans, also, when you're watching these characters in the dismal cartoon scenes, you really can't put voice talent to faces because the cartoon animations are so cheap. So with the vocals, music is good, voice acting abit tacky.
Now for the important part, the gameplay. How does M.E play? Are we going to have fun here? No you're probably not, why i hear someone usher in the background? Because this game is all about running and escaping, don't expect MGS4 epic escapes, instead expect dull "must escape the three cops i can kill easily with melee" instead. That is right, escaping becomes non existant if you choose to kick and punch the blues that try to shoot you down and if you manage to down them all, a so called frantic escape turns into a casual walk to the finish line. Furthermore, if you happen to knockout an enemy and take their weapon, you can simply kill everyone that way, which makes escaping more easier.
Weapons? Yes you read right, their are guns in M.E but dont bother using them unless weak gunplay makes you excited or you dont like running. Granted, DICE always said that gunplay wasn't going to be heavy as running and fighting is more of M.E's fortay, but next time if that is the case, just discard weaponry altogether, especially if they're going to be as tacky as they're in M.E.
What about stealth? Yeah? What about it? What stealth? For a sneaky ninja type, Faith certainly fails at being a silent killer which means you will be very hard pressed to find any stealth here as most of the time the enemies with super ears can hear any soft foot falls and Faith's heavy breathing. Gameplay does get quiet though, when their are no enemies around. And when the running is mute, the substitute in gameplay turns to climbing big red pipes, shimmy-ing across ledges, balancing on pipes (via Sixaxis motion sensor) crawling through air ducts and turning red valves to turn off gas blocking your path. It really isn't at all very exciting, the only pleasure and form of relief you're going to get from this game is by making a very long jump after falling to your death for about the 100th time on previous attempts. Sounds like alot of fun doesn't it? If you like swearing alot and want to add to your collection of broken dual shock controllers than maybe, just maybe, M.E is the game for you.
Now for value, i can't believe i'm typing value in a game like M.E. But i suppose for those who invest in it, there is abit of incentive to be had with searching for all the running bags scattered across each chapter, and once you find them all (if you actually bother) their is the online trial runs to muck around in. Yes, muck around in, not to have fun in.
So there you have it, that is my view of M.E. "Wow shes a harsh b!tch that Krakenia is" well, maybe i am being abit harsh towards M.E, i owe credit to DICE's attempts at a refreshing take on an overdone genre but the truth these days is most gamers demand action from their FPS, they demand violence, alot of guns, and alot of online action to keep replay value fresh after single player campaign is complete. Mirror's Edge has no violence (only mild combat), has weak gunplay, limited melee moves and nil replay value unless you wait for the downloadable content which is just more of the same. In a nutshell, M.E is more running and escaping, its pure evasion instead of in your face action. If you're okay by that stance than maybe M.E is a game worth renting, but majority of us will play it, enjoy it in small dosages, return it, forget about it (or write a review about it like i did) and move on to the next important FPS like Killzone 2 or Gears of War 2.
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