mirror's edge
| review: mirror's edge |
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Mirror's Edge brings together parkour style running, puzzle based environments, and a bit of gun play into one neat little package. We will see if Mirror's Edge has what it takes to completely change the face of future first-person titles or if it falls flat on its face.
Story
The story centers around Faith, a Runner and courier of information, trying to clear her sister, Kate, of any wrong doing in the murder of a mayoral candidate. Faith soon finds herself deep in a series of plot twists that will take her from rooftops, to areas that include the mayor's mega sky rise office, affectionately referred to as "The Shard." The player will also find himself darting into and out of various office buildings, a shipping vessel, and also through the headquarters of a security firm that monitors the entire city. Given that these are no small tasks, the player will seek out information from a small ensemble of characters that are quickly forgotten. The only notable secondary characters are Mercury and Celeste.
A small supporting cast rounds out the rest of the lineup. The first supporting cast member is Miller, Kate's immediate supervisor. He is a firm believer in "maintaining absolute order" in the city, no matter what the cost. Next, Jacknife is an ex-Runner caught up in an underground crime movement with aspirations to make it big. An ex-wrestler, Ropeburn, serves as the head of security for the now dead mayoral candidate, Robert Pope. Completing the roster are the "Blues," the police force tasked with keeping law and order on the streets of the unnamed city utopia.
The utopian paradise present in the game is a unique character in its own right. Pristine buildings and law abiding citizens were born from a world of chaos and anarchy. The city's security and "Big Brother" like surveillance would put George Orwell to shame. After years of struggle, the citizens are complacent in their environment. Any act that disturbs the norm is immediately met with extreme opposition from the city's Blues.
Mirror's Edge's story, while used to push the game forward, can easily be overlooked and discarded. Plot twists, often expected, are present throughout. However, many of the upcoming twists can be painfully obvious to the player, even when they aren't to Faith.
The story itself is told through a variety of narrative techniques. First, cut scenes break up each of the game's "chapters." These sequences use a stylized animation technique that may remind the player of the old Fear Effect titles from the glory days of the PlayStation. Plot elements are also fed to the player by Mercury's voice communication with Faith. He keeps Faith up to date on what is going on around her and where she needs to go.
The small details throughout the city also serve to provide narration to the player. News broadcasts play from radios and televisions found scattered inside buildings. Stop to listen and the player may be clued in as to what is happening in other parts of the city. Digital bulletin notices found inside most of the elevators also provide a bit of back story on the city itself.
Controls
The basic elements of running in Mirror's Edge are taught through a brief opening tutorial. Players will learn to jump from rooftop to rooftop, slide under obstacles, and perform acrobatics that will all be put to good use as the game progresses. The simplistic controls can be used in conjunction with one another to pull off some really complicated moves.
A minor example of this would be having Faith run full speed forward before jumping and wall-running along a wall running parallel to her movement, tapping the quick turn-around button, and jumping once more onto a pole that Faith will swing on before you again hit the jump to leap forward. From there, the character arcs a small distance forward and down and moments before you crash down, another tap of the "down" action button causes Faith to land into a somersault, thus avoiding all fall damage. Keep in mind this is a rather simple example.
The contextual based moves are not always perfect though. There are times where Faith will somehow slide and avoid fall damage when the animation that should have played was the somersault. Other times, the player becomes frustrated when Faith neglects to grab onto a ledge or pipe simply because the angle of approach was just slightly off from what is needed.
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