Mirror’s Edge has been out for awhile now, and while the game was initially such a surreal experience, it has grown even more on me as the weeks have gone by. With the replay value for this game being extremely high, I found my experience growing each time I turned the game on. The game itself appears to be a testament to what the future of immersion can be, and though there are some technical shortfalls in the game, the overall experience drowns those out. While this article started as a full review for the game, it’s now turned into why it’s my Game of the Year pick for 2008.
The story of Mirror’s Edge seems to be nothing incredible on the surface. It’s a pretty normal, and almost bland tale of government control making way for a setup, and a lonely hero rescuing an innocent friend. For those of you who don’t know, the main character, Faith, finds her sister in trouble. Seems she’s been framed for the killing of a politician. A political figure who could’ve brought change to the fascist society that seems to control almost every aspect of life. The main problem is that she was at the murder scene. As Faith, you set out to find the truth of why someone wanted to set up your sister, only to find something much sinister going on. If there is to be a sequel to the game, and I’m sure there will be, the story has left the groundwork for a much larger story. Something that could be far more compelling, and in depth could be in the works, but it was clear that this game wasn’t built around the story, but rather the other way around.
Graphically, the game isn’t too awesome at first look. It’s a very black, white and red world. But as you continue to play as faith, you notice, as Aegies from eat-sleep-game.com says, that what is red is important to faith, and is only their so you can recognize that correlation. While most of the world is white, with nothing to really look at, you notice that this is intended once you first go running up to the edge of a roof and nearly stop just in time, and Faith takes a quick glance down to see what could’ve become of her. It’s even more apparent when you do actually fall (and believe me, you will). It’s nice and easy at first, but then you start picking up speed and colors blur into each other, and if you have enough time to look down, you’ll see the ground approach really fast, and then black. The cut scenes on the other hand are drawn in a cell-shaded style. Emphasising further what is important. You get almost completely taken out of your experience to see, what would feel like, a comic coming to life. Instead of seeing the world through Faith’s eyes, you now get to see what makes her angry, what confuses her, and exactly how strong of a person she is.
The sound is really one of the most important parts to any video game. It can set the tone, or make you believe that something is about to happen when it comes to music. But beyond the start screen, there wasn’t much in the way of music. However, the little things seemed to really stand out in this game. The traffic down below, or while on the surface gives you an eerie feeling, but hearing your footsteps increase in time with your speed really sets you at home. But those are all water under the bridge of hearing the wind rush past you when you’re going top speed, and even heavier as you’re falling to your death. It really stood out to me, because as a kid, I hated heights. However, I would jump off high objects, such as my roof, to get that thrill you feel as you fall. Mirror’s Edge hit that sound perfect, and I love the game for it. More and more, sound is becoming more engaging in video games, its stepping out from just music, to bringing sounds that we can identify with to bring a complete sense of realism, and Mirror’s Edge takes a big leap forward in that area.
The actual mechanics of Mirror’s Edge is where the game starts to take a bit of a fall. Faith has a variety of moves, and many can be coupled together in quick succession to preform some amazing feats. But the execution of these moves can be very difficult sometimes. Other times, they just don’t appear to work. Most of it has to do with timing. Sometimes you only have a short window of time to perform a move, or you may lose a few seconds, or do something completely unwanted, causing your death. It can really be noticed in some of the Quick Time Events, where in a few cases, you have to be dead on to avoid being hit. In this aspect the game can be frustrating at times, but it provides a level of difficulty that I really like, and is hard to find. In the end, it’s the best and worst part of Mirror’s Edge.
Overall, this game has almost nothing to lose. While many don’t seem to like the game, there is so much promise here. This game has taken it’s first steps into a large world. Not only did it exceed what I expected from the press and demo, but it’s left so much room for a sequel to outshine the original. Here’s to looking forward to more faith.
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