Mirror's Edge Review
A leap of Faith that sadly ends in a splat
Hello and welcome everyone to my very first review. I hope you all enjoy it.
This week we take a look at the brand new styles of Mirror's Edge. Mirror's Edge takes place in unnamed city. You control Faith Connors, a runner. Runners are people trained to use rooftops and other things as means of transportation to deliver messages throughout the city. Faith's sister is framed for a murder and Faith is determined to catch the real killer.
An interesting story to say the least. Mirror's Edge is a first person platformer. A breath of fresh air to the current gen consoles. Sadly, the games ambitions jumped short.
First things first. The gameplay for Mirror's Edge is pretty solid. The controls are decent and the visuals are alright. There's only one problem. Precision jumping. EVERY. SINGLE. JUMP. If you're even a centimeter off from your target you'll fall to your death. So get used to hearing Faith fall to her demise. This wouldn't be so bad, if the damn jumps weren't so hard to judge. You always end up having one or two more steps than you think. But it's impossible to tell because it's in first person. The game is completely trial and error so like I said get used to dying. Even some of the simplest jumps are made impossible because of the camera.
The graphics are kind of a mix for me. The cutscenes are like the carfax commercials were made into a game. The in game graphics are amazing. Everything is so bright and detailed.
As said earlier, the levels are incredibly confusing. Which is why they give you runner vision. Just press the button down and Faith will turn in the general direction you need to go. Sounds helpful right? Wrong. Just because she faces the way to go, doesn't mean that's how you're going to get there. The things you need to use to get to your destination are colored red. Which ALSO doesn't help. Once you get there, it's not going to be a guarantee that you'll be going the right way. It'll bring you to a dead end at times.
The game is incredibly short. It consists of 9 chapters and they're all very short. I work a 40 hour week and I still managed to beat this in 9 hours. It's really really short. But I suppose it depends on how well you can figure out where to go. If you want to do the speedruns and collect all the hidden bags than yea there's more to do.
The soundtrack to Mirror's Edge is amazing. The intense rush/techno they throw in fits perfect with the scene. I couldn't help but just bob my head to the music. There isn't much music, but when there is, it's a great thing.
The hand to hand combat in this game is HORRIBLE. I don't know how they messed this up so bad. You can disarm your enemies, but that means you have to get close to them. They all have guns. So if you're trying to disarm an enemy, you're also being shot at. They tell yu to isolate the enemy, but even when you do, you have to time the disarming PERFECTLY. Or else you just get whacked with the gun. 2 whacks and you're dead by the way. So it's honestly just way easier to avoid enemies than fight them.
Mirror's Edge is a perfect example of a great idea that had very bad execution. This game seemed to be about perfection more than anything. You'll get an intense adrenaline rush from the first few levels. But once that adrenaline starts pumping, aggravation soon follows. Precision jumping, bad camera, and annoying AI will have you cursing throughout the entire game. Mirror's Edge is at least worth a rental for fans of platformers. It's a fresh new experience, but one that just falls short of being a masterpiece.
I hope you all enjoyed and please leave some feedback of what you thought.
This week we take a look at the brand new styles of Mirror's Edge. Mirror's Edge takes place in unnamed city. You control Faith Connors, a runner. Runners are people trained to use rooftops and other things as means of transportation to deliver messages throughout the city. Faith's sister is framed for a murder and Faith is determined to catch the real killer.
An interesting story to say the least. Mirror's Edge is a first person platformer. A breath of fresh air to the current gen consoles. Sadly, the games ambitions jumped short.
First things first. The gameplay for Mirror's Edge is pretty solid. The controls are decent and the visuals are alright. There's only one problem. Precision jumping. EVERY. SINGLE. JUMP. If you're even a centimeter off from your target you'll fall to your death. So get used to hearing Faith fall to her demise. This wouldn't be so bad, if the damn jumps weren't so hard to judge. You always end up having one or two more steps than you think. But it's impossible to tell because it's in first person. The game is completely trial and error so like I said get used to dying. Even some of the simplest jumps are made impossible because of the camera.
The graphics are kind of a mix for me. The cutscenes are like the carfax commercials were made into a game. The in game graphics are amazing. Everything is so bright and detailed.
As said earlier, the levels are incredibly confusing. Which is why they give you runner vision. Just press the button down and Faith will turn in the general direction you need to go. Sounds helpful right? Wrong. Just because she faces the way to go, doesn't mean that's how you're going to get there. The things you need to use to get to your destination are colored red. Which ALSO doesn't help. Once you get there, it's not going to be a guarantee that you'll be going the right way. It'll bring you to a dead end at times.
The game is incredibly short. It consists of 9 chapters and they're all very short. I work a 40 hour week and I still managed to beat this in 9 hours. It's really really short. But I suppose it depends on how well you can figure out where to go. If you want to do the speedruns and collect all the hidden bags than yea there's more to do.
The soundtrack to Mirror's Edge is amazing. The intense rush/techno they throw in fits perfect with the scene. I couldn't help but just bob my head to the music. There isn't much music, but when there is, it's a great thing.
The hand to hand combat in this game is HORRIBLE. I don't know how they messed this up so bad. You can disarm your enemies, but that means you have to get close to them. They all have guns. So if you're trying to disarm an enemy, you're also being shot at. They tell yu to isolate the enemy, but even when you do, you have to time the disarming PERFECTLY. Or else you just get whacked with the gun. 2 whacks and you're dead by the way. So it's honestly just way easier to avoid enemies than fight them.
Mirror's Edge is a perfect example of a great idea that had very bad execution. This game seemed to be about perfection more than anything. You'll get an intense adrenaline rush from the first few levels. But once that adrenaline starts pumping, aggravation soon follows. Precision jumping, bad camera, and annoying AI will have you cursing throughout the entire game. Mirror's Edge is at least worth a rental for fans of platformers. It's a fresh new experience, but one that just falls short of being a masterpiece.
I hope you all enjoyed and please leave some feedback of what you thought.
Community Member
I agree one hundred percent with everything here. Especially "It's a fresh new experience, but one that just falls short of being a masterpiece"
I loved the whole concept of the game, the story, the idea. Everything screamed originality. But wow the combat and confusing levels really brought the game to a smashing halt sometimes. I felt for a game with such an emphasis on speed, it really didn't flow well together sometimes.
The combat also has me cursing up a storm !! haha.
Thanks for the read. I look forward to reading your next one !