Mirror's Edge

When I finished Mirrors Edge two things became apparent; one was that I have never played a great game like this and the other was that I have never been so emotionally attached to a game that has a weak main plot.
The level design of Mirror's Edge emphatically implicates the dystopian imperialistic society that has ascended(that's a mouthful) and it's in the way the environment tells this story that truly makes it mesmerising. Games like Shadow of the colossus are commended for the use of interactive storytelling, which is to say that instead of being told a story, a story is already told and therefore your purpose is to exist in it and create your own story through your experience and this credit can now be bestowed to Mirror's Edge also. I never raced to the finish because I wanted to see the end instead I lingered and tarried transfixed by the irreverent levels and that unnerving calm of oppression the designers get across via these beautiful complexes that are too beautiful to be this barren.

So I have praised the indirect story (If I can call it that) but it is the synchronisation of the level design and music that binds it all together and provides an audio visual experience that few and I mean very few have achieved, its application is mesmerising picking up pace when reaching a climax in a level or starting a level with a chilled out transient track that consequently infuses your experience with its symbolic cool.

The graphics are great driven by all the contextual art in the environment and the gameplay is ingenious with motions that are mapped in such a way to the pad that mentally you process your traversal in as similar a fashion as you would in reality.

And as with anything Mirror's Edge is not without its faults, most notably the combat which is on the right course as its simplistic design of only punching and kicking works and maintains the suspension of belief of an oppressive society (you can't exactly oppress Kratos if you get my gist) but where they fail is that they decide to include combos that end up locking the responsive Faith into and animation ala Quick time event in essence.

What's left to be said, we have a game here that easily makes my Top 10 games this generation if not ever. The whole experience was just brimming with ingenuity, intuition and flair and whilst some slightly poor design choices exist (average main plot and occasionally irresponsive combat) it's all water under the bridge for this herculean attainment in creating an experience unlike any other. My excitement reaches dangerous levels thinking about the sequel that can do away with the complexity of creating a comprehensive and revolutionary experience for the first time and that is a testament to the greatness that is Mirror's Edge.

Simply a great game.
I got Mirror's Edge on release but decided to post this review now because it came up on my recommendations.

A reviewer (realitysource) gave it 3 stars and said the controls were flawed and frustrating. The vast majority of players will find the controls perfectly intuitive and simple. WASD, jump and crouch. I was able to simply enjoy the feeling of running, jumping, sliding, wall-jumping etc wherever I wanted, without thinking about what keys I needed to press in order to do that.

Another review (D Deacon "pixist") criticised the lack of combat; This is not a combat game. You can play the whole thing without getting shot once, you just use your free-running skills to avoid the police. This brings me to his other point about there bring a lack of skill required; he writes "The game merely allows you to try a random number of times and then lets you succeed."
This is definitely not the case. Skill is required to pick out a good route and plan ahead, and to control Faith accurately with well timed jumps and turns. You are usually constantly running so you need to be able to perform skilful jumps etc while surveying ahead and weighing up your options at the same time.

A sufficiently skilled player can play the whole game without making a single error, there is no random chance of whether you grab a ledge or not. Assuming you are reasonably comfortable with standard WSAD FPS controls and you are of reasonable intelligence and mental agility, reaching this level of skill will take about as long as the tutorial level.

So excited to hear there is a sequel in the works!!

...run away from another game that will try to slip SecuROM 7xx into our computers under the excuse of DRM.

...run away from another game that will keep spying and reporting on everyone who ever plays it, even long after completely uninstalling it.

...run away from another premium-priced game that will expire on you after only some months, after a couple of installations.

...run away from another EA game designed with insatiable greed in the mind and no respect whatsoever for its gamers/customers.

...run away.

And, in the best spirit of parkour, do not look back.