Mirror's Edge

Give this game a little understanding and you will find it excellent.

Great graphics with a deliberate art style. Unique gameplay - at least I can't think of another platformer played from a first person perspective.

The combat has been deliberately made tricky as your character is not some super soldier but a delivery girl. I presume the idea is to make you play it more as it should be played - as a platformer. Some people are disappointed with this but the game was never designed to be a shooter. There is a nice convenient button to slow time when you want to disarm someone with a gun, then its up to you to try and shoot it out with the cops or keep running and dodging and disarming your way through the level. I must admit that a few times I took the easier and more cautious route of picking up the guns rather than the trickier method where you don't shoot anyone.

I can't think of another game to compare the feeling to when you get moving through sections in a fluid way. Controls are simple to pick up and work well.

Levels are a good size and can be very challenging but with well placed checkpoints you never have to go back so far that it annoys you if you miss one of the jumps and plummet to your death.

A good number of time trials are available in addition to the story mode. You can download the ghosts of the top players to see how they clear the runs and see if you can keep up.

Not as easy to get into as something like the call of duty games but more rewarding.

With mixed reviews, and an underwhelming demo, Mirrors Edge almost passed me by. DICEs parkour game is actually rather good, and feels like the fledgling steps of an emerging genre. Its certainly a unique experience.

The game could have been disastrous, as platform sections in FPS games are monumentally awful. The controls do much to remedy this, feeling intuitive with a steady learning curve. The shoulder buttons control most of Faiths abilities. She jumps by pressing L1, and ducks with L2. In motion, these moves are chained together to increase her running speed. For example, Faith can coil her body in mid jump to travel greater distances. The animation for busting through doors is suitably dramatic, and maintains the sense of urgency. Other feature include slow motion, especially useful during balance beam sections, and for disarming enemies. Holding circle prompts her to look in the direction of the intended destination, which also proves invaluable.

Sprinting over rooftops is truly exhilarating, being persued by trigger happy cops equally so. The linear stages are disguised well, as multiple routes lead to the same objective. Due to the games sudden death nature, restarts will occur regularly. But logically spaced checkpoints help ensure frustration is kept to a minimum.
Single player is fairly short lived. To extend play, 3 runner packages are located on every level, and a speed run option becomes available upon completion. A large selection of time attack stages are also unlocked once the relevant criteria is met. Time attack is arguably Mirrors Edge at its finest, boiled down to its purest and most enjoyable aspect - free running. In addition, a comprehensive library unlocks concept art, music and videos. Loading screen animations are impressive too, with a silhouette of Faith taking down enemies. The combat sections have received much criticism, and are entirely justified. The trick is to avoid confrontation unless absolutely necessary. Yet later levels ramp up the number of 'blues' to the point where combat is mandatory. Mirrors Edge suffers when forced to fight, as the controls are slow and the gameplay feels choppy. Gunplay is equally weak, lacking an ammo display or reload facility.

Presentation is impressive, but graphics range from minimalist beauty to bland and glitchy. The visual style is unlike anything else, but feels very basic in places. Corridor sections and street levels suffer most. Textures and objects are recycled endlessly, but with different colours. Presumably this is done to keep design aspects similar. However it feels lazy. The paper thin plot does nothing to flesh out the world or its characters either. Yet the premise is fantastic; a big brother city where everything is controlled and monitored has led to the emergence of runners - delivering information and items under the radar.

A unique but hardly essential title - the innovation in Mirrors Edge should be applauded, but the overall experience is flawed with frustrating inconsistencies.

My next game I wanted to finish off was Mirrors Edge, which was a big release game last Christmas. When I played the demo I absolutely loved the idea of free running across buildings and for me the demo did deliver however what I was yet to realize is that this game gives me motion sickness which means I start to feel sick after 20-30 minutes of gameplay.

For those who don't know Mirrors edge is a single player first person action game with a slight twist. Your characters name is Faith and she is a 24 year old Runner who provides a courier service around the city via foot, stealing items that others can't and using the buildings for her getaway. Only for a small parts of this game (and if you choose to) feature any form of shooting enemies most of the time you will be free running over and in buildings climbing walls, using zip lines and running along walls. Graphically although quite basic to a few colors I thought this game looks stunning in places outside but is let down once you are inside buildings. As you run around it really does feel like you are in control of your character as your head will move around while running or shake when you make a difficult jump, you will see your hands come from the sides when running, when you look down you will see your feet etc etc

When it comes to game play I have utter love for this game and then in one swoop it changes to disgust and hate. Never have I fell in love and hated a game so much at the same time. Some of the worst points being unable to perform jumps you have done time and time again. What you could do once before you may fail the next time and it's not down to controls. When you are flowing freely, timing every jump well it looks and feels amazing but all of a sudden you will get to certain area and it's normally when you are being chased that some jumps let you down. There is a button that shows you the direction you should be going in but there isn't always a straight forward route.
Take this level for example, I opened a shutter door where there were guards with guns all around and boxes and staircases, I have no gun and I am expected to locate my way through this maze that also has dead ends and at the same time being shot in every direction. Sometimes you are forced to replay parts over and over again and it really spoils what sets out to be a fantastic game.
Busting through doors brings a different feel then previous games and I also like the slowdown button but this does not last long and isn't always helpful. You face armed guards from time to and you can choose to fight them and take their weapon or sometimes it's just better to try and lose them.

All in all this game is both brilliant and too frustrating. You will be flowing through the city one minute then constantly trying to pull off another jump the next. If I could I would rate this game 2.5 smack in the middle but as you can't I'll be generous and up to 3.