Review: Mirror's Edge (PC)

So, today I decided to redownload my copy of Mirror's Edge from Steam after not playing it for a while, and that got me thinking on doing a review.

ME is a funny game. It's innovative, and that is its one key strength.

The gameplay revolves around parkour, the practice of moving physically around an area (particular urban locales) in the fastest and most efficient way possible. The first thing (and this always irritates me!) - it IS parkour, not "free running", as many people believe.

Parkour is all about efficiency of movement by climbing, running and jumping. Free running is all about leaping off of railings and doing flips as you move around to wow people. It is the "Whoah, duuuuude!" version of parkour.

ME does the whole parkour thing really well. The whole game is played from a first person viewpoint, as the character of Faith, a female "runner". Maybe I should explain that.

In the not-so-distant future, society has apparently become a utopian place. People live in huge, gleaming, permanently bright and sunny cities, decorated in almost obsessively eye-catching colours.

Underneath the pleasant exterior, the unnamed city the game is set in (and apparently the world at large) is micro-managed by a despotic regime that forbids free travel of information, and thus keeps the populace happy through apathy and ignorance.

Runners, male and female couriers of information, leap around this cityscape using parkour, delivering messages and data, trying to restore more free will to the citizens and/or start some kind of revolution. As one character says, things were better "when the city was dirty and alive".

The game's story, surprisingly for such an interesting concept, is one of it's weakest elements. It starts out pretty good, but drags on without really coughing up anything really interesting. Several characters in the game change their motives multiple times, sometimes giving the feeling that the story has gone one or two twists too far.

The ending in particular is weak (it has a rather lame deus ex machina element to it). It leaves the game at a real cliffhanger, and gave me the feeling that ultimately I had solved nothing, and made no difference during the game. Not cool.

The first person view really gives the game a "realistic" feel, despite the almost surreal surroundings of the city. You hurl yourself over walls, slide under pipes, crash through doors and kick guns from the hands of your pursuers all in first person. That means that you will literally have the camera roll over vertically when performing a commando roll, for example.

It sounds nauseating, but you soon get used to it, and it is very cool.

I mentioned guns, and that means combat. It is the one thing that drags the gameplay down, particularly in the later sections. The fun of the game largely relies on the unique movement. Building up momentum and performing a death-defying leap onto a roof is very satisfying, particularly when you look back and the chasing corporate cronies can only stare helplessly as you get away.

Unfortunately the game feels the need to crank the shooting up to 11, something that has ruined many innovative games. You find in the later levels you won't be jumping or running much - instead you'll be walking down corridors gunning down hordes of SWAT-like baddies.

That's okay if you're playing a dedicated first person shooter, but although the gunplay mechanics in ME are pretty good, they're not A+. You'll soon yearn for the freedom of running away from the guns rather than just walking around shooting Identikit Evil Man #04430 in the face.

The hand to hand combat is more exciting, and early game you'll definitely enjoy surprising the odd sluggish bad guy with a flying kick to the gob.


Finally, the game has a really interesting graphical style. The city is unnaturally clean and bright. The colours both guide you (a form of "runner sense" allows you to quickly pick out a door you can bash through, for example, by colouring it eye-searing red) and decorate the environment beautifully.

Enemies and other characters look pretty realistic, yet strangely "perfect" at the same time, much like the city. Their eyes gleam with light reflections, and armour, clothes and skin designs are top notch.


Final Word:


If you're tired of shoot-a-thon games where the colour palette seems to consist entirely of grey, brown, and brown/red, then ME will give your eyes and senses a much needed holiday.

Overall I recommend the game. Time trials tasks give the game replayability, and if you can ignore the increasingly silly turns of the story (and stomach the shootier levels at the end of the game) you should find the glowing jewel of the open gameplay shines through.

I give the game 3.5 (rounded to 4) out of 5 for really being bold and attempting something new, even though it does have flaws.

At certain times, when the gameplay really flows, it's easy to grin like a maniac. Being chased through a brightly coloured subway station as trains hurtle by was a perfect example of a level I thought was really fun to play.

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