Players take on the role of Faith, a runner in the underground resistance working in a gleaming white metropolis. With most other forms of communication closely monitored by the government, the only way for the anti-establishment underground to relay information is through a human carrier service that runs and leaps across rooftops (pigeons don't appear to exist in this world). Unfortunately, the game assumes the player has been keeping up with the videos that came out prior to the game's release; otherwise they don't really get a strong sense of who the characters are or what's going on. The game would have benefited greatly if those trailers were included with the extras content, but as is, players simply need go along with things for the sake of the game.
Mirror's Edge is based almost entirely on evading the enemy, dodging bullets and quickly getting a feel for the environment to figure out escape routes. To assist, players have "runner's vision," which colors the otherwise blank white city with stripes of color, indicating possible pathways. However, the runner's vision can be a little finicky and unreliable. Colors indiscriminately highlight all possible pathways, but they don't necessarily indicate where Faith needs to go. Entirely painted hallways don't help when the player is supposed to spot a discreet air duct in the ceiling while trying to escape pursuers. Oftentimes, routes would lead us to dead ends. Objects like pipes and ladders transform into runner's red as they enter field of vision to help players take advantage of the environment, but sometimes objects don't transition soon enough. At other times, it'll highlight too many objects at once, leaving players to figure out where to go next and breaking the flow of the game. At its worst, critical exits are blocked by objects, leaving players literally running around in circles. Figuring out the right direction relies heavily on trial and error, where players repeatedly plummet off rooftops and replay from checkpoints until they can deduce the right path. There's a hint key available to point Faith in the right direction, but it too fails at times. Mirror's Edge puts a laudable effort into reproducing freerunning, but players never fully feel like they're wearing a runner's sneakers.
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I strongly disagree with this review and think the review is "deeply flawed".
So the reason the game is "deeply flawed" is because you found it difficult, don't like puzzles, and found out that a 90 pound asian chick punching a SWAT team member with a M249 wasn't particularly effective?
This isn't a FPS. I'm not sure why you call the game flawed because a platformer has different gameplay than BioShock or Call of Duty 4.
"We found that Tiger Woods 2008 was deeply flawed because it did not contain AK-47s or M4s, and swinging the club was more difficult than using the Telekinesis plasmid in BioShock. Additionally, the golf courses lacked the gritty feel of a war zone or underwater city, and we were disappointed that Tiger Woods could not meet up with the weapons merchant from Resident Evil 4."
Jeeze. Even on hard, the PS3 version (with the "super hard mode" controller) was fairly easy, significantly easier than other platformers like Mario 64.
The puzzles are similar to, but less difficult than Portal. Like Portal, you have to adjust to the way you solve them. In Portal, it's the portal gun; in ME, it's Parkour. Mario can't wallrun or move like Faith, so this threw me off at first. What seems to be the downfall of most people is they don't understand the concept of momentum, because few games use it to the more realistic extent ME does. The Parkour elements are actually realistic as well (go search for "David Belle" on YouTube), so the "puzzle" solution, while initially non-intuitive, aren't completely arbitrary.
The combat is far easier than you'd think once you get the hang of it. On easy difficulty, taking out the entire SWAT team isn't too hard; just get momentum, drop kick one or do the slide-kick (which is more reliable and stuns), then follow up with punches. If they're still not KO, do another slide kick (even with no momentum) to stunlock them. Once you drop one SWAT team member, preferably the dude the M249, cleaning up the rest of the team and their single wave of reinforcements isn't exactly challenging. On hard, you have to avoid or be careful in approach to some encounters, but it's still relatively easy compared to say, trying to play Counter-Strike online after a couple month break. Getting stunned is NOT guaranteed death, not even on hard. Faith regenerates health somewhat faster than Claire from Heroes, so provided you can use agility tactically and don't expect her to be wearing power armor, the combat isn't that bad. You can also simply run away from most of it.
The core of the game is exactly like Portal: you scan the environment, devise a strategy for navigating through it, and execute it. If you fail, you adjust it. Even the most difficult parts of the platforming are still easier than most of Mario 64, and I don't recall anyone complaining about the difficulty of that. Mario 64 had many parts that were less obvious than ME as well.
In observing friends playing it, the primary two mistakes they made are 1) not understanding momentum and 2) not being able to move and look at the same time. Once you understand these two elements, the rest of the game is easy.
Yeah, the length was a bit short, but that was my only disappointment with it. Graphically it's quite nice, the music was decent (especially "Still Alive", another thing it shares with Portal), and the gameplay elements are fantastic. The Parkour elements are quite realistic, and it got my adrenaline flowing quite a bit, so it was an enjoyable simulation of being an asian female reincarnation of David Belle or something. (unfortunately, now the game is so easy even on hard I don't get a rush from it)
I'm very disappointed the upcoming DLC is some abstract geometry crap, and not urban environments, which is sort of the point of the Parkour that's the base of the game.
The game I played after it was Tomb Raider Underworld, and I had to stop, because while I thought TR Legend had good controls, after playing ME, the game felt like it had the controls of the early Resident Evils and was frustratingly sloppy. The core gameplay mechanics of ME are incredibly well tuned, imo.
Anyway, I can understand not liking the game, but complaining it has jumping and puzzles that make you think a little isn't really valid, nor is praising the graphical look on one page, then criticizing the same parts you just praised on the next.
I'd suggest watching the movie "District 13" then replaying it with the expectation of cross-breeding Mario 64 and Portal, not a linear FPS.Posted at 4:59PM on Jan 19th 2009 by Frangible