Mirror's Edge - Xbox 360

In spite of all of the sequels and obvious rip offs that exist in today's world of gaming, there can be some original concepts, and mirror's edge is one of these. A full first person platformer game had yet to be done successfully, until now it's been limited to Portal and unfortunate mission segments in other first person games, but Mirror's edge changes that.

With an excessively vibrant art style on top of solid graphics, it gets your attention in spite of being kind of annoying. For most of us, one playthrough of the game will show you everything you want to see, all the tricks and stunts you can perform, all the bad guys you can fight and guns you can awkwardly shoot. This will take between 6 and 10 hours depending on skill. The plot is instantly forgettable, and the cut-scenes look like a lost e-surance commercial. There's not all that much variety in the game, except for setting, but the action more or less remains the same. Combat is fairly awkward, both in hand to hand and when you pick up a gun, most of the time you'll be best off running away. That's not a bad thing, as running away is the focus of Mirror's edge, and it lives up to the hype.

There's no multiplayer, only time trials mode, which takes parts of the single player campaign and turns them into checkpoint races on foot. You can also replay the story timed in this mode. It takes quite a bit of practice even to get a qualifying time, but to climb the leaderboard, it takes a special kind of gaming masochism that I simply don't have. If you have the perseverance, you can download 'ghosts' of leaders to see shortcuts and tricks. More downloadable maps for this mode should be coming out soon.

Personally, I'm not much of a platformer guy, but Mirror's edge had a different feel to it. I had a good time, definitely rent this if you haven't yet, but don't buy unless you have that masochist, perfectionist streak in you.

For months now I’ve been eagerly anticipating EA DICE’s parkour-inspired, free running based Mirror’s Edge; ever since I played the demo at PAX 08, I’ve been hungrily devouring every one of its beautifully artistic plot trailers and gameplay snippets. It is hard not to be excited about Mirror’s Edge -everything about it from its gorgeous graphics to its Dystopian based narrative to its fast-paced gameplay seemed to be the much needed breath of innovation and creativity in a market dominated by sequels, spin offs, and shooters.

But does this highly anticipated title take off running, or is it little more than a severe misstep?

The story puts you in the shoes (running shoes that is) of a girl named Faith. Faith is a runner, a courier of sorts who run across rooftops, speeding trains, etc. to get a message from point A to point B while avoiding the police and the Big Brother-esque totalitarian government. Think 1984 meets the French action film, District B13, and you get the idea. Unfortunately though, such an awesome (and fairly creative) premise never really seems to go anywhere. The characters are fairly one dimensional, and the story’s thematic elements are never fully explored. For the most part, the game’s narrative serves as a backdrop for Mirror’s Edge, giving an excuse, but not really a reason or motivation, for Faith to be jumping over huge gaps and punching security guards in the face. It’s dissapointing really. The trailers and previews seemed to allude to Mirror’s Edge’s inherent artistic nature. While that may be true about the gameplay execution, it is unfortunate that this degree of style and beauty fails to extend to the game’s plot as well.

The game play is amazing for the most part. Dubbed by many as a Prince of Persia in first person, Mirror’s Edge allows you to really feel like you’re in the action. The controls do take a little getting used to at first (including some of the game’s more complex maneuvers which have you pressing buttons in rapid succession of one another) but once you get the hang of them, running and jumping over buildings feels incredibly natural, fluid and entirely badass.

Your objective is ultimately to get from one location to the next (whether that location be a destination, an item retrieval, or someone you’re chasing) and the game does a pretty good job of providing multiple routes to get there. Granted, some are faster than others, but the levels do permit for a fair amount of exploration and experimentation. The game utilizes an optional “Runner’s Vision”, a creative concept that serves as a crutch to help gamers locate where to go next. It highlights certain objects in red to pinpoint where Faith should be running to next, and its helpful to beginners while simultaneously blending in seamlessly in the game’s environments and locals. However, even with Runner’s Vision, there are times where you’ll get stumped. Especially in indoor environments (like the shopping mall or sewers) it can be periodically tricky to figure out where to go next. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen very often, and the game does an excellent job of maintaining a fast-paced tempo.

Along the way you’ll find yourself going toe-to-toe with Mirror’s Edge’s host of bad guys. Ranging from security guards to SWAT teams, the enemies don’t pose a huge threat as they’re pretty incompetent for the most part. However, they do have numbers on their side, and you’ll have to be creative in order to dispatch or avoid them. Melee combat (aided by a Matrix slow motion effect) works fairly well, but gun play feels incredibly awkward and unbalanced. I would have almost preferred that DICE elected not to include guns at all. While weapons do help clear out enemies that would otherwise kill you, vaulting over a cliff and then suddenly picking up an assault rifle severely breaks up the game’s momentum.

Unfortunately, the game is fairly short. It clocked in for me a little under ten hours (but then again I die a lot) which is decent but far below the standard since Mirror’s Edge does not include any sort of multiplayer. It does offer Time Trials, though, which is a nifty feature. You can run through a series of levels, experimenting and exploring in order to achieve the fastest time. You can upload your time onto online leader boards for bragging rights, but that’s really about it.

The lack of multiplayer is severely disappointing. Not necessarily because the game necessarily needs one (though it would have been appreciated) but because the concept of Mirror’s Edge practically begs for one. Several of your objectives in Mirror’s Edge have you chasing someone. How hard could it possibly have been to implement a sort of Cat-and-Mouse multiplayer mode? Or a Capture the Flag mode? How sick would it be to have teams of runners racing through obstacle courses while fighting over a courier bag?

EA Dice is famous for creating the Battlefield franchise, a series (which the exception of Bad Company) renowned for having a great online multiplayer component while having virtually no single player. Because of this, it’s almost ironic that they would turn around and create an exclusively single player game like Mirror’s Edge.

Mirror’s Edge excels in both the graphics and audio department. The graphics are really unlike anything gamer’s have seen before, and the soundtrack perfectly suits the game’s atmosphere. On top of all that, the game’s theme song, Still Alive by Lisa Miskovesky, is just pure awesome and has earned a spot on my Ipod.

Mirror’s Edge is a really fun game, but your mileage with it will be largely based on how comfortable you are replaying the same levels over and over again. If you’re the kind of person who enjoys mastering courses to achieve the best times in the world (Time Trial) or merely enjoy Mirror’s Edge’s gameplay so much you won’t mind playing it one or two more times, Mirror’s Edge is a great game that’s well worth checking out. However, if you’re truly looking for your $60 worth, you might want to consider renting Mirror’s Edge first. Or at the very least, wait until it goes on sale.

It’s a beautifully artistic game with an incredibly creative and well executed concept, but due to its lackluster narrative, short gameplay time, and exclusion of multiplayer, Mirror’s Edge never fully finds the stride its looking for.

Final Verdict: Rent It
Final Score: 8/10