Once upon a time, many moons ago (ok maybe about 2 years ago), I walked into a video game store (which shall remain nameless so I don’t get done for copyright). On the monitor on the wall I saw a game and I thought to myself “damn that game looks awesome” and so I resigned myself to the fact that I had to own this game. Soon enough came the time when I actually went and bought the game. That game....was Mirror’s Edge.
And that’s about the point when things decided to change. Now, I have to admit, it’s taken me a while to actually start playing Mirror’s Edge. It’s been sat in my games tower for a while now but, in the early hours of the morning, I got very bored and thought to myself “I’m actually going to play Mirror’s Edge” and so I did. And, I have to say, I was actually quite disappointed. Whether that’s because I’d built the game up so much in my own expectations or simply because it’s not that good....well, we’ll see what happens during this review.
So the game starts off with you being given the back story to the city. Apparently the city has become almost exactly the same as George Orwell’s 1984, with security cameras everywhere and every move that everyone makes being monitored by the Government. However, this Government seems to be some evil corporation that everybody hates. Although the only people that hate it seem to be the “runners”, of which you control one of them. Your character is a “runner” called Faith, who spends her time running across the rooftops of the city carrying messages and bags and.....probably something else as well. In doing this, Faith attracts the attention of the cops, who have this vendetta against her, and take great pleasure in shooting at her from a helicopter. Bastards.
The gameplay itself is.....a little odd, shall we say. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for using the entire terrain to your advantage and being able to explore just about everything, but it does come with its problems. Running across the rooftops is great fun, although you always seem to be doing this with a time limit or several cops chasing you in one manner or another. Now, this gets to be great fun, though I’m waiting for the time when free-roaming becomes an option. The controls themselves are rather odd to adapt to, though they do work. Instead of using the standard X and O buttons and whatnot, you use the R and L buttons for the most part. The Triangle button is used for disarming cops and the Square button is used for engaging ‘reaction time’, which I’m pretty sure is just something that EA stole from the Matrix. However, it is useful in that it means you can actually disarm a cop, another option besides kicking the hell out of them. Works for me.
However, there are a couple of issues I have with Mirror’s Edge. One of the main issues is the ‘leap of faith’. When you’re on a ledge, you have to turn around and jump onto another ledge. The issue with this being that you can’t turn your head completely around, so you end up having to just jump and hope, usually ending up in you falling and hitting on the ground several hundred stories below. On top of this, I have to make a very big point about the graphics. Now, I’m quite a long way behind the times and it wasn’t long ago that I finally had my PS3 hooked up via HDMI. Now, as ‘bad’ as my TV is (soon to be replaced), even I notice a MASSIVE difference between HDMI and scart, though Mirror’s Edge seems to be a game that has no idea what HD is. The graphics are incredibly blocky and remind me greatly of the old Mario games on the NES.
If I completely honest though, I did enjoy Mirror’s Edge. Many people have said it’s not that good, and there’s not enough playtime in it, but I enjoyed it. It’s a good game, the graphics leave something to the imagination but it grows on you. And if you don’t like it, don’t play it. I’m cool with it. I’m gonna keep playing it. Yeah I said that......BOOM!!!
And that’s about the point when things decided to change. Now, I have to admit, it’s taken me a while to actually start playing Mirror’s Edge. It’s been sat in my games tower for a while now but, in the early hours of the morning, I got very bored and thought to myself “I’m actually going to play Mirror’s Edge” and so I did. And, I have to say, I was actually quite disappointed. Whether that’s because I’d built the game up so much in my own expectations or simply because it’s not that good....well, we’ll see what happens during this review.
So the game starts off with you being given the back story to the city. Apparently the city has become almost exactly the same as George Orwell’s 1984, with security cameras everywhere and every move that everyone makes being monitored by the Government. However, this Government seems to be some evil corporation that everybody hates. Although the only people that hate it seem to be the “runners”, of which you control one of them. Your character is a “runner” called Faith, who spends her time running across the rooftops of the city carrying messages and bags and.....probably something else as well. In doing this, Faith attracts the attention of the cops, who have this vendetta against her, and take great pleasure in shooting at her from a helicopter. Bastards.
The gameplay itself is.....a little odd, shall we say. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for using the entire terrain to your advantage and being able to explore just about everything, but it does come with its problems. Running across the rooftops is great fun, although you always seem to be doing this with a time limit or several cops chasing you in one manner or another. Now, this gets to be great fun, though I’m waiting for the time when free-roaming becomes an option. The controls themselves are rather odd to adapt to, though they do work. Instead of using the standard X and O buttons and whatnot, you use the R and L buttons for the most part. The Triangle button is used for disarming cops and the Square button is used for engaging ‘reaction time’, which I’m pretty sure is just something that EA stole from the Matrix. However, it is useful in that it means you can actually disarm a cop, another option besides kicking the hell out of them. Works for me.
However, there are a couple of issues I have with Mirror’s Edge. One of the main issues is the ‘leap of faith’. When you’re on a ledge, you have to turn around and jump onto another ledge. The issue with this being that you can’t turn your head completely around, so you end up having to just jump and hope, usually ending up in you falling and hitting on the ground several hundred stories below. On top of this, I have to make a very big point about the graphics. Now, I’m quite a long way behind the times and it wasn’t long ago that I finally had my PS3 hooked up via HDMI. Now, as ‘bad’ as my TV is (soon to be replaced), even I notice a MASSIVE difference between HDMI and scart, though Mirror’s Edge seems to be a game that has no idea what HD is. The graphics are incredibly blocky and remind me greatly of the old Mario games on the NES.
If I completely honest though, I did enjoy Mirror’s Edge. Many people have said it’s not that good, and there’s not enough playtime in it, but I enjoyed it. It’s a good game, the graphics leave something to the imagination but it grows on you. And if you don’t like it, don’t play it. I’m cool with it. I’m gonna keep playing it. Yeah I said that......BOOM!!!
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