With
a remake in the works (because society has such a short memory that seven years
is long enough to warrant a total reboot) I feel the time is ripe to discuss
this fascinating failure. Yes: failure.
Mirror's Edge
was released in 2008 to enormous hype. The gameplay trailers were impressive,
and the marketing pushed the games innovative game mechanic: first-person
platforming. You can run walls, scale rooftops, and generally feel like a
ninja. And you do…occasionally.
Of
course, as with all hype – it wasn’t matched. Trailers lie. Marketers lie.
Message boards claim the game to be the best of the year before it’s even come
out. Everyone expects the messiah and is thus disappointed when they get a mere
video game. But that’s all died down now. People have forgotten all the
marketing and now accept what they’ve been given. We play Mirror's Edge and look at what it is, not what EA claimed it to be.
Yet
it seems many look at what Mirror's Edge
could have been when playing. I’ve seen several declare this game an underrated
masterpiece, a unique gem in the Triple A landscape that may be flawed but
ultimately stands the test of time. As you can tell by my opening paragraph
calling the game a failure, I disagree with this sentiment.
The
much-touted platforming works well when it actually works. The biggest problem
is that the game falls to the typical EA curse of one button doing too much. If
you’re playing the PC version, your spacebar will hate you because not only do
you use it to jump but you also hold it down to vault over barriers, grab onto
ledges, run up walls, latch onto poles, latch onto ladders, and latch onto
drainpipes. I actually find this really fiddly since sometimes the game doesn’t
realise I’m trying to run up a wall and I jump to my death. Alternately,
sometimes I’ve just wanted to jump over a gap but instead I’ve run along a wall
then fallen to my death.
Also,
the latching mechanic is dodgy. Sometimes you jump much further than you
usually can just to latch onto a pole. Other times the game won’t realise your
trying to latch onto something and will let you fall to your death.Not to
mention, poles, drainpipes, and ladders completely break the flow of the game
as you have to grab on, pause, and then look around to find out where you’re
supposed to latch onto next. And when you’re latched on, you can’t look down so
often you just have to take a blind jump – often to your death.
The
combat is absolutely awful. Counters only work when they feel like it, and a
bullet does the same damage as a punch. On medium difficulty, I’ve died by
being punched twice. Meanwhile, it takes about five bullets to kill you.
Outside the ‘Stalker’ series, I don’t think I’ve ever seen first-person combat
this broken.
 |
| "Your fists did more damage than your bullets. Where did you buy your gloves?" |
I
get where the game’s going with this. The point here is to avoid all combat,
running past bullets instead of ducking behind cover. Of course, there are
several sections where the game forces you into combat. The guy in your headset
often says: “there are some guys ahead. Prepare yourself for a fight” and sure
enough you find yourself in an arena where you can’t progress until all the
enemies have been taken out. Even when it’s possible to run past cops, if you
stay and fight then the guy in your headset carries on as though he was waiting
for you to take everyone out. I’m reminded of Thief: The Dark Project, where the developers completely undermined
the innovative gameplay in favour of boss-fights because they were worried that
gamers might haemorrhage if they go five seconds without killing someone.
By
far the best part of the game is where you’re pursued by unkillable enemies who’re
equipped with the same parkour moves as you. You’re only option is to flee, and
desperately running away with the sound of their footsteps behind you is a
spectacular adrenaline rush. It’s brilliant. So, naturally – these guys never
show up again.
 |
| "SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP" |
The
plot is also terrible. The game makes an effort to merge gameplay with
storytelling, but it does this by periodically yanking control away from you.
The cut scenes are achingly dull, and the story is unbelievably bland. I only
know Faith’s name because the guy in your headset repeats her name constantly. If
you asked me to name her key character trait, I’d have nothing beside the
typical ‘strong, silent’ disease that infects every FPS protagonist. I have no
idea who anyone else is, and what they’re trying to achieve. All I know is that
the government are bad, and the runners are good because…because. Clearly,
storytelling wasn’t on the developers mind because every cutscene and pseudo-cutscene
has a massive ‘PRESS SPACE TO SKIP’ prompt beside it. And I guarantee that you’ll
use it. A lot.
The
level design ranges from ingenious to awful. It’s nice how there are precious
few loading screens – although I’d rather sit through a traditional blank
screen with a bar then sitting in an elevator for much, much longer than you’d
actually wait in an elevator. When you turn runner-vision off (which I recommend
because runner-vision only works when it feels like it) it’s impressive how the
game organically directs you through the level.
Where
the design falls apart is when – like the combat – the developers undermine
what makes the game great. Did you enjoy running around rooftops and having
fun? Well, why don’t we give you an extended section where you work your way
through man-sized vents, tight corridors and small enclosed areas. Isn’t that
the same thing?
 |
| "Enjoyed those large, open enviroments? Well HA!" |
The
visual aesthetic is unique, but eye-straining. It’s already very difficult to
tell where you need to go, but it’s even more difficult when this game ramps up
the bloom. Surfaces blend together, which results in cheap deaths. I actually
welcomed some of the sections indoors because at least I could see where I was
supposed to go. The worst thing is that it’s impossible to navigate the menus
because the mouse blends in with the background. And no, you can’t turn down
the bloom in the options menu.
I’m
throwing words like ‘awful’ and ‘terrible’ about, but underneath all this Mirror's Edge does have potential. If the
plot actually existed, if the levels were completely re-designed, the climbing
and swinging removed, the combat removed, and the anti-runner enemies used more
than once then this game might’ve been good. As it stands, it’s an interesting
failure…but a failure nonetheless. I’m glad I picked it up in a Steam Sale, because
paying any more than £3 would have been a rip-off.
Mirror's Edge
is perfect for a remake. When the parkour mechanics work, they work well, and
this is a game with a unique style and tone. It’s a great idea ruined by the
fact that monkeys worked on it. So thank god EA aren’t working on the remak-ohwait,
they are.
Yeah,
the remake’s probably gonna suck too...
