Mirrors Edge (Xbox 360) > Reviews (14)

Mirror's Edge

Mirror's Edge is a game set in future where you play as a girl named Faith. The game is set in the future where surveillance is high in the city, people are heavily resticted in their activities but Faith has found 'running', delivering data and packages between people, an illegal activity in the city. Further, a murder charge has been brought against her sister who did work for the police and the plot thickens to get the to bottom of this. Is she innocent or is it a trap to bring Faith to the police?

Initial Opinions

At the start of the game you are guided through a tutorial. Now, the tutorial is actually quite difficult. I spend around a hour trying to complete it before I put the game down, not bothering to pick it up again for a few weeks. Eventually I managed to complete this. It isn't a good start if the player cannot get through the tutorial!

Anyway, this leads you into the Prologue chapter. This is actually easier than the tutorial at the start. The city is completely concrete grey plus one other colour, sometimes it is grey and blue, sometimes grey and green. This actually looks very futuristic and is especially effective since the game shows you 'runner vision' in easy and medium modes which highlights areas you can jump from and onto in red. These stand out in a two colour world of course, bringing a third colour into the landscape.

You get to a point in this prologue chapter where police officers start shooting at you. This is very dissappointing. I was hoping this game would be a game without guns. You don't start with a gun but you can disarm an officer and use their gun, though you can complete the game without shooting anyone. You will need to knock people out to do this, however. Again, I was hoping to avoid most fighting and this is one of the faults of the game.

After being shot by these officers a hundred times, I eventually managed to get past them into a part of the game where you are faced by four police with machine guns. There is no way to get past without being shot and you can't disarm due to this taking time and you will be shot by the other three officers. A trip onto YouTube and I see my mistake. I assumed I needed to go forward or jump to another building top but no, apparently that helicopter hovering nearby is ours and I need to jump to that. This was where I discovered the 'hint' button which sometimes gives you an indication of where you need to be, sometimes a final destination, sometimes waypoints along the way to the next part of the level.

Chapter 1 and Onwards

Eventually, I completed the tutorial and prologue and got onto Chapter 1. This was where I put the game away for months since now I was being shot at by so many officers. There is no time to work out where you are going now or you will be shot. It isn't easy to work out where you need to be so another trip to YouTube for this and it turned out that I needed to use an advanced button combinaton to jump onto a ledge. In fact, I don't think I completed a chapter without some help along the way and this is a shame.

Every chapter has people shooting at you, every chapter has difficult jumps. There is some variation in the settings, such as some are in office blocks, some on the streets, you visit the railways and other places too.

Chapter 2 and was working out that one thing about the game was the same all the way through. You cannot work out where you need to be, even with the hints. If this is a section where you are being shot at, you will be lucky to survive a few seconds without running around. Running around is too quick to view where you want to jump next. There are moments of brilliance when you pull off a wall run and turn and jump but these moments are usually a few seconds before you die. This is a first person game with nothing on the screen but what you would really see. You sometimes see your own feet and hands when you run and climb but that is all. This means you can't see your feet when standing on a small ledge so expect to fall off these a lot. This means you need to start again from the last checkpoint. Speaking of which, the checkpoints are quite regular so that is a positive and reloading back in is very quick which is good otherwise you would give up due to the amount of times you will need to restart from the last checkpoint.

The game is a rush, that is the idea but it does leave you fully concentrating on the game, leaving you out of breath on some occassions. To emphasis the idea of speed, there is a section called speedruns where the game times you doing a chapter and gives you a target time to try to achieve. Unfortunately, if you do happen to mess up, it does send you back to the last checkpoint but doesn't reset your time back. This can mean that your speedrun will be going fantastic until you get to that jump or that disarm. The controls are so difficult that it isn't uncommon to spend longer doing that one item that the game says should be the whole chapter. I have a speedrun on one chapter of 17 minutes, the game suggests 8. This is because one jump is virtually impossible. It gets exceptionally irritating especially on one chapter when you know it is right before a checkpoint. One mistake and you'll probably be over the suggested time by the game.

Controls are poor. Not the layout of the buttons but just how many buttons you have to press to get things done. The 'turn' button being the most annoying in a wall run. If you want to run along a wall and jump off the wall at 90 degrees you have to start the wall run with the 'jump' button (hopefully you won't jump to your death), then hold that button until you want to jump off the wall. Now you need to quickly press the 'turn' button, then 'jump' again. Too slow, you turned but didn't jump in time and you are dead. This is a move that is needed quite often in the game. Why 'turn' then 'jump'? Surely the 'turn' button would be enough? Or perhaps the 'kick' button? It's just added complication for no reason. Another example is the disarm, you have to get the timing just right and if not you will be dead, hardly a second chance.

Then, if you do succeed and decide to shoot another guard, the aim is so slow, expect to be shot before you have time to turn. To get to the end of a level is a surprise - no wonder she is called Faith.

A couple of jumps are virtually impossible, everyone on YouTube commenting on the same things people are stuck on. Even watching how other people get through the levels only helps so far. You can't see Faith on screen, so it only gives you half a clue.

There are plenty of annoying police with tasers and guns, in fact way too many to make this an interesting game. There was so much potential in the game play but far too many let downs.

A predictable story line, poor controls that leave you running around like an elephant in lead boots rather than a ballerina floating in the sky and no cliffhanger means we are unlikely to see a Mirror's Edge 2. The developers have said they won't be making another. That is a shame because this game is stressful and badly done but the potential to be different was there from the start.

Sound

The sound in the game isn't brilliant but is good enough. The best sound is falling to your death. This has a chilling sound effect and perhaps the team spent more time perfecting this that the other sounds - you will be hearing it. A lot. Nothing else stands out as being good sounds, not even the music, though nothing sounds out of place either.

Graphics

Graphics are fairly simple yet very effective. The lack of colour is a help, the game has good effects on blurring the screen when you have a heavy landing so it can make it difficult to see for a second or two. The graphics are nothing special but they do work well.

Achievements/Trophies

If you are an acheivement/trophy collector for your online games, this will only have you collect about ten when you complete the game. There are other acheivements such as complete the game on hard level (you will need to shoot people on this level) and complete the game without shooting an enemy (clost to impossible on hard level). This means full runs through the game several times to collect them all. Then there are the speedruns and time trials which award you more - meaning through the game again (for speed runs). They are very time consuming to get them all, if not close to impossible.

Would I Buy This?

Unsure, probably not, though I liked the idea of the game but if I had played it at a friends first, then I wouldn't have. I managed to pick this up for £2.99 when a shop looked like they were clearing them out of stock. For £3 it is work a go but I seriously wouldn't spend more than £10 on it if I really wanted it and definately less than £5 if you are unsure. It just isn't worth the money to be honest. You'll be frustrated and because you can't work out where to go when you are shot at, you'll end up on YouTube or similar site because you can't stand there looking around. That means you will be given the answers and the game will then last two to three nights and you will have completed it.