"The Mirror Cracked From Side to Side"

So they (meaning EA) keep saying that Mirror’s Edge is a game that deserves to come back. All I can think is, “Really? Cause that game was terrible.” Actually, let me back up a bit to explain myself. Mirror’s Edge is a game with some very interesting ideas that were saddled down with terrible, TERRIBLE execution. The core of the game is actually kind of fun. You engage in free-running activities from a first person perspective, which is both exhilarating and nauseating. Think of a carnival ride and you kind of get the picture. When you’re out in the open, running as fast as you can and leaping over and under obstacles, the game is actually OK. The graphics were kind of nice too. Everything else about the game was a mess, though. And I mean everything.


The story is garbage. It’s riddled with uninteresting and unlikeable characters. The plot tries to weave a story of conspiracy and betrayal, but it ends up just being annoying and unnecessary. Your contact who’s supposed to be guiding you and providing you with intel is just an aggravating bag of wind. There are places where you have no idea where they expect you to go, and instead of giving you a helpful hint he just gripes and yells at you to get moving. Gee, thanks buddy! Your helpful words of “Move your ass!” have really inspired me to solve this conundrum! When he (Spoiler Alert!) dies, it’s supposed to be a tragic moment, but I just pumped my fist and cheered knowing I wouldn’t have to listen to his stupid comments anymore.  That's never a good sign.

The gameplay is also garbage. “But wait!” I hear you say. OK, so I don’t actually hear it, but I’m just assuming you’re saying that. So go ahead and say it, so you won’t make a liar out of me. Then say, “You just said that you thought the gameplay was OK!” No, actually, I said the CORE gameplay is kind of fun. You see, they don’t stick to that. Instead, they throw you into narrow corridors with little guidance on how to get where you need to. And while that is frustrating, they also felt the need to cram in combat. Cause every first person game needs guns, right? There are times where you can isolate one guy, run up a wall and kick him, then keep moving. This is fine with me, as it seems to follow the general mood of the game. It’s when they expect you to clear a room of cops that I get angry.

First off, this is not a first person shooter. This is a first person “runner”, if anything. Your character runs across rooftops, so when the police are after her, the first instinct is to run. To encourage this, the developers made your character extremely vulnerable, as she is only able to take a few hits before going down. But then, there are moments where it is almost impossible to proceed without dealing with most, if not all, of the police. This is where it felt like the game was punishing me for doing what it had trained me to do. It’s also very hard to take all the guys out with your kung-fu-ish moves since the others have, you know, guns. To counter this, you can take the guns from these cops and use them against them. My problem is that this seems counter to the whole concept of you being the good guy. They give you some indication that this future is a totalitarian state and there are bad dudes in charge, but does that really mean it’s OK to kill a bunch of cops? These guys probably had families, and were just joining up with the force because they wanted to keep the peace!  They do nothing to establish that the whole police force is a bunch of bullies and crooks.  And yes, it’s a video game so they're not actually real, but I’m talking about the principle of the thing. It really kind of breaks the mood and feel of the game, and was one of the first things that soured me on the whole thing.

Mirror’s Edge is not a long game, yet I still couldn’t make myself finish it. I hit a point where I decided I just didn’t want to play it anymore. This was a game that I was hopefully optimistic about, and I ended up with a very negative feeling towards it. Maybe they can fix what was wrong in a sequel. Maybe this one will be fun all the way through. But even if they do, the story stuff will still be there. They can revisit Mirror’s Edge if they want, but it’ll take a lot to convince me to come along for the ride.