Developed by EA DICE, Mirror's Edge is a game which has taken innovation in a new direction. When it was first announced, the concept seemed to have puzzled some but excited many others. But most of us, including yours truly, were sceptical as to how a game based on free running (
parkour) would be implemented in the first person mode. Let's just peek in & see if the game has indeed lived up to it's expectation & hype or just been a come-and-go title.
Storyline: Set in a unrealistic city, constantly monitored by the government, Mirror's Edge let's you assume the role of Faith Connors. Faith has been trained with advanced
parkour skills to act as a messenger for selected revolutionary groups. She is a part of a group known as 'Runners' & is trained by Mercury, a runner, who provides radio updates for them. The story begins with Faith being provided with basic tutorial by a colleague runner, Celeste. Post which she receives a call from her sister, Kate, who wants her to meet up at Robet Pope's office. Robert Pope is a candidate for the upcoming elections for the city's Mayor in opposition to the city's current Mayor Callaghan. Faith arrives at Pope's office only to find him dead & Kate informs her that the officials are on their way to the office. Faith finds a piece of paper on Pope which reads 'Icarus'. Kate needs Faith to report this to her superior Lt.Miller & get some information about the murder.
From here, it's a race for faith to save her sister from being wrongly framed for Pope's murder & find information about Icarus which is a clue linked to Pope's murder. During the course of events, there would be plenty of characters Faith would interact with, which provides her with some insight about the crime & give her a though time as well. Plot also has certain twists in the latter half for which you would need to pick the game up.
Gameplay: As mentioned before, the game has a very unique first person perspective for free running style. Most of the game revolves around performing high level jumps across buildings, pipes, air vents, construction areas etc. The initial tutorial provides you with a perfect description of how to perform each manoeuvres & to get a better feel of the game. Most of the part you would be left running from cops (often referred to as 'Blues' in the game) & dodging them. Running is the key out here. So all you mostly do is run, jump & slide OR run, jump & fall. The latter is more common. You can perform melee combat moves & disarm the enemies weapon. You can then engage in shoot outs but it's rather dull combat, since there is limited ammo & you have to throw off the weapon & get a new one. There is a neat little feature for disarming enemies in slo-mo as well.
Since there is no HUD, you'll have to look at the key point of interaction in this game. Meaning look for anything which is completely red in colour. That would be your jump point & doors which you can open. Also if your lost in direction the press the 'Left Alt' key & it will turn you in the right direction. The key to completing this game is observation of the surrounding & a good grip on your running skills. Certain combinations may prove difficult like the 180 degree jumps but you'll eventually improve.
Graphics: The biggest highlight of the game & the most enthralling part are the graphics provided in this game. Based on the UE3, it's probably the only UE3 game that I have ever seen with proper lighting effect. Most of the UE3 games have a common ultra-shiny & fuzzy look to them. This has been redundantly used in a lot of games. But Mirror's Egde is a good breakthrough from the dark traditional look. It's extremely bright & vivid during the game & just as good during the night. The game mixes a great deal of colour patterns which can be seen throughout the game. The lighting effect is actually been incorporated by a pipeline called Beast, based on LiquidLight lighting technology developed by Illuminate Labs. This is the first game to sport this lighting technology. So you'll see bright looking rooftops, exquisite offices & other polished internal structures.
Character models are realistically done as well. Faith's arm looks photo-realistic. The cut-scenes though are done in a cartoon'ish form. Even the loading sequence has FMV based tips. Every bit of detail provided in the environment begs to be gazed at. The white portion of the game is sometimes so bright that you'll be visually blinded. So better get some sun glasses, just in case.
The visual performance is flawless. I managed to get a steady 62fps with everything set to it's highest & with 8X AA applied. PhsyX needed to be turned OFF, since I don't own a Nvidia card. But the physics effects are still very much present. I could clearly see each glass shatter but not sure about those banners. Two thumbs up on the optimisation.
Sound: The details provided to sound is amazing. You can hear her footsteps race & her gasping for breath as she races through the rooftops. The fall from a ledge or a high-rise just sends an chill down your spine. I was often on the edge of my seat while making a high jump as, the sound of falling just made me feel nauseating. You can clearly hear all minutes sounds in the environment with ease. The sound of a distant train approaching, birds flying away, objects being destroyed & of course the sound you falling.
Final Thoughts: All the apprehensions I have had before picking up this title just went away in a single flash. The game is spread across 9 different chapters & you'll have a total of 6-7 hours of gameplay with it. The storyline & combat needed better detailing but then again it's not a major flaw. Plenty of unlockables & you'll have extra game modes like Free Run & Time Trail. So if you're done with the storyline then try to hone your free running skills & show it off on the leaderboards. Overall, the game has been polished to look perfect on the PC. Good job DICE. Rock solid game & a must have title.
Rating: 8.5/10.
Screenshots:
Mirror's Edge: A full Review
it was like a slowmo movie
Linear Mode
