Gameplay:
A city, culture and even environment change completely in only a few years, from freedom to do as you please to complete oppression, with every move you make watched, all for the sake of stopping crime. At first some fought the oppression by city officials, but now people either just gave up and don't care enough anymore or would rather not remember how it once was. But, there are those that fight the oppression in a way. Runners, couriers of information and goods that help others find little bits of freedom with things that would otherwise be destroyed. One of these runners is named Faith, seeking freedom from oppression and only finding true freedom from the city by running on roof tops, jumping through the jungle that is the city or even sprinting on the sides of buildings, running on the mirrors edge.
Mirrors Edge is played in first-person only. You play Faith, in fact, you may as well be Faith when you play this game because if she rolls, jumps, runs etc you do too. The camera only sees from her point of view. For those that get motion sickness very easy the developers put a little white dot in the middle of the screen that you can focus on when Faith is making the camera go in all directions. Hopefully, that dot will make the game playable for ya because this game rocks.
There are many different techniques to jumping which is extremely useful. You can be like Jackie Chan and jump up the wall or like the crazy French guy in Live Free or Die Hard. Faith is literally like a monkey jumping around the city. Some times, especially when you are just getting used to the game, it can be hard to locate items that you can use to jump from or poles to climb up. Luckily, the developers thought of this as well. DICE made it so when Faith gets near something she can use the object turns red. Red is apparently the color of freedom, and all runners have an affinity for it.
There are different modes you can play in and also varying difficulties to choose from. There is of course the storyline (which you'll want to do first because it immediately starts you out on how to play Faith) and RACE. In race mode you can clock yourself to get the best time in an obstacle course and also post it online and see how you compare to other players.
Controls:
Controlling Faith takes some getting used to and at times precise timing is key to pulling off a move otherwise you'll fail and will probably fall and fall and fall till you finally splat to your death. Luckily though, the game auto saves and usually starts you out somewhat near where you died. Having played this game on the PC I really have no complaints on the controls. They don't lag or anything, just takes some getting used to. So in my opinion, if you have issues playing Faith and immediately point at the controls maybe you just aren't a leet enough gamer. : P
Graphics:
This game specifically utilizes NVIDIA's physX technology which majorly helps in lifelike movement of the character and will make the environment seem more real as well. Like when Faith skids you can see the fibers in her pants as if they were your own that you're wearing. Having played this game on the PC, my only complaint is that when I turn vertical sync on (that helps the GPU keep in sync with the monitor for a more seamless flow; no screen tearing) it doesn't seem to work. I still get some screen tearing when the GPU starts really going to work and my monitor can't seem to keep up.
Sound:
The sound is incredible. I highly recommend playing this game with a good sound system. It utilizes surround sound as well. Based on sounds I can always tell where the enemy is and how close. The game also has some music made by some famous DJ's like Paul Van Dyk. The game also came with a CD with the theme song “Still Alive” mixed by six different DJ's, including the original mix.
Replay Value:
This game is always worth playing again and again. It is literally one of a kind. It started its own genre, first-person action adventure and even if you don't feel like playing the story mode again (which can be played in different difficulties) you can always race yourself in time races or try to be the fastest runner in the world by WTF pwning other players time scores online.
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Rating:
Story: 7
Gameplay: 9.5
Controls: 8
Graphics: 10
Sound: 9
Replay value: 7
Overall: 8.5
Own, Rent, Avoid:
Own: If you can handle the crazy camera angles I highly recommend buying this game for which ever platform is your favorite. Though if you do get motion sickness easy, you may want to rent the game first to see if you can handle it or not.
Last Thoughts:
This game is amazing to play and it makes me feel like I'm the main character Faith traversing through the city trying to make it the way it used to be. Running around, jumping, running across the side of walls, going where you shouldn't be able to reach, is an amazing feeling. Just think of a movie where one of the characters is in a convertible, hands stretched out with the wind blowing . . . pure freedom.
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Written By
Deborah Jones
1/24/2009
