Mirror's Edge

[Spark Of Spirit]

Probably my favorite "next gen" IP, Mirror's Edge was a game with a lot of potential that had a few warts in execution. What is basically a first person platformer, that encourages you to explore your environment with your skills. The game had you traversing a lot of interesting environments and a lot of cool mechanics, but it was not perfect.


Problems:

For one, the shooting was forced upon you in points when they should have tried to keep the level design more open for some places in order for you to avoid gunfighting. One stage in particular, if you're fast enough and build up the proper momentum you can dodge all gunfire and escape from the room. This was an awesome idea, but they should have had another way for the player to get around the area if they felt inclined. The shooting wasn't very good, but I don't actually consider that an issue. You aren't meant to use guns for anything but a last resort, so they should be appropriately awkward to use and not be the game breaker they would otherwise be.

There are too many points where you're running blindly without any indication of where to go for safety. This can easily be fixed by having clearer paths and more shortcuts to reach said paths to give the player more time.

The game was waaaaaaaaaaaaay too short. 3 hours in your first run through is not enough. IMO, for a single player only game for full price, that's not a very good value if they're trying to compete. The next game needs to at least double the length.

Hand to hand combat needs to be smoother. Again, usually a last defense, but other than slide kicking into an uppercut, there's no real reliable way to knock anyone over. Enemies need to be easier to take down with reversals and weapon stealing... and enemies should not attack you if you have a fucking machine gun pointed at their head. Also that one boss fight where you need to not be thrown off the building is ridiculous as you literally are given no indication of what to do.

The story needs to not suck.


Positives:

Platforming and scaling the environment is an absolute joy. There's usually multiple ways to climb something, or scale an area, and the only times there aren't is the only time the game feels lacking. A sequel needs more of this.

Level variety was stunning. Rooftops, warehouses, underground caverns, construction sites... While not hugely different explored pretty much everything that can be done in the environment.

The chase scenes are very frantic and usually require you to be aware of your surroundings in order to successfully navigate them.

Honestly, the game is just a complete joy to play through, especially once you've mastered the game and just play it for fun.


EA keeps teasing us ME fans on a new installment, but have yet to really commit to the sequel that the game really needs. Fixing the warts of this game would lead to quite the awesome experience, and I'm really disappointed we have yet to see anything from DICE beyond shooters since leading to my main fear of them turning this into an FPS with some jumping. Which is something I do not want or need.

But anyway, does anyone else have any opinion on this game? Oh, and if you have yet to play it... don't do your first run with no guns, it will only frustrate you. Save that for when you know the game.

[Foggle]

You'd think that the shooting wouldn't be so godawful since it was made by experienced FPS developers.

Anyway, I liked the game. It was really fun, but way too short and all the forced combat segments were trash. Of course, I would have liked it more had the prominently bright colors been toned down a bit, as I frequently got splitting headaches while playing (though this probably would not have happened had I bought the console version).

[Spark Of Spirit]

It's not as bright on the console, no. But I have seen the graphics on the PC version and that just looks insane, but the colors are more muted on the consoles.

Forced combat was an issue, because they had to encourage players not to want to fight, but they designed some really dumb segments where you pretty much had to if you didn't know where to go. The control room being the most egregious offender as you can't even run by them at all and since they're heavily armored, you basically have to shoot them all.

The sequel really needs to not have those segments.

[Foggle]

I think it's less about muted colors and more about the space between the screen and the player, which is why narrow FOV can be a big issue for PC players. Even if the brightness was the same, I can see the game being a lot easier on the eyes when you're 15 feet away from the screen instead of 3.