Mirror's Edge

Okay late to the party on this one. I don't have Xbox Live Gold anymore since I wasn't using it so been waiting for the 360 demo to come open for all but I got sick of waiting and just got it off the PSN Store. Have to say I'm pretty glad I did, this must be the one instance where I think the PS3 controller might work better.

So this demos convinced me to get the game, very likely for the PS3. I think this will be my first multiconsole game for the PS3.

I don't consider myself a graphics whore, but this is more then pretty pixels this is art. I love look of the characters in game. The girl you train with, how is it that she looks both cartoony and totally realistic at the same time?

The controls we're pretty smart, at least on the PS3 controller. I didn't find aiming much of an issue, and the lack of a HUD is very nice.

Very fun demo, highly recommend downloading it if you havn't already.
 
I recently played the demo as well, at a mates house on his 360. I love the theme song for this game, its very...contemporary? I just find it nice and soothing, very awesome.

As for the game itself, like many others feel its nice and refreshing. Gone are the browns and grays, and in, are the whites and blue? lol, i dunno i the look is very clean and bright.

What i don't like about this game is how 'easy' the controls are. I know its 'context sensitivity', but there feels like there is no effort into pulling off those awesome wall runs, etc. Shadow of the Collosus did this well, how you had to hold down a button and what not. This just feels a bit stale to me.

Anyone else get this vibe playing it?
 
Im picking up a copy in a few hours. I had a chance to play a bit of the 360 version at lunch and I have to say the PS3 version is leaps and bounds ahead in both graphics and control. At least from what I've played. And you know me, I'm no PS3 fanboy. This will me my 5th PS3 game compared to the 30 something 360 games.
 
I picked up Mirror's Edge yesterday, it came out here in Australia on the 12th of November (Wednesday), despite trailers and advertising claiming it was out on the 13th of November (a Thursday, being today). Here's my.. uh, unprofessional "review"... although I might as well just write a proper review when the game is reviewed here at GR, but here goes.

For those who have either seen the good quality trailers or played the demo itself, you'll know by now that graphically the game is fantastic. All the character models, including Faith's (despite playing as Faith from a third person perspective) look amazing and are realistically animated. Despite the environment being so bright and "clean", it works great, and the game itself is just beautiful. One of the most beautiful games I have ever seen on the PS3 (I know this game is on the 360 and soon PC, but I got it for PS3).

The whole "true" first person thing is actually really cool, totally unlike anything I've ever seen before in an FPS, and I have a good feeling FPS games of the future may begin to do this. For those who may suffer motion sickness, the game has a reticle (however it's spelled) circle in the center of the screen. This allows the player to focus on the dot and, well pretty much NOT suffer motion sickness. For those brave enough or for those who don't get motion sickness, and you don't want this dot? It can be turned off.

The cut scenes however may meet mixed views. I'm a Visual Art/multimedia university student, so the 2D animated cut scenes appeal to me and look very stylish and creative, but at the same time some may feel that this is a "lazy" way out instead of making say, full motion video cut scenes involving actual computer graphics. The voice acting and dialog is good for the most part, with the exception of some characters, particularly the "Jack Knife" character, when you meet him.

Music is awesome. It fits very well into the futuristic cyberpunk setting. Not much else can be said in this department apart from it being awesome. Sometimes there will be silence, sometimes it will be slow, and then when combat or chase scenes arise it can be quick and intense. It works brilliantly overall.

The combat system works, although some believe it's just "glorified quick time events". It is in a way quick time, but it isn't at the same time, if that makes any sense. The combat system works well and while it can be hard, the game does try to encourage the player to not use weapons and to avoid combat whenever possible, but there are of course times when combat is completely unavoidable. Got to admit though, disarming enemies is pretty awesome, and while it can be tough, the "reaction time" (bullet time basically) system works hand in hand with this, making disarming a lot easier.

Using firearms isn't that great though. It kind of "sucks" as someone on this topic put it. At the same time though I think the developers did this on purpose, to try and make the player avoid using weapons (as achievements can be unlocked from not using weapons). Faith can only carry one weapon at a time and she has no "inventory" like most FPS games, so when she picks up a gun, she's carrying it until she drops it. She also can't store ammo, so whatever bullets remaining in the gun's magazine is all she has, once she's out she's got to ditch the weapon. Weapons will also slow you down, so carrying a rifle sized weapon will really slow Faith down, and will prevent her from using her wall scaling acrobatics.

The actual controls take some getting used to, like the R2 button being the attack/fire button, and the R1 button being a quick one eighty turn. Sometimes you'll accidentally forget you're playing Mirror's Edge and instead of punching a guy with a right hook, you'll turn around. Once you get used to the controls though you'll soon realise that they work and it's logical for the control scheme to be this way.

There are times when the game can be too easy, or too hard. The "Runner's Vision" makes the game quite easy as it gives the player a path to follow, thankfully though Runner's Vision can be turned off (and is even purely disabled in Hard mode) and sometimes even with Runner's Vision, it will not lead you down the best path. There will be times when you're easily crossing locations, but then you'll stop suddenly and you'll be wondering where to go next. If you have Runner's Vision enabled, you'll find yourself relying on it quite often, where as if you have it disabled, sometimes you may find yourself literally blind to where your next step should be.

Because the game is all about speed and momentum when it comes to Faith's movements, stopping and thinking is a huge let down, sometimes though it just can't be helped. It's also frustrating when you accidentally miss a jump, whether you jump too early, jump too late, or completely miss the object you're aiming for. At the very least if you get lost, you can hold a button down to "hint" to where you are supposed to go next (as Faith will look in that direction). It's not cheating, it's necessary at times, except for when you're being shot at.

I was originally hoping the game was going to be like a sand box environment similar to that of Assassin's Creed, but it isn't. The game has ten levels overall (nine if you do not count the training/tutorial level) and each one varies in time to complete. Ten minutes, half an hour to possibly an hour, it all depends on how quickly you move through the game. I'm up to level six at the moment, I'm not exactly sure what my overall play time is but I heard the game can last anywhere from up to six to ten hours. So it's not that long of a game.

Throughout each level there are yellow and black bags scattered. Overall there are thirty bags in the game so about three bags per level. Collecting this bags can allow you to unlock unlockables, from the game's soundtrack to concept art. In my opinion though, while these bags can make the game last a bit longer, concept art isn't too much to brag about having.

The game offers a "time attack" mode where you can replay through sections of levels and try to move through them as fast as you can, scoring best times and whatnot to be uploaded to online leadership boards, where you can also download another player's ghost data and technically race against it. Unfortunately and annoyingly enough though you have to register to do this over at EAgames.com, so it's a very typical move on EA.

In my opinion, it would have been great to see multiplayer in this game, whether it's co-op or even races against other players. That would have been cool and I believe could of been worked into the game. It's unfortunate to not see this, especially how there is online capability.

The loading/saving system I believe is annoying. Unlike most games, the game cannot save slots, it simply just auto-saves with a "continue" option, pick a chapter option, or start a new game. This is annoying because if you've got siblings/friends who want to play and they start a new game, well, then you're going to lose your progress and you'll have to start again from the last chapter you were at. My brothers and I found a way around this and now, we use separate accounts on the PS3 to basically give ourselves "files" for Mirror's Edge. What, was EA Games only thinking about one person playing this game per console/game?

I think Mirror's Edge is a terrific game. It's new, it's fresh and it's innovative. There are flaws of course (as every game has) but it's not hard to overlook these flaws in exchange for what the game has to offer. In the end, it would of been much better if there was a form of multiplayer, and if there was a proper saving/loading files system.

If I was to give the game a "mark", it'd have to be an A-.
 
Okay, i skimmed most of that.

The game actually came out in Australia on the 11th, that's when I picked it up in Brisbane. It was a suprise as I was expecting to get it too.

I havn't finished the game yet so can't give a full opinion but I really like it. I enjoy the combat, it's more challanging. I like the lack of hud, and even the lack of inventory...it's pretty cool just dropping the gun and running.

I don't like the cutscenes. The art is fine but the animation is terrible. They look like they belong on newgrounds. The animation in game is amazing, so I just wish they did that for the cutscenes.
 
Wow, it came out on the 11th? The guys at EB told me it came out "today" (yesterday, the 12th - I'm in Darwin by the way). I haven't finished the game either, but I'm also enjoying it.

I agree also, I prefer just ditching guns and then beating the crap out of some guy. I enjoy the combat too because it is challenging, and it's just cool to charge up to someone and knock them flat, you know, when they've got a gun and all. :p

I've noticed the animation in cut scenes tends to vary for me. I agree, sometimes it honestly does look like it's made from Macromedia Flash, like on the stuff on Newgrounds, but sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it looks a bit more complicated, as if made using Maya or something. I like the drawings and the animation does look good at times, but I know what you mean. I had a good feeling their cut scenes would meet mixed views, and I do believe that while I do enjoy these cut scenes, they should of just used the normal game graphics and whatnot, you know? That would of been much better.

As I've said, I haven't finished the game either, I'm still playing it, playing it right now actually. In fact, I think I will go back to it, RIGHT NOW! :p
 
The drawings I could stand, although they didn't look much like the in-game characters....it's just the animation...it's unnatural. I think of the blonde, Cestal or whatever her name is. Bland in the cutscene but totally awesome in-game.
 
Well I just finished Mirror's Edge, like literally minutes ago. I wish the game was longer, let alone the ending.

No spoilers but the ending is quite short.

The game itself is fairly short too. I don't know how long my exact play time was, but I got the game on Wednesday (12th November) at around 4 PM, and finished it today (Friday 14th November). I'd say overall my play time would be in the bracket of six to eight hours?

I got the "Test of Faith" trophy, which is cool.

I unlocked Hard mode, which from the description tells me that Runner's Vision is disabled for good, and something else I forget... probably harder enemies or something, or possibly the removal of the hint button - I don't know exactly.

I should register (ugh) to try the Time Attack mode.

I did notice something extremely annoying. In the final level (chapter nine) I was in some vents with yellow lighting. For some reason, in one specific part of these vents the game kept freezing on me. In these vents as well there was a hidden bag somewhere, and I couldn't find it because if I was in there for too long, my game kept freezing. Note though, I'm not sure if this is a problem with the actual game, or the copy of my game (the disc) or my console.

Overall - good game, but the biggest issue is it's just too short. There's replayability but still, I expected more.
 
Finally played the demo, and it wasn't really a game that I'd be too interested in.
 
I liked the demo, getting the game today. The graphics remind me of Warsow, though slightly less cell-shaded (screw your GoW/Resistance Brown), and the whole theme, along with combat playing a minor role, gives it a portal-esque feel. I like the minimalistic control scheme, and the sixaxis motion controls are integrated seamlessly.
 
I'm trying so hard to like it, but it's almost as if the game wants to be hated. There are some great new features, but all in all, it's actually not very good. It's a bad game masquerading as a good one.

A pity, but it shows some potential for sequels, hopefully fixing some of the problems. Actually, Blake's GR review is pretty much perfect. Read that.
 

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