Mirrors Edge thoughts
I have been playing Mirrors Edge now for a couple of weeks (off and on while I level my Paladin in World of Warcraft up to 80…).
I purchased Mirrors Edge based on the demo, which for me is quite rare as normally demos put me off games. The demo really made you feel able to go anywhere and do anything, or at least left me with those impressions. The retail game has moments of making you feel awesome and really fired up with all the great moves you can do.
There is nothing better than linking loads of moves together and feeling like everything is just flowing. However the game seems to think the best way to make it harder is to break up the flow and put in armed bad guys who shoot at you (from miles away), long lift journeys and doors which you must stop at and rotate a handle to open. These are a real shame for the following reasons:
The armed bad guys are a nice way of pushing you on and making you feel under pressure. However I feel they are too accurate and you die to easily. Each time you enter a new zone you need to try to work out which way to go and a lot of that involves experimentation. Being killed repeatedly for taking the wrong way or not quite being quick enough can make the player angry and demotivate them. It would have been better to make the bad guys less powerul and let you live a little longer.
Long lift journeys are, I imagine, so the game can load up new areas and so they can move you from the outside to the inside. It is a shame there is not a better way to do this as long waits in a lift are the polar opposite of what the game is about, running fast. If they had let you climb the side of the building and then smashed inside to keep on running it would have felt much better.
Turning large handles on doors to open them is also not a great way to keep the game moving. They must be intentional but it feels like such a sudden break when you have been bombing through an area and then slam into a door you have to stand and open. There is one section in a car park where you must run to avoid lots of bad guys and then you get to one of these doors. I died there so many times and in the end had to steal a gun from one and kill them all. I have no idea how to do it passively (for the achievement) as it does not look possible…
Don’t get me wrong I am still enjoying the game and will definitely complete it. However I feel the team should have focused more on the platforming, free running and the flow of racing through a level than on the strange pacing descisions. If every level were an exhilarating climb and chase using my abilities and never stopping it would be so much more of a rush!
Tags: games, mirrors edge, reviews, xbox 360