Mirror's Edge preview
Since it's debut at Sony's PlayStation Day conference, Mirror's Edge has bewildered gamers with its premise: a first person shooter with an emphasis on movement rather than shooting. Since the dawn of video games, platforming has traditionally been relegated to the third person perspective. The closest many first person shooters come to platforming is in the shape of slowly and clumsily bunny hopping a series of crates to get across a river. Further, others skip over the element in its entirety, eliminating the jump button altogether. Developer DICE has taken a bold, new stance on this age old misconception with Mirror's Edge. Not only are they determined to make a platformer in first person that works, but one that works just as effectively as any third person platformer.
And, if the demo released on the PlayStation Network on October 30 is any indication, it seems they may have just pulled it off. The demo starts off with a quick background of Faith, the protagonist of the game. Faith, a 'Runner' in an Orwell-style utopia, is essentially an old fashion message carrier at a time when the government heavily oppresses freedom of speech. Using intricate acrobatics, known as parkour or free running, Faith quickly delivers messages between the various members of the underground resistance network.
After a pretty standard training mission, the demo starts you on the prologue mission, called The Edge. The gameplay has a bit of a learning curve. L1 is for 'high' moves such as jumping or vaulting over obstacles, while L2 is for 'low' moves like ducking or sliding under obstacles. Faith has a whole arsenal of acrobatic tricks, from wall running to rolling. The trick comes in learning to string all these moves together fluidly, thus keeping forward momentum, allowing you to jump further, run faster, and finish quicker.
At first, the game feels a little clumsy - you won't know from what heights you need to roll to avoid damage, which objects are too high to vault or too small to slide beneath, or how far you can jump, and you'll be using the 'Runner Vision', the way in which the game color codes objects to guide you, as a crutch. However, once you internalize all the moves, something just clicks, and the game blows wide open into one of the most exhilarating gaming experiences in recent years. Doing all the moves in rapid succession becomes second nature and is just challenging enough that it gives off a real sense of accomplishment after performing them, but it isn't hard enough that you'll be forced to retry sections over and over until you nail it with absolute perfection. Also, as you come to grips with your abilities, you will start to see new paths open up to you. The first time through a level, you might see a red staircase and just run up, enemies hot on your tail, shooting at you. But on a second run through, you might think to run up the wall and jump to the top of the stairs, shaving seconds off your run and distancing yourself from any pursuing enemies that much quicker. It's really something unlike any other game, especially from the first person viewpoint.
While the game definitely encourages you to avoid conflict, there are times when you may need to stand and fight. Luckily, Faith has an array of hand-to-hand combat moves, from flying attacks, to sliding kicks, to enemy disarms - more than enough to dispatch the unlucky enemy. While the hand-to-hand combat is solid enough, the gunplay seems a bit floaty. The handgun in the demo seems to really lack any sort of a punch. The aiming seems off, where even if the reticule is dead set on the opponents head, it still isn't a guaranteed kill. The gun also feels unimpressive to shoot, the sound is muffled and there's almost no feedback from the rumble of the Dual Shock.
The only other real concern is whether or not DICE can keep amping up the experience as you progress through the game. While successfully pulling a long chain of high flying maneuvers might be a blast the first few times, can the same feeling still be had on the last level when you've done all these moves dozens, if not hundreds of time already? DICE will really need to work on keeping the levels fresh, but if the demo is to be any sign of things, then it shouldn't be much of an issue.
And with less than a week until Mirror's Edge hits shelves, we won't have long to find out. DICE's exciting new foray into the first person genre is due out on November 11 in the US and November 14 in Europe. In the mean time, check out PSBeyond's
exclusive interview with Tom Farrer, producer of Mirror's Edge.
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