Mirror's Edge

Another backlogged game bites the dust. This time it's Mirror's Edge. This one would have likely languished in my backlog for ages if not for E3. Apparently there's a Mirror's Edge 2 coming out, which means hurry up and finish the first one, so I can pretend I've been looking forward to the sequel all along. I pulled that sneaky shit with Portal/Portal 2. Swish.

Mirror's Edge is set in a futuristic society in which the big bad government controls everything, eavesdrops on all your communications in the name of safety, and wants to put a bullet in you and your buddies' heads because you're "runners". Runners are couriers. Their job is to deliver messages and whatnot, circumventing the oppressive government surveillance that exists. The gubment don't like this, hence the bullets. You evade the baddies by running from rooftop to rooftop, climbing on scafolding, or whatever ledges, pipes, etc. you can get your hands around. You basically parkour around the environments, evading all the shooty bad people while trying not to fall to your death. ...but you will...a lot. Like most games where your character can fall to their death, it's best to have a cool head. Don't freak out. Calm your tits. Remember, spazzing results in splat. Lots of trial and error is the end result, which I didn't really mind. It would load back up quick, and you'd have another go at it.

I've never really seen a game like this in which your main goal is to run the hell away and gunplay is kind of secondary. There are guns, and you can use them, but it's not really a shooter. It's all about the running, which is enjoyable and a nice change of pace. Running the hell away was always my favorite part of Assassin's Creed, so I was digging this pretty quick. Jumping, sliding, and wall running around felt intuitive, and you needed to use a variety of combos and skills to make your way through each chapter. They don't hold your hand and tell you absolutely everything you can do, which had its pros and cons.

For the pro side, I liked that there was a bit of a sense of exploration and learning that occurred by not telling me everything. For example, I didn't know that some glass could be broke out by punching/jump kicking it. I learned this while trying to flee, and the only way out was to jump from one level to the other while busting out the glass of that second level while I was in midair. It was a nice aha moment that happened organically when I was spazzing out while being shot at and took a leap of faith. The fact that it worked surprised me and gave me a tiny sense of triumph.

On the other side of the coin, some things pissed me off because they didn't bother to tell me about important gameplay mechanics until it was absolutely necessary. For example, they didn't bother telling me that I could use "F" to zoom in and aim while holding a sniper rifle. I had taken sniper rifles from enemies before, and it bizarrely made the reticle disappear when I had one in hand. You couldn't aim accurately without it, and they failed to tell me the handy zoom hotkey. They kept this bit of information from me until I had a section that required me to pick up a sniper rifle from the ground and use it to shoot at a baddie convoy. This was also the first time that I realized I could even pick up weapons off the ground. It was never explicitly mentioned, and the only time I had a weapon in hand previously was when I disarmed a guy. I'm thinking this was an elaborate conspiracy to keep me running and jumping and getting shot rather than blowing the baddies away with my boomstick. I just assumed, okay this isn't a shooty shooty bang bang game. I was okay with this, but it was partially a lie.

Moving on. I was happy the gameplay itself was entertaining because, quite frankly, I didn't know what the hell was going on with the story at times. It wasn't the strongest element of the game, but I was enjoying myself enough that I gave it a pass. It was generic, kinda rambley, and didn't really come to any kind of satisfying conclusion. Despite the shortcomings of story, Mirror's Edge was still highly enjoyable. There weren't that many bugs that I encountered, the movement was smooth, fluid, and there were plenty of action packed segments. It was a good game, and I'll likely pick up the second one after it comes out.

Thanks E3 for forcing this game to the top of my backlog pile. What else you got?