Game Review: Mirror's Edge

There was a lot of anticipation for Mirror's Edge on release. Possessing an original concept, with great visuals and gameplay to back it up, it didn't seem like a lot could go wrong. Could Mirror's Edge live up to it's potential, and become one of the best games of 2008?

In Mirror's Edge you'll assume the role of Faith, a free runner. After your sister is framed for murdering a politician, you'll use your skills to track down and kill the men who were behind it all, while trying to uncover a secret government project. While it's full of betrayal and conspiracy, it's ultimately unsatisfying. The twists are predictable, and the ending is just setting up for another sequel, never mind the fact that it's criminally short by any game's standards.

The key element of Mirror's Edge's gameplay is the platforming, which innovatively takes place in the first person. First person platforming hasn't really been attempted before, so it's all the more impressive that DICE have created a game that flows as smoothly as Mirror's Edge. The excellent control scheme allows you to move through levels with grace and fluidity, and it's an incredibly fun experience. It's has the potential to be incredibly frustrating, as to be expected from a platformer, but for the most part, it's an original, intuitive and smooth experience.

Oh, and don't fall down. That's probably the most important thing.

Mirror's Edge is also playable as a first person shooter. Since the emphasis is on movement, you'll never carry guns around, so you'll have to obtain them from disarming or knocking out opponents, and you'll have to be creative to get past groups of enemies in later levels. The shooting itself is average with larger weapons since they restrict your movement and slow the games pace. But, with smaller weapons, it's excellent, as you're still free to do all the stylish movements and actions that you're used to doing. With the handy bullet time (it's called reflex time, but it's not fooling anyone), this is probably the closest you'll get to being in The Matrix, it's awesome.

Unfortunately, once the initial novelty wears off, Mirror's Edge becomes irritatingly repetitive. Because you'll find the same guns, fight the same enemies and run around very similar, linear environments, Mirror's Edge quickly stops being a new, fresh experience. For something that has tried to capture the essence of parkour - the freedom of movement - to be so linear is a massive disappointment.

Hint: Wanting to use colours other than grey is fine... but replacing it with only one other colour doesn't really work.

There's nothing in the way of multiplayer either, which is a shame, because as you play through the game you'll realise just how excellent it could have been. All the ingredients for an excellent online multiplayer are there - superb player movement, slow-motion, a variety of guns – and it's so disappointing when you start to think just how cool it could have been.

The lack of multiplayer would have been forgiveable if the single player had any length or replay value. The story lasts approximately one hour if you aim for the speed run times (which aren't particularly difficult), and once you're done with them, all you can do is time trials on old levels. It's so underwhelming to have a game receive all this hype, and be beatable in two hours.

Once the story is done, all there is left to do is follow this red thing around the Time Trials. How exciting.

Mirror's Edge bears many similarities to Valve's excellent Portal, sharing both it's good and bad aspects. Both are original and creative, but both are incredibly short. But there's a significant difference between the two: Portal was the third game in the Orange Box, it was sold alongside Half Live 2 and Team Fortress 2, not as a stand alone game, which made the short length forgiveable. As a stand alone game, the flaws in Mirror's Edge can't be glanced over. There just isn't enough to it to justify the short length, or the lack of replay value. Or the price tag.

What Mirror's Edge has is good. The platforming is refined, the shooting is decent, and the graphics and soundtrack are genuinely beautiful at times. But it's all condensed into this neat little one hour package, which cannot justify the cost. It barely justifies the rent.

6/10

You'll probably get the full experience of Mirror's Edge by just playing the demo fifty times. Except that's free.

At least I didn't have to review another sequel - tomdoodle16@live.co.uk