Livin' On The (Mirror's) Edge

It's increasingly rare to see original ideas for games being released. Whether it's because game companies aren't willing to risk losing money on a concept that might not fly, or there's very few unexplored game ideas left, who knows. But that breath of fresh air is exactly what made Portal a success, and it's also what the massively underrated rooftop-hopping Mirror's Edge should have received.


A soundtrack sample for your listening pleasure, and for some ambience while you read.

Mirror's Edge is a first-person game released in 2007, developed by Dice and published by EA. For a few months it turned heads and raised eyebrows, as no game had attempted such an od mix of FPS and platformer before. However, a few months later the aforementioned Portal was released and got all the attention for being original and fun. Mirror's Edge was quickly forgotten.

And it's a shame because it tapped into an interesting market. Sure, there have been games before which incorporate parkour (Assassin's Creed being one of the most famous) but to actually BASE a game around it was a brave move. And it actually works really well. Not only is it unique in this respect, but also in that the game gives you the choice of not killing anyone throughout the entire story if you don't want to. It seems this is what the developers were aiming for as picking up a weapon slows you down and stops you pulling off most moves. Of course it's easier to just shoot your way through, but the game is based around speed and momentum through the level, and stopping to aim and shoot just ruins the illusion. Why not just knee them in the face like a boss?

Dice have done everything they can think of to add to the immersion of the game, to make it feel as if it's actually you with the ninja-like skills. The camera angles may be difficult and unhelpful at times, but again, that's true of real life parkour as well. Your head bobs while you run (the amount depends on your speed), the camera shifts focus and brightness accordingly depending on what you're looking at, simulating real vision, you catch glimpses of Faith's hands, feet and limbs depending on the moves she's carrying out. And of course, the dizzying sense of vertigo you get when jumping between skyscrapers. Which happens a lot. The game has managed to make the rooftops of the city feel natural, so much that in the few instances you're at street level it feels awkward and uncomfortable. I found myself looking around for a way back up more often than not!

Despite the immersion, the story is rather lacking. I found it quite difficult to care too much about any of the main characters for most of the game, and in the middle of the game the levels started to become a tedious formula of:

-Travel to location in the city
-Watch a cutscene revealing another part of the plot
-Oh shit, the police are coming! Run away for 30 minutes to end the level.

Luckily it picked up again towards the end as all the seemingly disjointed parts of the story fell into place. Like all good single player games, there's plot twists. In this case, so cruel that at the start of the last level I felt an anger and determination that I can't remember ever having felt before at a game. And that leads me onto arguably the game's strongest point: the lead character, Faith.

For a while now I've been rather annoyed that games companies seem to be unable to create a strong female character without resorting to making them look "sexy" (Lara Croft) or following the damsel-in-distress model (Princess Peach) in order to sell copies. However Faith Connors has already become one of my favourite videogame heroes. She looks cool, doesn't mess around, has a tragic backstory and the aforementioned crazy ninja-like skills. Whether she's taking running jumps off crane arms, surfing subway trains or sliding down rooftops, it's impossible not to be impressed with this rather unique protagonist. Why can't more female characters be designed this way?

Cool girls don't look at explosions. They just turn their heads and walk away

All in all, Mirror's Edge is a welcome change from the usual style of "shoot-everything-that-moves" first-person games. Whether it's worth the £12 Steam is currently asking for it, is a matter of opinion - if you're looking for an underrated game with an original twist, then go for it. You can be a hipster gamer too. However if you're easily made queasy, this could be a risky one to go for. It made me feel nauseous on more than one occasion, but that just added to it for me... I'd be equally terrified to try this stuff for real!

I personally can't wait to see if anything comes of the rumours about a Mirror's Edge sequel, and what, if anything, can be expanded upon to merit a sequel. I really hope there is one. The underlying story premise of ME is that if you don't conform, you can be pushed to the edges of society if you let it happen. The games industry needs a major player like EA, arguably the most mainstream publisher of all, to throw some of the money made from the Modern Warfare cash-cow at Dice, and take another leap into the unknown and provide us with an even greater game.