Mirror’s Edge.
Trust me, I’d like to talk about what’s going on in Gaza, but I swore to myself that I would steer clear of talking about Israeli-Palestinian politics in polite company. It’s killing me. Let’s see how long it takes for me to break down.
One of my Christmas presents was the video game Mirror’s Edge. I finished it tonight. I’ll share my thoughts.
You play as the character Faith, a “runner” in a future totalitarian city-state like thing where citizens are under constant. Your job is to run goods from point A to point B in an extralegal manner, keeping primarily to the rooftops. Generally, the cops leave you alone. Faith, however, discovers corruption in City Hall, and now she finds herself as public enemy number one trying to save her sister who has been framed for killing a prominent mayoral candidate.
The game works pretty well as a concept. It’s the kind of game I’ve been waiting for for some time. The game focuses more on running away from enemies than confronting them. I like games where running is the object of play. It doesn’t work well beyond this though, and the game has numerous shortcomings. In the earlier levels, the acrobatics are interesting and are conceivably within grasp of any athlete. Later in the game, they just seem…bizarre. Complex acrobatics require impeccable timing, and the game can be rather unforgiving as a result, causing some of the obstacles to be more aggravating than interesting. Some obstacles took me upwards of 20 attempts to clear. Once you finally move past an obstacle, there is a sense of accomplishment.
The game has the potential for a good story. However, the components of the story aren’t well put together. The story probably would have been more interesting if it focused more on the life of a runner than the conspiracy theory story, which didn’t even resolve itself.
Visually, the game is stunning, and it’s certainly worth playing at least once. There are rumors on the internets that a Mirror’s Edge 2 is in the works. I think they have a good foundation here. I just hope they improve on it. I’d give it a 7/10.
With that rating, I feel no urge to hang onto to it for too long. I’ll probably trade it in and pick up Fable 2 (assuming I can find someone to co-op with) or Soul Calibur IV on the Xbox 360. Right now I’m playing a fair amount of LittleBigPlanet on the PS3 with Emily.
December 29th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Yay, play more Little Big Planet with me, please. I do enjoy co-op games immensely. It is for that reason I am so disappointed in Resistance 2 - the co-op is just a bunch of random missions instead of following the story line with two players. What a waste of a perfectly good opportunity by Insomniac.
December 30th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I came here looking to especially talk about Gaza, you’ve wounded me!
So games - Prince of Persia suffers from many of the same limitations. Running/acrobatics puzzles too complex, that after numerous failures you just want to give up on the game, and have interrupted all sense of immersion. Assassin’s Creed was much more balanced.
I’d love to see a re-make of thief. The Third-Person sneaker games are great, but a first-person sneaker is needed again.
J.