Customer Reviews

Mirror's Edge

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Mirror's Edge was one of those titles that I have been interested in for a long time, but I just never got around to picking it up. I'm so glad I finally took the plunge and bought it! The main game is short - very short. I'm sure that it could be accomplished in one long sitting. However the achievements in it keep you coming back for more. The graphics and physics engine in the game are some of the best in any first person shooter which is a very bold claim. Play through the game a few times, as the levels become VERY short once you begin to know what you're doing, and when you think you've become great at the game use the option to download "ghosts" of other players on speed runs of levels. You will learn that there are so many more ways of getting around in a level than you initially thought.

My only gripe about the game is that the cutscenes between levels aren't using the in game engine. Instead, they took a strange choice and went with cartoon animation that is really similar to an esurance commercial. Somehow it fits, but it definitely adds a break to the story. Also noteworthy is that some people may experience motion sickness from this game! It didn't bother me - I personally thought it was just amazing how realistic the camera work was. However my friends brother had to stop watching him play this game.

I heard that there is a small team working on Mirror's Edge 2, so a sequel for this fantastic game is probably under way. There's a great franchise here and I really hope that rumor is true. Do yourself a favor and pick this game up. It's not a shooter - although you can get guns if you like - Mirror's Edge breaks the genre boundries and created a fantastic new experience.

Mirrors edge is a unique game, with a setup that you'll be hard pressed to find mimiced elsewhere. The story follows Faith, a messenger in a Orwellian touched future, were surveillance is everywhere and the police overwhelmingly an arm of powerful corporations. After nearly being gunned downed while delivering an innocuous message, Faith encounters her sister Kate, who has been framed for the murder of a Mayoral candidate.

The mechanisim of Mirrors edge is entirely first person, with stomach dropping leaps and parkur acrobatics carrying Faith from rooftop to rooftop. The voice guiding her is Merc, who at provides more commentary than omniscient directions. The path forward is given an overall tone, and Faith has "runner vision" where ineractive objects glow a blood red color. While the setup is a tad repetitive, its uniqueness grants it a lot of leeway. The backdrops are city skyline de jour, having the appearance of a futuristic skyscape painting. The effect is still real enough that you'll get an adrenaline rush when you fall.

The voices are well acted, though rather calm considering the gunfire and the near death falls. The sequences are cel-shaded in the style of XIII, though almost too cartoony.

The story shapes up well, though it is rather short, and the gameplay is exciting, and just frustrating enough you'll be compelled to complete levels just for the expereince of doing so. While some of the graphics are somewhat flat, thats a small nit in an otherwise fantastic deviation from the status quo for adventure games.

Mirror's Edge is a very original game from Dice and EA. I'm gonna stop and take a moment to realize that I just used ORIGINAL and EA in the same sentence. ... Ok, the apocalypse didn't happen.

Mirror's Edge is a fully immersive first person parkour / free running game where you play as a runner named Faith. She works for an underground resistance against a corrupt government. Beautifully rendered Urban Jungles are her playground as she dashes from rooftop to rooftop, wall running, jumping, and climbing along the way. The first person (3d view) free running in the game is pretty amazing. You actually feel like you are doing all of these amazing things and it's incredibly exciting.

Mirror's Edge also shows you exactly where you need to go. It highlights the 'trick lines' red as you get near them. Success depends on timing and correct button presses. Most of the time, it's easy to figure out where you need to go and it's a blast getting there.

Here comes the bad... The checkpoints are fairly generous, but you die for any slight mistake. If your timing is a bit off, you die. If you hit the wrong button, you die. If enemies are shooting at you and you slow down, you die. When there are enemies shooting at you, it's literally a hail of gunfire. It doesn't matter if you turn a corner, they fire nonstop. It's like there's a floating barge of machine guns just behind the camera.

The combat is also bad. You can perform martial arts on the cops and you can kick out of any free running move. Wall run kick, sliding kick, jumping kick... The problem is that there are a lot of cops and if you try to fight one, the rest end up shooting you. You can press a button to slow time and that helps you disarm them, but that's all you get. If your timing is off while you are disarming an enemy, they kill you. At one point, I took a cop's shotgun, put the cursor over his face and pulled the trigger at point blank range... and missed. The cop killed me.

The game looks beautiful, but when it plays a cutscene, it's completely cell shaded. They look like Esurance Commercials. I expected someone to yell, "Quote, Buy, Print!" I dunno who was in charge of this, but cutscenes are supposed to look BETTER than the gameplay.

There also isn't much chance to explore the levels and unlike Assassin's Creed, the game is very linear. Replay Value is pretty nonexistent, unless you want to try the time trials, where you play through the levels fast.

The game is 9 Chapters long and should take you about 7-8 hours to finish.

Overall, when you create an innovative game, you don't have the time to solve all of the original problems that you find and the execution ends up being flawed. If they do a sequel, it will probably be really good.

Who should buy this game?
Buy it if you are a fanboy, a collector, or you love Esurance.

Rent it if you liked the demo, have a low threshold for deaths, and want to experience free running.

Otherwise, avoid this one.
Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed are better.

I really really want to like this game. Badly. But frankly, I don't.

I was really looking forward to this game, it's ideas, concepts, graphical design, gameplay in a very vertical city. But it just doesn't work out like it should have.

I like the general idea of doing this in first person, and it certainly is the best first person jump & run game I've ever seen. What they did with that is really amazing. But you know what? Once this aspect wears off and you get over that they made a mechanic work that isn't supposed to work, you realize that even though the jumping aspects work well for a first person game, they are horrible compared to a third person approach. Too many times do you fall to your death because you can't tell whether you could make a jump or not and where to jump off. Are you at the edge yet? No idea unless you stop and look down at your feet, which is something you can't generally do as the game is all about momentum.

The first person perspective also means that you can't see all the awesome stuff you supposedly do. I would really like to see Faith (your character) do all this amazing stuff, but all you can see is the world slide by.

The graphics are nice. It's a really unique artistic touch. But it also wears off, and eventually, you are just in a much less realistic looking city than you should be in this day and age. At times, you even get the impression this could be a title for the old xbox. (And I explicitly use the word "impression", because I realize this wouldn't have worked on the xbox, but the art style makes it rather hard for the developers to impress you, since it is too comicy at times).

I was also disappointed that I never really got all that much of a sense of verticality. Sure, you go up and down or climb up on pipes the side of buildings, but too often, you are just on the rooftops which seem to form a new "bottom". Everything is very linear. Since you do not have the choice to go elsewhere (down in particular), it doesn't matter much that you are on roofs.

The real problem with this game is that it isn't fun. It is all trial and error and not often did I get a sense of achievement. At the end of a level you are relieved you did it, but not satisfied. Things just don't often flow well. It is like a throw-back into the old days of jump & run with pixel-perfect jumps you have no way to time. You fall to your death a lot or get shot all the time. Never do you get a sense of "holy moly this was an incredible thing I just pulled off with ease" like you do when you play Prince of Persia (for instance), a relatively old offering at this point.

This is a real bummer. First disappointment of the year. Not a bad game. It is still quite unique. But not the stellar experience I had hoped for.

This is a game that all gamers should take the time to not just play, but to experience. It is unlike any other game I have ever played before. Think "Assassins Creed" roof-top gameplay, meets "Prince of Persia" acrobatics, from a first-person perspective in a stark, futuristic city.

The graphics are very good. The cityscape is massive in scale and looks quite realistic. The inclusion of Faiths hands in feet when running, sliding, and jumping allows the player to be immersed into the city. The bright whites, grays, blues, reds, and oranges that make up the city are a nice contrast to all of the darker, grittier games that have been coming out over the last couple of years. The only graphic issue is that there is little variety in your enemies, and that they are lacking some detail. They seem almost out of place in the highly detailed cityscape.

The controls, although they take some time to get used to, you very intuitive, and allows you to quickly move from jumping, to sliding or rolling, or any number of other combinations you may have to do on the fly. They seem to compliment the gameplay style, which prefers speed in running, jumping, and melee attacks. This isn't some run and gun game either. In fact, I'm nearly halfway through the game, and haven't fired a weapon one time. Instead, I have disarmed opponents and immediately disposed of the weapons. This creates and extremely challenging type of gameplay.

The sound is excellent also. The dialogue is kind of cheesy, but the voice acting is superb.

The story is very intriguing and pulls you in immediately.

Overall, this is an excellent game that is worth playing for anyone. It's a fast-paced anti-shooter platformer (kind of) that really should be played by everyone.

Have you ever started watching a new TV series that was really interesting, with superb artistic flair, and it was just very compelling overall? With a pilot episode on television, you can get a rough idea of the great potential of a series, but it's not without some serious problems and issues that will undoubtedly get worked out if the series is greenlit. Well, with Mirror's Edge, this is like the "pilot episode" to what could be one of my favorite game IPs in the last five years. It's got an awesome concept, the art design is awesome, the 1st-person parkour style is very well done, it gets your adrenaline pumping in a good way, but it definitely has some serious issues that probably will get worked out with subsequent game releases.

You essentially play as a living-on-the-edge messenger who transports private messages between people who do not want the 1984-esque government to stick their noses into their business. These "runners" are parkour athletes who perform all sorts of risk filled acrobatics across the rooftops and city streets in order to deliver the messages. The main character, Faith, is one of these and before you know it, is trying to clear her sister's name for a high-profile murder that's been pinned on her. It's an interesting premise, but not very well executed. I really didn't care much about Faith, who is woefully underdeveloped, or any of the support characters that are involved throughout. This is unfortunate because the setting really provides the material for a great story, but alas. Cinematics are delivered via Esurancelike commercials that are catchy, but not very good for conveying a story. Poor story and underdeveloped characters aside, however, Mirror's Edge has a lot to offer.

The art design on display here is absolutely spectacular! The city all looks like it is brand new, shining beautifully in contrast to the decidedly dark story premise for the setting. Oftentimes the levels are designed mono-chromatically, with a single bright color contrasted with the stark white that is ever present. It's beautiful, to say the least, and I really enjoyed my time with the game that way. I cannot recall very many games recently that had such a compelling, unique setting as I thought Mirror's Edge had. The music is also quite good, with a very ambient, cool electronica focus.

The gameplay in Mirror's Edge is a bit of a mixed bag and is where most of its problems lay. The first-person view is very, very well done and you get a genuine sense of weight and momentum while playing. Bravo on that. The focus in gameplay here is on adrenaline induced speed over calculation that other platformers of this nature (like Prince of Persia, for instance) focus on. The problem with this, is that to encourage you to go as fast as possible, they constantly have you outrunning bullets, and unless you know exactly where to go (this game gives you hints by coloring parts of the environment you're supposed to go off of a very saturated red color), you will die countless cheap deaths due to pressure from the omnipresent wall of turrets behind your back. You will also die numerous cheap deaths because the detection for grabbing on poles and ledges can be spotty. The combat is also atrocious and probably the worst part of the game. For every moment of incredible parkour success, there is equal if not more frustration from a broken mechanic or cheap death. I'd say this game is equal parts frustration because of the aforementioned problems and exhilarating thrill from success. That said, the good outweigh the bad by a little bit in the gameplay department.

If anything, Mirror's Edge is one of the most refreshing, unique games I've played this entire console generation. I played it over a year and a half ago the first time, and whenever I reflect on the games I like the most in recent memory, images of Mirror's Edge's awesome art design and well-executed first-person platforming (in the moments it truly works perfectly anyway) always come to mind quite quickly. To be sure, this game also pissed me off more than most when I played it at the time too. It's a mixed bag. If DICE makes a sequel, where most if not all of the problems from this game are fixed, I can guarantee it will be in my top 5 games of this generation, without a doubt. A refined "Mirror's Edge 2" would be amazing, and according to DICE, it's happening, but not much more than that is known. I can't wait. In the meantime, Mirror's Edge 1 will be a nice little "pilot episode" to enjoy, warts an' all. If you're looking for a refreshing, unique world to play parkour in, but not without some faults, then give Mirror's Edge a try. Encourage the publishers and developers to make another by buying this one new. It's a decent price now, so why not? Buy it, parkour all over it, and feel the virtual breeze through your hair as you sprint, roll, and fly through this beautiful, dystopian city.

The controls are awesome and the story is really cool. The graphics are awesome even on my square tv that were gonna upgrade sometime. The extent of places you can go, things you can do, objects you can climb and jump from, is just amazing.

This was a really refreshing game. I enjoyed nearly every moment of it. it is NOT a fighting/shooter game, so don't think you're gonna be like the new James Bond or anything (although there is some fighting involved). Fast paced and action packed, with incridble level designs to boot. There are a few frustrating moments in the game, but once you figure it out it's no problem at all to duplicate. This game really makes you think outside the box. Great (simple) story line that fits perfectly. Long enough to make the game feel complete, short enough to want to play it over again. I highly recommend this game, but remember, this is NOT a fighting/shooter game.

WOW! I fell in love in this game after playing the xbox demo for 1 minute :) It is an extraordinary title that will leave you wanting for more. In Full HD it looks simply unbelievable. One from my top 5 titles (and I've been playing games since C64).
Just Excellent.

The first impressions that came to my mind were that Mirror's Edge plays like an FPS (only without the S), and has many elements of a platformer. This is a refreshing change, and the gorgeous environments I was given in which to run only add to the experience. The dystopian setting and the plot's intrigue combine with the above to make Mirror's Edge a unique offering. The controls can be a bit finicky or too exacting at times (or both), but do not significantly detract from the game.