Mirror's Edge: Reviewing the Experience

Mirror's Edge is an awesome game.  However, it is not for everyone.  It is frustrating, challenging and if you are the type that gets motion sickness or is afraid of heights..... you may want to avoid it.  Which is unfortunate, because it really is a fun game to play.

Numerous reviews have gone into great detail about the graphics, sound, etc and there's a demo available for download, so I'm not going to talk much about those.

The core of the gameplay is running.  You are almost constantly on the move.  The controls handle beautifully and with just a short tutorial, you can learn all of the tricks of the trade to get you going.  You'll start out botching simple jumps and wall runs, failing disarms and falling to your death numerous times..... but soon you'll start to learn and master the techniques and by the time you get through the game, you'll be pulling off amazing acrobatics with ease and wonder how you had so much trouble with some of the moves.

The game flows beautifully from level to level, rooftop to subway, vents to open environments.  Everything blends well together and the use of color in the game gives subtle clues (and sometimes in your face clues) about what you should be doing and where you should be going.  There are few times where you'll feel lost and when you do, it's typically a matter of using some of the moves that you had avoided up to that point.

The story is fairly typical and obvious, maybe a little too short..... but it's not bad and it drives you along.  It would've been nice to see more work done fleshing out the characters and how they became involved, but it's not bad.  The ending left a little to be desired and feels almost incomplete.... though not as bad as some other recent titles (such as Prince of Persia, Assassin's Creed, etc).

The story falls a little short, especially considering it is predominantly a single player experience.  Some reviews clocked in at only 4-6 hours.  However, that seems a bit optimistic to me and I can only assume they were playing through on easy without going for anything extra other than completion.  For me, it's hard to say how long my first playthrough took.  It was probably closer to 8-10 hours.  That was playing on Normal difficulty trying for the "Test of Faith" achievement (don't shoot enemies).  Even still, I've already begun a second playthrough on Hard and I anticipate that it will take about 8-10 more hours. 

If you need a break from the story, Time Trials are a great way to practice moves and compete against friends.  Being able to load a ghost of friends or top leaderboard times is a great feature.  It would've been nice to see a full fledged race multiplayer mode, but the leaderboards are a good alternative.

Ultimately I found the game frustrating, but in a good way.  I had to take many breaks between sections because it got a bit too frustrating or instense.  When you are running, jumping and sliding around the environment with heavily armed guards shooting at you, the adrenaline builds up and it can become a bit much to handle.  It's similiar to the feeling I had when playing through Call of Duty's campaign and trying to just plain survive a section.

It's disapointing that the game hasn't done well in sales.  It really is a unique title that is worth playing.  If nothing else, everyone should at least rent the game and give it a try.  Hopefully EA/Dice will follow-up with a sequel or at least support it with additional DLC (aside from the first pack announced for 1/29/09).  Some additional story related missions would be a great addition.

So if you're on the fence about this one.... rent it.... give it a try.  If you really don't want to rent it.... download the demo, you have nothing to lose.  The demo gives a good idea of what the gameplay is like, but doesn't really do the game justice as far as intensity and environment diversity.  You may find yourself too frustrated to get through it, but it's worth it when you do.  If you can find it for $30, it's definitely worth picking up (in my opinion).  For $60, it's hit or miss depending on your preferences.