Mirror's Edge

Parkour

I remember watching an old friend of mine play Mirror's Edge. I was barely familiar (and still am barely) with parkour, but it was obvious that this game was inspired by parkour. I would never perform any of those death defying stunts. So, I'll have to settle for doing them in a video game. I want to experience the rush if jumping from one building to the next, but I also don't want to experience coming close to dying. Playing a video game instead is a safe compromise. It is indeed quite fun jumping over barriers, sliding under tight spots, jumping from one building to another, vaulting over fences, and scrambling up ledges. Stringing all of that together is what makes for exciting gameplay. Most importantly, I won't actually die if I screw up, which happens frequently.

Simple Story, Simple Objective

The story is simple, but interesting. You are Faith, a "runner". A tyrannical government is in place and your job is to relay information to clients that are opposed to this regime. You do this by using those parkour moves to navigate from one client to another; all while dodging the police. A political candidate that is running for office that is sympathetic to these clients is murdered and your sister is being framed for it. It is up to you to unravel the conspiracy and rescue your sister from certain capital punishment. It's a plot that is not at all out of place in a typical action movie. There's a few twist and turns to keep it from being totally predictable and engaging, even if they're a bit contrived.

Clean Visuals

The visuals of Mirror Edge are very minimalist, and yet, very attractive. It's basically white, grey, black, and red; mostly white. Yet, with this minimal set of colors, the art direction, the design of the city, the characters, and the setting is created to be appealing to the eyes. None of it is jarring or unpleasant. It actually enhances the gameplay by painting traversable objects with a disctinct shade of red. It also hints at how this beautiful city of glass is actually belying its repressive conditions.

Stylish Movement

There are two Mirror's Edge games. The first one and its sequel, Catalyst. The first one is straight up move from the beginning of the level to the end as quickly as possible using your parkour skills. The movement is fluid and even awe inspiring when you start stringing a series of movements and keep up the pace. In many instances, getting from one location to the next is just a matter of performing this string of stylish movements. In other instances, figuring out how to get to your destination is almost a puzzle to solve unto itself. You can hit a key or button to get Faith to face the direction of the destination, but you must figure out how to get there. You must do this while evading the police and before reinforcements arrive and kill you. It creates this arcade feeling where you have to beat the level before an alotted time while dodging bad guys. It's an elevated sense of urgency that compliments the gameplay so well. The only real complaint is the combat. It's clunky as hell. Granted, you really are supposed to avoid combat entirely and get to your destination without getting into fights. However, there is one level where you have to fight a boss and it stinks. Other than that, you will get an adrenaline rush dashing through the environments with speed and style.

Catalyst

The second game is actually disappointing. It was released during the open world craze of the 2010s (No doubt launched by Skyrim). So they made an open world Mirror's Edge game. It's definitely the type of game that doesn't need to be open world. Just like many an open world game, you navigate to a certain person and they will give you a quest. Then you must perform the errands indicated by said person. Usually, it involves navigating from one location on the map to another in the fastest, most efficient, and coolest way possible. Every now and then, you will have a time limit. It completely removes that sense of urgency the first one had. Most of the quests really are just boring errands consisting of delivering a package or disrupting some electronic gizmo. The main quest does contain the sense of rapidly moving to a target location in order to uncover a conspiracy. However, backtracking through the same section of the map dulls the mystery somewhat. I can't really explain why that is. Maybe because the linear design in the first meant having to handcraft each and every level individually. Where as in Catalyst, well, it's the same glass city region. Eventually, I grew weary of it. I don't think I even made it halfway. I grew irritated at another mandatory combat section. No, thanks.

Some Improvements, Some Annoyances

It must be said though: the movement and combat is better in the second. It just feels a tad more fluid and you get to unlock a few more gadgets such as a line-pull to help you breeze through the city faster. The combat is improved, but it still sucks. It's annoying when they lock you in and force you to fight armed guards. That's totally not the point of the game! The runner vision reveals way more about what to do than in the first; literally providing directions and which objects to traverse. On one hand, it makes easier to maintain your momentum and keep moving forward. On the other hand, it does take away some of that puzzle element in trying to figure out how to reach your objective.

Destination Reached

I obviously prefer the first game. The arcade style gameplay is just much more appropriate for this style. The open world style just doesn't feel right. Defintely play the first. The second one might still be fun, but it's just not for me. It's just not as good. It's worth a try and perhaps you'll find it to your liking. A good thing about the first one is that you can beat the story in just a few hours if you get good. Hell, the game encourages you to improve your virtual parkour skills by offering speed running modes.