Mirror's Edge PC

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 13th January 2009
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Gameplay

Unbottling that anger though is a risky and tricky business in Mirror’s Edge, especially since Faith isn’t exactly the most buff and beefy person you’ve ever seen, but most young female athletes aren’t exactly rippling beefcakes anyway.

Instead, Faith’s attempts to prove her sisters innocence and uncover the conspiracy behind the cover-up is based around her ability to travel quickly and quietly across the ceilings of the city.

In order to make Faith’s movements feel as quick, simple and slick as possible though, DICE has totally streamlined the controls for the game. There are only a few controls, all of which are context-sensitive. There’s forwards, backward and strafing, then there’s jump and crouch.

True, for an FPS those are the standard controls, but the key here is that Mirror’s Edge is more of a platformer than a shooter. You have to judge it by the standards of Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider, not Half-Life and Doom.

Mirror's Edge PC Mirror's Edge PC - Gameplay

It’s the context-sensitive nature of the controls that really makes the game feel fluid though, turning jumping into wall-running, vaulting or hopping depending on where you are and what you’re moving towards. Likewise crouching becomes the action for dropping, ducking, rolling and pulling your legs up mid-jump.

Combat has likewise been boiled down to just one context-sensitive button. Clicking the left mouse button will unleash a punch, a stomp, a flying kick or a sliding tackle depending on when you press it.

With such a simple array of controls the level design is obviously hugely important in Mirror’s Edge because boring and restricted levels would turn the controls on their head and make players feel mostly redundant. That’s why DICE has made sure to make the levels in Mirror’s Edge mainly based around large, spawling rooftops and construction sites. There are indoor sections, but they’re mainly used for chase sequences and puzzles.

Unfortunately though, the open-ness of the levels isn’t all that it’s been hyped up to be. Are the levels big? Yes. Are there multiple different paths through them? No, not ones that are substantially different anyway. There are a few shortcuts you can take, but the vast majority of the adrenaline-laced action is kept firmly on rails.

Mirror's Edge PC Mirror's Edge PC - Gameplay

DICE has at least made the most of this linear structure though, building in scripted events and puzzles that make the most of what Faith can do without ever slowing her down. There are some great moments that are built into your first play of Mirror’s Edge – the type of thing that can make you clench your buttocks harder than a baby tasting its first lemon.

That time when you’re being chased through a construction site for example and you’re forced to sprint up the arm of a crane like Daniel Craig’s stuntman. There, at a dizzying height above the ground, you have leap blindly into the unknown before you get shot down.

On our first run at that particular level time seemed to slow down for us, like we were moving through honey. When we finally did land in a rolling finish on the opposite crane our palms were sweatier than a nervous pimp in the back of a squad car as it races off a cliff and into a volcano full of angry, flame-resisted and half-starved piranha-poodles (Ed – Um..?).

As we mentioned before though, a lot of that excitement comes from the graphical style of the game, which is a perfect blend of form and function. The way motion blur kicks in at high speed, the way the glare and bloom makes the game more challenging by blurring the edges of jumps, the way PhysX is used to give the world a fourth dimension…well, let’s just say it warrants a closer look.

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