Reflections...

Mirror’s Edge attempts to establish a new subgenre, the first person parkour. If you’re not familiar with parkour it’s the martial art of jumping from rooftop to rooftop and overcoming obstacles as seen in the opening to Casino Royale. If you still don’t know what I’m talking about head over to youtube and become enlightened.

Now I know what you’re thinking jumping from place to place has been a game staple since before Mario. And acrobatics was a skill in Ultima Underworld back in ‘92. But there really hasn’t been a game that focused this intently on the concept nor with the controls dedicated to it. In Mirror’s Edge you play a 20 something female runner in a near future glossy clean fascist police city state. A runner is the equivalent to a bike messenger sans bike dedicated to delivering packages presumably for some undefined underground movement or mischievous criminal intent. To do so you take to the thieves’ highway jumping from rooftop to rooftop tarzaning through the urban jungle.

Given that setup you would expect the plot to center around delivering messages or missions for the underground movement. Instead it’s a gumshoe plot to clear your cop sister who has gotten herself framed for the murder of a prominent citizen. You literally run around investigating. The story is nearly entirely revealed through cut scenes that set up the missions. In general the plot line is weak and cliché. Fortunately that doesn’t seem to matter too much. I would have liked something richer but I enjoyed the parkour action enough to be able to ignore it.

The graphics have a clean corporate look. The city itself is a glossy white. Even the sewers are grunge free. (Who knew big brother cleaned so well?) The background music is light techno. Your only guide is runner’s vision which highlights in red the nearby ledges, pipes, beams, ducts, etc form which you can leap, dangle and/or tumble from. In general accessible surfaces appear in primary colors subtly pointing you in the right direction. You can also press a hint button that turns you to face your destination.

The levels are generally linear, though there are different paths to get from place to place. A riskier jump or an advanced wall run flip jump combo might get you there quicker but there’s usually a slower safer easier way. The game is the most fun when you’re able to string together moves. You actually run quicker building up momentum as you successfully overcome obstacles. The paradox here is you kind of need to have some foreknowledge of where you’re supposed to go in order to be most successful at doing that. Often I slowly limped through levels feeling like there must be a better way. Occasionally, I got to a point where I couldn’t quite figure out where I was supposed to go next presenting a challenge best described as an acrobatic puzzle. There are also situations that to get past require a tricky maneuver or two and thus many attempts to get past but I never felt overly frustrated. It helped that the load times are quick and the autosaves frequent.

Trespassing rooftops, utility tunnels and office complexes will get you shot at by the police/security guards with various weapons. You can defend yourself with some hand to hand combat skills, but as the training mission explains and is further highlighted by load screen hints you’re meant to flee not fight. There are opportune moments when attacking a guard where his gun will highlight red and a well timed button mash will execute a ninjitsu gun grab take down. While packing heat you’re not nearly as speedy and can only fire a handful of shots before running out of ammo. In early missions it’s clearly in your best interest to run. The later levels devolve into rooms of machine gun toting guards. You don’t get much ammo per gun but you do get enough to kill another guard and take their gun. Acrobatically navigating office labyrinths in search of roof access is fun, but doing so while eating lead is aggravating. I felt my character’s psychotic break as my play style changed from petty messenger crook to a kill a thousand save one mass murdering cop killa (maybe I shouldn’t have watched Wanted same week I played this).

The parkour action feels like a roller coaster, but it’s a short ride. Each level’s square footage is big but since much is frantic running you cover the distance quickly. There are only nine levels each requiring about an hour of play. While it is short, it doesn’t feel as though the game was rushed or unduly cut as the final product is well polished and bug free. It does include time trials and speed runs which are kind of fun, but I’ve never been that impressed with that kind of extra feature. I don’t want to knock it too hard for being short as it’s a fun short that avoids the pitfall of repetition.

If the developers had kept to free running action instead of combat this would have been a much better game. If they introduced stealth then it would be a modern more acrobatic Thief and I would have loved it. Instead, they seemed to hedge their bet with classic shooter action within a plot framework where it clearly does not belong. It is a game worth playing, especially if you don’t have a lot of time for games. I hope if they make a sequel they start the plot from scratch, limit the guns and only allow the player to perform non-lethal take downs.

Rating: B-