Hands On with Mirror's Edge

The long awaited demo of Dice's new first person action adventure game, Mirror's Edge has finally hit the playstation network (and Xbox Live a day later). You are probably all aware that this is my most anticipated game of the fall season because of its innovative concept and smooth and satisfying gameplay mechanics. While David was pretty skeptical of the game, he went out and pre-ordered the game after getting some hands on time with it at Tokyo Game Show. So I went ahead and downloaded the demo so that I could give our readers my full impressions and make my own decision as to whether or not this is still my most anticipated game of the fall season.

The first glimpse of the game that the demo shows you is the stylized cutscene that introduces the games story. I'm not exactly sure if this style of cutscene will populate the whole game but it definitely adds another layer of style to an already impressive visual feat. I'm not sure whether or not I would like realistic, in game cut-scenes as opposed to these cartoony (or as Brad would say, eSurance commercial style) but for now, I think suit the game just fine.

The demo begins with a brief training unit to get you used to the controls and let me just say that this is a game that lives or dies by its control scheme. One thing that many people have complained about it is the accuracy and precision that is required when you timing your jumps and calculating your landings. This definitely does hold true because the slightest miscalculation can send you plummeting to the streets below but it doesn't seem like a nuisance at all because the moment you die, your character is immediately started at the last checkpoint. There doesn't seem to be any load times to wait for after a death at all and the checkpoints are plentiful enough to ensure that you will never be repeating giant portions of a level to get to the one part that keeps messing you up. As for controls, there may be a few slight complaints in terms of button mapping because much of the game is actually controlled with the shoulder buttons. Jumping and crouching are accomplished by using the L1 and L2 buttons and wall jumping requires a quick combination of L1 and R1. For the most part however, it works well but it will definitely take a little bit of practice to really get the hang of it.

Like David, my biggest concern from a control standpoint is executing takedowns on enemies. Since most of the game is controlled with the shoulder buttons, switching to face buttons on the fly to take down an enemy is going to make for a challenge. Takedowns are executed using the triangle button and usually result in Faith receiving the enemy's weapon. If you approach the enemy from behind, the takedown only requires a tap of the triangle button but approaching from the front is a bit trickier. Since enemies will be aware of your presence, you have to time the takedown just right. The takedown will require you to wait until the gun turns red for you to tap triangle, otherwise you end up being bitch slapped by the enemy. Luckily there is a slow motion feature that can be activated with square to make this a little easier.

Lastly, I want to comment on the use of "Runner Vision". This feature acts in the way as the golden trail in Fable 2 but requires a little bit more of the players attention. Objects within the environment that can be used to help you maneuver the environment will turn bright red as you approach them. This is an interesting method of leading the player to the final destination. For those who don't want the hint and would like to get through the level using their nothing but their brain have the option of turning this feature off completely. The feature itself helps a lot and does not seem to distract you from the game and suck you out of the experience which is definitely something that could have become a problem.

The demo is impressive and the controls are no longer much of a concern for me. While their will be a bit of a learning curve, I feel that this game will be incredibly satisfying every time you pull off a difficult maneuver. My only real concern now is the takedown mechanics but that too will fade in time i'm sure. I'm still very excited for the game and I can't wait to get my hands on the full version in just under two weeks.

-Nick

P.S.- This is what a Bourne game should have been.