Well, that didn’t last long.
This one phrase describes every good feeling I had about Mirror’s Edge. Over and over, the game was determined to beat every last scrap of enjoyment out of me. As I played, the feelings of sheer visceral glee I experienced in the first level were replaced by frustration. Nearly every aspect of the game’s design has fundamental issues that are impossible to overlook. The levels are obtusely constructed and infuriatingly paced, the combat is awkward and far too difficult for its own good, and the story is incomplete, incomprehensible, and banal. Perhaps worst of all is that the best things this game does can all be seen in the demo, and you will miss nothing by not seeing the rest.
The biggest problem with this game is how, given its remarkable advances in creating a realistic first-person perspective, it is completely ruined by having some of the most insipid, poorly-designed levels I’ve ever seen. Each stage beyond the first has numerous areas of brutal difficulty that bring the game to a dead stop. Whether it be a giant room with no apparent exit filled with a dozen armed guards at a distance or a cramped hallway with a jumping puzzle whose solution is so needlessly complex it takes thirty minutes to get through, you will fail. And fail. And fail. Honestly, the environments are so chock-full of confusing, rigidly-linear paths, I’m surprised anyone playtested this game at all.
Yep, I’m dead again.
I can’t think of a better way to illustrate the broken thinking behind the design than by examining the function of the circle button. Most of the time, it will snap your view to the current objective in the environment. Sounds good, except this almost always means tilting your head back far enough to break your spine, and then only to point out a door at the very top of the gigantic room you’re in. Thanks, game. How about showing me where to begin climbing, where to go first, instead of where I’ll end up twenty jumps from now? Better yet, why not take a look at, say, any game from Valve and see how they lead players to their destination using only the environment? I hear they’re good at that. But no, instead you’re going to create areas that make absolutely no sense, which require constant and illogical double-backing to get through, and whose only “alternate” paths lead to a cheap death. Your pathetic where-do-I-go-alizer button is merely the joke of some giggling programmer, thinking of all the times I’ll press it hoping it might actually help me. Screw you, giggling programmer.
Thinking back, the thing that really drew me in to this game was its aesthetic. Just from the first trailer, I was entranced with the possibilities of how the developers would take me through this visually distinctive world. The story trailer whetted my appetite further. Would I be meeting up with my clients to transport their sensitive information across a vast, detailed city? Crisscross my way through danger, just in time to deliver my charge? End up in a web of political intrigue, fighting for the freedom of information? No, actually. None of the above.
Duhhhhhhhhhhh…
What we do get is a yawn-inducing murder “mystery”, told entirely between first-person conversations and animated cutscenes. The in-engine bits work just fine, but the animated portions are startlingly awful, apparently rendered in Flash and whose quality makes Adult Swim cartoons look like classic hand-drawn Disney. Also, like 99% of videogame stories, Mirror’s Edge commits the carnal sin of beginning in medias res and then promptly forgets to explain anything about who you are or what you’re doing. This results in the player being expected to fill in the gaps for himself. Since absolutely nothing of interest happens (apart from the most unlikely and ridiculous “confrontation” I’ve seen in years) why should I bother? The answer is that I shouldn’t. And neither should you.
About the only people I think this game will appeal to are masochists and speed-runners, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The game has a lot of built-in functionality for just that purpose, which I’m sure is already being used by gaming savants to set records I could never come close to beating. Personally, I can’t stand needless trial-and-error gameplay, especially when it stems from bad game design. Unfortunately, that’s all Mirror’s Edge is. So, if you want something to kick your ass, that always makes things as difficult as possible, that outright hates you, you need look no further. For those of us who prefer to play games, stay far away from Mirror’s Edge.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:11 am
Damn. Well, I can still pick it up to practice my speed-running regimen… virtually.