Spring Break
'Mirror's Edge' has sharper-than-glass images
Travis Moore
Issue date: 11/20/08 Section: Focus
It's lamentable, criminal even, that these moments are rare. In order to pad out the experience, "Mirror's Edge" frequently yanks you out of the moment and forces you to wait in elevators (thinly veiled loading screens), or shoves a bunch of gun-toting military goons (perfect marksmen, all of them) in your face, or conjures up some other hackneyed distraction that stops you dead in your tracks. None of these segments are unplayably awful, but for a game whose purest, most original thrills lie in its undeterred speed and immersive athleticism, Faith takes the elevator an awful lot.
There would be less to complain about if the combat system worked properly, but it manages not to. Faith is supposed to be able to disarm anyone with a weapon and use it against them with a timed button-press, but it's clunky in action. So clunky, in fact, that most altercations feel decided on luck. Of course, you can choose to run from foes, but unless you're going for a real challenge, you'll have to shoot somebody eventually. And it feels so wrong, especially when running feels so right.
And that's the biggest problem with "Mirror's Edge": it can't leave well enough alone. By tacking on some half-baked combat and awkward interruptions, its exhilarating parkour mechanic never feels fully explored. It would have been amazing if the game's challenges were based more strongly on the element that makes it fun in the first place: stringing together and pulling off unbelievable stunts. Instead, "Mirror's Edge" is best in bursts that don't come about often enough and are over far too quickly.
It's a real buzzkill to report that "Mirror's Edge" is not the neon scream of gaming innovation we were hoping it would be, but for all its growing pains there is plenty of game here, and it's plenty of something that must be played. It's a safe rent - you could beat it in a day (although time trials are sure to keep fans hooked), but if you do choose to take that leap of faith ("Aha!" you say) and add "Mirror's Edge" to your collection, don't worry about the fall: you'll find something there to hang on to.
There would be less to complain about if the combat system worked properly, but it manages not to. Faith is supposed to be able to disarm anyone with a weapon and use it against them with a timed button-press, but it's clunky in action. So clunky, in fact, that most altercations feel decided on luck. Of course, you can choose to run from foes, but unless you're going for a real challenge, you'll have to shoot somebody eventually. And it feels so wrong, especially when running feels so right.
And that's the biggest problem with "Mirror's Edge": it can't leave well enough alone. By tacking on some half-baked combat and awkward interruptions, its exhilarating parkour mechanic never feels fully explored. It would have been amazing if the game's challenges were based more strongly on the element that makes it fun in the first place: stringing together and pulling off unbelievable stunts. Instead, "Mirror's Edge" is best in bursts that don't come about often enough and are over far too quickly.
It's a real buzzkill to report that "Mirror's Edge" is not the neon scream of gaming innovation we were hoping it would be, but for all its growing pains there is plenty of game here, and it's plenty of something that must be played. It's a safe rent - you could beat it in a day (although time trials are sure to keep fans hooked), but if you do choose to take that leap of faith ("Aha!" you say) and add "Mirror's Edge" to your collection, don't worry about the fall: you'll find something there to hang on to.
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