Mirror's Edge is one of the game that I go back and forth on; I love it, I hate it and then I love it again. Under normal conditions, that ought to merit a raised eyebrow and an inquiry as to whether or not the game is of decent quality. In this case, there was so much done right and so much done wrong that it stands as an average game that could have easily been above the mark.
Mirror's Edge is set in a futuristic dystopian society, in which a network of 'runners,' including the main character, Faith, are used as couriers to transmit messages while evading government surveillance. During the first mission in the game following the tutorial, Faith is unusually shot at by the police while trying to deliver a communiqué and is forced to escape and evade in order to secure her safety. It is implied that the police never attack the runners without being provoked and it isn't revealed until later in the game why they are so trigger happy. Faith soon learns that her sister Kate, a police officer, is in danger and follows her police scanner to her location at the office of the city's mayoral candidate, Robert Pope, who'd been murdered with Kate's gun. Faith is then believed to have helped her sister in the homicide of Pope and Kate is taken into custody and Faith is on the run, forced to fight for their innocence.
Players are immersed within the world of Mirror's Edge as they take on the protagonist, Faith, as she is challenged to navigate across a gleaming city by leaping between rooftops, running across walls, and breaking into buildings through ventilation shafts and other discreet means. Mirror's Edge accomplishes this by the use of techniques and movements inspired by the discipline of parkour. Faith's movements are given more attention than anything in the game, conveying strain and physical contact by allowing freedom of movement previously unseen in the first person genre, as stated by the game's senior producer, Owen O'Brien. For example, as Faith's speed builds up while running, the rate at which the camera bobs up and down increases. When a roll is executed, the camera spins with the character. Faith's arms, legs, and torso are prominent and their visibility is used to convey movement and momentum. The character's arms pump and the length of her steps increase with her gait, and her legs cycle and arms flail during long jumps. There are also incidents that can hinder Faith's momentum including sloppily manoeuvring a platform and being shot at by her adversaries.
In gameplay, momentum becomes an asset. The player must attempt to conserve it through fluidity of physical actions, encouraging the creation of chains of moves. If Faith does not have the momentum required to traverse an object, she will fall off or short of it. To assist the player in creating these chains of moves, the game employs a system called "Runner Vision," which emphasises environmental pieces useful for progression. Certain pipes, ramps, and doors are highlighted in red as Faith approaches, allowing the player to instantly recognize paths and escape routes. Another means of assistance to the player is a system called "Reaction Time," a form of bullet time activated by the player, slowing down time and allowing the player to plan and time their next move without losing momentum or tactical advantage.
The game has an interesting and brightly coloured artistic style which is one of the reasons why it differs from other first person perspective video games. It also allows for a wider range of actions—such as sliding under barriers, tumbling and rolling, wall running and manoeuvring—and greater freedom of movement as well. Mirror's Edge has virtually no heads up display aside from an optional reticule in the centre of the screen and one of the few first person games that allows you to look down and see your character, giving you a deeper immersion within the game.
While the game's graphics aren't the best they could be, there isn't much to work with given the game's unique art form. Everything in the game is completely white, aside from some parts including stairwells, elevators, and the occasional piece of furniture. Faith sees objects and items of interest in red and that's basically that when it comes to colour. The surroundings are beautifully done, with skyscrapers and general architecture gleaming clean and bright from the sunlight and the textures on Faith's clothes and the armour of her enemies are well rendered. Instead of computer-rendered or live-action cutscenes, Mirror's Edge uses animated sequences to move its story along.
Sound effects and audio are done quite nicely. Character voice acting is believable, gunshots and foot steps sound solid, and the game's music is quite enjoyable, especially the theme song, 'Still Alive' by Lisa Miskovsky.
Combat plays a small role in the game and includes hand-to-hand as well as using firearms. Mirror's Edge revolves around escaping and evading, so combat is only implemented where it's absolutely necessary. There's combat within every mission, but there's always a way around it. Faith's hand-to-hand combat is generic, but fun and using parkour manoeuvres offer interesting ways to take down your enemies. Faith can also use guns but she's restricted to pistols when manoeuvring. If you're carrying an assault rifle or a shotgun, Faith will be unable to climb anything and her movements are slowed.
Overall, it's a decent game. We were originally supposed to start off with missions that introduce the courier service and ease into the game's story, but it was shortened and we're thrown into it and in lieu of this, the game is significantly shorter than it should have been. However, Mirror's Edge is fun and provides a decent challenge as well as a unique and innovative experience.
Yes, you will see red, but whether or not that is a bad thing is entirely up to you.
It seems that in Season 4, DICE has snuck in a Battlefield 2042 Mirror's Edge Easter egg in the new Flashpoint map.
Ubisoft Massive lead gameplay designer Fredrik Thylander, previously of DICE where he worked on Battlefield and Mirror's Edge, has spoken out about achievements and trophies, arguing that they "have been bad for gaming."
The achievements in Mirror's Edge opened my eyes to a whole other way of approaching the game. Since some of the toughest and most rewarding ones are basically whole levels turned into time trials with very strict time requirements, they force you to become much better at the game - in a way that difficulty levels just don't - and made me appreciate the mechanics that much more (especially the momentum-based running and platforming).
They actually made the game better for those like me who really enjoyed the game but wanted more of it, basically adding a new level of difficulty that took a long time to master/overcome. It added some extra longevity to a very short game.
He says "it eats resources that could have made the game better". I'm curious what he thinks the time he spent designing the achievements for the game would've been better spent on, because I expect bang for buck-wise achievements are a pretty efficient way of adding value to a game for the people who end up loving it.
I kinda see his point but I also see your point.
I've been trying to remember what games over the years have had their own trophies inside the game before trophies and such were a thing and all I can think of is the star ocean series
I think his point, though not elucidated upon because of Twitter limitations, is not that they can be bad but that they are used improperly to extend gameplay rather than reward actions.
Harvest Moon: Magical Melody on the GCN did.
In fact it actually built the game around it.
I am very OCD about playing games that I can platinum, in that sense I probably avoided playing games that I knew I would be unable to 100% complete.
I do think there are other people like me and also feel there should be an option for you to individually deactivate getting trophies on specific games, just so you play them and they do not go to your account.
I don't know. I used to think Achievements / Trophies were ruining games at first but then I saw the positive, if you totally love a game then they would offer you replay value by going after the last achievements to 100% the game. It made you explore every last bit of the game to achieve this and sometimes pushed you into areas or scenarios you probably might have missed.
It was a blast to get them on Oblivion / Skyrim, Fallout, Witcher, God of War, Elden Ring etc
Don't get me wrong, I do think there's achievements which are annoying, the ones where you need to find all collectibles which end up being missable AND are like trying to find a needle in a haystack are a kick to the balls, you know the majority of us are just going to use a guide to find them so what's the point.
Kind of a shame Nintendo haven't gotten a full system in place, they are so behind.
Nintendo seem to either be ahead of their time by years
or behind by 10 years
no in between
I enjoy having something to go for and feeling accomplished when doing something hard. I just hate it when achievements are based on things you can't really control. Like when something is for MP and the MP is just dead.
I used to be a hardcore achievement hunter back in the day, but I couldn't care less nowadays. I just want to play games the way I actually want to play them, and don't care to waste my time just to get a little pop-up.
I envy you sir. I just gotta have every single achievement whenever I play a game. On my Steam profile I have an 83% completion rate out of 35 games, and my OCD is telling me to keep upping that percentage higher.
Yeah. Back then, though I'm not sure what my actual completion rate was, I was mainly an Xbox player. I had close to 80k gamer score during the 360 days.
It just doesn't excite me anymore. I have less than 20% completion on my Steam account, though I have a pretty asinine amount of games there at the same time.
But I don't really bother with any of this anymore. If there's an interesting achievement I might aim for it just because I find it fun, but usually I just get that pop-up, say "cool" and continue with the game.
Never been a fan of achievements. I just want to play the game however it may present itself to me, there's an overflow of achievements to seek in real life lol
Great for those that enjoy them though, much respect to the platinum hunters, it ain't easy lol
The 2000s was a great decade for a lot of brilliant video games. Here are the ten best games of the 2000s that you may not have played.
You know usually when someone says "you may have missed" it's games that were lesser known, hidden gems, underrated games. These are all super high profile games that sold extremely well.
You know the 2000s is 20 years ago too? Maybe, just maybe this wasn’t an article targeted to 30+ gamers? Still says at the very beginning of the title “THE BEST GAMES you may have missed”. Regardless of how well they sold there’s tons of gamers who haven’t touched these older well known games lol.
It's games you "may have missed", insinuating you were around and gaming in the 2000's and were there to miss them. If it was aimed at everyone else then they missed literally everything, not just the top games.
The original commenter is right, this is a badly written article at best pointless at worst.
Besides only being able to miss it if you were around during that time..if your point stands then this is a horrible list. Tons of better games people may have missed
Oh yeah thanks for reminding me I totally forgot they were doing it. Also what the hell happened to Kingpin: Reloaded? On Steam coming soon and nohting from the dev.
Yeah, I was just going to say. It's interesting seeing them back behind the series. Max Payne 3 was amazing, but then Rockstar just sat on the IP.
Well, they sit on virtually anything that isn't GTA and Red Dead now.
What is this list? These are all hugely popular games. I was expecting games like Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, Advent Rising, Arx Fatalis, etc.
the title didn’t say lesser known titles from the 2000s. This is 20 years ago now lol. Big assumption this list was made for older gamers.
I've only played 3 on that list. Part of me feels bad about how little I used all the consoles I've owned as a kid. One bright side is, there's over 30 years of games to experience for the first time.
the game definitely deserves a sequel, the time trial dlc is worth a mention too, its really cool