Mirror's Edge is one of those rare games that doesn't come around that often, one that totally changes a genre or potentially creates a new one, and I have to say you'll be pleasantly surprised with the end result.
Mirror's Edge has you playing as Faith, a runner, who transports sensitive information across a totalitarian-like cityscape where all information is closely monitored. For the most part life goes on as usual and the runners are never really bothered... that is, until Faith's sister Kate is framed for a murder which, throughout the game, reveals a much broader plot at hand.
Let's be up-front here, Mirror's Edge straight up delivers on every possible level, it's got the looks, the gameplay and everything in-between. So, let's get started, shall we?
Graphics: Quite possibly the most beautiful game to come out certainly this year and perhaps in a very long time. The visuals in Mirror's Edge are stunning. Whether you're jetting across rooftops or running underground, you just can't beat the look. Pretty much the entire game seems very sanitized, you'll see very little dirt and grit, a refreshing change from your typical FPS. As you progress, you'll be drawn in by the vibrant colors whether it be through the rooftops or as you beat your way through the buildings themselves, things are just beautiful. Character models are highly detailed and yes, you can look at your own legs/feet which adds to the aspect of immersion. Cutscenes are done from a highly stylized cell-shaded point of view and those character cutscenes actually run off of the in-game engine.
Gameplay: This is what sets Mirror's Edge apart from pretty much every other game in history, few come close to capturing this kid of visceral experience. The majority of Mirror's Edge is spent running, yes, you read right, running. As you run, you gain momentum which causes Faith to move much quicker as you have the ability vault over obstacles and slide under others. One uniqie aspect of the free-running, parkour style is the ability to actually perform the type of moves that you'll often see free-runners perform.
When jumping from a high point, you have the choice of either landing hard and taking some damage, or hitting L2 just before the point-of-impact which will cause Faith to roll, taking no damage and adding to your momentum. You'll also have the ability to wall-run, hop back and forth between walls and just create some very fun and very stylish physical maneuvers. It's also quite neat how when you're hanging from a bar, you have the abilty to gain momentum by swinging, add to that the use of SixAxis controls to balance yourself as you walk across pipes, this can be turned off if you so choose. Throughout the game you'll encounter items and obstacles which turn red indicating that they're able to be used to either get to difficult areas or progress through the game, this is called runner vision and you have the ability to turn this off as well.
The combat is great without being overly complex or complicated. You can punch, kick, jump punch, jump kick or slide kick. Along with that, you can disarm and incapacitate an opponent by hitting the Triangle button at just the right moment when they try to strike you and their weapon turns red, this gets tougher to do as the game progresses and the cops and enemies get tougher. Even though I think the combat is fun and fresh, it's not the focal point so you can choose to fight only when you need to and even finish the game without shooting anyone, or go though the game "guns a' blazin'". However, carrying a weapon cause Faith to move slower and you'll probably just want to discard it. I think the game's difficulty is just right. This game can get tough and may require planning before entering an area with enemies or just looking for a route to progress through a given area. The gameplay is a blast and will really challenge the more skilled gamers out there.
Along with the single player campaign comes a speed run and time trial mode in which you can compete to beat other player's online times and race their record-setting ghosts. This can get pretty addictive as you race to own the leader boards
Sound: If you're like me, you'll absolutely love the serene, yet upbeat soundtrack, it's truly wonderful. Most of the time you'll be listening to the level's own, distinct ambient soundtrack with music in the background and the temp will pick-up once you hit either a puzzle (set of really tough obstacles) or you run into some enemies. The music is such an integral part of the game, that I'm sure many will appreciate the way it's used in the overall presentation. The voice-acting is fairly solid with most characters having a relaxed feel to their voices and rarely getting excited, although that does change the further you get.
Overall: This game is amazing. If you haven't picked it up, go and do that NOW, you won't regret it. If for any reason you're not convinced the parkour style free-running is an absolute rush, there is a demo in the PS Store which let's you play the entire first prologue level found in the game.
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.
Mirror's Edge is awesome.