The second issue of the magazine has only just hit the news stands and there’s already a drastic civil war being waged inside the dungeons of Another Castle. A certain Samir reviewed DICE’s recent first-person platformer for Issue 2 awarding it two stars, essentially pointing out that whilst Mirror’s Edge is a good game, the repetitious sound of breaking bones as you plummet 40-floors to your death and the designers’ decision to make combat mandatory later on in the game made for an experience too frustrating to be worthy of glowing praise.

We’re one big happy family here at AC, and whilst we don’t make it general policy to beat down each other’s opinions (in fact, I’m breaking Infuriating Gamer Habit #2 just by writing this…), our fellow writer’s view has caused a stir. Placards are being constructed as I type. Megaphones have been bought and eggs are being left to rot all in preparation of a protest outside of his house.

Mirror’s Edge has quickly been dubbed a “Marmite” game, and the polarised views in our office are no exception. Since the review copy was submitted, myself and Mike have both slipped into Faith’s camel-toe shoes and been thoroughly captivated. I can only speak for myself obviously, but I have played nothing quite like Mirror’s Edge, ever. It’s fresh, it’s different and it succeeds where others have failed. When Gordon Freeman was forced into platforming across the planes of Xen at the end of the first Half-Life, the anguish of screaming gamers could be heard across the globe. In a peculiar bid to presumably offer light relief from the endless shooting, one of the most revered games ever created managed to fail miserably at implementing platforming.

In general, platforming in first-person shooters has always been regarded as a no-no; it’s like pairing up De Niro and Pacino after Heat – a fucking disaster. FPS games traditionally struggled with platforming because they’re usually designed from the ground-up so that strafing, running and shooting all feel fluid. At most, you’re usually only required to jump over a few crates and then it’s back on with the running and gunning. Estimating distances you can or can’t jump is frustratingly difficult because you’re hampered by your point of view. In a third-person game you can see precisely where you are in space, but you can’t even see most first-person character’s legs or feet. There are exceptions to every rule, of course. One of my favourite games ever, Quake 3 mod: Urban Terror combines platforming elements and frantically fast twitch-shooting to great effect, but it’s limited in its scope. Mainstream games especially though haven’t fared well in bringing the genres together.

Which is where Mirror’s Edge comes in. From the moment you slip into those shoes, it feels natural. You know when you’re going to make a jump, before you’ve actually pressed the jump button. Hallelujah! But how come it works so well? Well, Mirror’s Edge allows for failure, you see. In most first-person shooters, succeeding when jumping means landing feet first on the opposite platform. But in Mirror’s Edge, Faith’s arms aren’t just a cradle to hold a shotgun or some other weapon – they can actually interact with the environment. If your feet fall short of a ledge, Faith has an ability like no other star in a first-person shooter before her: she can actually grab onto things and pull herself up. For me, this is Mirror’s Edge’s biggest success. It’s only a subtle adjustment but one so effortlessly executed it makes you wonder why the two genres haven’t been brought together like this before.

Look deeper, past Mirror’s Edge’s down-with-da-kidz obsession with free-running and minimalist, post-modern aesthetics and you find a very traditional, almost retro game. You have to get to the end of each level without dying. That’s about all you need to do. Sure, you can collect a few briefcases along the way, but the primary objective is: move forwards and jump over things. That’s closer to the original Mario Bros than Super Mario Galaxy. There’s no need to collect stars to unlock new worlds, no need to upgrade your powers and no need to do side missions. Mirror’s Edge is as linear as the best retro platformers and as linear as the oldest and goldest first-person shooters like Doom and Quake. And this makes it all the more refreshing in a world of epic, 40-hour plus blockbusters.

As Samir so succinctly put it: Mirror’s Edge is all about the flow. It’s about feeling the wind whoosh past you as you sprint away from your pursuers. You draw breath with every leap and bound. Turn up the bass on your sound system and you can practically feel the bullets punching holes in the walls inches behind you as you hop from rooftop-to-rooftop. Even on your first run through Mirror’s Edge makes you feel like a pro free-runner. Despite not knowing where to go, you sprint on anyway, taking your chances to go left instead of right, taking the risk to jump gaps confident that you won’t fall to your death – all at breakneck speeds. It makes you feel liberated precisely because it’s so linear. You forget about making sure you see every single pixel the designers’ have lovingly crafted, and you just get on with it. And as a result you’ll most likely polish it off in a few sittings. Both myself and Mike polished it off in three goes – a testament to just how addictive Mirror’s Edge is. Eight hours of gameplay doesn’t make a huge game, but like Portal, when the substance is this delectable you’re going to abuse it.

Frustration was one of Samir’s main criticisms, but somehow it rarely threatened to spoil the experience for me. The times I plummeted to my death, the loading screen was so brief I didn’t care when it took four or five attempts pass the offending obstacle. I even enjoyed the combat in the game despite it being a common criticism levelled at Mirror’s Edge, not just by Samir. I adored the feeling of sliding towards an enemy, kicking him in the gonads before slamming his face into my knee, then stealing his weapon and gunning down his cohorts. Once the bodies hit the floor I’d casually toss my newly acquired machine-gun aside and I was off again, back in full flight, back on auto-pilot. Perhaps because I was playing the game on PC using mouse and keyboard the combat actually became enjoyable, but for the most part the combat sections were a welcome addition to running, running, running.

I concede: Mirror’s Edge is not perfect. On rare occasions the jumping mechanics don’t seem to register. Sometimes, clinging onto a pipe, you turn and press jump and instead of leaping to the nearby ledge Faith limply falls off the pipe into the abyss below. On these occasions Mirror’s Edge irritates because you know what you’re doing is right, instead something under the hood is plainly failing to register. More detrimental for me though is the completely throwaway plot. I haven’t actually described it till now, not because the game’s been out for ages and everyone knows roughly what Mirror’s Edge is about anyway, but because I myself don’t actually know. Even after completing the sodding thing. I think, basically, er… there’s some kind of corruption in some massive corporation and Faith becomes entwined in the whole affair after her sister is implicated. Thus, the plot twists and turns as predictably as most of the summer blockbusters do that Mirror’s Edge aspires to mimic. Thankfully it doesn’t really detract from the experience either, but it’s something DICE needs to build upon when the inevitable sequel eventually rears Faith’s Eurasian face once again.

But these are minor quibbles. Mirror’s Edge is one of the most refreshing games I’ve played in a while, probably since Portal. Like Valve’s sumptuous slice of gaming heaven, Mirror’s Edge gives the player a small set of moves and a simple control scheme and presents him/her with a variety of finely crafted levels each incrementally tweaked so that the challenges never get old. It’s pure, old-fashioned gaming given a post-modern twist and a lick of primary coloured paint. You want to keep going and you constantly lust for just one more go. Mirror’s Edge symbolises EA’s changing perspective on videogames development: it’s brave, it’s risky, it’s innovative, it’s empowering and it most definitely is awesome.

Tags: DICE, EA, Mirror's Edge
Categories: Another Look, Comment, Issue 2

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