Despite being 8 years ago, 2008 only seems like yesterday and it wasa brilliant year for gaming. With amazing titles such as Fallout 3,Dead Space and Gears of War 2 all sharing the holiday season alongwith many many more, it was a crowded scene to say the least. It'sunderstandable then that a cult classic was produced during that timeby a neglectful EA and a pre-Battlefield 3 DICE. Yes I am of coursereferring to Mirrors Edge, a first person free-running action gamewhere you control Faith Connors as she unravels a mystery behind apolitical killing in a utopian future. It was a simply fantasticgame, even if it didn't actually have a huge amount going for it. Itwas disastrously short, the story was wasn't exactly spectacular andthe gameplay was pretty basic though extremely enjoyable nonetheless.So why did it garner such a passionate cult following? Because of thefantastic potential the IP held, all it would take was a half decentdevelopment period and a reasonable amount of funding from EA to havea brilliant and completely unique game.
Well 8 years have indeed passed and here is a sentence I thought Iwould never be able to write. There is a new Mirrors Edge game, andit is fantastic.
Forget everything you know about the Mirrors Edge story becausecatalyst wipes the slate clean. After having witnessed the murder ofher parents and sister at the hands of Gabriel Kruger as a youngchild, Faith Connors was taken in by an underground organisation thatcall themselves runners. Parkour experts that traverse the city ofGlass, couriers for those who do not want the Kruger Security(K-Sec), the city's big brother, knowing their secrets.
After being released from juvenile detention, Faith is re-initiatedinto the runners and has gained somewhat of a bad reputation for theactions that landed her in the hands of K-Sec. Determined to shakethis image, she runs a particularly dangerous job to earn enoughmoney to pay off a debt. In the process however Faith obtains a datadrive with classified K-Sec information on something calledReflection.
As Faith becomes a fugitive from K-Sec, landing the runners in dangertoo, a plot to incite a revolution begins brewing with a terroristorganisation called Black November who plan to use the data onreflection to cripple K-Sec's influence on the citizens of Glass.
It's a much less original story than the original Mirrors Edge had,but it's also a much deeper story. Unfortunately the story is one ofthe weakest components of the game, it's extremely cliché and muchlike the original game it leaves a lot unexplained. Many of the maincharacters aren't particularly great and it's still pretty short.
It is however extremely well paced, with each new mission raising thestakes higher than the previous one leading up to a particularlybreathtaking and explosive finale. It's also interesting to see howBlack November act as the moral grey area between good and bad.Demolishing a shopping mall with explosives, as well as several otherbuildings around the city, killing thousands of innocent people, allin an attempt to turn the people against K-Sec.
It deals with some pretty interesting narratives, yet it doesn't doenough with them to make them particularly worthy of praise. In manyways, it's another case of missed potential with the world of MirrorsEdge.
The gameplay however is a completely different beast. Mirrors Edge:Catalyst may perhaps be one of the most enjoyable gameplayexperiences on current generation consoles. Giving you an open worldto explore was the best decision DICE could have made for Catalyst.It's a very difficult experience to explain, but being able to run,jump, slide, roll and climb from one end of the game world to theother as breakneck speeds is an experience like no other and perhapsthe single greatest reason to invest in the game. The longer you playthe more you master how Faith moves and how to best traverse theenvironment, after just a few hours you'll feel like a free-runningmaster and be able to pull off some simply amazing manoeuvres.
Most of Faith's abilities are locked behind an upgrade tree however,whilst for the most part this is a benefit for the game, allowing aslow progression of ability over several hours. It does lock out verybasic, essential moves such as the roll and quickturn until youpurchase them with skill points. They come very early on in the treewhich certainly softens the blow, but it puzzles me as to why theywere locked out in the first place, for two such essential moves toFaith's skillset.
Beyond the story you have plenty to keep you busy in Glass. You havedozens of time trials, hundreds of collectibles and a large number ofside missions to keep you occupied for around 30-40 hours if you planon achieving the illustrious 100%. You can also build trials for yourfriends to race against, introducing a basic form of multiplayer andcompetition to the game.
The world is extremely well designed too, with plenty of the sideactivities requiring a precise mastery of Faith's skills in order tosucceed. However it did not stop some pretty hit & miss collisiondetection on ziplines and ledges, often causing me to plummet to mydemise despite being well within reaching distance of the object.Sometimes Faith would also climb a wall differently to how I hadwanted to for no apparent reason. This proved frustrating though notsomething that ruined the experience.
Visually Mirrors Edge: Catalyst is a mixed bag. For the most part Iwas pretty disappointed with low resolution textures, object pop-inand some poor lighting during night time sections. However whenrunning through the environment at full speed, many of these problemsare hardly noticeable. It is very disappointing though to see thatvery little effort was put into the games graphics in an era wherehigh fidelity visuals are being pushed harder than they ever havebefore.
The audio is a completely different matter however with some amazingsound quality from start to finish. For the majority of the gamemusic is not playing, instead it's just the sounds of the city andthe wind rushing past your ears which really immerse you into thegame. When music does play it's usually pretty good, nothing amazing,but certainly well done.
The voice acting can at times leave a lot to be desired, but thiscould be in part to a reasonably dry script and some forced dialoguethat can sound pretty out of character, the worst offenders by farare Icarus and Isabel Kruger though faith goes through some prettyrough patches now and again. The best deliveries are from Dogen andPlastic, each providing great, believable performances even when thescript wasn't at it's best.
So how does Mirrors Edge: Catalyst fare overall? It's certainly not abad game and it's one of the most unique big budget titles in awhile. You'd have to be a pretty miserable person not to enjoyplaying it thanks to it's pretty amazing gameplay and you're going tobe set for a while thanks to the amount of side missions andcollectibles there are littered around Glass.
However, don't go in expecting a fantastic story and don't go inexpecting a great looking game. If they are the two most importantthings that you look for when buying games then Catalyst willcertainly miss the mark.
It seems that for the next game, if there will ever be one, that allDICE need to do is make the story a bit longer and hire a betterwriter, as well as provide us with a good looking game which we allknow they are capable of because Battlefield exists.
Mirrors Edge: Catalyst may not be the best game of 2016, but it iscertainly one of the most enjoyable to play and one I see myselflosing hundreds of hours just running around in.
MirrorsEdge: Catalyst – 7/10
+BrilliantParkour Gameplay
+ExcellentlyDesigned Open World
+StrikingVisual Style
+GreatAudio Design
-PoorlyWritten & Cliche Story
-PoorGraphical Standard
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Game Reviews Volume 2
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