Mirror's Edge Review
This game was free on PS3, but was it worth it? Maybe. Who knows. Depends on your definition and your tolerance of combat.
So, EA gave away a bunch of games on the 6th on PlayStation devices. PS4 got the Garden Warfare thing, Vita got this Need For Speed thing, and PS3 got Mirror's Edge. I'd been waiting to play that game for a while, considering the possibility of spending $5 during a Steam sale for it or not, but free is cheaper than $5, so I downloaded it.
And, well, let's just say I'm glad I got it for free. But I'm not glad about the time I wasted with it.
It starts out okay, you're running around, you get the controls down, then you get stuck at a jump that requires insane accuracy and sometimes you won't grab the pipe you need to grab. Let's say this jump takes you about 30 attempts for some reason because now you don't even know that the button they told you was the pipe grab button isn't even the right button. Then you have to go look up and confirm that yes, you are pressing the right button.
Finally, after getting past that part, you'll find that you can't quite grab things when you want to sometimes. At least there's lots of checkpoints, but it still gets to be annoying having to repeat certain short segments at least 10 times because the alignment was slightly off and you somehow overshot or whatever.
I mean, when the game works, it's awesome, but then it's not. Then for some reason you can play the game as an FPS. This isn't an FPS, it's an FPP. First person platformer. Even with the problems I have with first person platforming, this has some neat things, you can see all your limbs and stuff.
Then there's combat. Why is there more than only a little combat. It should mainly be you run into someone and kick them over or whatever, generally. No guns. Why are there guns in this game that you can pick up and use and the game really wants you to use even though you can just go without them because honestly you're running and stuff, just keep running. Don't do more crimes than the one you didn't commit or whatever reason you're running. Also in those nearly-combat-mandatory sections you tend to get overwhelmed if you don't manage to isolate and knock out at least one enemy. Or two. I really just want a parkour adventure, and this doesn't really deliver. There have to be better games. I bet there are. And they're like indie games or something. Please, point me to those.
So, to keep this one fairly short, like the time I was willing to put into it, it's a cool concept with great aesthetic that got meddled with because people like to shoot guns too much, or at least the publishers think that. Supposedly the sequel will remove a bunch of combat, unlike Alan Wake, where a game with combat problems had a sorta-sequel that focused more on the combat for some reason, but I don't find myself sticking around to find out. That and it's probably only going to be on Origin and "next-gen" stuff that's now just current gen because we're well into that era by now. I'm surprised it got a sequel, I'm not sure it really deserves it, though. But if they improve, congrats. Maybe if I somehow get a copy of that and it's good and challenging but not stupid, I'll change my tune quite a bit. I enjoy running around really fast in landscapes sometimes, and not many games seem to deliver entirely well on that these days. Sonic.
Arbitrary score: 4/10