I can’t think of any single player game that gave me more of a rush than Mirror's Edge. When the free running worked and I got into a groove it was incredible. Jumping from roof to roof, wall running over a gap in some scaffolding, sliding under and jumping over anything in my path all from a first person perspective felt perfectly organic.
To make it better, Digital Illusions did an absolutely amazing job of creating some epic action sequences. The first encounter with a large group of “blues”, the games slang term for cops, had me running for my life through a shopping mall complex only to end up sliding down a zip line and falling back first through a skylight. It felt like it was right out of an action movie. Only I got to be the star. That is only the beginning of some of the breathtaking sequences there is to experience in Mirrors Edge. And it's beautiful to boot.
Sadly Mirror's Edge is also one of the more frustrating single player games I’ve played in a long time. For every time I experienced a perfect sequence of free running I can think of two scenarios where I missed a grab or came to a dead stop for brushing up against a little nub on a wall. Sure some of it can be blamed on player error, but other times I would repeat the exact same motion four times, hit a ledge in the exact same spot each time and fall to my death. Then for some unknown reason, my in game avatar, Faith, would decide there was a reason to live and grab onto the ledge and pull herself to safety. Making the context sensitive grabs and other various maneuvers even a little bit more forgiving would have gone miles to ease my frustration.
Then there’s the combat…
The melee combat works, but not in the way you would expect. You can punch three times to do a short combo, do a running slide kick, or a jumping kick. Or you can try some more complex maneuvers off walls, but the opportunity rarely presents itself. All of these work and are fun to do, but the problem is the cops you are fighting are actually secretly trees. A flying kick coming out of a full speed sprint results in you bouncing off with the enemy seemingly unaffected. He did take damage, but you’d never know it by looking. A combo of punches generally ends with an unhittable block that if you do happen to strike will damage you. If enemies actually had repercussions for attacks, rather than you just bouncing out of range from hitting them again, the combat would have worked much better.
The disarm mechanic works fairly well, especially if used in conjunction with your slow motion ability. With the correct timing of Y you will take the cops weapon and drop him in the process. This nets you a gun you can use to kill the rest of the enemies. Generally though, I found running as fast as you can past all encounters to be the best bet. There are only two or three instances in the whole game where you are forced to fight and the game is more about the running anyway.
The game is fairly short, coming in at six hours on a first playthrough, but this is a perfect length. Playing through a second time is much more enjoyable because you already know a few paths through areas and can really get more into the free running. There are also time trials, speed runs, and some amazing looking DLC coming. Despite all the negative, the good can easily outweigh the bad if you give it a chance. DICE did a great job realizing a new concept and I have very high hopes for the sequel.
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