Mirror's Edge

By Dene Benham

On the surface it is a utopian city, gleaming and pristine, but underneath there is the heart of a corrupted dictatorship. In contrast to the city’s rigid authoritarianism, there are ‘runners’. Runners slip through the fingers of the government’s tightening grip; they are free spirits, climbing sheer walls, balancing on parapets and clinging to the cracks in the system. Faith is a runner, carrying messages between groups of freedom fighters, and you control her as she tries to rescue her sister and bring about the salvation of the city.

Mirror’s Edge promises to bring a fresh new twist to the action/adventure genre of games. Although weapons are available, the emphasis is placed on exploration and investigation, on using momentum and fluidity of movement to traverse the city’s towering free roaming environments. Faith’s movements in Mirror’s Edge are based on those developed for free running or parkour. Parkour is the French new age martial art where individuals climb, jump, balance, roll and slide impossibly quickly across urban landscapes.

The mechanics of the game look to imitate and develop the physicality of parkour in ways that have only been touched on in previous games. Even though running and jumping has always been a part of gaming (okay, digital representations of running and jumping, not actual... you know), and recent games like Crackdown and Assassin’s Creed have taken it a step further, previously it has always come over as a secondary element to actual shooting and fighting. But Mirror’s Edge will make free running the game's central focus, incorporating the physics of momentum as well as greatly expanding the range of movements seen in video games.

Characters will have to build up to top speed when running - no simple tapping X to sprint - and momentum will also have an influence on stopping and changing direction. Vaulting or climbing over obstacles, or sliding around or underneath them, will impact on a character’s speed. Get it wrong and you’ll slow down; choose the best action at the best angle, and your momentum will increase.

Graphically the characters and environments look stunning. Developer DICE has given the game a wonderfully bright look that is in complete contrast to the dark and grimy environments that are the staple of the gaming industry. The game is played in the first person perspective; an interesting choice considering the focus is not on combat or firing weapons. But this allows for amazing cinematic leaps across towering buildings, leaps that are often played out in slow motion to allow for precise control and timing.

Digital Illusions CE, the developers behind the Battlefront games, look to revolutionise gaming with their new take on first person action adventures by making free running a thrilling virtual experience. While there is always the possibility that focusing on one aspect of a project may mean other elements, such as story and gameplay, fall short, all the indications are that Mirror’s Edge fresh new focus may just make going for a run something to look forward to.

 del.icio.us  StumbleUpon  Facebook  Reddit