Received Mirror’s Edge yesterday via Gamefly.  I wanted to check it out because it seemed interesting.  There was a semi-fuss about the game.  But after the release I really didn’t hear anything about it.  I thought it maybe another EA dud.  I’m glad to say that I was wrong.  I have played through the first few chapters and I like it so far.  Its a unique game that provides a challenge.  And from what I hear it gets even more challenging in the chapters to come.

Mirror’s Edge’s story so far has been alright.  Not bad, but I’ve seen it before…to a degree.  Mirror’s Edge is based in a city that is under a totalitarian regime.  Of course when you have a totalitarian regime, you will have rebels.  That’s where Faith(You) come in.  She is a runner.  There are a network of runners that use the rooftops of the city to get messages between the rebel groups.  Traditionally, the blues(police) don’t mess with the runners.  But something has happened and they are now opening fire on runners as they see them…namely you.  Also, you receive a call from your sister, who is a blue.  When you get to her location, you find a political candidate dead.  Your sister has been framed and now you need to find out why and who did it.  So throughout the game you have to use your running skills to get from building to building, while avoiding blues, to collect clues and talk to people who may know whats going on.

The environment is very clean, very bright, and color is very vivid.  In easy and normal modes, objects that you can run on, climb on or jump to are colored in red.  They may be another color as your running up, but as you get close to them they will turn red.  This is called runner vision.  On hard, runner vision is disabled.

As your running, the faster you run the more blurred your vision becomes.  If you come to a edge to fast and look over, you will get vertigo.  The camera movement moves very realistically for someone who is running, jumping, and sliding around.  Even when your punching and kicking you get some realistic camera movement.  It makes the game fun, but for someone who gets motion sickness, this will probably be a nightmare.  I read that in beta, people were getting sick and dizzy from the movement, so they added the focus point in the middle of the screen to help with that.  I personally haven’t had a problem we getting sick or dizzy.

Gameplay wise I found this game to be very fun.  Its kinda like Prince of Persia mixed with a little Portal(in the puzzle sense).  Most of the game (so far) is trying to move at a steady pace while traversing various obstacles.  Timing is very important.  It is also important to keep moving.  If you stay in one location for too long the blues will catch up to you.  Fighting is pretty fun as well.  They make the fighting motions while you are running very fluid.  You can, while running, disarm a enemy as long as your timing is right.  The game isn’t about combat though.  In just about every situation you can find a way around the blue’s.  Just have to think fast.  Sometimes you can’t get around them without a fight…that’s when the running jump kick can come in handy if you don’t want to stop moving.  So far, one of the most fun runs I’ve had was against another runner named Jackknife.  You have to chase him down to get some info.

I’m enjoying this game a lot so far, and I can’t wait to finish it so I can try it on hard.  From what I have played I am considering buying the game.  I will give my final thoughts on the game after I finish it so look out for that post.  I would definitely recommend playing this game…unless your Rei .