In the words of Michael Scott, PARKOUR!!! PARKOUR!!!
Published Thursday, October 29, 2009 by T-Man | E-mail this post
Ahh, parkour. A sport involving getting from point A to point B as quickly and efficiently as possible, no matter what obstacle stands in your way. I, myself, have never attempted it (and most likely never will), but there is one girl who makes her living off of it. Her name is Faith, and this is her story--er--game. Well, game AND story, but you get the picture.
Faith is one of the "Runners," people who run, jump, climb, and whatnot from place to place in order to relay messages without the unnamed city's corrupt government finding out. The story of the game involves Faith attempting to save her sister, who is taken into custody after being framed for murder.
Anyway, that said, the game is based around getting places efficiently and through any means possible, so you'll be doing things such as climbing up pipes, swinging across gaps by poles, wall-running and then jumping up to a ledge, climbing over fences, vaulting off of objects to reach a place too high to jump to, riding a wire to get from one building to another…yeah, a lot of awesome stuff. And, of course, you'll be doing a lot of running. The game is really fast-paced, meaning that it won't get boring, and most obstacles aren't too hard to overcome. The game even highlights usable objects! This makes the game highly accessible. Did I mention that all of this is done IN FIRST PERSON PERSPECTIVE? And there ARE some shooting segments thrown in for the hardcore gamers, but since when did that hurt anyone? (Besides the in-game enemies, of course.)
Sounds awesome, doesn't it? Well, a game with this type of gameplay would be completely broken if it didn't have simple and intuitive controls. Thankfully, this game perfectly succeeds in that department. The control stick is used to move Faith around. Besides that, the L1 button (this is based on a PS3 controller, and yes, I have a PS3 now) is the button you'll use the most. Almost any action can be performed with the L1 button--grabbing onto things, running up or along a wall, grabbing onto a ledge, even jumping is performed with the L1 button. That's not literally the ONLY button you'll use though. The L2 button is used to roll when landing from a fall to prevent damage, and to slide under objects. The R1 button allows you to whip around quickly, and the R2 button is used for combat. While it may seem odd at first that buttons that are usually treated as peripheral buttons are the buttons that you'll mainly be using, you'll realize why the controls are like this. In the first animated cutscene of the game, Faith mentions "the Flow," which keeps the Runners moving, and with these intuitive controls, I can actually feel the "Flow" myself.
PARKOUR!!!
But, just as any game, Mirror's Edge isn't perfect. There are certain areas that keep you wondering where to go and what to do, causing gaps in the game's pace. Not only that, but combat in the game is frustrating. While, much of the time, you'll be running from the enemies (usually referred to in game as the "Blues"), even then, you'll die about five times before you finally succeed in escaping. There are some areas, though, where you're actually almost required to kill them to proceed. In some places, they come in such large numbers, though, that even if you use the guns for long range combat, you'll easily be overwhelmed. In addition to that, the game's areas aren't nearly as expansive as they could have been. Worst of all though, the game is too short. There are only nine chapters (counting the prologue) in the game, and none of them last very long if you don't dilly-dally.
Aside from that, though, the game is great, with fun, fast-paced gameplay and simple, accessible controls. Sure, the combat is hard, but Mirror's Edge is a first-person experience that should be had by anyone. Overall, it gets an 8 out of 10. It is truly the ultimate parkour simulator. So remember…
PARKOUR!!! PARKOUR!!!
Faith is one of the "Runners," people who run, jump, climb, and whatnot from place to place in order to relay messages without the unnamed city's corrupt government finding out. The story of the game involves Faith attempting to save her sister, who is taken into custody after being framed for murder.
Anyway, that said, the game is based around getting places efficiently and through any means possible, so you'll be doing things such as climbing up pipes, swinging across gaps by poles, wall-running and then jumping up to a ledge, climbing over fences, vaulting off of objects to reach a place too high to jump to, riding a wire to get from one building to another…yeah, a lot of awesome stuff. And, of course, you'll be doing a lot of running. The game is really fast-paced, meaning that it won't get boring, and most obstacles aren't too hard to overcome. The game even highlights usable objects! This makes the game highly accessible. Did I mention that all of this is done IN FIRST PERSON PERSPECTIVE? And there ARE some shooting segments thrown in for the hardcore gamers, but since when did that hurt anyone? (Besides the in-game enemies, of course.)
Sounds awesome, doesn't it? Well, a game with this type of gameplay would be completely broken if it didn't have simple and intuitive controls. Thankfully, this game perfectly succeeds in that department. The control stick is used to move Faith around. Besides that, the L1 button (this is based on a PS3 controller, and yes, I have a PS3 now) is the button you'll use the most. Almost any action can be performed with the L1 button--grabbing onto things, running up or along a wall, grabbing onto a ledge, even jumping is performed with the L1 button. That's not literally the ONLY button you'll use though. The L2 button is used to roll when landing from a fall to prevent damage, and to slide under objects. The R1 button allows you to whip around quickly, and the R2 button is used for combat. While it may seem odd at first that buttons that are usually treated as peripheral buttons are the buttons that you'll mainly be using, you'll realize why the controls are like this. In the first animated cutscene of the game, Faith mentions "the Flow," which keeps the Runners moving, and with these intuitive controls, I can actually feel the "Flow" myself.
PARKOUR!!!
But, just as any game, Mirror's Edge isn't perfect. There are certain areas that keep you wondering where to go and what to do, causing gaps in the game's pace. Not only that, but combat in the game is frustrating. While, much of the time, you'll be running from the enemies (usually referred to in game as the "Blues"), even then, you'll die about five times before you finally succeed in escaping. There are some areas, though, where you're actually almost required to kill them to proceed. In some places, they come in such large numbers, though, that even if you use the guns for long range combat, you'll easily be overwhelmed. In addition to that, the game's areas aren't nearly as expansive as they could have been. Worst of all though, the game is too short. There are only nine chapters (counting the prologue) in the game, and none of them last very long if you don't dilly-dally.
Aside from that, though, the game is great, with fun, fast-paced gameplay and simple, accessible controls. Sure, the combat is hard, but Mirror's Edge is a first-person experience that should be had by anyone. Overall, it gets an 8 out of 10. It is truly the ultimate parkour simulator. So remember…
PARKOUR!!! PARKOUR!!!
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