Reviews

The rooftops are littered with the enemy, each one standing guard waiting to pounce. I gaze at them from a safe distance. Are there more of them hiding? Out of sight, out of mind. My destination stares at me in the horizon like a haven for the worthy. One false move and I will plunge to the streets below. If I'm spotted their bullets will come at me like a plague. Can I make it? There's only one thing to do, run and pray.

Free running has become a trend in video games lately. The art form of making leaps from roof top to scaffold onto moving vehicle naturally has an appeal for a fast moving platform game. Sonic and Mario can tell you all about it, as they're experts on the trade. Pulling off a string of moves can give you an adrenaline rush of excitement, whereas attempting the same section more than ten times can cause frustration and a flying control pad (towards something breakable, or someone). Welcome to Mirror's Edge, a contemporary first person action platform game that expects you to sprint through the entire adventure and hope for the best.

I'd wager the game won't win much kudos from sufferers of vertigo

You take the role of Faith, an athletic female who works as a runner. Runners are an underground network that carries important information to equally important people. Things take a turn for the personal when Faith's sister is framed for murder, and she has to uncover the truth to clear her name. The story is simple, but interesting enough to keep you going. The cut scenes play out between missions in cel-shaded style, they are short and effective, but as the in game graphics are not cel-shaded they seem a little out of place. Visually the game is very nice to look at, and helps create a nice and often tense atmosphere. The difference between this game and others like it is that this is played in first person. Putting you in the shoes of Faith makes the action feel more real, but it takes away the satisfaction of seeing the acrobatics and leaps from a third person perspective.

The developers of Assassin's Creed stated that anything that sticks out an inch can be climbed up, Mirror's Edge takes this concept of sore thumbs to extremes and states anything that glows bright red can be used to jump across. Although this lights up your path, it doesn't make the game much easier, as it still contains a lot of trial and error running and leaping. You start off with a slow jog and quickly build up speed; if you hit an obstacle you naturally slow down or stop and have to build up speed again. Obstacles, large gaps and bad guys with guns are placed to get in your way. You can expect to mess up many times and falling off a building will become the norm.

Just go straight down, you fool! Don't stumble back to the edge!