My Thoughts on Mirror’s Edge [PC Version]

 [Originally written on 27th Sep 2019]

Mirror’s Edge is a free-running, parkour-based, action adventure game developed by EA Dice. Since the day I discovered Parkour, I was in desperate need of a game that was primarily based on parkour, instead of just having elements inspired from it (like Prince of Persia or Assassin’s Creed). I got such a game in the form of Vector for Android. That is another gem of a game with its silhouettes performing fluidic parkour tricks to escape a policeman of a dystopian world.

But as good as it is, it’s a 2D game. What if I could actually experience how it felt to scale rooftops, jump daredevil distances and run on walls from a first-person perspective?

The first search result that was returned for a “3D PC parkour game” was Mirror’s Edge. Some screenshots and gameplay videos later, I was already a fan. I wanted this game. Badly.

Now that I’ve finished it, I can say that the parkour lover in me is satisfied. The game does best what it’s made for – give the player an adrenaline-filled free-running experience. Stepping into the shoes of Faith, a free-runner, the game puts you in a city filled with adventurous opportunities to explore your parkour skills while also uncovering a conspiracy to kill the Mayor and framing Faith’s sister, Kate for it.

Faith uses her running skills to dodge and evade those after her and to get from one lead to next, crouching in AC vents to eavesdrop on conversations and beating security guys to a pulp in a single, swift motion because being a runner surely she doesn’t have time to go through them one by one, especially when they’re firing at her all at once.

Talking about the gameplay, I have no complaints in that department. It’s fluidic, is the experience. Smooth, swift, the motion blurs work perfectly, the feeling of rush that is so essential to experience free-running was able to reach me in its entirety. There are a couple of moments in the game that I’d like to mention here, when I really felt the oncoming rush: first, when there’s a train rushing behind Faith and the only escape is a side door a few feet ahead. Banging through that door and looking back to see the train whiz by made me shudder. A few more milliseconds and I (Faith) would have been nothing but mangled flesh; second, when there are guards firing at you from behind and the escape door is right in your sight. You’re running towards it, sprinting, hoping you reach it before the screen decolorizes completely (signalling Faith’s energy being drained). And the latter happens quite often. Apart from these I had the most fun jumping from one building to another, galloping large distances, and dropping from tall buildings just to see how it feels to fall off from such a great height. Apologies to Faith for breaking her bones so many times.

The next thing I like about the game is its graphics, especially the textures and lighting. The designers have done a great job in planning the city and rooftops, and everything feels significant. Very often we see that the unimportant elements of the environment are blurred out, or do not possess the same level of detail as the significant ones. That is not the case with Mirror’s Edge; the metal railings look as important as the wooden boards, and reflect the same amount of sunlight as everything around them. It makes up for a beautiful scenery, and I stopped Faith in her tracks on more than one occasion to admire the environment around her.

Like I said, Faith uses her running skills to investigate why her sister is being framed for murder, and accumulates leads after leads. The story is not very much to look forward to, though. Without spoiling too much, I’ll just say that its plot twists lack novelty, but the story is not the impetus for the player to keep going, it’s the running. Frankly I am ready to overlook the mundane elements of the story just for the reason that the makers were able to construct some story with parkour at its heart.

There are some points where the player might feel claustrophobic, and get frustrated at the camera movement not being quick enough. Not a very big deal, in my opinion.

Finally, the one thing that has stayed with me after I finished Mirror’s Edge is its last scene, when *spoilers* Faith looks over the city with her sister. The song that comes on in the background surprised me because there is no song in the rest of the game. Let alone a song, there’s not even any loud music, just a serene, easy soundtrack for when Faith is by her own and a racy (but still not loud) one when she’s being pursued. Despite this, the song perfectly suits the scene, and puts one in touch with the enormity of the city in Mirror’s Edge. The colours and the time of night, and Faith being with Kate, and that all of it is finished melts together in this one song. It’s beautifully composed and equally well sung. Usually I uninstall a game as soon as I’m done with it to make room for other games, but this one is still there in my library just because I want to relive that last scene. Even if I need to uninstall Mirror’s Edge someday, I won’t do it without recording the last scene. That’s for sure.

As for the game itself, it remains my favourite parkour game of all time. I’d be ready to give it another go anytime when I want to feel the rush again.