Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

by Ravi Sinha

The border between gloss and reality – this is the Mirror’s Edge for Faith. And Mirror’s Edge for gamers? Well, one minute you’re breathlessly sliding under girders and navigating gigantic waterways, tensely dodging stray bullets – and the next you find your jump off by a few centimeters, plummeting your body into the darkness below, with one final sick thud. Mirror’s Edge sets new standards for innovations, but no matter how much you love it, it’ll continue punishing you well beyond the point where any other game would stop.

Faith’s a Runner – a covert courier who traverses rooftops and relays information to rebellious sources in a fictitious authoritarian city. After making a deliver, Faith is beset by cops, but for a change, they’re shooting to kill. Before Mercury, her mentor, can discover the reason for the cops’ change in tactics, Faith finds her sister Kate, framed in the murder of Robert Pope. As a mayoral candidate, Pope was looking to loosen the despotic hold the current mayor, Callaghan, had on the city. Her sister in custody, Faith begins to investigate the murder – along with the mystery of “Project Icarus”.

The story is told through 2D animated cut scenes, but the major plot transitions and chapter set-ups occur in-game. The two sisters sharing a teary separation, after Pope’s murder, could have been depicted in many ways…but none better than the one through Faith’s own eyes, as she hugs Kate, with you in the first-person. Moments like these do less to emphasize the controller in your hand, and more to convince you that you are Faith and you must stay alive, no matter the odds. Faith and the rest of the cast are down to earth and believably enacted, while the various story twists will keep you glued to the single-player experience.

If only the controls weren’t so down to earth as well. The response isn’t faulty, but you need to properly measure your momentum and time your jumps in Mirror’s Edge. The slightest trip up could mean two bullets in your back (and Faith isn’t exactly packing Kevlar). Even tight-rope walking is a dangerous task of trial and error. The various objects you can climb, jump and vault off are helpfully coloured in red, and you can focus your objective whenever outdoors. While extremely helpful in knowing where to go, there aren’t as many multiple routes as there are different obstacles to scale in reaching your objective. However, secret items lay hidden in select nooks and crannies as a reward for adventurous gamers.

Combat can be a bash at times and real sloppy at others. The dis-arms are performed by means of a quick-time button press – and the chances of nailing one and netting a firearm are tricky. Runner Vision, a slow-mo button, makes the task easier but still risky – for every time I disarmed a pig and capped his partner, I found myself getting beaten to a pulp by a lone gunman. Fighting isn’t the focus, but there are times when you’ll need to shoot to proceed.

Mirror’s Edge slips now and then in its controls. Conversely, its visuals are one smooth sailing spectacle throughout. Credit where it’s due: EA DICE haven’t cut corners for the first person view. Some objects will go blurry, indicating the shift in focus of Faith’s vision. Burst out a door and you’ll be blinded, before her vision automatically adjusts to extra light.

Every object and obstacle is photo-realistic. The character models are well-detailed and unique. And the draw distance? Good lord, Mirror’s Edge should be paid to stop making other “realistic” games look so bad (greetings from Hell, NFS Undercover). While mostly understated, the music thumps with hard-hitting techno during chases and subtle soft-rock during the down times.

Is Mirror’s Edge a must-play? Definitely. You won’t find anything else like it. Is it a fun play? That depends on how willing you are to master the controls (the Time Trial mode makes for good replay value and brushing up on runs) – and how many times you can hear Faith’s bones go “crack”, before taking an altogether different break.

An old-school, hardcore tilt with a new-age next-gen gloss – that’s Mirror’s Edge in a nutshell. But for every freak death I faced, nothing in recent memory has made me lean forward, unblinking, as I leapt off a skyscraper and flipped the bird at my slow-ass enemies.