My first impressions on Mirror's Edge

I know Mirror's Edge was released in the Winter, but I would like to share my ideas on the game

The game was not completed as you can understand, this is only a short review based on about 4 hours of gameplay
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The game was played on a Toshiba Qosmio X300-13o

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz
GPU: GeForce 9800m GTX (1GB)
RAM: 4GB 1066MHz DDR3
Screen Native Resolution: 1440x900
OS: Vista Home Premium 32bit

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Mirror's Edge


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Mirror's Edge is indeed a unique game with a great concept. However, the execution of this concept was far from perfect, although not terrible.
The game as you most probably already know revolved around "Free Running", well.. most probably "Fantasy Free Running", since I really doubt anybody would dare do the acrobatics of this game, at those heights. Apart from that, you find yourself running away from cops (or even SWAT teams and helicopters with machine-gunners), who seem to be ridiculously aggresive towards "Runners" (even more aggresive than the CCK was against graffiti artists in "Mark Ecko's: Getting Up", for you to imagine if you have played the game).

Although this game had a good potential for a good story (I like video games with strong storylines a lot), the presentation fo the story is not good in Mirror's Edge. The animated cutscenes are quite odd, but they didn't seem to interest me personally, and throughout missions, even through some small cinematics, the game remains in first person view, which might sound like a revolutionary step towards storytelling in video games, but as far as I've seen, it's just way to weak as it doesn't allow the player to connect with the character he/she is controling, "Faith".

The gameplay consists of a really interesting form of first person navigation, performing various acrobatics, mainly accross sky-high rooftops (also present are lower-level environments, even underground). The gameplay successfully gives out the feeling that you are beeing hunted and the only option is to run and engage in minimal combat only when necessary. However, looking down below at the loads of rooftops you can jump to, the game sadly falls down to mainly going from A to B, through a predetermined path, somehow killing the freedom such a game should offer. Controls are pretty neat and the game can be played comfortably with either a mouse/keyboard combo or a gamepad. However, I feel they are much to simplified. "Space" does most of the tricks including jumps, wall-running, and even some pre-determined actions on some structures, which are a bit indistinguishable from the rest of the scenery unless you have enabled the "Runner's Vision" option, which highlights red interactive objects and objects making up your path (e.g. platforms for jumping). This makes the game far too easy, but disabling this option can make the game frustrating, when you have now clue where to go. The basic combat system however is good and seem to fit such a game, although a bit more complex combat would also be nice. In my point of view, being able to use firearms somehow ruins the game concept of being a "Runner". Even if you decide to use firearms, they don't help very much either, as they appear to be way to weak. So far, the game seems to be really repetetive and as I have read on the net, it shouldn't be really long too.

Graphically, this game feels pretty artistic. The bright city looks futuristic (and surprisingly clean too!). Environments are also very colourful, but in a non-realistic way (I never saw sewers with bright white walls and electric-green platforms!). It's almost a bit weird to see some models with very detailed textures, while other objects had almost a "Vexel" feel to them, making the game feel like a comic at times. However, I can considering this as a different approach toward the visual design of a game, and the lighting effects were really impressive too.

I was able to play the game at my native resolution, maxed out with x2 AA but nVidia PhysX off (will talk about it later) and the game felt really smooth, although not at 60FPS at all the time. The game seems to have a few annoying and very noticable issues, such as screen flickering and a few random drops in FPS for apparently no reason. The 1.01 patch made the situation a bit better, but only a little, while the problems I mentioned before remained.

The game also supports nVidia PhysX, which apparently uses some resources of your nVidia GPU (Series 8 or later if I'm not mistaken), to create more realistic physics effects, like broken glass being scattered around in a more realistic manner than in other games. At this point, it appears that the PhysX is used only for eye-candy, and having it enabled, I saw some really physics effects on various particles. However, it appears that it reducedthe performance of my 9800m GTX quite severely when I had antialiasing enabled, and so I decided to switch it off, as it seems that it's not worth it to have such effects since even at native res, the game seems to have very jaggy edges, and PhysX is not a huge visual advantage worth the performance loss. It's also a bit funny to see some of the worst ragdoll physics in a game that is supposed to support this new physics system (however the ragdoll is not affected by PhysX as far as I know).

To conclude, Mirror's Edge seems an OK game so far, despite its flaws. However, I predict that it won't have a lasting appeal after I complete it, as the difficulty levels don't seem to be very different (you only receive more damage on harder levels). However, with this game can be the basis of better games of this unique type in the future, overcoming the gameplay (and storyline) flaws of Mirror's Edge. For me, it's just the first step to build on...

Feel free to share your ideas
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excellent review, thank u for taking the time for letting us know

 

Thank you

 

Nice review. I finished the game few months ago and I loved it. Especially if you compare it to Prince of Persia 4 you would surely notice the gameplay of Mirror's Edge is so much better and exciting. The game gets better when it's near the end where things get more challenging. Some parts are a bit frustrating but I find the game (especially the later stages) very enjoyable.
The game runs very well on my 8800M GTX. Played it perfectly at 1680x1050 without AA and with PhysX ON and I have no slowdown or lag at all. Can't wait for Mirror's Edge 2!

 

Thanks for the review, cant see myself getting this game though....

 

Yup. Good review. I sometimes consider getting ME but will likely wait for it to be on sale/bargain bin for XBox 360 version.

 

Xbox 360!? Welcome to notebookreview.com man!

 

Yes, I realize that. But ME, to me, is the type of game that I can see myself playing from the comforts of a couch on the big screen HDTV. I'd rather do that via the 360 rather than a notebook.

 

A nice and informative review. Thanks for the review.

 

This game is $5 at gogamer right now.

http://www.gogamer.com/Mirror-s-Edg...VproductId50424115VVcatId444774VVviewprod.htm

 

What kind of frames are you getting and what settings at native res?

 

Here is your answer, it's in the review...

About FPS... lets say they stay high above 50FPS and very rarely fall below that value... The game is almost perfectly smooth, so I won't bother with benchmarking...

 

Thanks for the kind comments and/or rep!

 

Buy it for your notebook, plug it into your TV and use your 360 controller. Playing GTA IV on an HDTV through a good system with a 360 controller looks loads better then on the xbox 360. HDMI has been a god send in this respect. I hope someone pulls wireless HDMI out of their...soon.

 

I actually really enjoyed this game, the story wasn't amazing or anything... but I did high school tumbling and participated in parkour for a long time, and I have to say this game gives you that feeling of flow... I just wish there was a free roam type of mode

EDIT: definitely worth the 5 dollars if that is real lol

 

It's real dude, click the link and click to buy! US only though.

 

Almost $10 after shipping and tax, but well worth it.

 

Thanks for the review. I'd get it except for the problem that it has SecuRom DRM. No thanks.