Mirror’s Edge

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Aug 5, 2008

Filed under: Movies 87 comments

Everyone has been shrugging their shoulders at what is being hailed as a tepid and underwhelming E3. Partly because the press-only setting subdued the show, but also because there just isn’t much unexpected coming out of the sequel industry this year.

But one game has caught my eye. Now, I almost never bother with previews on this site unless doing so contributes to my ongoing thesis that the gaming industry is going to hell in a handbasket, most game journalists are shallow children, publishers are clueless giants, etc, etc, ad nauseam, and then some. So I want you to understand how amazing it is that a game has broken through the storm clouds of perpetual cynicism to warm my blackened heart. I haven’t been this intrigued since the first time I saw Portal, so I hope you’ll indulge me this moment of unbridled enthusiasm.

Mirror’s Edge is about the worst idea I’ve ever heard: A first person game of platform jumping. Even more amazing than the sheer lunacy of the concept is the fact that it looks like they’re making it work.

Understand that I find this footage to be almost hypnotic in nature. The movement, the music, the stark white rooftop landscape with splashes of color, the breathing of the main character as she leaps from one challenge to the next – this game seems to be engineered to stimulate some deep, subconscious area of my brain and cause me to close my hands reflexively around an imaginary controller in an effort to play this trailer.

After you’ve watched the above, you can watch this version which gives a good analysis of environment and gameplay elements that can be observed.

I was already sold on the game, even before I saw the part of the E3 demonstration where they explain that while gunplay is an aspect of the game, it’s possible to beat Mirror’s Edge without ever firing a shot:

This trailer shows off a little of the combat, which is a mix of (first person!) martial arts and shooting:

What’s fascinating is that you don’t really keep weapons. Faith doesn’t do her roof-jumping gymnastics while loaded down with a collection of guns stuffed in her pocket. She takes a weapon from a foe, uses it, and then tosses it the moment she goes back to jumping and climbing. Guns are a transient asset in this context.

The setting is really interesting. It’s a dystopian society with tightly regulated speech. Couriers use the rooftops to transport forbidden information. The main character is Faith, an athletic woman who has to backflip and drop-kick her way through faceless armed enforcers. It all sounds very dark and cyberpunk, but the city itself is pristine and white. It reminds me of Equilibrium, where an insidious culture wore a utopian mask.

It’s coming out on PS3, XBox 360, and PC. Now, I don’t have either of the consoles and I’m sure my PC isn’t up to the job, but even if I could choose I’m not sure where I’d want to play it. First person is irritating without a mouse, but platforming is awful on a keyboard. I think for this game I’d go the console route, as the focus is on running and jumping more than pointing and shooting.

Let’s see: A game which is new, inventive, daring, and which isn’t connected to any existing IP. And it’s being released by EA of all people. Truly a gift from Bizarro World.

 


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87 thoughts on “Mirror’s Edge

  1. Arkmagius says:

    That… looks incredible. I’m glad Portal opened the door for experimental games.

    As an aside, I really hope heavy breathing, grunting, and other noises are toggle-able. Those would get annoying, fast.

  2. qrter says:

    The footage looks amazing. It should be an amazing game, gameplay-wise.

    My interest in the setting is quickly waning, however. Small instances of the game’s writing (by Rhianna Pratchett, daughter of Terry), like the trailer and the “preview comic”, seem to revert back to the Standard Action Movie Dialogue crap we are overly familiar with and which sucks the atmosphere out of any game, as far as I’m concerned.

  3. Hawk says:

    Fascinating. I’ll have to keep an eye out for the reviews. I’m interested in a new FPS-style game for my 360, and this is different enough to fill the bill depending on how it reviews.

  4. coffee says:

    I have to say, I find the idea interesting.

    The implementation will be difficult, I’ll guess, simply because of the difficulty curve – if it’s too easy to make the right jump at the right time, based on the information at hand (i.e. the viewpoint of the player) then it becomes a bit too much like quicktime events – press jump now to not be caught and die. If it’s too difficult, then it becomes infuriating, because you don’t have enough information.

    My example from the trailer would be at 1:08. Will the player be able to control the angle of descent there, aiming specifically for the pipe on the side of the building, or will it be locked from the point of the diving board, necessitating a load/reload or restart, making it potentially very DIAS? Or will it be that so long as you jump from the diving board, you’ll land that pipe?

    In a way, it’s two extremes, but I do hope this one comes out well. In being a first-person puzzle game, it’s a bit Portal-y, which is never a bad thing.

  5. Heph says:

    I’m only cautiously-optimistic about it right now…I like first person RPGs, and I like platformers, but i’m not sure if a first person platformer is something I’ll be able to enjoy greatly. Here’s to hoping there’ll be a demo.

    I agree with qrter about what we’ve seen from the writing so far, but no trailer or demo can ever really hope to show any decent amount of storytelling or characterization, so I’ll hold on to the hope of it actualyl being awesome, too.

  6. MintSkittle says:

    How about Mirror’s Edge IN Portal?

    http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/248962.html

    Yeah… It’s not that great, but it made me smile a bit.

  7. Ian B. says:

    Platforming elements have been employed in first-person shooters in the past (see: Metroid Prime) but I’ve never seen any of them that go this far.

    I really like the whole free-running Matrix kind of look that Mirror’s Edge has. The fact that they seem to be aiming toward a brighter, more surreal look appeals to me as well.

    Thanks for posting this, Shamus! Now I have something else to look forward to. :)

  8. Derek K says:

    Amusingly, my personal Great American Novel (doesn’t everyone have one of those nowadays?) was a story focusing on a courier in a dystopian society, transporting illicit or private messages. Now that there’s both Johnny Mnemonic (the movie version, really) and this game, I think I need to start suing people.

    Either that, or give up on the GAN (not that I’ve touched it since I was 24, but, you know, it could still happen….)

    Also, having the word “dystopian” in the description really means I’ll get it no matter what.

    Also, to tie back to earlier discussions – Faith seems like a pretty good example of an attractive non-barbie badass video game heroine.

  9. Jeremiah says:

    My first thought on watching the trailer: weird, a parkour game.

    My second thought: okay, I’m intrigued. I want to see more.

  10. Cineris says:

    This game just pegs out my “unbelievability” meter, on a lot of levels.

    There’s the world: We’re supposed to believe this is a realism / alternate realtiy style setting, but we’re jumping 100 feet from one skyscraper down to another and shrug it off with a roll. We can jump off a building and hang onto a wobbling helicopter with one arm. And we’re a supermodel looking female character to boot.

    Then the gameplay promises: Multiple pathways through the world offering free roaming, etc. etc. Meanwhile we’ve got red light-up-vision that shows us where the paths are. I have trouble believing this is going to be anything other than running-on-rails. As for “never firing a shot”? Well, there are plenty of games that can be played without direct violence (Fallout?) but I’ll believe it when I see it. From what I’ve heard it’s not so much a goal of the game as a challenge mode for masochists.

  11. Kevin says:

    Man, my palms got all sweaty just watching the trailer. I have thus far resisted buying a 360 or PS3… WoW keeps us busy whenever we want video games… but this one sure looks amazing.

    Incidentally, for anyone who hasn’t seen Equilibrium, it’s Christian Bale and Sean Bean in a kinda silly and shallow story, but with some of the most amazing “gun-fu” sequences I have ever seen. I am not an “action” movie guy, but the action scenes in this movie alone make it worth the rental.

  12. JKjoker says:

    i didnt like the fact that you are guided the whole game by those red lights, i guess they wont make several paths across each building

  13. Gahaz says:

    The timed platforming and rooftop running is very good. Rest assured that its not quicktime events and you have control over how you traverse the cityscape. The platforms that you leap from can be thought of as “checkpoints”.

    I am not allowed to say more, but think of it as a game about “momentum”.

  14. Derek K says:

    @cineris: “There's the world: We're supposed to believe this is a realism / alternate realtiy style setting, but we're jumping 100 feet from one skyscraper down to another and shrug it off with a roll. ”

    I didn’t see anything nearly that big. Also, have you watched some of the parkour videos on line? They go 5 stories and come up in a roll, and keep going.

    Plus, I suspect she’s at least somewhat cybernetically enhanced. Very possibly the reason she sees those red lines too. Which I’m also betting you can turn off. But they’re a great stylistic device, and didn’t ever seem to be the only way – just one way. Occasionally the dev ignored them completely.

    “We can jump off a building and hang onto a wobbling helicopter with one arm.”

    Far from the craziest thing I’ve seen in a game, really. If it were “Mirror’s Edge: The Running Across Rooftops Simulator” I might worry. But it’s an action game.

    “And we're a supermodel looking female character to boot.”

    See, I thought she was a pretty good example of a non-standard female character. Compare her to Lara Croft, who is probably the closest analogue. Angelina Jolie certainly wouldn’t play Faith in the movie – maybe Lucy Liu.

    I think we’re seeing a cosmic balance here – Shamus came out in super-non spicy mode, and the comments are now slamming the game. Is Mirror’s Edge the anti-Witcher? ;)

  15. Freaky Dug says:

    I really want to be excited about this game but I can’t let myself ‘cos EA is releasing it, so the PC version will likely be full of DRM. ¬_¬

  16. Chris says:

    EA is also releasing Dead Space this Halloween.

    I think they want to actually be a good company for a change.

  17. Shamus says:

    Freaky Dog is right. I’d forgotten about EA’s new initiative to curse each and every release with online activation.

    Ah well. If I get it, I’ll get a console version.

    After I get a console.

  18. Enas Yorl says:

    This looks really cool. It reminds me of “Assassin’s Creed” and that was pretty easy to learn. I loved getting chased around the rooftops and I always had that Benny Hill chase song running through my head.

  19. Shamus says:

    Yahtzee had Yackety Sax (Benny Hill theme) play at the end of his Assassin’s Creed review. Perhaps that led to the connection.

    It is pretty funny to imagine dodging crusaders and shiving guards while that plays in the background.

  20. Drew says:

    Faith reminded me more of Jade from Beyond Good and Evil, if you need to find another character for comparison.

    That, by the way, was a fantastic game.

  21. Jonathan Grimwauld says:

    Geralt would totally tap that >_>

  22. JohnW says:

    Maybe with Track IR support….

  23. Factoid says:

    It’s wierd how every new and innovative games has to be compared to Portal now.

    I’m sure this game was in development long before Portal ever launched, and yet somehow Portal has paved the way for it. I don’t say that sarcastically…I think it’s interesting, because it’s true in a way, but yet this game would likely have existed whether Portal came along or not.

    Does this game benefit from Portal, or would it have succeeded regardless? If Mirror’s Edge had come first would we have been comparing portal to IT? Without having played it I’m not prepared to say, but I’m definitely looking forward to it.

  24. Cineris says:

    @Derek K: I didn’t realize having skepticism about some of the hype surrounding the game constituted slamming a game?

    I mean, I’m sure eventually there will be a first person platformer that really fulfills all the promises that have been made over the years. I think it’s inevitable. Will it be Mirror’s Edge? Maybe it will be. But since there have been a lot of games that have tried and failed, I’m pretty skeptical.

  25. Danath says:

    I saw that first trailer for the game a while ago… forgot all about it, but man, I WANT to play this game, it looks different.

    As far as I can tell theres multiple paths but the red helps highlight certain options so that you know where to go when an area doesnt have any other exits? As opposed to you having to guess, im not sure.

    Mirror’s edge story in trigues me, and at least in the trailer I found the dialogue interesting and helped to keep you engaged as you ran along. Do they ahve a release date yet on this thing? or was I just stupid and missed it.

  26. R4byde says:

    New? Innovative? What the heck are you guys talking about? It’s a platformer ala: Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Prince of Persia, Crash Bandicoot, Mario. There is absolutely nothing new or one-of-a-kind about it; other than that the heroine doesn’t look like she works in a strip club. Plus, it’s made by EA which means the PC version will be loaded to the hilt with DRM crap. So what is so special about it?

    Disclaimer: I only read the articles on it and looked at a few screen shots, those videos are too big for my 56k.

    Edited for typosees.@_@

  27. Fosse says:

    The red looks like it could be a bit too hand holdy for my taste. When she has to get out the vent, and the things she is going to use light up for her, it sort of robs the moment of the “puzzle” that is being touted by the voice over. “Oh, another puzzle. I should point myself at whichever pipe is closest to me, then point myself at the next closest until I get to the end!”

    If it’s used to draw your eye and help you brainstorm ideas, that’s really cool. If it’s used to highlight the answers, that’s less interesting.

    I’ll be watching this game. Then I’ll be sad when EA gives it phone home DRM and I have to boycott it.

  28. Derek K says:

    @Cineris: Not just you, the general tone of the first set of comments.

    Slammed may be a bit rough – Pooh-Pooh’ed? ;)

    Shamus is down on The Witcher, the comments are up. Shamus is up on Mirror’s Edge, the comments are down. Sorta karmic.

    The tone is mirrored too – Shamus was down on the reality of The Witcher, a lot of people were up on the future of it (what he hadn’t played, missed, etc).

    Shamus is up on the future of Mirror’s Edge, people on down on the reality of it.

    Cycles and waves and gluons, man. It’s all connected.

    Or it’s matter and anti-matter, and we’ll all explode soon.

    @Drew: I think Jade is a good comparison. I was using Lara Croft as the Mirror to Faith. Both are action run and jump heroines. Jade kinda was, but she’s not in the same frenetic sort of context.

  29. Carra says:

    The game also caught my attention. Between the hordes of sequels, finally a game that looks highly original. Something that makes me *want* to play it :)

  30. empty_other says:

    Ah. The last time i saw this game, it wasn’t nearly this finished… But already then they had the “red path”. And for those who have played Prince of Persia, know how boring it is to suddenly be stuck somewhere (even for a short time) just because you have no idea where to climb from here…

    Anyway, it is also a simulation for how a real (and well-trained) super-parkour person would see the world. Not actually “red”, not a color at all, but a object standing out because she is (unlike the player) trained to watch for these objects.

    It is a kind of way of being immersed in the game, which it does by keeping the flow.

  31. Robyrt says:

    I am Just Fine with platforming on rails, with multiple paths optional. It worked for Sonic, it worked for Prince of Persia, and it can work for Mirror’s Edge, which makes me excited just for the art style and the lack of headshots.

  32. Torsten says:

    I’ve seen the trailers a few times now and I have to say that this is the first FPS since the original Thief that has got my interest. Yes, I like the idea that you avoid fighting. Also this is the first game that really makes me concider to buy a console. Not that I’m not going to buy a console, I feel same as Shamus does about PC gaming, but the game that might drive the decision between the two options. In which ever platform this looks better…

  33. Tdal says:

    All of those interested in this game should check out the real-life version that has probably inspired this, called parkour, which is an urban chase activity that focuses (obviously) on speed, coordination, flexibility, and a big pair. The man chased by Bond in Casino Royale is a prominent figure in this, and David Belle is probably the most famous. Check these out:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huv2sTalt7o
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEeqHj3Nj2c&feature=related
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAMAr8y-Vtw

  34. Fosse says:

    From the wiki page:

    It is a highlighting system that emphasises environmental pieces useful for progression””like pipes, ramps, and enterable doors””with the colour red as Faith approaches, though it does not always indicate the best route.[13] Further along in the game, the number of these visual hints is reduced to only indicate the end goal, though the player can opt to turn off this hint system entirely.[12]

    Sounds good!

  35. Zukhramm says:

    “A first person game of platform jumping. ” something I don’t see as a bad idea, the first person games I have played that has contained platforming parts have never posed much problems to me.

    One thing that does annoy me is that any game which uses lets the player move in more interesting ways than running or walking is instanstly described as “parkour”. I heard it with Assassin’s Creed and I hear it with Mirror’s Edge, but the thing is, in movies character has been jumping and climbing though the environments for ages without being labeled as such, why do this with games?

  36. DGM says:

    As far as the jump timing goes, my guess is that jumps are – or at least can be – performed automatically when you reach the edge of a platform while running. That, or there’s some kind of indicator to help your timing that we didn’t see.

  37. Derek K says:

    @Zukhramm: From what I understand, Parkour is focused on efficient movement. Free running is more just going where ever you want. So people calling it parkour might be misusing it.

    That being said, before a few years ago, most of us had no clue what parkour was. So we couldn’t call stuff that. ;) It’s the new buzzword.

  38. Danath says:

    Slow mo mode helps you (this is not a power your character has), basically on difficult jumps the game slows down so you can get your timing down better.

    Platforming in first person games is the bane of everyone who plays them, its been done, nobody likes it, a well executed first person platformer on the other hand would be innovative.

    Also this game is described as parkour makes a great deal of sense with the jumps, leaps, slides, and wall running, etc.

    EA has been interesting recently, maybe they are starting to realize that they cant put out the same garbage as before? Alot of people seem to see “EA, this is going to be crap” nowadays. If they place a less invasive form of DRM (like just a CD Key, or less), I will be all over this game, as well as others such as Dead Space, Spore, Left 4 Dead, etc.

  39. Illiterate says:

    Perhaps it’s just the youtube encoding, but I found myself feeling a bit motion sick watching that. Not sure I could go through a whole game like that.

    I am also concerned that it may have insane system requirements, and have DRM that involves you shipping your PC to EA, having it come back with special peacebonding stickers which will cause the game to stop working if you break them.

    Except for my Wii, I’m a generation behind on consoles, and my next planned upgrade is a desktop PC which will be capable of some gaming at first, and later expanded to try to do some current gaming.

    Either way, I probably won’t see this game in action for awhile. Someone tell me if it’s any good.

  40. Nixorbo says:

    It was a shocking day when I looked at the list of games I was looking forward to this year and realized that only 2 of them (Mirror’s Edge, Dead Space) were original IPs. OK, maybe not that shocking.

    Personally, I’d prefer 3rd person, though, especially with the heavy platforming elements. 3rd person better simulates the awareness you have of your body, even if you’re not looking at the limb in question.

  41. Zukhramm says:

    “Also this game is described as parkour makes a great deal of sense with the jumps, leaps, slides, and wall running, etc.”

    Well, my point is, heroes in movies slide and leaps, runs on wall, and all that all the time, and no one seems to notice, but they do when it happens in a game. It’s really just a natural step in game evolution I think.

  42. Sitte says:

    Well, my point is, heroes in movies slide and leaps, runs on wall, and all that all the time, and no one seems to notice, but they do when it happens in a game.

    I disagree on the movie/game split.

    Maybe the big difference is in the fluidity, efficiency, and spacial awareness. Take, for instance, the opening chase scene in Casino Royale. Both Bond and his target did some sliding, climbing, leaping, and jumping. While Bond sort of bumbled through it, the other guy actually used parkour.

    It’s the difference between 2 guys punching & kicking each other and 2 guys using Kung Fu.

    In response to the free-running/parkour terminology:

    Technically, I think that parkour is restricted to movements that help you get somewhere: wall running, jump & rolls, pipe climbing, etc.
    Free-running adds in things that are done for style that don’t increase the speed & efficiency of travel: flips…yeah, that’s the only example I can think of that usually gets lumped in with parkour.

    I was curious a few months back and looked into parkour. When confronted with a problem, your choices are Fight, Flee, or Diplomacy. Martial Arts hone your Fight, Parkour hones your Flee, and Trolling hones your Diplomacy.

    I think.

    (Edit: that wasn’t a dig on anyone trolling. Just a lame joke.)

  43. Oleyo says:

    I kinda like the red prompting, i think it is meant to keep you moving, without having to stop and think where to go. It seems a lot of the fun is from the sensation of a desperate chase, which you would probably lose by walking up to something, looking around, then performing a leap.

    And that mysterious commenter mentioned momentum. I bet you often need to string leap/climb events together in a series to keep your momentum up enough to complete certain leaps, or just run for a certain uninterupted distance.

    I am intrigued.

  44. Rick Tacular says:

    To echo everyone else who recoiled at the EA logo; as soon as I saw it I thought to myself, “Whelp, there’s one game I won’t play.”

  45. Meromo says:

    Is this the only first-person game where you are more than a magically floating pair of arms carrying a gun?
    It’s always broken my immersion in usual FPS games when I look down and see I have no feet. Or body.

  46. John Alexander says:

    Yeah, when I saw the EA logo I thought ‘probably won’t touch it’. And then I saw the DICE logo and thought ‘hey, they made the Battlefield series, and those were good even WITH EA on board’. And THEN I noticed that the character has an actual BODY and the view moves as if the character had real eyes, and I thought ‘well, maybe for the console’…

    I’m an indecisive one at times.

  47. JB says:

    I fail to get excited about this game. It’s probably a lot of fun for a while, but there seems to not be a lot of things to do. Only running, jumping, climbing and kicking enemies, but not stopping, planning, exploring, finding new items, enjoying different scenery, cool enemies etc.

    Maybe I’m wrong and there is a lot more to the game than the videos show. But from what I’ve seen I expect the game to be boring after a couple of hours.

  48. Danath says:

    On that note, how much was there to do in Portal? Or in many FPS games for that matter, im sure theres plenty of extras, as far as I can tell this is only the first level of the game or some such.

    I keep my hopes high as this game seems different from what I usually play, or played, I dont buy many games anymore.

  49. JB says:

    In portal there were interesting and sometimes challenging puzzles. Also note that portal was a quite short game. And in my oppinion portal would also become tedious if it was much longer.

    Put put the portal gun into a bigger world, for example as part of a half life game, with a lot of other things to do, enemies to fight, places to explore, scenery to enjoy and so forth, and we have a good game.

    My concern with Mirror’s Edge is that the concept needs the main person to alwasy keep moving, meaning there will not be time to do much of anything else without breaking the game flow.

    I think a better comparison than Portal would be a racing game. And some racing games do work very well and offer hours of fun, so maybe Mirror’s Edge will pull that off too. But I am very sceptical about it.

  50. Ian B. says:

    @Illiterate:

    Perhaps it's just the youtube encoding, but I found myself feeling a bit motion sick watching that.

    From what I’ve seen, it simulates head bobbing more realistically than a lot of other games do so that might be causing you some grief.

    I’m sure they’d have an option to turn that off. Most games do.

  51. Miral says:

    I first heard about this game a couple of days ago, and must admit to the same sorts of feelings that others have expressed. (The whole “crap, another EA game; wait, this looks pretty interesting; this is awesome, must buy it; wait, it’s EA, it’ll have evil DRM; dammit” sequence.)

    I really hope they’ve backed off on their DRM stance before this comes out. Even though I’m not really a big fan of action games and I generally loathe jumping puzzles, somehow this still appeals to me, and I wants it, my precious! :)

    Still, I’ve already caved and decided to buy Spore despite the DRM. So it wouldn’t be unprecedented.

  52. Nazgul says:

    Overall I like the idea, particularly as a console game The graphics and feel look good. The “runner vision” was a little disappointing but I understand why the mechanic is there.

    Faith has staggeringly bad peripheral vision though. In this case, I think that would frustrate me quite a lot during play.

  53. RedClyde says:

    I first heard about Portal when you linked the trailer in 2006. Now you’ve found another gem, it seems. Thanks!

    I’ll be keeping an eye for this game. It looks really interesting.

  54. StingRay says:

    Thank god I’ve got a 360. Otherwise, I’d have another game on my list that would break my anti-DRM will. Damn you, Spore!

    I really enjoyed the Metroid Prime series. I’ve always loved Metroid, and I thought Prime really pulled off the feel of playing a side-scrolling Metroid game in first person mode. I’ll definitely be picking Mirror’s Edge up.

  55. neminem says:

    Alright, that’s pretty amazing. Hadn’t heard of it until now, but you can bet I’ll be watching it closely now. I don’t think the concept is ludicrous at all – I’ve always wanted more platformer-inspired FPSes. Couple that with the fact that it looks beautiful (I know, I shouldn’t be so shallow, but occasionally something just makes you say “wow”, and that trailer was one of those things).

  56. Luke Maciak says:

    Btw, Protal also had little arrows and signs that pointed you in the right direction. I see the red highlights as being something of that sort. I’m assuming that initially they highlight every pipe and ramp for you but as the game progresses you will likely see less of it.

    Also using red as guideline in scripted action/chase sequence would help to limit the DIAS play. If you know which way to run, you won’t keep getting stuck in a dead end and shot to pieces all the time.

  57. ngthagg says:

    “It's weird how every new and innovative games has to be compared to Portal now.”

    I like this trend, because it means I can blow off an innovative game with a derisive “Portal-clone” comment.

    I like the choice of protagonist here. Someone commented about a “super-model looking female” above. The physical appearance doesn’t matter, but the build is of someone who could actually do this sort of thing. A big person’s joints won’t hold up nearly as well, no matter how muscular they are.

    This looks like a very cool game. It reminds me a lot of speed runs (speeddemosarchive.org, I couldn’t get the tags to work), especially that teaser video.

  58. tocky says:

    I like how she has legs. Actually being to see bits of the character interact with the environment as she goes – that’s amazing. It’s something I’ve wanted to see in first person games for quite a while now.

  59. mephane says:

    First person is irritating without a mouse, but platforming is awful on a keyboard. I think for this game I'd go the console route, as the focus is on running and jumping more than pointing and shooting.

    Well, you can get a gamepad for the PC. Even the most expensive ones are still cheaper than buying a console, and you have the choice between mouse/keyboard and gamepad as you wish, and are not forced to “either… or”. ;)

  60. MechaCrash says:

    Unfortunately, “buy a game pad” does not solve the problem of “Electronic Arts hates consumer rights and gives you limited installs with online activation.”

    I bought a game with limited installs all of once (Temple of Elemental Evil from some download service, if you’re curious), and I got burned on it. Never again. If EA wants to treat me like a criminal, well to hell with them.

  61. Shamus says:

    I actually have a pretty good gamepad. (It’s pretty much an exact copy of a Dual Shock controller.) If by some miracle EA forgets to add their DRM, and if I happen to have a PC capable of running it, then I do think that the PC route would let me try both control schemes and see which is best.

    It really does depend on how much combat there is and how well they implement the stick-based camera control.

  62. Sam says:

    “First person platformer” is something I’ve considered ever since I played N. (You know, with the ninja and the physics and the stuff.)

  63. Zaxares says:

    Hmm, this is a very interesting concept indeed. I’m not sure if I’ll actually play the game (since I have a major fear of heights), but kudos to DICE for coming up with such an original concept. It’s a pretty compelling setting as well; I’ve always loved dystopian worlds and settings where here’s no clear cut distinction between good and evil.

  64. Sam says:

    So yeah anyway. Jumping around isn’t really that new in pc gaming, even when it comes to fps, but it’s always nice seeing someone getting up and taking a real stab at building a game round the concept. If they pull it off, it should be fairly awesome. And if they don’t, we can whine about it.

  65. Shamus says:

    Cinneris: So THAT’S where my cynicism went. Let me know when you’re done with it so I can have it back.

    More seriously, I am glad someone is taking up the role of responsible skeptic here. This game footage short-circuits the parts of my brain that think about that sort of thing, and it really feels reckless to go around loving a game before it comes out.

  66. justaguy says:

    Oddly, I think I’m the only gamer on the planet who is totally disinterested in Portal. Portal this, portal that… shut up about the cake! >.<

    And much like portal I don’t have any interest in this. Visually it looks neat in the trailers I’ve seen, but I don’t really have an interest in playing it. Course I don’t like non-first person platformers so I’m sure I’m biased.

  67. Anonymous says:

    Shamus, don’t forget that you can attach a keyboard and mouse to the 360 and PS3, and that you can always buy a gamepad for your PC. The platform you chose to buy the game for is not important.

  68. Heph says:

    Meh, the whole “EA is evil” thing is just another fad, in my opinion. Yes, DRM sucks balls (if I didn’t think so I’d find this blog a bit annoying :-P), but they’re far from the only one to do it, and they do put out good games.
    I admit, they’re a giant that’s bought up hundreds of smaller companies and some of them have had their games mangled. Some others have been “improved” in ways I don’t particularly care for. Some other games really have improved thanks to being part of a bigger thing and being able to fall back on knowledge and technology from other parts of EA.
    EA is a new Microsoft – for half the geek world, they can’t possibly do something good. People seem to have missed hom about 40% of games out there are EA, and that not all of their games are Fifa 200# and NHL 200# anymore.

    …which doesn’t excuse their DRM, of course, just saying it’s not necessarily bad because it’s EA. That’s like saying something will necessarily be good because it’s open source – usually said by the same people. Nonsense. Some good, some bad, blahblahblah.

  69. ngthagg says:

    “Meh, the whole “EA is evil” thing is just another fad, in my opinion.”

    If only DRM were just a fad.

  70. journeyman says:

    The setting is really interesting. It's a dystopian society with tightly regulated speech. Couriers use the rooftops to transport forbidden information. The main character is Faith, an athletic woman who has to backflip and drop-kick her way through faceless armed enforcers. It all sounds very dark and cyberpunk,

    First thing which popped into my mind was Snow Crash, except the Couriers (Kouriers) are using Parkour instead of souped-up skateboards.

    Second thing was HOLY CRAP THIS IS THE COOLEST GOODAMNED IDEA EVER

  71. StingRay02 says:

    “First thing which popped into my mind was Snow Crash”

    Where’s my Mafia Pizza Delivery game? I’m disappointed that one hasn’t been made yet.

  72. Fosse says:

    It actually seems blazingly conspicuous to send all of your sensitive information via acrobats on rooftops.

    I know we have gameplay to justify here, but it doesn’t take long to feel silly.

    I do think limited install and phone home DRM is the only reason I won’t buy this, if the end product shapes up look as good as it does so far.

  73. Shamus says:

    Fosse: Yes. You can sort of justify it by saying that while the police can see you ARE running around up there, they can’t tell what you’re transporting or if you’re even worth chasing. The plot does mention that the cops used to leave the runners alone until the onset of the game.

    But even this doesn’t really explain away the fact that the government can monitor all they want: Encryption is such that you CAN keep them from reading your mail if you really want to. Communicate with 512 bit encryption and chat away to your heart’s content. The odds of them breaking it are a lot lower than the odds of them catching some spaz prancing around on rooftops.

    But what the heck. I suppose if I’m willing to jump around with a dagger that controls time, I can swallow this.

  74. Derek K says:

    In the dystopian setting, it’s pretty much assumed that there is nothing on a computer a Console Cowboy (or whatever the term they prefer in the particular piece of work) can’t open up. The cracking technology has far far surpassed the securing technology, for people who really care.

    Also, it’s a lot easier to kill a person than to destroy a trail in cyberspace. If, you know, things go wrong.

  75. Novarum says:

    Actually Shamus, funny enough, the first thing I thought of when I watched the preview and heard the concept was your book, Free Radical. More specifically, it brought to mind the flashback where Deck did his last run as a courier.

  76. Otters34 says:

    Ever notice no-one in a dystopian conservative(yes, I know not all of them are, but the tremendous majority are) future never think of leaving?

    Seems obvious to me, then again, I think Superman/Clark Kent is a deeper and more interesting character than Bruce Wayne/Batman, so it just goes to show…

  77. Barron says:

    Conservative vs. liberal dystopias probably depend largely upon who is writing the story. If you are living in the 40s and watching the rise of the Soviet Union, you fear the left and write 1984. If you are living in the 80s and hate the conservative party, you take 1984, make the government right-wing, and write V for Vendetta. If you are a Hollywood script writer, you are probably left-leaning, so your dystopian government is right-wing. In practice a police state doesn’t need to be liberal or conservative ideologies, though on paper left-wing anarchy wouuld be far less capable of building a police state. Did they actually make the distinction in the game?

    The gameplay doesn’t really excite me either. I would hope you at least have to time your own jumps. Otherwise I fear the game would end up being “look for the red object and run at it until the game makes you jump. Rinse. Repeat. Yawn.”

    I wouldn’t think to compare it with Portal. Portal was all about solving puzzles. Even with the same game mechanics, different rooms would mean a very different experience. If the design goal is instead to keep the player running and not thinking, I don’t see that you could come up with much variety for the game.

    I hope it ends up being great, but I hope there’s more to the gameplay than we see so far

  78. OM3G4 says:

    Fosse: Of course if you can suspend your disbelief a bit on the note of encryption, you could think of it as something similar to 1984 where the government controls and reads essentially everything.

  79. Katrani Merack says:

    Question: What’s DRM?

    And for those of you complaining about all the red, watch the second video Shamus has from 1:46 to about 2:00. The vent doesn’t turn red, and from what I can tell you have no idea if you’re supposed to get up to that vent or not. I might be wrong, though- the sound fo rthe first bit was a little wonky, so I dunno if it tells you in-came that you’ll reach a point where you’ll have to climb a vent.

    Personally, I’ll go with the cybernetic explanation. The mark below Faith’s eye seems like it might be something to show she has her eye(s) enhanced. In a society where messages are all controlled, I can’t believe that the government wouldn’t want everyone who’s had some sort of enhancement have some visible mark of it.

    Also, I agree that Faith- while maybe a bit unrealistic still- doesn’t look like an anorexic supermodel with Dolly Parton’s chest. It’s a nice change.

    I can’t say much for first-person games, since really hte only one I’ve played is Jet Force Gemini (anyone else remember that?) but this looks really good to me, very original for being a first-person.

  80. DGM says:

    Katrani,

    DRM stands for “Digital Rights Management.” Basically, it’s whatever method is used to keep unauthorized people from using software, music, etc.

    In the case of games these days, that often means online activation – you have to get on the internet and register with the publishing company before the game will run. If you poke around this blog, you’ll find that Shamus has ranted mightily on this subject.

  81. Katrani Merack says:

    Ah. i sees. And yes, I have poked around a bit. I sort of forget stuff that seems like techno-babble to me, though. In one ear and out the other. So I’ll know it while I’mr eading where it’s explained, bu t as soon as I”m done I’ll have forgotten.

  82. Steve C says:

    The final mission in Mirror’s Edge should be to deliver a cake to a top secret research lab.

  83. Derek K says:

    AND YOU NEVER COMPLETE IT.

  84. John says:

    It woulda been cool to see these mechanics in a Batman or Spiderman game.

  85. JoeFF85 says:

    I picked this game up the other day after much deliberation (all the reviews seemed to be mixed, etc.) and I love it. Runs damn fine on highest settigs on a machine a couple years behind top shelf, with one patch-corrected bug (of fairly serious proportions – the game crashed to its menu during a level load!)

    The only DRM that I saw was a CD Key and Disk-in-Drive, which is practically nothing by EA’s standards. The red-highlights can indeed be turned off or on in the menu (and are always off on hard mode, etc) and only mark the optimal path, not the only one (unless there is only one path, which does happen from time to time, but only for like a single obstacle at a time.)

    Enemies are usually present but I’ve only encountered two or three instances where I HAD to fight, but two of them were against squad-sized elements that I had to hide from, split apart, and take down one at a time.

    All in all, this game is very very good.

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