{"id":1795,"date":"2008-08-05T11:00:13","date_gmt":"2008-08-05T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=1795"},"modified":"2008-08-17T10:06:59","modified_gmt":"2008-08-17T15:06:59","slug":"mirrors-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=1795","title":{"rendered":"Mirror’s Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

But one game has caught my eye. Now, I almost never<\/em> 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. <\/p>\n

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

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Understand that I find this footage to be almost hypnotic in nature. The movement, the music<\/a>, 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<\/em> this trailer. <\/p>\n

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

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<\/em>: <\/p>\n

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This trailer<\/a> shows off a little of the combat, which is a mix of (first person!) martial arts and shooting:<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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<\/a>, where an insidious culture wore a utopian mask. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[106],"class_list":["post-1795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dream-cast","tag-mirrors-edge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}