Mirror's Edge Review (PS3)

Mirror's Edge is a first-person shooter video game released on Playstation 3 and developed by EA DICE. This game received unbelievable amounts of coverage and hype because it allows you to leap from building to building while remaining in the first person perspective and having beautiful graphics. Let's take a closer look.

Story : Well there isn't much story here. The man is screwing over the people, you're part of a revolution, you gotta save a family member. All generic stuff you've seen at least a million times before. The story could have been better, especially considering the game's gimmick.

Graphics : I hear quite a few people trashing the graphics, but honestly the game's graphics are pretty good. One of the hardest things to do in games is correctly create an outdoors atmosphere. The correct draw distance, object amount, everything here is working against the animators they're basically limited by technology. If you factor in all those, they actually did a fantastic job. The cut scenes aren't very good looking, however. Some are even quite boring, not to mention poorly animated.

Sound : Really great sound effects here. Once again, it's hard to really and nuances to such a huge environment but they did a very good job, worthy of noting. The voice acting is solid and I have no complaints about it. The music is also quite good. Memorable, not very ambient, and well composed with a nice arrangement and tone.

Game play : Well, this is the moment we've all been waiting for. Are the roof jumping scenes as fun as they look? Oh yeah. Honestly, I was very skeptical but I was won over really easily. Roof jumping amidst the beautiful landscape was so much fun, I'm certain you could spend hours doing it. What really sells it are the smooth responsive controls and especially the graphics. Honestly, this is the first 3D game where I've ever enjoyed jumping on platforms. This is a great system with wonderful graphics. Amazingly fun. Until you go indoors. Jumping indoors just isn't as fun, and the fact that you have to do it so much really takes away from the game. One aspect of the game I do like though is many times combat isn't necessary. In fact you could say it's heavily implied that you should run away from most encounters. You can still fight though, if you're a bloodthirsty kind of player. This may be bad for you however, because the hit detection in this game is very wonky. Other times it works perfect, many times it makes no sense.

Re playability : This game is fairly short, about a day long even if you stretch it out. There's a few extra things to get but they're not very necessary. Overall not many extra things to do.

Overall : 9/10. I pointed out a lot of flaws in this game, so you may be wondering why I gave it a 9. Truth be told, originality and going against the grain score huge points with me as they should with all of us. Amidst a bloodbath of gruesome video games, this one offers something different. Highly recommended.