Every console generation, a game will release that fundamentally changes the view of how a certain aspect is properly done. With the Nintendo 64/PlayStation era, Super Mario 64 changed the way that 3D games are viewed; with the Gamecube/Xbox/PlayStation 2 era, Halo changed the way that 1st person shooters on consoles are viewed. Now Mirror's Edge has come along and will change the way that platforming in a 1st person perspective is used.
Never has there been a game that so well takes advantage of the 1st person perspective to truly make the player feel that they are the character, that they are physically in the world and maneuvering through it. Mirror's Edge does a phenomenal job at giving a physicality to the way the player interacts with they world. Instead of just hopping from surface to surface, you can feel the impact as you hit the ground just a little to hard. You can sense your momentum building as you sprint across rooftops and down halls. The motion blur that fills the edge of your vision as you sprint only adds to the experience. You even feel as though you are Faith, fully utilizing the first person perspective by, "Gasp!", allowing you to actually see your body when look look down and perform actions in which more than just your hands would be shown. You see your legs as you slide down surfaces, your Mirror's Edge takes all of these aspects and combines them into one of the most immersive experiences.
Mirror's Edge has the proper way to do a control scheme locked down. By placing the primary actions on the trigger buttons it allows the player to keep their thumbs on their respective thumb sticks. This, of course, allows the sole focus to be on movement. DICE successfully placed the controls that were not tied to movement or required a specific view to activate on the face buttons. Activate, disarming and picking up weapons, hint, and runner's vision, Mirror's Edge version of bullet time, are all placed on the face buttons. These actions are the few that are not necessary when traversing the environment, only when the action slows down. This control scheme fits the game play perfectly. The only disappointment is that, since all combat, besides disarms, is tied to a single button, the move set is incredibly limited.
The rush of exploring the environment and finding the fastest way through never felt tiresome. It greatly helps that Mirror's Edge has some of the best graphics of this generation. The art style of stark white against bright primary colors both serves as a way to show the easiest way through the environment and craft a unique visual style. This easiest way is shown in a bright red, painting that particular object in the environment. This comes to great aid in sticky situations, which are plentiful, but for a greater challenge, can be turned off. The style perfectly fits the game and never ceased to be wonderful. It also reflects the story; in Mirror's Edge, this city, which was never named, has turned in to a 1984 style world with complete government control with constant surveillance. Faith, as a runner, is one of the only ways to transport information without it being monitored. Without spoiling anything, the narrative kicks off with Kate, Faith's sister, being framed for the murder of a prominent political candidate who wanted change from this oppressive society. While this is not a jaw dropping tale, it manages to at least remain marginally interesting throughout the story mode. The story is mostly told through very well done animated shorts before each level.
Of course the main draw of Mirror's Edge is its game play. All of the above aspects alone create a well done aspect of a game. Mirror's Edge manages to take all of them and combine it into a unique experience. Running over rooftops, sprinting through drains, and hauling ass through offices never ceased to be exhilarating. While the slower, pinpoint platforming sections and the required fighting sections felt unnecessary, they still were enjoyable, just to a lesser extent. There should be no doubt that Mirror's Edge is difficult. One of both the downsides and upsides is the difficulty, you will more than likely stuck in one of several choke points, trying again and again until the eventual victory. In a game so based around speed, this seems like it would hamper the overall momentum. The difficulty, while frustrating in some points, over all presents a nicely challenging experience.
Mirror's Edge is one of the best games this year. While the story mode may not be the longest, clocking in at around six hours, it seems an appropriate length for the intended experience. The fun does not end with the story mode. Much fun is to be had with the time trials. There are many specific, checkpoint based levels to run through and every story level can also be run through. Times can be compared to friends and leaderboards, and you can race a ghost of one of your own or any ones time. This mode presents almost endless replayability to carry you past the story mode. Mirror's Edge is a fantastic game and should be at least tried by all.
It seems that in Season 4, DICE has snuck in a Battlefield 2042 Mirror's Edge Easter egg in the new Flashpoint map.
Ubisoft Massive lead gameplay designer Fredrik Thylander, previously of DICE where he worked on Battlefield and Mirror's Edge, has spoken out about achievements and trophies, arguing that they "have been bad for gaming."
The achievements in Mirror's Edge opened my eyes to a whole other way of approaching the game. Since some of the toughest and most rewarding ones are basically whole levels turned into time trials with very strict time requirements, they force you to become much better at the game - in a way that difficulty levels just don't - and made me appreciate the mechanics that much more (especially the momentum-based running and platforming).
They actually made the game better for those like me who really enjoyed the game but wanted more of it, basically adding a new level of difficulty that took a long time to master/overcome. It added some extra longevity to a very short game.
He says "it eats resources that could have made the game better". I'm curious what he thinks the time he spent designing the achievements for the game would've been better spent on, because I expect bang for buck-wise achievements are a pretty efficient way of adding value to a game for the people who end up loving it.
I kinda see his point but I also see your point.
I've been trying to remember what games over the years have had their own trophies inside the game before trophies and such were a thing and all I can think of is the star ocean series
I think his point, though not elucidated upon because of Twitter limitations, is not that they can be bad but that they are used improperly to extend gameplay rather than reward actions.
Harvest Moon: Magical Melody on the GCN did.
In fact it actually built the game around it.
I am very OCD about playing games that I can platinum, in that sense I probably avoided playing games that I knew I would be unable to 100% complete.
I do think there are other people like me and also feel there should be an option for you to individually deactivate getting trophies on specific games, just so you play them and they do not go to your account.
I don't know. I used to think Achievements / Trophies were ruining games at first but then I saw the positive, if you totally love a game then they would offer you replay value by going after the last achievements to 100% the game. It made you explore every last bit of the game to achieve this and sometimes pushed you into areas or scenarios you probably might have missed.
It was a blast to get them on Oblivion / Skyrim, Fallout, Witcher, God of War, Elden Ring etc
Don't get me wrong, I do think there's achievements which are annoying, the ones where you need to find all collectibles which end up being missable AND are like trying to find a needle in a haystack are a kick to the balls, you know the majority of us are just going to use a guide to find them so what's the point.
Kind of a shame Nintendo haven't gotten a full system in place, they are so behind.
Nintendo seem to either be ahead of their time by years
or behind by 10 years
no in between
I enjoy having something to go for and feeling accomplished when doing something hard. I just hate it when achievements are based on things you can't really control. Like when something is for MP and the MP is just dead.
I used to be a hardcore achievement hunter back in the day, but I couldn't care less nowadays. I just want to play games the way I actually want to play them, and don't care to waste my time just to get a little pop-up.
I envy you sir. I just gotta have every single achievement whenever I play a game. On my Steam profile I have an 83% completion rate out of 35 games, and my OCD is telling me to keep upping that percentage higher.
Yeah. Back then, though I'm not sure what my actual completion rate was, I was mainly an Xbox player. I had close to 80k gamer score during the 360 days.
It just doesn't excite me anymore. I have less than 20% completion on my Steam account, though I have a pretty asinine amount of games there at the same time.
But I don't really bother with any of this anymore. If there's an interesting achievement I might aim for it just because I find it fun, but usually I just get that pop-up, say "cool" and continue with the game.
Never been a fan of achievements. I just want to play the game however it may present itself to me, there's an overflow of achievements to seek in real life lol
Great for those that enjoy them though, much respect to the platinum hunters, it ain't easy lol
The 2000s was a great decade for a lot of brilliant video games. Here are the ten best games of the 2000s that you may not have played.
You know usually when someone says "you may have missed" it's games that were lesser known, hidden gems, underrated games. These are all super high profile games that sold extremely well.
You know the 2000s is 20 years ago too? Maybe, just maybe this wasn’t an article targeted to 30+ gamers? Still says at the very beginning of the title “THE BEST GAMES you may have missed”. Regardless of how well they sold there’s tons of gamers who haven’t touched these older well known games lol.
It's games you "may have missed", insinuating you were around and gaming in the 2000's and were there to miss them. If it was aimed at everyone else then they missed literally everything, not just the top games.
The original commenter is right, this is a badly written article at best pointless at worst.
Besides only being able to miss it if you were around during that time..if your point stands then this is a horrible list. Tons of better games people may have missed
Oh yeah thanks for reminding me I totally forgot they were doing it. Also what the hell happened to Kingpin: Reloaded? On Steam coming soon and nohting from the dev.
Yeah, I was just going to say. It's interesting seeing them back behind the series. Max Payne 3 was amazing, but then Rockstar just sat on the IP.
Well, they sit on virtually anything that isn't GTA and Red Dead now.
What is this list? These are all hugely popular games. I was expecting games like Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, Advent Rising, Arx Fatalis, etc.
the title didn’t say lesser known titles from the 2000s. This is 20 years ago now lol. Big assumption this list was made for older gamers.
I've only played 3 on that list. Part of me feels bad about how little I used all the consoles I've owned as a kid. One bright side is, there's over 30 years of games to experience for the first time.
really nice review, well done. Can't wait to get this game now.