E3 2008 | Mirror's Edge
Das Gamer Gets Some Hands On Time With Mirror’s Edge
August 08, 2008
When you think DICE, you think Battlefield, an award eating warfare based shooter franchise for the PC. DICE has recently seen some success with their latest console venture (and some would say first successful console title) Battlefield: Bad Company. Sure, blasting away at soldiers and vehicular mayhem seems to be almost second nature to DICE, but what about Parkour? Really? An odd concept on paper has seemingly turned into one of the most exciting titles I got my hands on at E3. Even though there is combat, just as in the art of Parkour, the main goal of Mirror’s Edge is to get from point A to point B in the safest and most efficient way possible.
The world of Mirror’s Edge takes place in a controlled society where transportation is ridiculously expensive, and communication is difficult. The majority of the city’s inhabitants don’t complain too much. There’s not a lot of crime, and they can go about their everyday lives – even if everything they do is being watched by Big Brother. However, not everyone is cool with being monitored, and a band of rebels called runners help deliver messages to help people communicate without any monitoring. The police initially left runners alone, but that’s changing for some reason.
You play as Faith, a sexy nimble young tart who is learning the skills of free running through the city. Faith isn’t super human, or bionic, and won’t be gaining access to rocket boots or anything of the sort. Faith can sprint, wall run, teeter across pipes, and perform vertigo-inducing leaps from building to building. Surprisingly, everything is as fluid as can be, with context sensitive controls centered around the two left shoulder buttons – up moves like jumping and climbing, and down moves for slides and rolls. As long as you keep your momentum moving forward, Faith can pull off some astounding acrobatics.
One of the concerns DICE is attempting to alleviate is motion sickness. Everything in Mirror’s Edge takes place from the first person perspective. Much like you would see a gun in a FPS, you’ll see Faith’s fingerless red gloves grabbing ledges and pipes, and her legs air walking when she’s Air Jordaning across urban canyons. However, with an extremely wide field of view and the only visual HUD element consisting of a dot, how is DICE helping people not drop the controller and reach for barf bags?
“We’ve done a lot of research in simulation sickness. Obviously some people playing first person games in general can feel sick when playing. That gives you a focal point.” Said Mirror’s Edge Producer Nick Channon. “A good example is ballerinas when they do pirouettes they find a focal point and look at it and when they stop, they’re not feeling dizzy.”
As I worked my way through the two level demo, I didn’t really feel all that queasy. I was more impressed with how easy it was to dash across rooftops, scale walls and fences, and fly from building to building. However, for as much fun as Faith’s mobility is, you will run into some opposition. In the demo, Faith had to disarm a few police officers with some hand-to-hand disarms reminiscent of Namco’s Breakdown. Faith can slide tackle, kick, and flip officers with ease. She can also grab their rifles, and while you can actually shoot enemies, Faith will lose all of her Parkour skills while she uses firearms.
Channon alluded to a special achievement for players that complete the game without ever pulling a trigger. No easy feat considering this game technically qualifies as a first person shooter. DICE is standing pat on the plot of Mirror’s Edge. Come back to Das Gamer for more info on Faith and how she became a runner. Till then you can always read their marketing plan comic book. Mirror’s Edge is shaping up as one of the truly exhilarating games slated for 2008.
–Billy Berghammer
