Mirror’s Edge

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DVDfever.co.uk – Mirror’s Edge Xbox 360 review Dom Robinson reviews

Mirror’s Edge for Xbox 360
Distributed by
Activision

game pic

  • Price: £49.99
  • Players: 1
  • Widescreen: Yes
  • 60Hz: Yes (optional)
  • HDTV: 720p/1080i/1080p
  • Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes
  • Xbox Live-enabled: Yes (not multiplayer)
  • Vote and comment on this film: View Comments

I fell in love with Mirror’s Edge as soon as I played the demo.

You take the part of Faith, a Runner couriering secretive documents between locations via the rooftops of the city. For those who’ve heard of free-running or Parkour, this is basically what it is – except you won’t get hurt in real life and the city in this game is a damn sight cleaner than your own. The main feature here comes in the Story Mode and the basic premise is that Mayor campaigner Robert Pope has been assassinated. Your friend Kate’s in the frame and you have to help her.

Of course, what you have to learn how to do is get from A to B without falling off – often to a certain death – and without being killed by the occasional bad guys who spot you and come after you. If they do, then you can’t simply return fire as you don’t have a weapon, but with a quick movement it is possible to take theirs from them. However, combat is often best avoided and you’re advised just to keep running rather than get into a fight. Although, if you do get involved, pressing X will enter slow motion mode when ‘Reaction time’ is available and this time can be built up while running.

Mirror’s Edge on Xbox 360:
Intro Level
Runner Vision is what often helps you make the best choice of direction as a red item will generally indicate what you need to jump off or aim for to continue your journey. That said, there are some locations where there’s just too much extraneous red all over the place – which isn’t at all helpful and defeats the purpose of what this was meant to achieve.

You’ll see from the game footage shown here that there’s some incredible visuals to amaze your eyes as you travel about with a first-person view across the Amime-esque landscape. Get the moves right and it flows like an absolute dream, making it feel a bit like the Virtual Reality segments in Strange Days. The game’s glorious in HD, too, and, if you suffer from vertigo, as I do, then you’ll get to feel some of that while playing this game. I love the music too, both for the main theme and the incidental music. It really gives the right ambience for this title. The sound FX as you run about and as Faith grunts when you mis-handle a jump and it really hurts when she lands comes across brilliantly.

Mirror’s Edge on Xbox 360:
Level 1 Part 1
In-game CGI sequences are handy as they help continue the narrative of the game and also act as checkpoints where the game is automatically saved, although I did come across one mid-level moment where…. “Loading Level”… came up, which really spoilt the flow. It happened during an underground tunnel in one of the pieces of footage uploaded.

There’s also a Race Mode with Time Trials that you can take part in, but you need to be registered to EA Online’s site to do this and I tried to access it but it told me it was unavailable. However, I thought the whole point of Xbox Live was to have one place alone for this kind of thing which I could just log into with my Xbox Live membership?! Score zero for that one, EA.

That said, you can play offline, but then you won’t be able to upload any of your ghost times to the network… although as things stand, I can’t anyway.

Mirror’s Edge on Xbox 360:
Level 2 Part 1
If this game has a failing then, while it’s fast and frenetic, there’s far too much trial and error. In this game you will die A LOT, making it both frustrating AND rewarding.

Overall, and this is also based on the fact that it’s one of the most original games I have seen in a long time, Mirror’s Edge is defintely one of my favourite games of 2008!

In this review, I’ve uploaded a number of clips which are as follows:

GRAPHICS
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ENJOYMENT


OVERALL
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2008. View the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus = 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>

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