Welcome to the Flow

Published November 19, 2008

Developer DICE has long been associated with the Battlefield franchise, but with Mirror's Edge™ for Xbox 360® they have stepped away from their comfort zone to create something radically different. Mirror's Edge takes acrobatic platforming inside the first-person perspective, creating a brand new genre in the process and proving that a combination few believed could work not only succeeds, but triumphs.

Better keep your vertigo in check.

You play Faith, a runner who uses her athleticism to scamper across city rooftops to deliver sensitive documents safely and discreetly to her clients. The white-washed dystopian city in which the runners operate has quashed nearly all personal freedom in the name of security, so the only way to pass information freely is through the use of runners.

If you crave originality and look to support innovation, you can hardly ask for a better example.

Perspective
Mirror's Edge takes no shortcuts in its dedication to platforming. If you've seen it in a third-person game, you'll do that and more from the first-person point of view here. Wall running, tightrope walking, zip-lines, ledge shimmies, ramp slides, wall-climbing, bar-jumping, they're all present and accounted for.

Where the game truly shines is in giving all of these actions the proper sense of speed and immediacy. Freefall to a nearby building roof and perfectly time your tilt and roll to maintain your momentum. Or, fail and land flat with an impact devastating in feel.

DICE has done a remarkable job of perfecting the nuances of the perspective so that you feel immersed not just in a floating head, but in an active, athletic body capable of truly outstanding feats of agility.

Even just running in a straight line and hearing Faith breathe and pick up speed is exhilarating, to say nothing of the tilt of her body and the sight of her scampering feet out to the side during a wall run, or one-handing a ledge you mistimed slightly and feeling her swaying back and forth as she prepares to climb up. Every action has an appropriate reaction.

Not … gonna … make … it.

The Flow
Timing a perfect release from a zip-line to a roof below is satisfying, but a combination of slickly chained moves of equal parts action and reaction leaves you tingling with a sense of inspired achievement.

For example, you might use a small crate as a springboard to leap over a chain-link fence. Then, when you realize you're just going to miss your target, hit Left Trigger to pull up your feet and clear the obstacle, land and slide under a pair of pipes, then pop up right at the feet of an enemy, and disarm them with a perfectly timed button press. That's Mirror's Edge at its finest.

Platforming Mechanics
An intelligent control scheme and the Runner's Vision feature facilitate this flow. The face buttons (A, B, X, Y) are hardly used, so you rarely ever have to take your thumb off the all-important Right Thumbstick, which you use to look around and change direction. Instead, use LB for high maneuvers (jump) and LT for low ones (slide). These controls are context sensitive as well, so if you run and jump at a wall at an angle, Faith will automatically begin wall running. Do so while running right at the wall and she'll run straight up it to reach the ledge above.

Runner's Vision paints parts of the world around you red so you see the city as Faith does, allowing you to pick out particularly choice platforming opportunities. These parts are only painted red when you're close enough to them. This helps you feel "the flow" as you react naturally and instinctively to new opportunities, rather than stopping and surveying the skyline for red elements to scope out your route.

Always look ahead to the next move.

Blues
Mirror's Edge may be a first-person game, but a shooter it is not. Faith is not a well-armored soldier. When the Blues (cops) show up, it's time to skedaddle. You will occasionally be put to the test in combat, and just like every other aspect of the game, it's athleticism and reflexes that see you through the conflict.

Punching it out with the Right Trigger is not terribly effective. Faith specializes in running and sliding attacks, and the more spectacular the attack, the better the outcome. Kicking may do a bit of damage, but wall running, jumping and kicking will send the enemy spinning 180 degrees, allowing you to easily disarm them.

Runner's Vision can help with disarming enemies. An enemy's gun glows red if they attempt to pistol whip or rifle butt you. Press Y during this short window to disarm and incapacitate them. Better yet, you can trigger a slow-motion Reaction Time so you can more easily time these otherwise difficult attacks.

No room for error.

Speed Runs
The game story line rockets through nine exhilarating chapters, but when you "finish" the game and the credits roll, you have only traded one chapter for another, as both Speed Runs and Time Trials await.

It's here, when only speed matters, that precision execution and absolute economy of movement are required. Every Time Trial and Speed Run time is posted to the Leaderboard to be compared and contrasted with both your Friends List and the very best players in the world. This includes your Ghost so your friends can download your score and race not just against your time, but a virtual recreation of your run as well.

Time Trials are shorter affairs broken up into mandatory checkpoints. They use the settings from each level as a playground to create unique tracks. Speed Runs on the other hand are comprised of entire levels from the story line, complete with enemies.

Mirror's Edge is a testament to DICE and EA's willingness to take an enormous gamble on a genre that didn't even exist yet. That it succeeds entirely is truly remarkable. If you crave originality and look to support innovation, you can hardly ask for a better example.

Article by Ryan Treit