Leveling Down

In Mirror’s Edge, sometimes you have to just take a leap of faith and hope you land on that next building rooftop…

Mirror’s Edge was a game that sort of flew under the radar for me but when it got closer to launch I got more excited. Nowadays it seems like I’m simply playing one shooter after another, so I came to realize that I would appreciate something different. Mirror’s Edge was the breath of fresh air that I needed.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the epic storyline and length of BioShock nor an addictive multiplayer component like Call of Duty. What it does have though is pretty much what will determine whether you will enjoy this game or not: Time trials.

That’s where I think Mirror’s Edge is at its most fun since you’re actively trying to beat your best times and figuring out new methods to getting past a certain obstacle quickly. If you enjoy playing racing games and practicing courses over and over again trying to shave precious seconds off your lap time, then Mirror’s Edge should have you under a similar thrill but this time in the role of a first person game.

Good
- innovative new “parkour” style gameplay that plays intuitively
- accurate physics engine that takes into account player momentum, how much camera should shake, etc.
- interesting and aesthetically pleasing color design throughout the levels

Bad
- short campaign
- not a very captivating storyline
- combat needs a little bit of work

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Mirror’s Edge – getting closer and closer to the 1000. The question at this point is whether I want to get the full 3 stars on all 23 time trials (69 total) or just quit after the 50 required for the Achievement…

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway – pretty short game and the storyline is picking up a bit in the second half of the game. I should have it done by this weekend.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – at first I was pretty annoyed that the game was co-op (because I’d be playing with an AI controlled partner the whole campaign) but then my friend JPKewl got it so now I’m enjoying it a little more now that we can play all the missions together. We’re kind of slowly going through it whenever we both have time to play.

Unreal Tournament III – ended up picking this up at Best Buy last night since it’s on sale for $20 this week. I realize that it doesn’t have matchmaking and most of the online is dead (has co-op though), but I actually miss the game since I loved Unreal Tournament and UT2K4. I figure $20 is enough to play against bots on 50 different maps if that’s what it comes down to. Wish this version still had the Assault game type though but this video sold the game to me.

Prince of Persia – will probably get started on this next as my primary single player experience once I complete Mirror’s Edge and Brothers in Arms: HH this weekend. Heard it was sort of short so I might as well get through it.

Left 4 Dead – feels a little weird going back to campaign mode after spending time on versus mode. When you’re on a good team it’s awesome but when you’re with bad/non-mic players it’s probably one of the worst gaming experiences ever.

Going to change up my weekly thoughts entries to shortened gaming related thoughts I’ve had each week. Here’s this week:

Left 4 Dead – Finally got the 1000. Dang it why did one of my friends have to just get the game this week though. Why couldn’t he have gotten it weeks ago?!

Shadowrun – Cool now maybe I can get back into this for multiplayer since I no longer have another multiplayer game to play at the moment.

Mirror’s Edge – Stupid Time Trial modes. I better just suck it up and beat them. Maybe I can clear them out this weekend.

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway – I should try to beat this soon so I can get rid of it while it still has some value.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – I wanted to start it but it’s getting bumped down so I can get through Brothers in Arms first.

Call of Duty: World at War – Tried it out again recently and maybe I won’t be able to hit the first Prestige after all. It’s just not fun anymore and the fact that I’ll have to put maybe 20 more hours in to get it means I’m pushing it back in my backlog queue in hopes the desire comes back later.

Prince of Persia – Looks interesting, but dang it there’s an Achievement for collecting like 1001 gems or something in the game? Ugh I’ll get to it later then. Same reason I ended up putting Naruto: Rise of a Ninja off.

Gears of War 2 – Epic announced that they’re actually going to release a patch to balance the multiplayer game sometime this month? Too late. And why aren’t they fixing the matchmaking that still takes 10 minutes to find a game?!

Mirror’s Edge at times almost seems like a more fast-paced Portal

Having finished Fallout 3 last week, I decided to move onto Mirror’s Edge for my next single player game to focus on. I heard that the game was short, so I sort of wanted to knock it out of my backlog while it was still pretty new. In truth, yes the game’s storyline is quite short. There’s only 10 levels, and I was able to go through the Easy and Hard difficulties over this past weekend with each playthrough only taking about four hours. But if I want the 1000 points, I’m probably going to be playing it for another 15 hours or so due to the Time Trials and such. To be honest, there’s just not enough there for it to be a $60 title – $40 would have been a lot nicer considering it shares similarities to Portal and Portal was only one component of The Orange Box.

I enjoyed the game though. It’s a little bit bland to me since there’s not much gunplay or killing in this game. Maybe I’m too used to the adrenaline rush that comes from shooters, but Mirror’s Edge does have a certain appeal to it. A lot of the game seems to be you being pursued as you run, jump, and climb through areas as fast as you can. There is certainly a rush there, but it’s not a “dominating” adrenaline rush you get from shooters, but one of being prey – you’re running for your life!

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