mirrorsedgereview

So a few weeks ago I wrote up a post spit balling what criteria should we at Bonus Level should follow when we review a game. It’s over here if you want to read it. It was a long winded article that I am sure has numerous grammar mistakes. But I’ll reiterate what was said then -

    Must be a full retail game. Either bought or rented.
    Must complete the entire single player campaign
    If the game has mulitplayer it must be played for at least five hours
    Reviews are to be broken down into three categories. Buy it. Rent it. Skip it

Some have mentioned a more traditional grading scale would be more practical. Like 8 out of 10 or 3 out of 5 stars. It would mesh better with metacritic when we get on there. That for newcomers it is easier to follow. Can’t say that those arguments don’t hold water because they do.

But then I am reminded of the best grading scale ever for reviewing anything in any moving medium, film, tv or games. Thumbs. Thumbs up or thumbs down. Back when it was Siskel and Ebert if you heard the saying Two Thumbs Up you knew it was a great movie and a must see. That’s really all you ever needed to know. Well that and the title of the flick. It’s simple. Elegant really. So for at least MY reviews I’m going to forgo numbers or stars and use the Buy it, Rent it, Skip it model. Paul and Jess and guest reviews are MORE than welcome to use whatever system they choose as long as they quantify it. If it’s out of ten what would you consider a ten? Same for stars or letter grades. Pretty simple right?

So to quantify a Buy it game would be Mass Effect. A Skip It would be Call of Duty 3 for the Wii. I really hated COD3 for the Wii. Did not live up to what I thought it would be. So on with the review!

Mirrors Edge game out during the Christmas rush that happens every year. The game was developed by DICE, which is owned by EA. Before I go any further, I want to commend EA for making a new intellectual property with this game. We tend to get caught up in sequel fever around here, and it is refreshing to see a wholly new game come out. So for that alone, this game peaked my interest.

The story of the game isn’t really anything to write home about. In fact, the basic story is pretty much on par with any decent anime. Which, honestly, to me isn’t saying much. I like anime as much as the next guy who hit their teenage years right before the internet made it easy to get porn and had to resort to anything with boobies. Basically, some future city rules all with an iron fist and controls all communication except for the Runners, who run along the rooftops from point A to point B. And then some shit happens. I didn’t find myself skipping through the cutscenes, even if they were quite predictable.

The gameplay is interesting. The game itself is a cross between a platformer, racing game, FPS and puzzle game, all from a first person perspective. The game presents itself as a sandbox game that wants you to find your own way from point A to point B, but that really isn’t true. There are only a few ways to get anywhere in the game, and you have to find them. If the level is inside a building, then you pretty much have only one way to go.

The game for me falls apart at how frustrating the ‘grab’ detection is. There is almost no forgiveness to it. You will die many times because you did not hit that pipe dead on or hit the one action button at the right time. It is very frustrating but wasn’t a deal breaker for me. I kept playing the game. But if they make a sequel to the game, they gotta give you a bit more leeway to the grabbing. Maybe step away from the Zelda gameplay and give us more then one button that does everything. That would be nice.

The game talks early on about how Runners see the city differently then everyone else. They see the flow to it. And by golly, by the end of the game I was seeing the flow. At the end there is an epic chase that if you fall behind you lose and I was keeping up even though I hadn’t played the level before. I was with the flow. It was also the most satisfying part of the game because of it. It’s exactly what you want to do with the game too. String together fun ass moves and running bitches down. But it was the last level.

And here is the biggest problem with the game to me. It’s too damn short. I beat the whole game in about eight hours. And once I beat it, I had no interest in playing the game again. None. I’m not against short games in any way. The first Metal Gear Solid can be played in under ten hours, but, boy what a ten hours. But as I said, once you really start to master the game, the game is over. Which is a shame really. If they had two or three more levels after that point, the game may have been a classic. But as I said, the story was a little weak, so at least they didn’t try to stretch it out like say another game EA released around the same time – Dead Space.

The game also has a time trial mode which is a lot of fun a few times but overall didn’t hold my attention for long. Basically, it’s you versus the world. No cops or people chasing you. You’re just trying to get from point A to B as quickly as possible. This is when you will notice that the game isn’t really a sandbox game, which isn’t a horrible thing at all. It’s not like they advertised it as such. I think that while I was playing it, I had WISHED it was a sandbox game because that would be so so much cooler. The time trial mode is the closest thing we got to a multiplayer mode. The “can you beat your friends best time?” So the fact that the game has no multiplayer hurts the re-playability of the game.

So what is the final verdict of the game? I generally liked the game. I didn’t love it. I would play any sequel that came out in a heartbeat, but I’m not going to own the first one. Not for 60 bucks. So I say rent it.

-Lance

PS I can’t recommend this time waster any more highly.