by The Film Blogger

Created on: September 13, 2009

The platformer-genre has been long-dominated by the third-person platform market, and it makes sense - among others, the likes of the Crash Bandicoot and Prince of Persia series have been huge successes, both critically and commercially, and so, quite simply, why fix something that isn't broken? Nevertheless, Mirror's Edge gaulfully tampers with the formula, instead placing the player in a first-person viewpoint as they attempt to traverse high-rise buildings and outrun a seemingly unlimited fleet of rent-a-cops.

Quite the hype machine has materialised around this title - one recalls a teaser trailer displaying the protagonist diving from a skyscraper, whilst shooting a baddie who decided to take a trip with her. Regrettably, this sequence did not make the final cut of Mirror's Edge, and resolutely, Edge is an ambituous, well-intended title that falls somewhat short of its true potential, making it one of the more frustrating titles in recent memory.

The game's highly unoriginal "nefarious totalitarian state" plotline plays mostly mute throughout this game, yet Swedish developers DICE are smart enough at least not to posit the pretense of narrative depth, instead keeping things, for the most part, fast and intense. You control a young woman by the name of Faith, a "runner", who uses her tremendous parkour (free running) skills to aid the revolution, be it rescuing delegates or simply delivering messages. Aside from a few cartoon cut-scenes sandwiched between the action, there is little plot to speak of, yet, given the unrelenting pace of the game, this is largely a good thing for the sake of intensity.

Edge's gameplay hinges on Faith's free-running skills - she is able to run along walls, perform great leaps without sustaining injury, and these skills are also occasionally helpful in combat, be it in disarming the enemy, or simply disabling them. Furthermore, Faith is imbued with what the game calls "runner vision", whereby useful objects to reach the next objective are highlighted in red, meaning the player has some semblance of a chance (although the runner vision can be turned off if you're feeling frisky). The general structure of the gameplay is fairly agreeable - the acrobatics remind one instantly of Prince of Persia, yet to this effect it is party to the same issues as that series. Due to the complex and unpredictable physics employed in the game, Faith too often becomes trapped in objects, or reacts in an unintended way that causes you to die.

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