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This review is purely based on my experience of this game. I tried my best not to let other games affect my view of this game too much and rate everything on an for this game appropriate scale! This review does contain spoilers, some of which may not be marked as such!
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☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
Even though this game came out in 2008, this game still looks very beautiful.
Of course, because this game is focussed to get from point A to point B as fast as possible, there is not much detail added, because it's not necessary.
However, I do enjoy the simplicity and the used colours in this game. The lighting in all areas (outdoor and indoor) are perfect!
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
Mirror's Edge is a parkour game with a very small amount of combat. So you're basically mostly running around rooftops and other areas, jumping and vaulting over things, while running away from the cops.
In some levels, cops will spawn in front of you and the game gives you the choice to engage in combat or use your parkour skills to dodge them.
There are no difficult buttons/keys you have to memorise. The most you'll do is running, jumping and crouch/rolling.
Since the game is completely "first-person", you see everything from the character's eyes, which is super immersive. All the parkour elements are super smooth and very satisfying when you perform a nice combo of vaulting/jumping/rolling.
Also, the game is very friendly towards new players, with subtle hints using the colour red, to push you towards your objectives. Also IF you'd choose to engage in combat, the enemies have more "stormtrooper aim" and when trying to disarm cops, they react slower or you can use "slow-motion" to disarm them easier.
In higher difficulties, these options are not there, so you have to be quick enough or know the levels, to know where to go.
(There is a button which you can press at any time and your character looks in the direction where you have to go).
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
The audio in Mirror's Edge is just right. For a 2008 game, it's actually pretty good.
No silly sound effects or unrealistic gunshots.
Also, the sounds that you make while running around feel correct.
While walking on a stone ground, it sounds different then walking on glass for example.
So the audio is good in this aspect.
In-game, there isn't that much music, since you're mostly parkouring from A to B, but when there is combat, there is a little bit of music to make these parts a bit more intense.
Also, I LOVE the soundtrack "Still Alive" by Lisa Miskovsky. Which is the theme song of this game!
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
On the box, it's mentioned that this game is 16+, but this can easily be played by younger teens too.
There is a minor amount of blood/gore and like in almost every game that is 16+ there are some "bad words", but the game doesn't focus on any of this.
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
The reason why I selected "Decent" and "Fast", is because you have some options which you can enable to make the game look better and add some more elements to it, for which your computer needs to have a little bit more power.
But since this game came out in 2008, you won't need a high-tech super gaming PC to be able to finish this game.
Requirements, as mentioned by Steam:
- Supported OS: Microsoft Windows® XP SP2 or Vista
- Processor: 3.0 GHz or faster
- Memory: 1 GB RAM or more
- Graphics: DirectX® 9.0c compatible video card, Shader Model 3.0 required. Video card must have 256 MB, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or better
- Hard Drive: 8 GB free space
- Sound: DirectX® 9.0c compatible sound card
- INTERNET CONNECTION, ONLINE AUTHENTICATION AND ACCEPTANCE OF END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT REQUIRED TO PLAY. TO ACCESS ONLINE FEATURES, YOU MUST REGISTER ONLINE. ONLY ONE REGISTRATION IS AVAILABLE PER GAME. EA ONLINE TERMS & CONDITIONS AND FEATURE UPDATES CAN BE FOUND AT www.ea.com. YOU MUST BE 13+ TO REGISTER WITH EA ONLINE.
* Starting January 1st, 2024, the Steam Client will only support Windows 10 and later versions.
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
According to Steam, the game is less then 8 GB "big", so you won't need a lot of storage to play this game.
If I remember correctly, when I booted up the game, Steam was installing some additional "first time playing" files, so it might be around 8 GB or a little bit more in total.
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
As mentioned above, the game is very easy to learn, because you basically mostly run/jump/crouch. However, the game becomes more difficult if you progress through the levels.
There is a tutorial, which you can skip, but for first time players, it's nice to get used to the controls and the movement of this game.
You will need to do some "combo's" to reach higher points in the level, to progress further. This is also pretty easy to learn, but gets harder if you're rushing the game or when the cops are chasing you.
This game also has a very big speedrunning community, so if you want to learn some of the speedrunning "tech", then the game becomes VERY hard.
Some speedrunners practiced years to perfect their runs.
However, if you just want to casually play this game, you should become used to the game's mechanics and levels by just playing the game.
☐ Nothing to grind
☑ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
There is no level system in the game, you don't have to grind to get better gear or weapons. There are no in-game skills or challenge system to be able to finish the game.
There is a "time trials" mode, so for that, you might need to grind a bit, but then you're grinding your own experience to get better and be more quick with every run you do.
Unfortunately, there are no achievements on Steam, which is sad for achievement hunters (like myself).
I played this game when it came out on the PS3 and there where trophies (achievements), so it sucks a bit that they didn't port them over to Steam.
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☑ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
Don't get me wrong, I didn't select "Average" because the story is bad, but I rated it like this, because the story didn't feel super important to me.
I'm not going into much detail about the story, since mostly, I was enjoying the parkour elements, but below is some information about the story.
SPOILERS!
The game is set in a "near future" setting in an unknown year. Crime is almost "non-existant", but there is an underground organisation of parkour couriers, which are called "runners".
They operate independently from the city's security and surveillance measures. The runners are delivering private goods and sometimes sensitive information.
You play as "Faith Connors". Faith is trained by fellow "runner" Mercury or "Merc" for short. Merc is the one who talks to you via "coms" during the game.
Faith's sister "Kate" is a police officer, who tries to protect the city. She also has a lot of affection to Faith, but has to protect the city from crime.
After the first level, Faith delivers a package with another runner called "Celeste". After this level, Faith learns that the Mayor candidate has been killed and that her sister gets framed for this.
Faith tries to convince Kate to run away with her, but she refuses as this could make her look guilty.
Eventually, during the story and the game, you'll learn that the police is trying to bring Kate to a prison (and she's innocent of course). Faith travels through all the levels to find Kate and break her free out of the hands of the (corrupted) police.
During the rest of the game, you'll learn more about different characters and who might have framed Kate.
After the game's credits, we learn that Faith's actions have only served to intensify the city's security and that the location of both Faith and Kate are unknown.
As I mentioned before, the story didn't really stick to me, because I was more focussed on the gameplay itself, rather then the story. Between levels, the cutscenes and the story gets told by 2D animated scenes, which are all skippable.
(I have to mention here, that I really liked the art of the cutscenes).
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
Depending on what you'd like to do (just casually play through the game or get all the optional collectibles), according to How Long to Beat, the game takes between 6-8 hours to complete.
Speedrunners can finish the game in under 1 hour or even under 30 minutes.
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
As of writing this article, the price on Steam is 19.99€ which is a perfect price for such an "old" game.
There are also no microtransactions or additional DLC's. You just pay the price and you have the complete game.
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
In my playtime combined on the PS3 back in the day and on Steam (which should be around 20-30 hours), I can't even remember IF I had any bugs.
I think the only "bugs" or "glitches" in the game, are not visible to casual players, but are "abused" by speedrunners, by clipping through walls by doing some crazy combo's.
But if you're playing casually, then you shouldn't have any bugs.
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10
I really want to give this game a 9/10, but that would just be of nostalgic feelings, every time when I boot up the game and hear the theme song.
I think a 8/10 is a very solid score for one of the best parkour games I've ever played. The few points that are missing, could come from the parts in the game where you could get stuck on a puzzle and you have to back-track a bit, because you forgot to press a button.
Or maybe because in the outside world, the buildings all look the same for the most part.
But don't let my "negative" words above stop you from playing this game. If you're interested in parkour or enjoy watching parkour, then this game is absolutely something for you!