Mirror's Edge

February 29, 2008 - The cliché of delivering an
"open-world" game is something that developers have been touting since
the last generation of consoles. Giving players a massive sandbox to
roam around in is certainly a fad of today's market, but that alone
isn't enough to satiate the appetites of those who have been playing
the Grand Theft Auto series over the last several years. Mirror's Edge,
from DICE the creators of the celebrated Battlefield series, presents
players with a familiar setting. There's a giant city, you can go
anywhere, leaping your way up and across the face of buildings,
scaffolds, and generally anywhere that you can see. The twist? It's all
delivered through one of the most active first-person displays that
we've ever seen.

During this year's GDC we were given a peak into the world of Mirror's
Edge to see what DICE has in store for those who doubt their ability to
concoct a story-driven open-world action/adventure game. As we said,
the biggest difference between Mirror's and the rest of the field is
the fact that it's delivered through a first-person perspective.
Obviously this presents some difficulties to the development team
beyond the usual hurdles with a standard first-person title.


Don't look down. You looked down!


As soon as our demo fired up we were greeted with a shot of who we were
later told was Faith. She's the main character of the story and
everything within Mirror's Edge will be seen through her eyes. The
story follows Faith as she tries to clear her sister's name as she was
framed by the menacing, totalitarian government that rules the region
with an iron fist. Guiding Faith along her way is Mercury. Right now we
just know him as Mirror's Edge's answer to Cortana, but we're guessing
the character will get fleshed out later down the line.

Though the story has plenty of promise, it's the gameplay that was the
most intriguing aspect. Unlike most first-person games the camera is
actually fairly free-flowing. Not in the sense that you can rotate it
anywhere you like, any game can do that. Instead the camera in Mirror's
Edge flows with your movement much more than any game we've seen. As
Faith stood atop a skyscraper gazing out across the massive, as yet
nameless, metropolis the camera panned to reveal an incredible
infrastructure, all of which will surely be traversed at one point or
another. As Faith began to move the camera bobbed with her steps, just
as other games have done but it's when she picked up speed when things
changed.


High kick.


As she entered into her sprint the camera started moving just as your
head would, bobbing feverishly around the screen. Not to the point of
feeling chaotic or disorganized, but just enough to make it feel like
you're actually sprinting. Then it came time to clear a gap between the
starting rooftop and an adjacent building. Faith sprinted to the edge
and then vaulted into the air, the camera moved around, showing her
legs kicking in mid-air, arms flailing as if to sell the feeling of
being hundreds of feet above the ground. I totally bought it.

The team at DICE continued to hammer home the point during their
presentation that the feeling of momentum and fluid movement was very
important to the gameplay dynamic within Mirror's Edge.
As Faith made her landing on the adjoining rooftop she immediately
sprinted toward a fence, vaulted it, slid under a set of pips and then
began traversing a thin metal pipe to yet another building. It all felt
like one continuous movement, similar to cycling between pieces of
cover in Gears of War only a bit more natural.

The combat – yes, there is fighting in Mirror's Edge – that we saw was
hand-to-hand though EA says there will be a wide range of weapons too.
The action sequence in our demo featured a guard standing on a rooftop.
Faith sprinted up to him and in one sequence of kicks and leg sweeps
the guard found himself planted on the ground. There will be gunplay as
well, though. Faith can snag the weapons of her victims and use them
for her own benefit, but once the ammo on that gun is depleted she
needs to find a new means to bring the pain.


The city.


To help Faith in her quest Mirror's Edge gives players the classic
combat technique of bullet time, known as reaction time here. We didn't
get to see it in action, but it will be there in the final version.
Also working alongside our fearless heroine is a simple highlighting
system that points out objects in the surroundings that Faith can use.
It's nothing too obtrusive, just a red aura that emanates from certain
environmental pieces. I'm hoping that only story-related objects (those
needed to progress) are highlighted so that the game's metropolis stays
as open as possible for crazy climbing antics.

All of these actions and fluidity of movement couldn't be pulled off
with an overly complex control scheme. Luckily for us, we weren't the
only ones to realize that fact. DICE mapped two essential actions to
two buttons. There's an up button which is used for climbing, and
there's a down button which is used to slide under low objects. This
allows for Faith's graceful movements to shine through a bit more than
they would elsewhere where players would need to roll, jump, get into
cover, and duck all with separate button presses.


Zipline.


What little gameplay we saw within the world of Mirror's Edge looked
very promising. That having been said, there were still plenty of
issues to be ironed out before the end of the year rolls around (EA is
standing firm that the game will have a 2008 release). The framerate
hitched like crazy when the camera panned around the city and the few
areas that we saw showed their relative immaturity. Nevertheless, the
foundation is there for one hell of a wild ride.