[Review] Mirror's Edge

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Mirror's Edge is a first-person action-adventure platform video game developed by EA DICE and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in November 2008, and in January 2009 for Microsoft Windows. Mirror's Edge is powered by Unreal Engine 3, with the addition of a new lighting solution, developed by Illuminate Labs in association with DICE.

Mirror's Edge is set in a quasi-futuristic dystopian society, in which a network of 'runners', including the main character, Faith Connors, act as couriers to transmit messages while evading government surveillance. In the style of a three-dimensional platform game, the player guides Faith over rooftops, across walls, through ventilation shafts, and otherwise within urban environments, negotiating obstacles using movements inspired by parkour.

The game has a brightly colored, minimalist style and differs from most previous first-person perspective video games in allowing for a greater freedom of movement with regard to its 3D environment. This allows for a wider range of actions—such as sliding under barriers, tumbling, wall-running, and shimmying across ledges; in having no heads-up display; and in allowing a range of vision which incorporated the legs, arms, and torso of the character as frequently visible elements on-screen.

Mirror's Edge received positive reviews from critics, who praised its uniqueness and its expansive environments, while criticism has centred on its weakness of plot, trial and error gameplay, and short length. The game won the Annual Interactive Achievement Award for Adventure Game of the Year, and spawned a side-scroller mobile game, also titled Mirror's Edge, which was released for iPad in April 2010, for the iPhone in September 2010, and for Windows Phone in July 2012. A reboot, titled Mirror's Edge Catalyst, was released in June 2016.

In Mirror's Edge, the player controls the protagonist, Faith, from a first-person perspective as she is challenged to navigate across a gleaming city by jumping between rooftops, running across walls, and gaining access to buildings through ventilation shafts. This is accomplished by use of techniques and movements inspired by the discipline of parkour.According to senior producer Owen O'Brien, Mirror's Edge aims to "convey strain and physical contact with the environment", with the goal of allowing a freedom of movement previously unseen in the first-person genre.In order to achieve this, camera movement pays more attention to character movement. For example, as Faith's speed builds up while running, the rate at which the camera bobs up and down increases as well. When a roll is executed, the camera spins with the character.Faith's arms, legs, and torso are prominent and their visibility is used to convey movement and momentum. The character's arms pump and the length of her steps increase with her gait, and her legs cycle and arms flail during long jumps.

In gameplay, the character's momentum becomes an asset. The player must attempt to conserve it through fluidity of physical actions, encouraging the creation of chains of moves.If Faith does not have the momentum required to traverse an object, she will fall off or short of it.Controls are simplified by being context-sensitive; the "upwards movement" button will cause Faith to traverse an obstacle by passing over it (i.e., by jumping, vaulting, climbing, or grabbing set pieces like zip-lines) while the "downwards movement" button will cause her to perform other manoeuvres like sliding, rolling, or crouching.To assist the player in creating these chains of moves, the game employs a system called "Runner Vision", which emphasizes environmental pieces useful for progression. Certain pipes, ramps, and doors are highlighted in red as Faith approaches, allowing the player to instantly recognize paths and escape routes.Further along in the game, the number of these visual hints is reduced to only the end goal, and the player can opt to turn off this hint system entirely.It is also used to create puzzles in which the player must figure out how to combine the highlighted set pieces into a chain of moves in order to reach the target.Another means of assistance to the player is a system called "Reaction Time", a form of bullet time activated by the player, slowing down time and allowing the player to plan and time their next move without losing momentum or tactical advantage.

The player character can hold weapons, but O'Brien stressed that "this is an action adventure. We're not positioning this as a shooter – the focus isn't on the gun, it's on the person." Gameplay in Mirror's Edge focuses on finding the best route through the game's environments while combat takes a secondary role. Completing the game without shooting a single enemy unlocks an achievement for the player.Consequently, guns may be obtained by disarming an enemy, but when the magazine is empty, it will need to be discarded.Additionally, carrying a weapon slows Faith down; the heavier the gun, the more it hinders her movement. This introduces an element of strategy in determining when to trade agility for short-term firepower.

Along with the campaign mode, Mirror's Edge features a time attack mode, where the player must try to complete one of a set of special maps in the shortest amount of time. Best times can be uploaded to online leaderboards, where players can also download ghosts of other players to compete against.The maps are unlocked by playing through the campaign mode. According to producer Tom Ferrer, the time trial portions of Mirror's Edge are "bite-sized and short so you can grind them and play them and get faster and faster. It's not like playing an entire level."

The mobile phone port includes many parkour moves from the PC and console versions, however, the perspective is shifted from first person to third person. The game does not feature cutscenes, and the plot is explained with scrolling text in between levels.The iOS version has since been removed from the app store due to problems with the game on iOS 8.

Mirror's Edge takes place in a 'utopian' city where life is comfortable and crime almost non-existent. But the city's state of bliss is the achievement of a domineering and totalitarian military regime which monitors all communication, controls the media, spies on its citizens and has policies which include the outright prohibition of smoking and alcohol. The City also operates show trials and runs on a sham democracy. Eighteen years before the events of the game, they had opened fire on a protest against their rule, killing many civilians.

As the story begins the mayoral elections are near and a new candidate, Robert Pope, is challenging the incumbent Mayor Callaghan on a platform of deregulation.

According to senior producer Owen O'Brien, "[Mirror's Edge] asks how much of your personal freedom are you willing to give up for a comfortable life. It's not one girl against this police-state dictatorship. It's more subtle than that."

American TV series Firefly and film spin-off Serenity were cited by O'Brien as inspirations. "Our other theme is you can't force other people to live by your rules and your society, even if your society is better," he said. "In Serenity The Operative actually says, 'This is not an evil empire. We just don't understand why you don't want to be part of our happy club.' Obviously they take it too far, and that's kind of what happens in our game as well."

Writer Rhianna Pratchett has said that the game's story examined why citizens would accept a life in a society where their personal choices were very limited. It also looked at reasons people might have for attempting to live outside the system and what could result from this. The society portrayed in the game was somewhere between what George Orwell described as an 'anti-utopia' and a Nanny State.

The protagonist of Mirror's Edge is 24-year-old Faith Connors (voiced by Jules de Jongh),who has a distinctive tattoo around her right eye, imitated by the game's logo. Faith earns her living as a "Runner", a courier who carries physical communiqués around the city, her services retained by revolutionary groups who avoid communicating via highly monitored telephone and email channels.Faith's attitude towards the totalitarian government is rooted in her past; her parents were active in protest movements when she was young, campaigning to keep the city from shifting to the oppressive regime. Her mother was killed during the "November riots"—peaceful protests gone wrong—and Faith ran away from home when she was 16, living a thief's life on the city streets. Faith became a Runner after meeting Mercury (or Merc), a former Runner who now trains new hires, sources jobs for them, and provides them with intelligence and radio support while on the job.Other characters include Faith's sister, Kate Connors, an officer with the city police; Drake, another Runner-trainer; Faith's friends Celeste and Kreeg, another pair of Merc's Runners; and Jacknife, a former Runner.

Faith, after completing a delivery to fellow Runner Celeste, learns that her sister Kate may be in trouble at Pope's office. When she arrives, she finds Kate standing beside Pope's body, insisting she has been framed for murder and requesting Faith to discover the cause. Faith finds a piece of paper with the name "Icarus" on it in Pope's hand. Kate refuses to flee with Faith, saying it would only make her look guilty, and is arrested.From a former Runner, Jacknife, Faith learns that Pope's head of security, former wrestler Travis "Ropeburn" Burfield, may be connected to Pope's murder. Faith meets Lt. Miller, at Kate's behest, narrowly avoiding arrest.At Ropeburn's office, she overhears him setting up a meeting at a new place downtown. At the meeting, Ropeburn discovers Faith's presence and attacks her, but Faith gains the upper hand and throws him off the roof. As he is hanging above a long drop, she tries to interrogate Ropeburn, but before he can reveal anything he is killed by an unknown assassin.

Lacking other leads, Faith investigates the security firm that has begun aiding the police force in their crackdown of Runners. She finds they are behind "Project Icarus", a program designed to train their forces in parkour style to oppose the Runners, giving them the ability to chase down and eliminate the Runners. Faith follows the trail of Ropeburn's killer to a boat in port; after chasing the unknown person, Faith discovers the assassin is actually Celeste, who is colluding with Project Icarus to keep herself safe, and Celeste warns Faith to consider the same. The arrival of the police allows Celeste to escape.

With Kate convicted for Pope's murder, Merc plans a way for Faith to ambush the police convoy transporting her to prison, and Faith helps to free Kate. She gives Kate her comms unit that she and Merc use and tells her that he will guide her back to his hideout. When Faith returns to the hideout, she finds it in ruins, with Merc dying and Kate recaptured. In his dying words, Merc tells Faith that Kate is now at the Shard, which contains Mayor Callaghan's office and the servers that run the city's surveillance systems.With Miller's help, Faith is able to enter the Mayor's private offices, and destroys the servers that will unlock the rooftop security door. She gains access to the roof, but Miller was also ambushed while in the security room, abruptly cutting off communications, leaving Miller's status unknown. On the roof, she finds Kate held at gunpoint by Jacknife. Jacknife reveals that he too is part of Project Icarus, and has been part of the plan all along to lure the Runners out of hiding. When Jacknife tries to take Kate onto a waiting helicopter, Faith jumps on before it can leave, knocking Jacknife out of the helicopter to fall to his death but also damaging the helicopter in the process. Faith helps Kate to escape safely from the falling helicopter.

During the end credits, the media reports that Faith's actions have only served to intensify Project Icarus, and Faith and Kate are still wanted for Pope's murder. However, with the surveillance infrastructure damaged, the po[CENSORED]tion is cautioned to avoid using electronic means of communications until their "security" is restored, with the location of Faith and Kate remaining unknown.

Faith Connors is released from prison and meets up with fellow runner Icarus, as well as Runner cabal leader Noah, who raised Faith after the death of her parents. During a data grab inside the headquarters of Elysium, Faith diverges from her orders and retrieves a valuable hard drive, but is seen by Gabriel Kruger, CEO of Kruger Security. She manages to escape, intending to use the drive's contents to pay off her debt to Dogen, a black market boss. Noah is angry at Faith for involving herself with Kruger, but tells her that she needs to know what is inside the drive in order to bargain with it. Faith takes the drive to Plastic, a talented hacker, who tells her the drive contains blueprints for a top-secret project known as Reflection.

Meanwhile, K-Sec cracks down hard on the Runners because of Faith's actions at Elysium. While Icarus and Faith are away, they lead a raid on the Runners' lair and capture or kill everyone present. Faith and Icarus, having nowhere to go, turn to Rebecca Thane, leader of Black November, a militant resistance movement bent on destroying the Conglomerate by force. The rebels set up an ambush to capture a high-ranking K-Sec commander, whom they intend to trade for their own captured soldiers. The mission is a success and it turns out that the captured officer is Isabel Kruger, daughter and personal bodyguard of Gabriel Kruger.

Faith asks Plastic to infiltrate K-Sec servers and gather information about Isabel, who turns out to be Caitlyn "Cat" Connors, Faith's own sister, who was assumed dead. Gabriel Kruger took her in as his adoptive daughter, telling her that Faith was killed along with the rest of her family. Faith races back to the subterranean Black November HQ where Thane is preparing to execute Isabel in order to send her father a message. Even though Isabel doesn't seem to remember who Faith is, Faith convinces Thane to save her.

Isabel lets on to Faith that Noah might still be alive, held in a compound called Kingdom. Upon reaching it, Faith rescues a group of Reflection scientists who were detained by K-Sec for "asking too many questions." The lead scientist, Aline Maera, explains that Reflection involves injecting the po[CENSORED]tion with nanites that can be remote-controlled to regulate thoughts and emotions. Aline also mentions that Faith's own mother Erika invented the algorithm that would later allow Reflection to be realized. Faith finds Noah who is being experimented on with prototype Reflection nanites, but is too late to prevent his death. Meanwhile, back at Black November HQ, the rebels are ambushed by K-Sec while moving Isabel above ground. Icarus and the rebels are injected with Reflection nanites.

Faith continues to have flashbacks of Gabriel Kruger killing her parents who wanted out of the Reflection project. As Faith and Cat were escaping, a gas grenade was tossed, causing Cat to choke and lose consciousness. Faith was forced to abandon her.

Plastic and Aline work together to engineer a virus to disable Reflection once and for all. In order to do this they need Gabriel Kruger's ID, which Faith secures by breaking into his private apartment. From there she witnesses a massive explosion at The Shard, the tallest building in all of Glass. Faith still needs to go on top of The Shard, which contains the broadcast antenna but is now unstable, to activate the virus. At the top she is confronted by Gabriel who defends his decision to launch Reflection, saying the nanites are a cure designed to keep Isabel's chronic lung condition at bay, and that the project is about survival rather than control.

They are joined by Isabel who attempts to stop the virus but is too late. They fight on the helipad, and Isabel accuses Faith of leaving her behind to die, while Faith attempts to remind Isabel of who she really is. Gabriel Kruger appears on a helicopter and begs a hesitating Isabel to come with him. The Shard starts to crumble and Gabriel flies out of the tumbling helicopter. Faith slides to the edge of the helipad but is caught by Isabel. Gabriel is heard calling out for his daughter to save him, and Isabel explains to Faith that she "has to" and runs off in his direction. However, as the helicopter rises again and flies away, only Isabel is standing in it, with Gabriel nowhere to be seen.

In the aftermath, it is reported on the news that Isabel will now supersede her missing father as Kruger Security CEO. While there was no uprising in the po[CENSORED]tion, Faith did successfully disable the Reflection launch, thus keeping people safe from Conglomerate control.