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Thanks for an excellent game :) - a Mirror's Edge Catalyst review
June 17, 2016 8:31AM
edited June 2016
First off, I'd like to thank EA and DICE for giving us another Mirror's Edge game. Since the trailer first aired at E3 years ago, it's been one of my most anticipated titles. I can only hope that Faith's words ring true and that something has been started that they intend to finish. Hopefully that means a third game!
As for my review Mirror's Edge Catalyst, the second Mirror's Edge game from DICE:
I played this on PS4. I finished the story yesterday and have been methodically doing the side missions, billboards, collectibles, etc. in the open world. Really its truly impressive what DICE did here, and its shameful they don't seem to be getting the credit to match. Some of the criticisms I heard and read of the first game were people wanted a more open world, better combat, and more to do after the story was over. DICE seems to have heard this and gone above and beyond the call to address those concerns.
The Map/Open World
At first I was a bit worried about an open world Mirror's Edge. It's got to be a hard thing to put together, but DICE did it in spectacular fashion. This is a truly gorgeous open world, and its HUGE. It's far bigger than I expected with every twist and turn imaginable to use in a parkour run. The whole map just flows so well, and it really makes you fell like you are a runner who has the freedom to take whatever route you want, do whatever you want.
There are a lot of really cool set pieces in and around as well. For instance, the first game had a crane you had to get up on and cross to another. Well this one has a couple of cool crane sequences, one of which is on a skyscraper high over the whole city. It also has an underground area similar to the first game you can keep going back into to find collectibles, etc. It has a rich district where there's waterfall pools, etc on the roofs and other things you'd expect in an upscale part of town. It has a couple of sky scrapers to get into, construction yards, and more. I still don't know where I'm going in half the city yet because there is just so much stuff.
There is also a regular day/night transition which is very well done. When night falls, there are parts of the city that light up like a high tech city in a Hollywood film. The color shift is amazing.
I can't say enough how well this map is put together. Nothing seems wasted, and nothing seems to be just a copy paste. I've not seen any two roof tops the same. And the creativity in the variety of obstacles, the props Faith can use to sling herself around, and how well they all work together for a great parkour run is astounding. They don't just flow together for one main route either. Every route I took or every twist and turn I added in just flowed. You find new ways to run every time. Fantastic!
The Running/Gameplay
The running itself is great just like in the first game, and they've added a lot of new sequences to spice it up like polls you can grab to swing around corners. Faith also will get a multi-purpose grapling hook glove as the story progresses to latch on to cameras in the city. Its so fun and almost Batman like in how it makes you feel. But it really does flow so well with the parkour.
The only time the game actually makes you "stop in your tracks" is to get in and out of a couple of the routes into the main safe house. You have to stop and disrupt large fans. Everything else in the whole open world is entirely optional. You don't have to stop and get the collectible if you don't want to. It will be there to come back for later.
The beauty of the freedom is you can just go roam the open world whenever you want. Or if you want a more focused experience like the first game, then run the story missions one after another and go where they tell you to go. It's all up to you, and there are few games other than Mirror's Edge Catalyst that give you this kind of freedom and do it right. I imagine this is not unlike what a real parkour runner feels like when stepping out of an apartment for a run. Brilliant job, DICE!
The combat is a lot of fun even if the enemies aren't the best. It still can be challenging because you will often be facing 4 or more enemies. Faith makes up for it with some really cool moves, good movement, and some nice finishers. Plus she can pull of some cool combos while running that can put down an enemy quick. I would like to see more classes of enemies. Then you could mix the encounters up more.
Also, Faith doesn't use her finisher enough. Either that needs to happen more often, or maybe look at giving the user an option to execute a finisher at times and maybe have that finisher be a customizable option with unlocks.
Story/Characters
The story left me wanting more just like the original did. I don't want to spoil anything, so I won't go into too many details. Its a good story that brings you along as you figure different pieces out about who Faith is, how she arrived at this point, what happened to her family, etc. It has some nice twists too.
Comments have been made on the characters. I found the characters likeable. Icarus lightens up as the game goes on towards Faith. I thought Plastic's quirky personality was funny in conversation with the various characters.
Story finished?
Honestly, to me this could be the most impressive part. A lot of open world games really tend to break down after the story is over. There might be some stuff to do, and some enemies here and there to fight. Nothing close to the story though. There's usually a clear feeling that you're just kind of hanging out wishing you could be doing more than the game is letting you.
Not so for Mirror's Edge Catalyst. This is the best open world game I've played once the story finishes. Not only is there tons to do, but the game does a great job of fairly often putting you in danger of security patrols. Security cameras around the city will lock on to you if you don't keep moving and call in security patrols and VTOLs not too much unlike the story. This gives a constant possibility of danger much like the story. And in another example of in-game freedom, you can take out those cameras if you want with a jamming pulse you get. I choose to leave them in as it really spices up things.
Courier missions seem to refresh with new routes. I'd do a courier mission, and later it will show up again on the map with a different mission. There's tons of collectibles to hunt for. And then of course there's time trials and user generated content. DICE also put in billboards around the city that can be "hacked" to put your player tag on the billboard. You can customize that tag (both emblem and background) from unlockables in the game via the companion app or I believe also on the website. The cool thing about this is I would save a new tag then see it immediately update in game on something I've hacked haha I was doing this on a hacked screen in one of the safe houses.
User Generated Content
If you have a favorite section to the city, then you can make your own trial there. This is an unexpectedly addicting thing. One thing I've always not liked about time trials is where some of them take you. Well now I can make my own around the type of obstacles and set pieces I like the best. Fantastic! And the game keeps presenting you with time trials to run that others have created and published to the online game. So theoretically, this feature alone means you could play these user generated time trials all year before finishing the story. How's that for length of play time? haha You can also create markers in spots for people to visit called Beat L.E.s
Its not the coop or multiplayer some wanted, but its a top notch feature that needs to stay if we are fortunate enough to get another game.
VERDICT
So much good stuff here. So much to do. So impressed with this open world they created and the massive variety and freedom it gives you. DICE really delivered on a true next gen Mirror's Edge that is not only much bigger than the first game, but still does everything right that the first game did well. I feel the combat could be a lot better if the AI's were improved or maybe given more classes of soldiers to deal with to spice up the variety of each encounter. But its still a definite improvement over the combat of the first game. This is a game no one should miss out on. If you're a Mirror's Edge fan, you shouldn't even consider not getting this game.
Score - 9.0 Excellent!
As for my review Mirror's Edge Catalyst, the second Mirror's Edge game from DICE:
I played this on PS4. I finished the story yesterday and have been methodically doing the side missions, billboards, collectibles, etc. in the open world. Really its truly impressive what DICE did here, and its shameful they don't seem to be getting the credit to match. Some of the criticisms I heard and read of the first game were people wanted a more open world, better combat, and more to do after the story was over. DICE seems to have heard this and gone above and beyond the call to address those concerns.
The Map/Open World
At first I was a bit worried about an open world Mirror's Edge. It's got to be a hard thing to put together, but DICE did it in spectacular fashion. This is a truly gorgeous open world, and its HUGE. It's far bigger than I expected with every twist and turn imaginable to use in a parkour run. The whole map just flows so well, and it really makes you fell like you are a runner who has the freedom to take whatever route you want, do whatever you want.
There are a lot of really cool set pieces in and around as well. For instance, the first game had a crane you had to get up on and cross to another. Well this one has a couple of cool crane sequences, one of which is on a skyscraper high over the whole city. It also has an underground area similar to the first game you can keep going back into to find collectibles, etc. It has a rich district where there's waterfall pools, etc on the roofs and other things you'd expect in an upscale part of town. It has a couple of sky scrapers to get into, construction yards, and more. I still don't know where I'm going in half the city yet because there is just so much stuff.
There is also a regular day/night transition which is very well done. When night falls, there are parts of the city that light up like a high tech city in a Hollywood film. The color shift is amazing.
I can't say enough how well this map is put together. Nothing seems wasted, and nothing seems to be just a copy paste. I've not seen any two roof tops the same. And the creativity in the variety of obstacles, the props Faith can use to sling herself around, and how well they all work together for a great parkour run is astounding. They don't just flow together for one main route either. Every route I took or every twist and turn I added in just flowed. You find new ways to run every time. Fantastic!
The Running/Gameplay
The running itself is great just like in the first game, and they've added a lot of new sequences to spice it up like polls you can grab to swing around corners. Faith also will get a multi-purpose grapling hook glove as the story progresses to latch on to cameras in the city. Its so fun and almost Batman like in how it makes you feel. But it really does flow so well with the parkour.
The only time the game actually makes you "stop in your tracks" is to get in and out of a couple of the routes into the main safe house. You have to stop and disrupt large fans. Everything else in the whole open world is entirely optional. You don't have to stop and get the collectible if you don't want to. It will be there to come back for later.
The beauty of the freedom is you can just go roam the open world whenever you want. Or if you want a more focused experience like the first game, then run the story missions one after another and go where they tell you to go. It's all up to you, and there are few games other than Mirror's Edge Catalyst that give you this kind of freedom and do it right. I imagine this is not unlike what a real parkour runner feels like when stepping out of an apartment for a run. Brilliant job, DICE!
The combat is a lot of fun even if the enemies aren't the best. It still can be challenging because you will often be facing 4 or more enemies. Faith makes up for it with some really cool moves, good movement, and some nice finishers. Plus she can pull of some cool combos while running that can put down an enemy quick. I would like to see more classes of enemies. Then you could mix the encounters up more.
Also, Faith doesn't use her finisher enough. Either that needs to happen more often, or maybe look at giving the user an option to execute a finisher at times and maybe have that finisher be a customizable option with unlocks.
Story/Characters
The story left me wanting more just like the original did. I don't want to spoil anything, so I won't go into too many details. Its a good story that brings you along as you figure different pieces out about who Faith is, how she arrived at this point, what happened to her family, etc. It has some nice twists too.
Comments have been made on the characters. I found the characters likeable. Icarus lightens up as the game goes on towards Faith. I thought Plastic's quirky personality was funny in conversation with the various characters.
Story finished?
Honestly, to me this could be the most impressive part. A lot of open world games really tend to break down after the story is over. There might be some stuff to do, and some enemies here and there to fight. Nothing close to the story though. There's usually a clear feeling that you're just kind of hanging out wishing you could be doing more than the game is letting you.
Not so for Mirror's Edge Catalyst. This is the best open world game I've played once the story finishes. Not only is there tons to do, but the game does a great job of fairly often putting you in danger of security patrols. Security cameras around the city will lock on to you if you don't keep moving and call in security patrols and VTOLs not too much unlike the story. This gives a constant possibility of danger much like the story. And in another example of in-game freedom, you can take out those cameras if you want with a jamming pulse you get. I choose to leave them in as it really spices up things.
Courier missions seem to refresh with new routes. I'd do a courier mission, and later it will show up again on the map with a different mission. There's tons of collectibles to hunt for. And then of course there's time trials and user generated content. DICE also put in billboards around the city that can be "hacked" to put your player tag on the billboard. You can customize that tag (both emblem and background) from unlockables in the game via the companion app or I believe also on the website. The cool thing about this is I would save a new tag then see it immediately update in game on something I've hacked haha I was doing this on a hacked screen in one of the safe houses.
User Generated Content
If you have a favorite section to the city, then you can make your own trial there. This is an unexpectedly addicting thing. One thing I've always not liked about time trials is where some of them take you. Well now I can make my own around the type of obstacles and set pieces I like the best. Fantastic! And the game keeps presenting you with time trials to run that others have created and published to the online game. So theoretically, this feature alone means you could play these user generated time trials all year before finishing the story. How's that for length of play time? haha You can also create markers in spots for people to visit called Beat L.E.s
Its not the coop or multiplayer some wanted, but its a top notch feature that needs to stay if we are fortunate enough to get another game.
VERDICT
So much good stuff here. So much to do. So impressed with this open world they created and the massive variety and freedom it gives you. DICE really delivered on a true next gen Mirror's Edge that is not only much bigger than the first game, but still does everything right that the first game did well. I feel the combat could be a lot better if the AI's were improved or maybe given more classes of soldiers to deal with to spice up the variety of each encounter. But its still a definite improvement over the combat of the first game. This is a game no one should miss out on. If you're a Mirror's Edge fan, you shouldn't even consider not getting this game.
Score - 9.0 Excellent!
Post edited by ArchAngeL_777 on
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Btw - I'm not sure if you meant the comment about fans figuratively or literally, but just in case - you don't have to stop as you pass through them. If you angle your view right, you can disrupt them and continue without slowing down and not take damage. As soon as the sparks show, they're harmless, rather than when the fans actually stop spinning.
Thanks! And good to know about the fans. I didn't seem to ever get the trick to that. I've heard too many people try to say this game forces you to stop, but its just not true. That's the only part I ever felt I had to stop on. So that's why I felt like I had to address that specifically.