Forum Closure and Move to Answers HQ - read more here!
Mirror's Edge™ Catalyst Thoughts and Observations (PC VERSION) *SPOILERS*
July 5, 2016 2:53PM
edited July 2016
Ok so in this thread I'm going to be posting all of my thoughts on the game so far and if possible (I'll have to add later) record some footage of the things that I find of note.
OVERALL: I'd say the game is a gem in it's own way, yes there's flaws... major in the story department and there's some bugs here and there but overall the stunning visuals and the gameplay is very fluid (despite SOME of the control bugs that there is) The combat could also do with one or two things, however in saying that the combat is actually amazingly done! The power behind each kick and punch that Faith performs feels real. Like if I was Faith and was in combat with some K-Sec.
If I had to score it, it'd be around 7-7.5/10
The main reason for me that I would give it that score is because the story is lacking in depth. There's no substance to anything that the characters are doing, Even Dogen isn't like we thought he'd be according to the comics, my friend who reads the comics with me said this to me while I was thinking it, so I'm not alone in this opinion. There needed to be more build up of the story so that I can connect with Faith and Noah, when Noah died I didn't even feel bad tbh. It just felt like another K-Sec or some civilian in game dying. No one important, even though we can see how it impacts Faith, It doesn't really show us why she would really care in the first place like yes, we know that Faith and Noah go back (even during when her parents were still alive) but we don't know what type of relationship they had at all, so when Faith returns from juvie, and we see the first interactions between these two, it feels almost disconnected, in saying that, there was only ONE instance in that first meetup with Noah cutscene.
And Not to mention when we're supposed to actually care about Icarus at all when he's just been a total **** for the first 30 min if not more, there needs to be more time and some actual scenes where Icarus is genuinely trying more often, just once isn't enough, The human mind doesn't accept everything instantly, unless you're gullible, or a child. (at least nowadays and especially in a place like Cascadia where crime is almost rampant enough that K-Sec have such high security at all and the reflection even exists to control an unstable populace).
As for Graphics and Gameplay, The graphics are pretty stunning, there's been moments when I was running and I just had to slow down to appreciate the scenery and lighting! Gameplay does tend to get a touch repetative after you've completed all the main missions and most if not all the side missions. There should be a team run event, where you can do runs with other runners and you can see them in the building too doing their part of a run. That'd spice up the gameplay entirely. BUT in saying that the gameplay ISN'T bad, just repeatative. There are some bugs when controlling Faith where she'll just stop randomly or just glitch herself to a crouch position on something where there isn't a need to (to recount a specific experience).
On the topic of Gameplay, Time Trials. There should be a feature to edit the checkpoints in a map view or something, as if say I were to place a checkpoint by accident whilst falling somewhere (maybe to my death even) and then I'm not able to reach it to remove it, looking at the checkpoints on a map view and being able to EDIT them in order to not have your Time Trial that some spend a lot of time on to be destroyed by an accident only to have to re-do the the entire TT again.
Any discussions regarding this thread is\are welcome and encouraged. These are just my opinions (My friends as stated before) and should be viewed as such.
OVERALL: I'd say the game is a gem in it's own way, yes there's flaws... major in the story department and there's some bugs here and there but overall the stunning visuals and the gameplay is very fluid (despite SOME of the control bugs that there is) The combat could also do with one or two things, however in saying that the combat is actually amazingly done! The power behind each kick and punch that Faith performs feels real. Like if I was Faith and was in combat with some K-Sec.
If I had to score it, it'd be around 7-7.5/10
The main reason for me that I would give it that score is because the story is lacking in depth. There's no substance to anything that the characters are doing, Even Dogen isn't like we thought he'd be according to the comics, my friend who reads the comics with me said this to me while I was thinking it, so I'm not alone in this opinion. There needed to be more build up of the story so that I can connect with Faith and Noah, when Noah died I didn't even feel bad tbh. It just felt like another K-Sec or some civilian in game dying. No one important, even though we can see how it impacts Faith, It doesn't really show us why she would really care in the first place like yes, we know that Faith and Noah go back (even during when her parents were still alive) but we don't know what type of relationship they had at all, so when Faith returns from juvie, and we see the first interactions between these two, it feels almost disconnected, in saying that, there was only ONE instance in that first meetup with Noah cutscene.
And Not to mention when we're supposed to actually care about Icarus at all when he's just been a total **** for the first 30 min if not more, there needs to be more time and some actual scenes where Icarus is genuinely trying more often, just once isn't enough, The human mind doesn't accept everything instantly, unless you're gullible, or a child. (at least nowadays and especially in a place like Cascadia where crime is almost rampant enough that K-Sec have such high security at all and the reflection even exists to control an unstable populace).
As for Graphics and Gameplay, The graphics are pretty stunning, there's been moments when I was running and I just had to slow down to appreciate the scenery and lighting! Gameplay does tend to get a touch repetative after you've completed all the main missions and most if not all the side missions. There should be a team run event, where you can do runs with other runners and you can see them in the building too doing their part of a run. That'd spice up the gameplay entirely. BUT in saying that the gameplay ISN'T bad, just repeatative. There are some bugs when controlling Faith where she'll just stop randomly or just glitch herself to a crouch position on something where there isn't a need to (to recount a specific experience).
On the topic of Gameplay, Time Trials. There should be a feature to edit the checkpoints in a map view or something, as if say I were to place a checkpoint by accident whilst falling somewhere (maybe to my death even) and then I'm not able to reach it to remove it, looking at the checkpoints on a map view and being able to EDIT them in order to not have your Time Trial that some spend a lot of time on to be destroyed by an accident only to have to re-do the the entire TT again.
Any discussions regarding this thread is\are welcome and encouraged. These are just my opinions (My friends as stated before) and should be viewed as such.
Post edited by AleksRovvi on
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
I spoke about it in other topics but yeah, the scenario is quite disappointing. Yet I have to say the "Reflections" thing was a very interesting idea (more concerning than "Icarus" in ME 2008), but it wasn't developped much because it appears towards the end of the game ; and we see no effect of it in the city, at all. And it's a shame because it was really something interesting amongst all the rest which remains quite predictible and cliché.
Another thing I havent spoke about is that I don't really enjoy the "Futuristic" scenery, too sanitized for what I waited from Mirror's Edge (the original's settings was quite perfect to me). It's a detail, but I found there's also not enough advertizings about Sports products, to remind us we play a Parkour game, as a sporty girl. It also would have been fun to customize Faith with all sorts of articles to buy in shops located on roofs ; that would have been a cool idea . It also would have been a nice idea to improve Faith's performances not by just by clicking buttons on a menu, but enduring all of the running and fighting along the game.
Otherwise, I still have to check the Time Trial mode and see how to create some. That should be fun to play with.
I totally agree. Everything I've seen from you is always so well written. And on the OP's thoughts, I agree with the Time Trial thing. On one of them, I left the last one being in the air because it took so long for me to make it, that I just couldn't feel justified re-doing the entire thing again. One time I actually /did/ re-make the entire thing and it was really annoyingly time consuming. On another topic, to quote you specifically:
"Yet I have to say the "Reflections" thing was a very interesting idea (more concerning than "Icarus" in ME 2008), but it wasn't developed much because it appears towards the end of the game; and we see no effect of it in the city, at all. And it's a shame because it was really something interesting amongst all the rest which remains quite predictable and cliché."
I agree with that a lot, actually. (Although I did notice one if the announcers in the free-roam of the game mention something about Reflection, but I don't remember specifically what.) I feel like the story didn't even start getting interesting until about 50% in, so because of that, I only really enjoyed about the last 50% of it, unfortunately.
Another person on the forums posted something that sums up my exact feelings about the game; which is that rebooting it was what really seemed to cause the downfall of the game and most likely the franchise as a whole. It has different writers, artists, (bad) voice actors, and it really doesn't feel like the same game anymore. (To me) It would've done a /lot/ better, and made a lot more sense in terms of the story, had they just made a sequel or prequel to the first game. I'm also surprised that they didn't continue using the Unreal engine, rather opting for the "better" (yeah, maybe for other games, not necessarily Mirror's Edge) Frostbite 3 engine. It has SO MUCH POTENTIAL! But they just threw it all away with a game that they spent "8 years on". It still feels like a beta honestly. That garbage "Cutscene Desync" issue? You know, the one they knew existed since APRIL?? Yeah, the first update to the game that was supposedly made specifically as a fix to that problem, apparently didn't even fix that issue. Speaking of that first issue, the game still thinks I'm using a controller and /still/ doesn't accept any other form of input. There's just-- so many problems with this game. I mean, the first game was 20$ and I played it for 115 hours on Steam. The only reason I stopped, was because it got boring. MEC is a good game as a concept, but it was poorly executed; it definitely was not worth the **** $60 price. (Also, that "pre-order bonus" wasn't really worth it either.) But that's just my opinion. Sorry that was like 3 pages long...I just had to say it somewhere.
You pretty much summed up how I feel about this game
I think they tried to give an identity to the city since it's kind of the "main character" with which you're interacting constantly. The sanitized aspect doesn't give much life to this "character" who feels flat unlike the first game that interacted much better with you with the overall architecture and the color code.
Speaking of story ideas, I feel like we should've been playing as faith when she was little and growing up becoming a runner, this way we would totally understand where Faith is coming from when she makes her decisions and her thoughts. Not to mention building that connection with the MAIN CHARACTER! I feel like if we watched Faith progress into becoming a runner (seeing what Noah's cabal was like when she was little and through her teenage years) would've made the game imo. But subjectivity aside, there's DEFINITELY more and other ways to connect with characters lives through their story, but how Mirror's Edge Catalyst did it was not the best way to go about it unfortunately.
It is fun getting creative with runs that you can make
its a solid game with an interesting story to follow and actually characters that are better explained. the city is huge to explore and a great to run around in.
the only problems i have are:
- that you cant mingle with the civilians.
- hardly anyone on the roofs besides Ksec and some other runners who just stand there and some NPCs.
- why none of the office people are reacting to faiths presents.
just these points prevent it from getting a higher score from me. it feels a bit boring that way.
at least on pc i have not encountered any issues besides some minor glitches.
Exactly! The only other thing I've noticed that bothered me, is that in about 3 (?) different map locations, the walls/ceilings are a bit glitchy. There's only two I can remember off the top of my head though. One area is near the Don't Get Dogen Angry Diversion, where, running, jumping, and then coiling mid-air, let's you see through the ceiling for a split-second. And anything else won't cause similar results. There's also one area in the Construction Zone, where if you do a running wall climb on a certain wall, you'll jump right through it. It doesn't work by any other means, so I thought that was a bit weird. Although, in the game's defence, it IS an open world game. There's BOUND to be at least SOME glitchy or messed up areas. On another note, the free roam dialogue that the announcers say occasionally, gets really annoying, really fast. I've also realized, that the "Dialogue Boost" does basically nothing, as far as I can tell.