Forum Closure and Move to Answers HQ - read more here!
Ultimately a disappointing waste of 8 years' time
I'm a huge ME fan - I think we all are. Acting aside, the original was basically a masterpiece. It's one of my top 10 or even 5 games ever. The combat might have been a little ropey but the game was basically perfection. The characters were top class, with Merc basically stealing the whole thing.
So making a reboot because the original sold ok and having another shot really defeated the purpose. If customers weren't buying into the original enough to make it a big hit, then rebooting it wasn't going have the opposite effect. Especially not when the final product was this average.
It was ok, ok? It wasn't a horrible game, but it was criminally underwhelming for a game which promised so much.
I'll do an old school style elements review:
Graphics: 3
They were purely and simply trash. By today's standards, this looked like a 2009 mod for the original game, and an amateur one at that. A disgusting abuse of a superb engine (Frostbite, maybe they chose the completely wrong engine?) - beats me why DICE concocted such a mess of a game. The character models looked ok, yes, even good; but everything else was by today's standards a monstrosity.
Sound: 5
Music was ok, added enough to the atmosphere, and the ambience had the Mirror's Edge feel to it, but the voice acting was bland, if not awful, and you barely cared about any of the characters as a result.
Gameplay: 6
Parkour was flakey - yes, it allowed a bit of expansion on the original but all the extra moves gave you was a slight advantage if you were going for a better time. We weren't all interested in that side of the game. We wanted to explore a bit, and weirdly for an 'open world' game it felt anything but open. It was a linear game in an open world dressing. The combat was awful, just awful - it was repetitive, and the excruciating animations where opponents were eager to hurl themselves off rooftops or those annoying backrolls forced on you when a Sentinel hit you were just blood boiling. Also, that second transmitter climb for the train to the Shard was literally the most annoying sequence I've experienced in a game since the Maze in Doorways: Underworld. Absolutely awful section which was made worse by the game mechanics. Took me 30 goes to do it, each time having to run across the entire city, beat up the KrugerSecs and then try the ascend again.
Story: 2
Diabolical in every sense. Characters without resolution or development (Noah, Birdman), bland and poorly fleshed out lead (Faith) - the only decent character I actually cared about was Plastic. The story was just a hash, poorly scripted without really explaining itself, and side missions which added absolutely nothing to anything beyond play time. And the ending was just absolutely cr*p - 'this is just the start'.
This isn't the worst game I've ever played, but it's nothing more than an elaborate but amateur mod for the original, and it simply shouldn't have been made. Mirror's Edge was a one off, a game which appealed to a clique audience. It should have been left as that.
So making a reboot because the original sold ok and having another shot really defeated the purpose. If customers weren't buying into the original enough to make it a big hit, then rebooting it wasn't going have the opposite effect. Especially not when the final product was this average.
It was ok, ok? It wasn't a horrible game, but it was criminally underwhelming for a game which promised so much.
I'll do an old school style elements review:
Graphics: 3
They were purely and simply trash. By today's standards, this looked like a 2009 mod for the original game, and an amateur one at that. A disgusting abuse of a superb engine (Frostbite, maybe they chose the completely wrong engine?) - beats me why DICE concocted such a mess of a game. The character models looked ok, yes, even good; but everything else was by today's standards a monstrosity.
Sound: 5
Music was ok, added enough to the atmosphere, and the ambience had the Mirror's Edge feel to it, but the voice acting was bland, if not awful, and you barely cared about any of the characters as a result.
Gameplay: 6
Parkour was flakey - yes, it allowed a bit of expansion on the original but all the extra moves gave you was a slight advantage if you were going for a better time. We weren't all interested in that side of the game. We wanted to explore a bit, and weirdly for an 'open world' game it felt anything but open. It was a linear game in an open world dressing. The combat was awful, just awful - it was repetitive, and the excruciating animations where opponents were eager to hurl themselves off rooftops or those annoying backrolls forced on you when a Sentinel hit you were just blood boiling. Also, that second transmitter climb for the train to the Shard was literally the most annoying sequence I've experienced in a game since the Maze in Doorways: Underworld. Absolutely awful section which was made worse by the game mechanics. Took me 30 goes to do it, each time having to run across the entire city, beat up the KrugerSecs and then try the ascend again.
Story: 2
Diabolical in every sense. Characters without resolution or development (Noah, Birdman), bland and poorly fleshed out lead (Faith) - the only decent character I actually cared about was Plastic. The story was just a hash, poorly scripted without really explaining itself, and side missions which added absolutely nothing to anything beyond play time. And the ending was just absolutely cr*p - 'this is just the start'.
This isn't the worst game I've ever played, but it's nothing more than an elaborate but amateur mod for the original, and it simply shouldn't have been made. Mirror's Edge was a one off, a game which appealed to a clique audience. It should have been left as that.
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
I mean in the beginning faith was a reckless girl with a big ego, near the end she was this mature caring person using big words, this wouldn't have been so bad if the transition between these personalities seemed realistic as oppose to "all of a sudden".
The thing is the Mirror's Edge Catalyst story in its entirety isn't bad at all, everything is really well thought out, from the all the characters motivations, to the history of Cascadia and The City of Glass, as showed through the documents and recordings found across the city, as well as through the Exordium comic.
The one part in the game story I found really interesting and well done was Faith's back story, it's tragic, sad, and you get enough information about her past and her family that, at least for me, I cared about, I just wish Faith's past reflected more in her character.
It's clear that the story of the game has changed quite a bit since Catalyst's original announcement a year ago in 2015, some cut scenes we saw in the trailer didn't make it into the game, and in some parts of the trailer Faith had her arm tattoo while in other parts she didn't, which led me to believe she gets the tattoo somewhere in the middle of the game as oppose to the end of the game. Also looking back at the original announcement in 2013 she got her eye tattoo at the same time she got her arm tattoo, another big story change I would say.
All in all I too am disappointed with the game story, but in my opinion the graphics look great on PC, even at medium settings, as those are the settings I can run the game at on my laptop, I love the music of the game, voice acting was only bad for Faith and Icarus, for everyone else I thought the voice acting was excellent, and I really enjoy the gameplay, I think the new movement is superb compared to the last game as well as for the combat, although the combat, once you get all the upgrades, is kind of over powered.
Like others have said, Catalyst addresses basically all of this stuff and then some. The running is still outstanding and the city is well designed with the same use of colors, etc. But now we have this huge open world with every route variation you'd want, not to mention hours upon hours of exploration and side quests to do. And that's before you get into the user defined time trials. This is the best open world game I've played for when after the story is over. If you don't like the trials in the game, you can make your own wherever you want, including whatever obstacles you want, etc.. Additions like the Mag Glove are excellent and add a new dimension to the game. The most impressive thing is every building and rooftop is completely unique with a wide variety of ways in and around them. There's no cut and paste going on. The combat is so far above the first game, there's no point in comparing the two. The AI's could improve but Faith is amazing.
The only point I could possibly see is the story. I personally think Catalyst has a better story and definitely a better overall group of characters. But the story still isn't near on the level of something like an Uncharted. So I can still see someone maybe liking the story in the first game better. Still, like in the first game, the story is more than adequate to drive what the game needs taking Faith to a lot of cool locations.
I regularly play PS3. I know what graphics used to look like. I still play PS1 in fact!
However I'm playing this on PC and anyone who believes the visuals look 2016 standard is seeing it in a very different way to what I am. Compared with its peers like BF4, Metro LL, Hitman, and indeed most modern marquee titles it looks like an amateur mod for the original game.
I'm astounded so many on here like how this looks. But I respect your views, even if I couldn't disagree more!
Describing the combat as above the first game really makes me wonder why? What have I missed. What aspect of the repetitive, cr*ppy uninspired and automated combat have I not seen, and more to the point, what happened to all those views when this game first got released where the combat was slaughtered, pun not intended.
It's as if they all left, stopped playing, gave up, and the ones remaining are the hard core who love the game for love or money.
Not that you guys are wrong, or I am right; it's just I'm seeing a very different response now to how it was a few weeks after release. That view is one I stick with.
How long exactly is it since you played Mirror's Edge? haha. Seriously, the combat in the first game was easily the most frustrating part. Faith had basically no moves, and if you didn't want to get shot in the face, you had to time a completely telegraphed swing from the AI to disarm him. Miss the timing and you get smacked in the face with a gun. If there was ever an uninspired combat system, it's the one from the first Mirror's Edge game.
In Catalyst, Faith has a lot more freedom of movement, more moves, and there's no set way to deal with security. The only negative is that the AI isn't all that bright. Other than the top end enforcers, they don't make for good sparing partners.
People on here and on other websites like IGN have been defending this game since the game came out. I was on IGN and they gave it a 6.8. The reviewer was getting hammered so badly in the comment section, they took the review off the front page pretty quickly.
This game may not be the model of top end current graphics, but to say it's a 2009 level game is a complete exaggeration. I played it on PS4 and it looks good. I've yet to play a PS4 game that made me think for an instant I'm playing on PS3 hardware, even a title Planetside 2 which is purposefully dialing back the graphics to accommodate a much higher player count than Battlefield.
I did the same thing, and I agree.