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What makes you love playing Mirror's Edge?
April 6, 2017 5:17AM
edited April 6
This is either the Original or Catalyst. How did you all first got attached this this franchise and why?
I am Iman.
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That's interesting... Being an Asian myself, I couldn't agree more. XD.
only i am not asian. but my wife is. just she doesnt run around like faith does or kicks ****.
Well I'm Asian, but not the same race like Faith is. She's probably half chinese like Faye. I'm a Malay..
Another thing about this game is, it opens my eyes about how important art styles and musics are to a video game. Catalyst is not just about how good the game is, it's about the appreciation of the game. The bright skies, the colourful buildings, is all very attractive. Quite uncommon in video games nowadays. It's a game changer.
my wife cant play games at all. even playing a game like limbo she is struggling with.
and yes, it is hard to find a game these days that is bright and colorful. thats one of the reasons why i like it as well.
Then Mirror's Edge catalyst came and it was both a progress and a bit of a disappointment (mostly positive though, the story is the big let down but the game has so much to offer IMO).
So yeah I would go with Parkour and I tend to have a thing for women very capable at parkour and skilled in Oriental Martial Arts as a practitioner myself (Judo, Bagua Zhang, Taiji & Taekwondo) so yeah... add to that faith's gorgeous design and I think I'm in love (>_<)
The first game was filled with Chinese glyph and some Japanese.
Now "If" you consider the theory that Sabateus, Cascadia and Omnisat are in Australia, everything could make quite some sense seeing how much migration from Asia there's been there. She's so very likely to be a mix (I'd go mainly with Chinese) of different Asian ethnicity but I do think her primary language is English just like the rest so the Australian theory works. It's another nice touch from the developers to have mixed things in such a coherent way that it let our imagination re-create the world.
Never to late to learn
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I've just read that Japanese audiences were not please with how Faith's looked in the first game and weren't particular praising this one design. I have to disagree, I remember seeing some white wash version of faith earlier in the game development process, there are still a few shots showcasing that on this trailer (especially the last shot/caption shot):
It also surprises me how much of the game was done for cinematic purpose or cut from the final product. I wish I knew why Icarus and Nomad were running after Faith's or why she broke through a glass of a building or jumped from a crane. This really tell that the game could have benefited a more linear approach to story telling with nice and smooth cinematic (but this would have to go for another topic if we're to discuss it).
Overall I'm very happy with Faith's look, I think they totally nailed it, she's gorgeous!
That and Solarfield music & parkour in First person made me bought it XD
I love first person shooters and i played much Counter-Strike back then. And i always enjoyed the custom maps where you climbing around. And i loved jump and runs. And Mirror’s Edge combined first person, with running and jumping. It had slow paced levels (that reminded me at counterstrike custom climbing maps) and fast paced levels (that felt like racing games only with a person and in firstperson view). And the electronic music similar to minimal (which i like) were totally nice, too.
MEC on the other hand is just an okayish game and really not more. It did always EVERYTHING worse what ME1 made great.
I am glad i played the first ME before catalyst. If it would have been the other way around I possibly never would have played the best game in the world, since i would have been too unimpressed from that mediocre game Catalyst to not being able believe that the predecessor was so different and better and a masterpiece.
I still love ME1 and bought it three times!
That person that is named Faith in catalyst looks not bad, but it is not Faith in my opinion. They should ahve renamed her or not change her appearance. What did they think?
I still believe they made her look more generic and european because some people of asia felt offended.
Seeing it point by point, ME1 has the same arch problem MEC has when it's about character development making us care about people we don't know. So both are a total failure on that side.
The narrative is ultra generic and cliché in both. ME1 "seems" better only because the game is greatly linear whereas MEC has more open space to wander around the player who eventually loose attention.
What ME1 managed much better are the environment diversity IMO that is the true problem of catalyst because I only felt there were three different locations. One on the left of Zephy, one on the right and one far on top. The SP unique mission are great but they can't be accessed again. For some I understand, for others I don't (Like Kruger Museum or Server).
Now concerning the improvements, the design are far superior. ME1 was a neutral grey copy/paste prefabs a thousands time. Each level feels absolutely unique in catalyst from top of the world to server, Kruger apartments, the shard, etc. The only generic place is the actual open world, which makes me sad a bit because I wish every places we went would still be accessible because I thought they were far more interesting.
The soundtrack, probably a question of taste when liking or not (I prefer the first one personally BUT) has a much much much improved flow when it comes to mix ambient in different situation (the sound engine of Catalyst and Solarfield work to make every track blend is absolutely remarkable, it's like listening to the live of a true DJ).
The gameplay of Catalyst is light years ahead of ME1 which was very "square" and didn't have much "flow" for some times. One thing that extremely bothered me in the first ME were the pipes. Totally killing the flow, now with fast movement and even deep interaction between multiple pipes and gameplay action that requires you to do something else than just "getting up" or even the "alternate path" most pipe have makes it splendid. Of course though, Catalyst did others killing flow like the hook when it takes you vertical. Nice for cinematic but very bad for pacing whereas the hook for transversal situation keeps the flow and still requires you to aim and move correctly. But the overall gameplay is far improved upon the first one that really feel dated. I still love when faith's dub going sideway though
The light engine is spectacular. Lighting was something already great in ME1 but is now over the roof in MEC. The forstbite engine itself... well we know what it can do, it's beautiful.
The replay-ability approach is more interesting in MEC than ME1 just because MEC has so much more to offer in terms of gameplay than ME1 which is about the story and the linear aspect of it doesn't have much to retell being pretty poor in the first place (just like MEC). MEC leaves us wandering in the open world and allow us to create challenge for multiplayer (I loved that).
Concerning faith's design, people are just ****. The first faith was an animated comic design, it couldn't fit for real life cinematic (to be honest faith's design in ME1 was very very very passable and easily forgettable. Ok the red glove and the white pant with black shirt... but it looked sooooooo generic and her face didn't even have something particular). This faith is iconic now, I can easily remember her face and outfit, she has one of the best character design I've seen from 2016. From the taekwondo/parkour red shoes to the black banding on the white slim elastic pant, the small leather jacket with the red band and the Runner bag much more practical for parkour than the first one, I know it's about taste and color but criticizing her beyond "I don't like it" serves no interest.
Another area that has greatly improved: the combat. ME1 combat were flat and boring. The slow motion thing was absolutely out of place (almost like the hook to be honest in MEC which I can somehow justify by the Sci Fi in the game). ME1 taking gun and shooting people was not fun and felt also out of place. AI sure was better and more threatening in ME1 but it was out of place. Now it feels good, they only need to fix the purpose and the enemies you fight on paper.
Maybe there were some improvements in the movement. Some animations just look weird now. Also the special moves are ****. The combat system ist ****. Locking basic moves ist ****. And really some shooting passages were really better than those many fighting passages.