Mirror’s Edge is a unique game with a fairly original gimmick, but is it worth your money? Read on and find out

Mirror’s Edge, by Electronic Arts for the Playstation 3 and X-Box 360, is the first game based around the sport of free running, or parkour. You play as Faith, a runner, in a city where all dissemenation of information is carefully monitored. Runners are couriers who ferry sensitive information all over the city to clients who are against the policies of the establishment. When Faith’s Sister, Kate, a City Cop, is framed for Murder, Faith takes to the rooftops to clear her Sister’s name.

The game takes place from a first person perspective, with you controlling Faith. Any obstacle in your path can be vaulted or slid under. The left analog stick controls movement, while the right one controls the camera, which can be positioned on your next objective by pressing the O button. X is used to interact with oblects, such as switches. Square controls “Reaction time”, which is this game’s almost obligatory slow-motion feature. ? is used to disarm foes and drop or pickup their weapons. All of your “up” actions, such as jumping, are controlled with the L1 button. All of your “down” actions, such as sliding, are controlled with the L2 button. R1 will turn you 180° or 90° while wall-running. R2 is used to open doors, melee attack and fire weapons. Combat is best avoided in the game, but if you have to, or want to fight, you use the R2 button to punch, a combination of L1 and R2 to jump kick and L2 and R2 to slide kick. There are other combat moves you can learn, but due to Faith’s extremely small health bar, you are better off avoiding combat and, to be perfectly honest, the game is moving so fast most of the time that you will lose a ton of momentum if you stop to fight.The control scheme works well, but has a learning curve.

The graphics of the game are excellent and really get you immersed in Faith’s world. The fact that you can see her hands and feet in your view while running is a very nice touch. However, the fact that the cutscenes are done in a different art style makes them feel disconnected from the main game. I hope, if there is a sequel, that they will keep the look of the cutscenes consistent with the main game.

Sound is also fantastic, with music befitting the game’s urban anarchist motif. In addition, the voiceover work is truly immersive as you can hear the Cops shouting to each other as they track your movements. It really makes for some adrenaline pumping gameplay.

However, the biggest problem with this game is its unforgiving nature. Not since Prince of Persia have I encountered such merciless platforming. This game gives no quarter for jumps and will not help you that extra inch to reach the ledge. Miss a jump and you plummet to your doom and have to endure a 30sec loading screen while the level resets, preceded by a sound effect of bones crunching. This also brings up another flaw. The checkpoints in the game are not ideally spaced, meaning, most of the time, when you bite it, and you will bite it a LOT, you will end up having to do a lot of the last few minutes over. This adds to a frustration factor which is already high.

In the end the concept is innovative and it’s execution is mostly superb. The game’s immersive nature is a huge plus. However, the game needs to take a page from Tomb Raider and give you that extra inch. No one will know how great this game can be if everyone is too fristrated with the game’s unforgiving nature to play it.

Mirror’s Edge gets 3 Runner’s Bags out of 5