DVDfever.co.uk - Mirror's Edge Xbox 360 reviewDVDfever.co.uk - Charts, News and Reviews of Blu-rays, DVDs, Games, CDs, Hardware, Laserdiscs, Cinema Films & more
I fell in love with Mirror's Edge as soon as I played the demo.
You take the part of Faith, a Runner couriering secretive documents between locations via the rooftops of the city. For those
who've heard of free-running or Parkour, this is basically what it is - except you won't get hurt in real life and the city
in this game is a damn sight cleaner than your own. The main feature here comes in the Story Mode and the basic premise is that
Mayor campaigner Robert Pope has been assassinated. Your friend Kate's in the frame and you have to help her.
Of course, what you have to learn how to do is get from A to B without falling off - often to a certain death - and without
being killed by the occasional bad guys who spot you and come after you. If they do, then you can't simply return fire as you
don't have a weapon, but with a quick movement it is possible to take theirs from them. However, combat is often best avoided
and you're advised just to keep running rather than get into a fight. Although, if you do get involved, pressing X will enter
slow motion mode when 'Reaction time' is available and this time can be built up while running.
Mirror's Edge on Xbox 360: Intro Level
Runner Vision is what often helps you make the best choice of direction as a red item will generally indicate what you need to
jump off or aim for to continue your journey. That said, there are some locations where there's just too much extraneous red all
over the place - which isn't at all helpful and defeats the purpose of what this was meant to achieve.
You'll see from the game footage shown here that there's some incredible visuals to amaze your eyes as you travel about with
a first-person view across the Amime-esque landscape. Get the moves right and it flows like an absolute dream, making it feel
a bit like the Virtual Reality segments in
Strange Days. The game's glorious in HD, too, and, if you suffer
from vertigo, as I do, then you'll get to feel some of that while playing this game. I love the music too, both for the main
theme and the incidental music. It really gives the right ambience for this title. The sound FX as you run about and as Faith
grunts when you mis-handle a jump and it really hurts when she lands comes across brilliantly.
Mirror's Edge on Xbox 360: Level 1 Part 1
In-game CGI sequences are handy as they help continue the narrative of the game and also act as checkpoints where the game is
automatically saved, although I did come across one mid-level moment where.... "Loading Level"... came up, which really
spoilt the flow. It happened during an underground tunnel in one of the pieces of footage uploaded.
There's also a Race Mode with Time Trials that you can take part in, but you need to be registered to EA Online's site
to do this and I tried to access it but it told me it was unavailable. However, I thought the whole point of Xbox Live was to
have one place alone for this kind of thing which I could just log into with my Xbox Live membership?! Score zero for that one,
EA.
That said, you can play offline, but then you won't be able to upload any of your ghost times to the network... although as
things stand, I can't anyway.
Mirror's Edge on Xbox 360: Level 2 Part 1
If this game has a failing then, while it's fast and frenetic, there's far too much trial and error. In this game you will
die A LOT, making it both frustrating AND rewarding.
Overall, and this is also based on the fact that it's one of the most original games I have seen in a long time, Mirror's
Edge is defintely one of my favourite games of 2008!
In this review, I've uploaded a number of clips which are as follows:
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
