Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is an attempted reboot that falls into the many pitfalls faced by the original
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It has been eight years since we saw a Mirror’s Edge game. The first game was very different from what was available in the market at the time and was a great shift even for the developer DICE, still known for its Battlefield games.
That said, Mirror’s Edge truly pushed some boundaries. It let the player perform complex sequences of parkour moves to get around at a very fast pace, all in first person. The game also had no guns, which was odd for DICE. Instead, you had to use speed and martial arts to take down enemies. While it was fun in parts, the parkour and especially the combat got cumbersome very quickly. The original also suffered with their story, which failed to engage the player or make kind of emotional connection.
This time around DICE seems to have learnt from its earlier mistakes. However, all the issues haven’t been solved yet and there are a few new ones that make this game hard to enjoy. Mirror’s Edge has got most of the parkour bits right this time, the runners vision helps keep things constantly moving at a good pace. There are areas that really work well in the game giving you that exhilaration of running around without too many breaks. The main story line does a good job of keeping the narrative going, it doesn’t come in the way of the gameplay, except for when it sticks you in an area where you have to defeat guards. Though it isn’t the most original of stories, but it isn’t unbearable either.
The biggest feature in the new reboot has to be the open world. Don’t think GTA, where you can do many different types of things, like fly a plane, race a car, plan a heist and more. Instead, think of the most boring version of GTA where all the activities are the same activity with varied time limits.
The world also feels a little behind the times when every other open world is trying to ramp up the user experience with realistic worlds. Despite that glaring flaw, the best views are from on top of the buildings.
The combat issue has not been solved, and Mirror Edge Catalyst still seems to be stuck in 2008, maybe earlier. We dreaded any mission that stuck us with anything more than one guard that we needed to defeat before moving forward. To begin with, Faith — oh yeah, the protagonist is called Faith — can only defeat one enemy at a time. Which means you have to run around avoiding one while fighting with the other. The enemies understand this limitation and like an 80s Van Damme movie, in most instances you will face one enemy at a time. So dreary is the combat that even the final level is essentially two high level guards.
If you loved the first game, go get the second one. If you like games with real combat, you might want to give this a miss.
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