Mirror Edge felt repetitive because you could only run; there was room for much more

[fireflame]

First I would like to state I am well aware that the point of mirror edge is parkour, running, jumping on roofs ; However, iI didn't the adrenaline other players got when they experienced this game. I feel the reason is many games already allowed you to run on roofs. Ac Creed, Batman, and many other games don't think about trIvialized that.

The game focused on "one" thing, yet, people depicted it as another "big game". I also felt frustrated that Faith , other than being good at running did not have any other talent. I would have liked Dice to consider giving her an electric blade, shurikens,, hacking skills,an ability to slow time, drones... Many of those elements that make a modern FPS or TPS epic. And if yu want to keep the focuson running and jumping, you can imagine special action scenes where she jumps and shoots with two guns or does a special blade signature move that will kill various foes in a stylish way.

I am tempted to compare the game with Remember me because while the gameplay is different, both games happen in a dystopian society. Remember me felt more empowering(you can edit people's memory , you fight, you stun enemies, there are combos...

My main problem with this game is it felt like a "one thing" game. There are certain games which have one big feature and work well. Prince of Persia series has the rewind feature. But Prince of Persia as story, and there are various thing to do, climbing, fighting enemies,it is not a single thing you do through the whole game.

So when I played this game i didn't get why it got so much hype, while being lacking with story and gameplay diversity.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

It sounds like you might like Dying Light.

 

[Nabs]

I don't mind a game that does one thing as well as Mirror's Edge. I kinda wish they stuck with it, and left the guns out of it. The first half of the game is like a great album or movie that I love going back to. I honestly never wanted any of that extra stuff in it. It would just end up feeling like every other game out there.

 

[Positive Touch]

there was nothing like mirror's edge in 2008.

also...making her a ninja or whatever? talk about missing the point of the game

 

[Royalan]

I thought the original Mirror's Edge was close to perfect as it was. The gameplay was deceptively simple. Sure, you could get through the early levels easy enough (emphasis on early levels, shit gets hard in the final act). But it was replaying the levels, learning the layout, and getting through the stages with real finesse that made the game fun to me.

Also, not fair to compare to Ac Creed and the Batman games. Parkour was ME's main gameplay feature and it showed: the mechanics are on a completely different level in terms of seamlessness.

 

[Clay]

I see what you're trying to do with your mechanically unique game here, but let's shoe-horn in stuff from more popular games. Why? Because it's EPIC!

My main problem with this game is it felt like a "one thing" game. There are certain games which have one big feature and work well. Prince of Persia series has the rewind feature. But Prince of Persia as story, and there are various thing to do, climbing, fighting enemies,it is not a single thing you do through the whole game.

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The combat is Sands of Time's single flaw, the game would have been better with time spent fighting enemies either drastically reduced or removed entirely. More isn't alway better.

 

[Kinsei]

If anything it doesn't focus on running enough. There shouldn't have been any combat at all.

 

[MinusTydus]

The parts where you are forced into combat are the worst part of Mirror's Edge. It should have been all running from beginning to end. You shouldn't have even been able to pick up a gun. You wanna shoot things? Buy "Call of Duty: Whatever The Fuck."

 

[Putosaure]

At least it was short enough not to feel too stretched

 

[Royalan]

The parts where you are forced into combat are the worst part of Mirror's Edge. It should have been all running from beginning to end.

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The parts the forced you to stop and engaged in combat were aggravating.

But, not going to lie it felt pretty badass whenever I managed to knock someone out without breaking stride.

 

[chrominance]

I see where you're coming from but to me a big thing that made Mirror's Edge so special was its purity of intent. It wanted to be a game where the correct solution in nearly all instances was to run, and the challenge was to figure out where to run to and how. The parts of the game that felt the worse were the parts where the game deviates from that principle.

No one gives the original Doom shit because all you really do is run around and shoot people.

 

[EatChildren]

Mirror's Edge: Catalyst is a good example of why taking the focus away from a singular refined concept that encourages replay for mastery and instead shifting towards a design model that is open and more mechanically varied often comes at a cost of detachment from what made the original basis so addictive and enthralling.

 

[StallionDan]

OP sounds like

 

[corasaur]

I loved that it was almost pure platforming. i think I would have liked it less if it were less straightforward and focused. For me, it didn't cut out the variety, it cut out the noise.

The assassin's creed comparison doesn't work for me because AC was kinda "hold the freerunning button and just move." it was barely a platformer.

Of course, if some developers out there want to try and prove me wrong, I'd gladly play some games based on pitches like "mirror's edge but you play The Flash," "mirror's edge but you're a hacker," "mirror's edge but combat is actually fun...."

 

[Ordinary Rock]

If anything it doesn't focus on running enough. There shouldn't have been any combat at all.

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Basically, this.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

I would have liked Dice to consider giving her an electric blade, shurikens,, hacking skills,an ability to slow time, drones... Many of those elements that make a modern FPS or TPS epic. And if yu want to keep the focuson running and jumping, you can imagine special action scenes where she jumps and shoots with two guns or does a special blade signature move that will kill various foes in a stylish way.

Click to shrink...

I don't shoot down ideas very often, but this sounds absolutely terrible to me.

 

[tryagainlater]

I always felt they could have actually done something with combat rather than say there should be zero of it. It should have been momentum based and a part of the platform challenge. The first game was more about avoiding it completely which felt more like bad stealth mechanics than a part of the platforming or shooting in a circle hoping you hit something. Catalyst actually had a few segments where you were hitting dudes off a wallrun and keeping your stride but most of the combat ended up more like an arena where you ran around in circles kicking dudes in the balls. I'd like the idea of grabbing a dudes gun as you run past him and quickly shooting some guy in front of you, throw the gun away and keep running. Both games' approach to combat were lame but at least Catalyst had one or two segments the way I wanted it.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

So long as a game uses its "one thing" in varied and clever ways, I'm more than fine with it being limited in that way. I welcome branching out when it can be done well and/or is ambitious in a fun way, but I won't knock a game for adhering to a core focus.

 

[Twelvy]

If anything it doesn't focus on running enough. There shouldn't have been any combat at all.

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Exactly this.
I played a couple of hours of Mirror's Edge and the combat was a complete turn-off. I also played ME1 without any kill because I felt it was the way it was meant to be played.
I love ME1 because the level design is clever and you completely have to rethink the world once you start the time attack modes (I'm a huge fan of time attacks in games). Sadly the open world structure of ME2 didn't allow that.

I hope OP finds a game that fits his desire, but for me that isn't what Mirror's Edge is about

 

[nded]

Could've used more running, honestly.

 

[Dr. Ludwig]

But it's a platforming game, one of its kind back in 2008.

 

[fireflame]

Exactly this.
I played a couple of hours of Mirror's Edge and the combat was a complete turn-off. I also played ME1 without any kill because I felt it was the way it was meant to be played.
I love ME1 because the level design is clever and you completely have to rethink the world once you start the time attack modes (I'm a huge fan of time attacks in games). Sadly the open world structure of ME2 didn't allow that.

I hope OP finds a game that fits his desire, but for me that isn't what Mirror's Edge is about

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I understand what you mean and I absolutely understand some players loved the game the way it is, focusing on that special thing. But I feel the fact it relied on one thig is why It would have struggled to be a regular series.

 

[henhowc]

Play dying light.

 

[More_Badass]

I understand what you mean and I absolutely understand some players loved the game the way it is, focusing on that special thing. But I feel the fact it relied on one thig is why It would have struggled to be a regular series.

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Maybe it shouldn't have been a regular series then? Games can, and should be sometimes, one-and-done just like movies.

 

[Clay]

I understand what you mean and I absolutely understand some players loved the game the way it is, focusing on that special thing. But I feel the fact it relied on one thig is why It would have struggled to be a regular series.

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So what? Not every game needs to be the launch of a AAA annualized franchise.

 

[capitalCORN]

Faith did have bullet time...

 

[Redeye97]

I like the story and concepts around Mirror's edge, but if I were to be honest with myself, I think the iPad game was the best of them gameplay wise.

 

[StoveOven]

Nah, throw me in with the other people saying that we need more games with simplicity and focus in vision, not less. All those things might make a game more marketable, but that doesn't mean they make a game better. And as somebody who likes good videogames and doesn't own stock in EA, I prefer the Mirror's Edge we got.

 

[fireflame]

So what? Not every game needs to be the launch of a AAA annualized franchise.

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The game's end did not completely answer all questions so I feel if the game had sold more EA would have been inclined to make sequels . I also feel is so common to make a series of a game when your name is EA Ubisoft or Activision, that the opposite almost feels strange.

 

[P00PNINJAMVC3MK]

Honestly sounds like you would love Mirrors Edge Catalyst.

 

[DFG]

ME1 was almost perfect. Although short, but those replays were sweet. Still haven't played Catalyst.
Maybe try Dying Light?

 

[krae_man]

Mirrors Edge is a tightrope. The flow is incredible and satisfying but dying ruins it. However, making the game impossible to fail or too easy would also ruin it.

Very fine line they needed to hit and it's impossible to hit it with everyone.

 

[est1992]

I think there's still potential with the franchise. Loved the first.

 

[Marin-Lune]

The game focused on "one" thing, yet, people depicted it as another "big game". I also felt frustrated that Faith , other than being good at running did not have any other talent. I would have liked Dice to consider giving her an electric blade, shurikens,, hacking skills,an ability to slow time, drones... Many of those elements that make a modern FPS or TPS epic. And if yu want to keep the focuson running and jumping, you can imagine special action scenes where she jumps and shoots with two guns or does a special blade signature move that will kill various foes in a stylish way..

Click to shrink...

OMG no No NO. This is precisely what made ME so great and unique: how faithful and pure to its own concept it sticked to.
Killing enemies was a very last resort thing and it even managed to make me feel terrible when doing so.
Couldn't disagree more with you OP

 

[Twig]

faithful

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Oh you.

 

[spool]

To really "get" Mirror's Edge, you need to replay and practice. There is a lot of depth to the one thing that Mirror's Edge does, enough for many hours of discovery and improvement. I recommend trying out the time trials.

I love ME1 because the level design is clever and you completely have to rethink the world once you start the time attack modes (I'm a huge fan of time attacks in games). Sadly the open world structure of ME2 didn't allow that.

Click to shrink...

The open world contains the dashes (time trials) and they absolutely meet your criteria of having to rethink the world. They are even more open than the time trials in the first game as they don't require you to hit checkpoints, and only tell you to make your way from point A to point B. There's a lot of work, and rethinking, involved in going from not knowing an area at all, to getting a good time.

 

[copelandmaster]

It did two things, running and close quarters combat. During the combat she could shoot some guns, and that felt pretty bad. Running felt good.

ME: Catalyst does some of that extra stuff, go play that. No guns though.

 

[jdstorm]

I understand what you mean and I absolutely understand some players loved the game the way it is, focusing on that special thing. But I feel the fact it relied on one thig is why It would have struggled to be a regular series.

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To be honest it's lack of becoming a Series likely had more to do with when it was released and who released it.

Mirrors Edge is a linear puzzle platformer made for speedrunning. That's a fairly niche thing and not the type of game EA was interested in making last decade due to its lack of open world or other GAAS monetisation models.

Mirrors Edge Catalyst tried to correct that by making a large interconnected world and adding beatem up gameplay. Unfortunately the game was held back by it's inability to execute on being a true open world due to either Frostbite, Console power, art style or all of the above. As well as poor writing that is unfortunately standard among EA games.

What did Mirrors Edge need to become a bigger franchise?

Im not sure. It's closest comparisons are Dying Light, Titanfall 2, Watchdogs 2 and Steep. Only Dying Light was a breakout success.

Steep was a pure platformer/racer but it's GAAS elements made it always online and it was too barebones at launch to make inroads

Titanfall 2 was the linear puzzle platformer shooter hybrid many core players wanted, but abandoned it when the handling model from TF1 was reworked seeing the series sales plummet.

Watchdogs 2 captured the series spirit the best, but had its own issues with violence/narrative dissonance as well as a backlash from WD1 which ultimately hurt its sales and saw its sequel go in a different direction.

Dying Light best captured the gameplay, and managed to execute that within a true open world. As well as combine it with a Zombie ARPG and that worked well enough, but I'm not sure how you translate that to equivalent system to the sterile environment of Mirrors Edge.

 

[Twelvy]

But I feel the fact it relied on one thig is why It would have struggled to be a regular series.

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That's true that the game didn't have the legs (and price) to be a massive success, but I'm happy to have had the Mirror's Edge we got instead of 15 Assassin's Creed like games.
I have made peace with what games should be. There are too many good games on the market and not enough time to play them. As I grow older, I prefer more short and focused experiences.

 

[Arsene no Kiseki]

Mirrors Edge is the only game I attempted to speedrun. It did that "one thing" incredibly well and Catalyst couldnt even come close.

 

[Spacejaws]

I'd say it's not really about 'running' but movement in general and it's flow and in that sense it had plenty of unique puzzles and time trial element was the best part of the game trying to perfect a sequence.

I think to expand it would be to expand those movement tools and give them meaningful reasons to use them.

I never played Catalyst sadly because I didn't have a console at the time but my brother who really enjoyed the original was really dissapointed in Catalyst and I've just considered it dead sadly.

 

[Twelvy]

The open world contains the dashes (time trials) and they absolutely meet your criteria of having to rethink the world. They are even more open than the time trials in the first game as they don't require you to hit checkpoints, and only tell you to make your way from point A to point B. There's a lot of work, and rethinking, involved in going from not knowing an area at all, to getting a good time.

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That's good to know. However I guess I have to play the game to unlock them. When I saw the combat, the lists of collectibles, I was done.

 

[NightShift]

So many big budget games try to do so much that many of them end up doing nothing special. If Mirror's Edge did that than I'm sure it would likely be a worse game like Catalyst which only needed to add open world busy work to make a dramatically worse game.

I would legit kill for a AAA game today that excels at one thing and one thing only like what Mirror's Edge did.

 

[Mr_Blue_Sky]

Mirrors Edge suffered as a game every time it tried to force you into combat or slow down the pacing with puzzle elements. The game was at its best when it was distilled down into its purest form in the time trial dlc. Literally perfection.

 

[Clay]

The game's end did not completely answer all questions so I feel if the game had sold more EA would have been inclined to make sequels . I also feel is so common to make a series of a game when your name is EA Ubisoft or Activision, that the opposite almost feels strange.

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EA published Unravel. Ubisoft's Rayman games are far more simple mechanically than their big open world games. Activision published Sekiro.

I kind of get what you're saying but all three have made games that don't spawn a huge franchise. And personally I tend to prefer those smaller, more unique games. It would be a shame to make them more like other big games in order to try to make them more "epic."

 

[Spoit]

Mirrors Edge Catalyst tried to correct that by making a large interconnected world and adding beatem up gameplay. Unfortunately the game was held back by it's inability to execute on being a true open world due to either Frostbite, Console power, art style or all of the above

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It didn't help that they put their worst foot forward with the area design on the first half. Once you went over to the other side of the map, with the mallish area, construction zone, and big circular run around a bay, there were much wider paths and multiple levels of verticality. Also, they were super beautiful compared to the flat, white, boxy zones at the beginning

That's good to know. However I guess I have to play the game to unlock them. When I saw the combat, the lists of collectibles, I was done.

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There were a couple arena fights which were terrible, but by and large, the combat in ME2 was way better. It actually make making attacks not kill all your momentum, and was vastly improved

 

[Issen]

If anything it doesn't focus on running enough. There shouldn't have been any combat at all.

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My sentiments exactly. I dropped the game as soon as combat startes becoming common.

 

[spool]

That's good to know. However I guess I have to play the game to unlock them. When I saw the combat, the lists of collectibles, I was done.

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If I may, I have some tips. First, there is no reason to bother with collectibles other than for achievements. If you still feel that you have to go for it, know that what seems like by far the worst of them, collecting electronic parts, actually only demands that you pick up 10 of them. Once you have them, you can just run past the rest. Once you finish the campaign the gridleaks (orbs) are marked on your map. The rest of them (recordings, documents, bags) can sometimes be tricky, but there aren't that many of them and you can get them pretty quickly using a guide.

And speaking of not bothering, the open world has a number of missions to deliver items, or distract guards. These suck. Skip them unless you want all achievements.

Combat is required of you a handful of times during the campaign. It's always a bummer when it happens, but at least you won't be bothered with it when doing the time trials.

 

[squidyj]

I would have liked Dice to consider giving her an electric blade, shurikens,, hacking skills,an ability to slow time, drones... Many of those elements that make a modern FPS or TPS epic.

Click to shrink...

Is this a troll post? That sounds like the most awful thing. The original Mirror's Edge was exceptional in it's clarity, it's atmosphere, and it's identity, taking away from that would literally ruin the game.

 

[Hugare]

It would be a different genre

It's a platform/racing game at its core. Enemies are more like obstacles to pass through as fast as you can than actually enjoy fighting them.