aka: I died a lot

(I grabbed this image from Gamespot until I get my own)

The original Mirror’s Edge has been referenced as a cult classic more often than not. Reasonably so, considering it was kicked out by DICE, a studio known for AAA-hits like Battlefield 2, Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, and Battlefield 1. In that order. Regardless of my love for that series (except BF1) sometimes I don’t feel like murdering other polygons. Sometimes I feel like kicking those polygons off ledges, or flying down a zipline and smashing some dude’s face in. And that’s where I’ll hit the ground running (ha ha ha) with Mirror’s Edge Catalyst.

It’s normal to compare this sort-of-prequel to its 2009 predecessor, and the combat was the first thing that stood out. Previously, combat was this weird, clunky, shooty mess, where players were taken out of ~runner flow~ to murder cops*.

*note: by ‘cops,’ I mean KrugerSec private security agents who replace the cops, because future.

 It felt like such an afterthought, and using guns was so un…runnery. There’s an achievement in the original called Pacifist, unlocked by not beating anyone up. It almost felt like the dev team added it to say “combat was totally unnecessary in this game.” It was a pretty fun challenge, too.

I wondered if the same thing was possible in Catalyst, and they make it wildly obviously clear by the time the tutorial is done, you’re gonna be beating the shit out of cops for pretty much the whole game. Which is fine. Because it’s fun. One of the first loading messages I recall was:

“All KrugerSec weapons are biometrically linked to their owners, so even if Faith wanted to use them, she couldn’t.” 

Nice work, DICE. Yes, mowing down futurecops with a G36 variant (because, future) was super satisfying sometimes…but more often a nuisance. Catalyst instead provides you multiple ways to take down enemies, like a wallrun-quickturn-facesmash combo, or the aforementioned zipline-bodysmash move. It’s really, really fun to just jump from a high ledge directly onto someone shooting at you and then take down their buddies, too.

Of course, this is Mirror’s Edge, so instead of actually smashing face, you can just do a traversal attack to push someone aside, gain momentum, and Keep On Running. This comes into play in some of the side missions, called Diversions. They’re down-to-the-second speed runs, where you have to engage various K-Sec patrols to run a diversion for an NPC runner. Make it to each patrol before the timer runs out, then shake them off (or beat them up, or both) to complete the mission and snag some extra XP.

Because of course there’s XP. Once you’ve unlocked everything and hit the top level, there’s not much reason to have it. It does make a nice scorekeeper when you’re running through the city to beat up K-Sec, my personal highest is 700-some XP and I’d love to do a long-winded run of it, but I usually end up flying off a building, taking too big a leap, or just flailing about until I fall, since the controls can be kind of touchy.

I played the original with a gamepad, but switched to mouse and keyboard for Catalyst and was greatly rewarded. The controls can be kind of touchy (it took me until halfway through the story to find out I could cancel a failed wallrun by hitting Ctrl) but when you really get moving, it’s incredible. There were (and still are!) several times my heart would race from being on the edge of a tall building, or pulling off a complicated move between skyscrapers. Then there’s that whole thing with The Shard towards the end of the story…ドキドキ。

And the story itself is just fine. I was kind of hoping for a bit more, but the story in Mirror’s Edge always just felt like a way to progress along the real point of the game – running and pulling off super-fun moves in a gorgeous, hyper-dense cityscape/playground, and punching cops. The voice acting was pretty good, the cutscenes are gorgeous, Faith is twice as gorgeous, and we get to find out how she got that sick tattoo. But I didn’t buy this (on sale, for $10) for the story. I bought Catalyst because I’m a stupid cult member, and I like running around, exploring, and standing at the tops of mega-skyscrapers and watching the sun rise.

DICE gives us plenty to explore. There’s a huge open world, littered with secrets and a handful of interior levels, and a few tools for exploring it. Finishing the story and getting into Free Play lets you tackle the other side missions (time trials, Dashes, a few kinds of delivery missions, collecting All The Things) and is definitely enjoyable. You can even go back and replay the story missions. There were a few scenes that made a lot more sense (like in the Elysium building, the girl with Kruger is Isabelle!) and there were A TON of secrets scattered about the level. Turns out, they hide the on the interior levels, too. 

My only regret is playing on medium at 1920x1080, because I previously had no reason for anything better than a GTX680. I guess with Catalyst (and Doom) I might finally have a reason to upgrade…god dammit. Loading times can be kind of frustrating, my PC is a few years old but even with an SSD, 16GB of RAM, and a 3rd-gen i7 it was longer than expected. Pro tip: don’t die.

If you were into the first Mirror’s Edge, you’ll probably like Catalyst, too. I think there’s enough for newcomers, but this definitely feels like the Mirror’s Edge Dice Wanted To Make. I wrote this review after finishing the story and about 24 hours of gameplay, and there’s still plenty more to do. It’ll probably be on perma-sale now, considering its nature as a culty, niche prequel – I’d probably pay $25 for it.