I remember the first Mirrors Edge coming out for the Xbox 360 when I was in University and I remember liking it quite a lot. I beat it multiple times, would sometimes listen to the OST while studying and even tried to sort of speed run it. Not in any serious way but I'd spend quite a few hours finding the optimal route through a stage just to see the little time trial numbers go down. Mirrors Edge: Catalyst however pissed me off within the first 30 minutes or so of playing and finishing it was one of the biggest chores I have ever undertaken in the 26 years of my gaming life.
I don't even know what it really is. I thought it was a sequel but it seems more like a sort of reboot more than anything else. I'd love to tell you about the story at this point in the article but I hated the dialogue in this game so much that I played most of it with my TV muted and just switched my brain off and followed the little red noodle to my mission destinations.
What I can tell you though is that the parkour gameplay isn't actually all that bad. As far as running around, jumping over, on and around things is fairly functional. The downside is that it's marred by one of the most boring open worlds in the universe. The world of Mirrors Edge has nothing in it, nothing to explore or see or experience outside of the set pieces in the main missions. The only thing the open world is good for is getting from point A to point B and watching a cutscene which means that it doesn't matter how good your parkour gameplay is when you don't fucking do anything with it.
That's not to say that the world is completely void of things to do, it's just that the things to do in that world are pointless bullshit busywork made to prey on 100% wierdos like me. There are delivery missions when you run from point A to point B, these tower things that you blow up and then run away from and a bunch of random crap to collect throughout the various areas of the world map. None of this does anything though outside of giving you experience. However I did a couple of these side shows at the start and quickly gave up yet still managed to max out the skill tree by the end of the game. It's all literally just pointless bullshit to pad out the game
But let's talk about the skill tree quickly shall we? One thing I wish games in general would stop doing is including bullshit systems just because it's the "in" thing to do. The skill tree in ME:C is the most needless token addition to a game I've ever seen. The developers were so starved for ideas for this token skill tree that one of the skills you unlock is fucking QUICK. TURN. A feature present in most games as a standard bit of control has been slapped inside a fucking skill tree because whatever gimp decided it was a good idea to have it couldn't think of enough things to fill it. You may find at that start that certain delivery missions are kind of challenging but NOT because you aren't good enough, it's because the game wont let you move fast enough. Delivery missions are a breeze once you have quick turn, fast climb, tuck jump and extended slide but until you get these skills the missions are borderline impossible. If I'm failing something in a game I want it to be because I need to "git gud" not because the dozy idiot I'm controlling hasn't earned the arbitrary amount of points in order for her to "git gud".
Although I'm not saying anything new or controversial with this post, people have been calling it shit since 2008 and rightly so. I was just late to the party and didn't want to believe it going in so at the end of the day I'm the one with egg on my face.
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