Mirror's Edge
a sequel could be something really very special indeed...
As Faith, a 'Runner' for an elicit courier service that uses the rooftops of the city as its information conduit, the skyline is your playground. The story mode takes you through the (wafer thin) plot in around 8-10 hours, freeing up speed run options for each of the nine chapters. Time trial mode gives you a selection of the locations visited in the game and tasks you with hitting a number of check points as fast as possible.
The basic controls are just that — basic. One button to jump, one to crouch, one to attack and one to look directly behind you. However, when combined with momentum, position and the cityscape itself, these simple options open up a surprising array of balletic moves.
Mirror's Edge is very much a game of two halves, both of which work relatively well in their own right. First, there's the path-finding puzzle element involved in getting Faith from A to B across the rooftops without plummeting to a very messy death.
Secondly there's the high adrenaline, fast action, flight from the cops (or "blues" as the game would have you believe) as you run desperately for a safe place to hide.
Where the game breaks down horribly however, is where these two disparate sides of the game are thrown together. It's hard to work out which platform you should be trying to scale whilst being drilled with automatic weapons fire.
On top of this the combat system is designed to make players want to choose the flight over fight, but this is frustrated by level design that occasionally leaves no option but to engage.
At its best, Mirror's Edge is a contender for one of the best games of the year, but at its worst it's poorly designed and frustrating beyond all reason. If DICE can manage to iron out the creases and tweak the gameplay, then a sequel could be something really very special indeed.