Mirror’s Edge Catalyst – Our Review
Having is not such a pleasing thing as wanting.
We really wanted to like this one. After all we were huge fans of the first one. DICE’s parkour FPS experiment in a dystopian future-scape set to an electronic ambient score was a solid entry into the Xbox’s early days and stood apart from most other titles. Sure criticism over erratic combat mechanics and a razor-thin story are merited, but the novelty and unique experience at the time won us over.
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is the reboot of this one-game franchise that tells essentially the same story of daredevil delivery girl, Faith Connors, who uses her expert roof jumping skills to fight big brother and unlock new abilities that really don’t do much. The story’s fairly inconsequential as it’s essentially a means to an end to justify first person platforming.
Runner’s vision is back but gets performance anxiety now disappearing at times you may need it the most
The game starts out fairly well as you mount a quick escape during a prison transfer in a sequence that shows off DICE’s fancy new engine allowing for impressive draw distances and some compelling platforming. You won’t really sweat seeing the awkward unresponsive NPCs standing inexplicably on a rooftop or mind when your desperately needed runner’s vision randomly goes offline or gets confused about how to get to your next destination.
Yes, it takes a while before the initial impression wears off and you realize you’re not really having much fun. For us it was a late game mission requiring us to “distract” guards by bumping into various sets of them within a certain amount of time while an ally snuck into a complex (which would be significantly more fun to play than our task). Bizarrely we had to push through new sets of guards every 20 seconds or the overall mission would fail – even if the earlier sets of guards were still in pursuit. It’s logic that wouldn’t even make sense on Crazy Taxi. With nonsensical sudden death rules and long loading times, we just lost interest in playing.
There’s an inescapable story that keeps getting in the way of the game you’d rather be playing
We ended up watching the rest of the game’s final few chapters through online playthroughs and, without spoiling anything, cannot believe how lackluster the gameplay is for the finale. It feels as though DICE was rushed to deliver a product and was forced to tell climatic moments in cutscenes instead of gameplay. We don’t need much but at least give us something on par with the original’s helicopter jump.
It’s easy to criticize how this game went wrong: the story is even thinner than the first game, the open world structure forces you to backtrack in less than inspired gameplay instead of the tight level design of the first game, it doesn’t have the awesome Still Alive song, combat is still a trainwreck, etc. etc. We have to think though that ultimately the original was a lightning in a bottle moment. FPS parkour was original. Now we’ve played Rage or even the new Doom that seamlessly include platforming into the rest of the game. Mirror’s Edge isn’t that distinct anymore. We’d argue though if you make it through the game ambivalent about your feelings, you’d be incensed by the time you realize how lackluster the final level really is.
What Works
If you missed the first game arguably it’s worth seeing the platforming done here. Running along walls or climbing impossibly high buildings is still impressive at times.
What Doesn’t Work
Where do we start? The draw distances are nice but when you actually look at the street or the buildings in the distance you realize they’re surprisingly poorly designed. The side missions are redundant and wildly too challenging. Worst of all, it’s just boring. Going open world when it’s this mindless to traverse was clearly a mistake.
Overall: Skip It
If you’re curious, just fire up the original. It’s better in every way despite being nearly a decade old.
