Release Date: 07/06/2016
Played On: Win
Available On: PS4 / Win / XBO
Time Played: 11h 4m
Progress: Completed Campaign
Developer: EA DICE
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Every now and then a game is released to mediocre reviews and practically non-existent hype, but I enjoy it all the same. The first Mirror's Edge was criticised for its empty world and bland story, while offering unique and compelling gameplay. It was short and sweet, but I loved everything about it, so the sequel must be right up my alley… right?
Unsurprisingly, the short answer is that yes, I really enjoyed playing Mirror's Edge Catalyst. If only because it extends everything I loved about the first game, but with shinier graphics and refined controls. After all, there were two things that sold me on the series: the parkour mechanics, and the overall world design.
You can throw out just about every other aspect of the Mirror's Edge games, and I'd be happy to have the parkour systems to play with. After all, it's the focus of the game and the bit they got right the first time. Running across the rooftops of the game's city and through the purpose-built interiors feels incredible when you have a good flow going. There's no other experience quite like it.
Of course there are the basic mechanics your given to jump, slide, wall-run, climb, leap, and everything else you need to free-run all over the place. What makes it exciting though, is the momentum that builds as you string moves together and avoid coming to a stop. The longer you maintain a continuous flow and run around unimpeded, your momentum builds and you gain speed.
The city of Mirror's Edge Catalyst is bigger than the first, so there's even more space to run around in. Plus, you get some new tools to open up different areas, such as a grappling hook that can be deployed to swing across large gaps, or reach greater heights. With some refinement and these added tools, free-running has never felt as good.
I'd leave it there if I could, but there's a lot more game in Mirror's Edge Catalyst, which is hard to ignore. Although, I'd be happy if the entire campaign consisted of nothing more than running around from point to point.
Much like the first game, the city is designed with parkour in mind, as every possible route has been littered with ways to get around. There are launch pads, pipes, and walls everywhere you look, and they all offer possible ways to get to your destination.
Runner's vision is back again, but it can be switched off if you want more of a challenge. Leaving it on will provide red highlights on objects that will help you traverse the environment, and show you the most direct path to your objective. Whether you use it or not, maintaining your flow and momentum is essential to getting around quickly and easily.
The first Mirror's Edge took place in an open world, but this game feels much more "open world" than it probably should. Zooming out on the map reveals a plethora of icons that are ultimately overwhelming and offer little in the way of exciting gameplay. Most of the blips throughout the city are nothing more than locations to reach, or collectibles to find.
This is perhaps the worst thing about this sequel, as they seem to have included a bunch of open world gameplay elements, simply for the sake of it. Sure you could spend ages finding collectibles and completing random runs against the clock, but it soon gets repetitive and boring. Suffice to say that I kept to the main story missions most of the time.
As someone who looks for awesome storytelling and interesting narratives in games, it kind of says something when I can't remember what a game's story was about. I remember the first Mirror's Edge story, where we played Faith who was framed for a crime they didn't commit, so we had to run around fixing everything. That was fun, and a little goofy at times, but basically a fun bit of superficial motivation to run around a lot.
Mirror's Edge Catalyst has a plot, but I can't recall it for the life of me. It had something to do with runners being targeted by someone, so Faith has to fix everything again by running around, but I'm guessing most of that either way. All I can remember is a bunch of edge-lord people talking to me between running around from place to place.
Unfortunately this is one of those sci-fi plots where everyone and their mother seem to be trying to out-cool each other. Nobody has a sense of humour anymore and everything's a little too earnest and pragmatic to be entertaining and exciting. I'm not put off by a serious story, but these characters would have been better if they took a page out of Watch Dogs 2's book and lightened up a little.
Then again, the appeal in Mirror's Edge is still the running around and going from place to place, so even with a crappy story I had a good time. The only thing was that I started having a good time when I consciously decided to ignore the story and ignore all the collectibles and other distractions in the open world.
Sticking to the main missions was a good way to maintain the fun of running around. The missions take you to the most interesting places in the city and provide some genuinely exciting set piece moments. Climbing to the top of a sky-scraper and then parkour-ing your way back down will never get old for me. Plus, the main missions have a good way of taking you in and out of buildings, which mixes up the landscape nicely.
I mentioned before that my second reason for loving these games is the sci-fi world design, and Mirror's Edge Catalyst takes the initial concept even further. I really like this vision of a clean and shiny future, rather than the usual dystopian mess of overcrowded dirt we see in many contemporary stories. Instead this world is beautiful, colourful, and clean. Every surface shines in the bright sun, and bright colours are used with purpose to designate districts and the path forward.
When you combine the beautiful world design, with the satisfying parkour mechanics and free-run systems, they're a match made in heaven. After all, running around from place to place is even better when you're given a beautiful location to do it in.
However, a beautiful setting and compelling mechanics don't seem to be enough to redeem a big budget game like Mirror's Edge Catalyst. While I enjoyed my time in the game very much, I can see why others have written it off as a boring and cynical cash in.
The shoe-horned open world collectibles and random side missions are pointless and boring at best. The plot is poorly written and tried way too hard to be s dramatic tale of serious things happening between edgy cool people. It really puts a damper on the whole experience and if I didn't like the running around a beautiful city so much, it would kill the game entirely.
I'd love it if studios were brave enough to make niche games that stick to a few impeccable elements, but there always seems to be flies in the ointment. For whatever reason they took the good parts of Mirror's Edge, and smothered them in the suffocating filth of pointless systems that do nothing more than bloat the entire experience.
It's a shame that we couldn't get a big budget parkour game that focused on tight controls and fun gameplay. Those things are present in Mirror's Edge Catalyst, but they're dragged down by everything else along the way. It's a fun game to run around in, but you might need to ignore a lot of it to really enjoy yourself.