Hands-On: Mirror’s Edge Catalyst
Remember Mirror’s Edge? When the game came out in 2008, critics lauded its unique parkour-based gameplay and stark presentation, but some design frustrations and lackluster sales prevented any further franchise development from taking place. Now, nearly eight years later, EA is taking another crack at it with Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, a reboot of the original game focused on the origins of its main character, Faith. The company brought its closed beta of the game to PAX East, and those of you who enjoyed the 2008 original are in for a treat: this new one’s really good.
The beta opens with Faith getting released from prison as her captors lecture her on becoming a productive member of society. In practice, this more closely aligns with indentured servitude built to benefit the all-knowing corporations of the highly-oppressed city (of and named) Glass. As you might expect, things go off the rails quickly as some of Faith’s partners break her out of the corporate eye, and it’s not long before she’s a fugitive on the run.
It’s here that the gameplay starts, and it’s here that the game becomes the Mirror’s Edge experience players are familiar with. Once she gets moving, Faith turns running into an art form, and she’ll keep it up for as long as you can properly control her. All of the familiar navigation mechanics from the first game make a return, including wall-running, climbing, and performing soft landings after intense falls. All of these moves feel a bit cleaner and less stiff than they did the first time around, and maintaining a solid flow is just as addicting as ever. This comes alongside some new moves, like springboarding and using pipes to turn corners, and it all makes the game more fluid than its predecessor.
One of the biggest criticisms of the original game was its sloppy gunplay, and DICE has addressed this by placing a much heavier focus on hand-to-hand combat; your ability to knock the crap out of enemies has been vastly improved. You now have access to punches and kicks of varying strengths, and this comes alongside new mechanics that let you stagger multiple enemies at once. However, your new aerial combat abilities easily steal the show; you can now smoothly turn an in-air maneuver into a crushing offensive blow with the touch of a button. There’s really nothing like slamming your fist into a dude after performing a flawless springboard and wall-run combination. The new hand-to-hand system works great; it actively made me excited to encounter enemies, something I can’t really say about the first game.
Of course, I need to mention the game’s presentation, since that’s partially why the original was so beloved. If there was any franchise from last-generation that I wanted to see on current-gen hardware, it was Mirror’s Edge, and Catalyst surpasses the bar set by the original’s visuals. Glass looks gorgeous in all lighting conditions, with the original’s minimalist aesthetic taking center stage once again. Aside from an odd bit of clipping or jaggedness, the graphics really hold up, even on the less-powerful Xbox One.
When you put it all together, all signs point to this reboot taking everything that made the original fun and building upon it while eschewing the elements that didn’t quite work. To be fair, demos don’t always give a clear picture of the final product, and I’ve been burned by previews before – Shattered Crystal comes to mind here. That said, if the rest of the game can maintain the beta’s feeling of intensity and smoothness, DICE may have a serious hit on their hands.
Thanks to a newly-announced delay, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst launches for PS4, Xbox One, and Windows on June 7th in North America and June 9th in Europe.
