Mirror 39;s Edge Ign

[Kerby Reynolds]

Mirrors Edge is a 2008 action-adventure platform game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November 2008, and for Windows in January 2009. Set in a near-future city, it follows the story of Faith Connors, an underground parkour courier who transmits messages while evading government surveillance. To progress through the game, the player must control Faith from a first-person perspective and complete a series of levels that involve performing a sequence of acrobatic manoeuvres, including jumping between rooftops, running across walls, and sliding down zip lines.

Inspired by chase scenes featured in Casino Royale and the Bourne films, Mirror's Edge features hundreds of first-person animations to convey Faith's movement and interactions with the environment. Although the game is powered by Unreal Engine 3, a new lighting solution, which is able to reflect colors and create a lot of soft shadows, was created to give the game a unique art style. The game deliberately makes use of strong primary colors, with outdoor environments predominantly featuring white and distinctively lacking in green. The game was written by Rhianna Pratchett, and its score was composed by electronic music artist Solar Fields, while the main theme song was composed by Swedish producers Rami Yacoub and Arnthor Birgisson and performed by Swedish musician Lisa Miskovsky.

Upon release, Mirror's Edge received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its visuals and immersive first-person perspective, but criticized its trial and error gameplay, combat mechanics, and restrictive levels. The game sold around 2.5 million units by June 2013, and won Adventure Game of the Year at the 2009 Interactive Achievement Awards. Retrospectively, Mirror's Edge has grown in esteem and developed a passionate fanbase due to its strong aesthetics and innovative game design. A prequel to the game, also titled Mirror's Edge, was released for mobile devices in 2010. A reboot that explores a new origin story for Faith, titled Mirror's Edge Catalyst, was released in 2016.

Mirror's Edge is an action-adventure platform game where the player must control the protagonist, Faith Connors, from a first-person perspective and navigate a city.[2] To progress through the game and its storyline, the player needs to complete a series of levels that involve performing a linear sequence of acrobatic manoeuvres.[3] These include jumping between rooftops, running across walls, climbing pipes, walking along ledges, sliding down zip lines, and getting past opponents controlled by the game's artificial intelligence.[4] Faith's arms, legs, and torso are prominent and their visibility is used to convey her movement and interactions with the environment.[5] Her momentum is an important aspect of the gameplay,[6] as preserving it through multiple obstacles allows the player to run faster, jump farther and climb higher.[4] To help players chain moves seamlessly, the game employs a navigation system, called Runner Vision, which turns certain objects in a bold red color as Faith approaches them, allowing the player to instantly recognize paths and escape routes.[5]

Although the player can perform melee attacks and disarm opponents,[6] using weapons is generally discouraged as they slow Faith down and hinder her acrobatic abilities.[4] For example, carrying a weapon that is heavier than a pistol prevents the player from being able to jump and grab ledges.[4] Weapons have a finite magazine and must be discarded when they run out of ammunition.[4] If Faith has preserved enough momentum,[4] the player may use an ability called Reaction Time, which temporarily slows the gameplay down and allows the player to time their next move.[2] Faith has a certain amount of health which automatically regenerates when she does not take damage for a brief period. If Faith falls off a significantly high position or her health is fully depleted, the player must start the level again from the latest checkpoint.[4] In each level, the player may also find and collect three hidden yellow bags. These encourage the player to explore the game and unlock achievements.[7]

In addition to the game's story mode, Mirror's Edge features a time trial mode where the player must complete courses as fast as possible.[8] Each course is divided into multiple sections and has three qualifying times to beat. Although the first courses are unlocked as the player progresses through the story mode, additional courses can be unlocked by beating qualifying times.[9] Records can be uploaded to online leaderboards, where the player can compare their performance with others. The player may also download recordings of other players, called Ghosts, to show them the path they took through a course and help them improve their records.[9] Additional achievements can be unlocked by reaching certain milestones.[7]

Mirror's Edge is set in a near-future city where life is comfortable and crime is almost non-existent.[10] The city's state of bliss is achieved by an oppressive regime that controls the media and its citizens. An underground crew of parkour couriers, called Runners, operate independently from the city's security and surveillance measures, delivering private goods and sensitive information. At the same time, a new candidate, Robert Pope, is challenging the incumbent Mayor Callaghan on a platform of deregulation. The game follows the story of Faith Connors, a 24-year-old Runner who lost her mother when campaigning against the city shifting from its vibrant atmosphere to its current regime 18 years before the game's events. Faith was trained by former Runner Mercury "Merc," who now provides her with intelligence and radio support. Faith's twin sister, Kate, is a disciplined police officer who has a lot of affection for Faith but is also committed to protecting the city.[11]

After completing a delivery to fellow Runner Celeste, Faith learns that Pope has been killed and that her sister has been framed for his murder. Faith tries to get Kate to flee with her, but she refuses, saying it would only make her look guilty. After making her way through the city's storm drains, Faith learns from former Runner Jacknife that Pope's head of security, Travis "Ropeburn" Burfield, may be connected to Pope's murder. She then infiltrates Ropeburn's office, where she overhears him setting up a secret meeting at an unfinished building. Faith informs Kate's wary superior officer, Lieutenant Miller, of what she has learned, but he refuses to help her. Later at the meeting, Faith confronts Ropeburn, who admits that he framed Kate and hired someone to kill Pope, but he is killed by a sniper shortly afterward. Before he dies, Ropeburn tells Faith that he was going to meet the assassin at the New Eden Mall. Faith heads there, but the killer flees once they see Faith. Lacking other leads, Faith investigates the security firm that has begun aiding the police forces in capturing Runners. She finds they are behind Project Icarus, a program designed to train special forces to eliminate Runners and control the city. Faith follows the trail of Ropeburn's killer to a boat that is docked at a nearby wharf. There, she learns that the assassin is Celeste, who decided to collude with Project Icarus to live a more comfortable life. She also explains that Pope had to be killed because he was seen as a threat, especially once he discovered Project Icarus.[12]

With Kate convicted of Pope's murder, Merc helps Faith find a way to ambush the police convoy that is transporting her to prison. Faith succeeds and sends Kate to Merc's hideout while she leads the police forces away. Upon her return, Faith finds Merc critically injured and his hideout completely ransacked. Before he dies, Merc tells Faith that Kate has been taken to the Shard, the tallest skyscraper in the city and Callaghan's fortress. With Miller's help, Faith breaks into the Shard, destroying the servers that run the city's surveillance systems. On the rooftop helipad, she finds Kate held at gunpoint by Jacknife, who reveals that he is also part of Project Icarus. As Jacknife takes Kate onto a departing helicopter, Faith jumps onto it and knocks him out to his death. Faith and Kate then jump off to safety before the helicopter crashes.[12] During the game's end credits, the media reports that Faith's actions have only served to intensify the city's security and that the location of both Faith and Kate remains unknown.[13]

Mirror's Edge was developed by the Swedish company DICE as part of an effort to create something fresh and interesting, anticipating a need to diversify away from the successful Battlefield franchise the studio was known for.[14] The game was conceived in July 2006, when the studio decided to create a first-person game that would not be like a traditional first-person shooter, a genre that was considered very crowded at the time.[15] Because first-person shooters typically focus on weapons and technology, the studio wanted Mirror's Edge to focus on the player character and their physicality.[15] The opening chase scene of Casino Royale and the way Jason Bourne fights and runs in the Bourne film series were major inspirations for the game.[16] Originally, the development team experimented with the player being able to drive vehicles, but the idea was ultimately dropped because they felt it would break the flow of the game.[15] The game's protagonist emerged from a sketch illustrating an athletic female hacker, who art director Johannes Sderqvist felt suited the game very well. He explained that he was interested in a strong female character that would appeal to both women and men, and who became a hero not because of high-tech weapons, but because of her physical abilities.[15]

Although some of the game's first-person mechanics were first prototyped in the Battlefield 2 engine,[15] Mirror's Edge was built using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 because DICE's own Frostbite engine was still in the early stages of its development cycle when production of the game started.[17] Creating all the first-person animations proved to be an ambitious task, but it was considered essential to help orient players in the game world.[15] The game has hundreds of first-person animations and simple moves like using a ladder has over 40 animations alone. These include interactions such as jumping into it from multiple positions, climbing it up or down, or hanging on it with one hand.[15] Although the game has a believable first-person perspective, it is not meant to be a simulation. For example, the player is able to stop quickly after a full sprint because the development team felt that keeping the inertia would make the gameplay irritating.[18] To animate the character's in-game shadows, a different animation system runs simultaneously.[15] The only information that is visible in the game's heads-up display is a small reticle in the center of the screen, which was added to lessen the simulation sickness associated with the free movement of the camera in first-person view.[19]

3a8082e126