Mirrors Edge PROPER CRACK ONLY Torrent
Keena Wiegert
Few people can truly say they are not interested in Mirror's Edge, even if it's just a mild curiosity being tickled by the game's growing fanbase. After the demo was released weeks ago, anticipation only rose as LIVE and PSN members were blown away by what appeared to be an innovation in next-gen gaming. Sure, it only ran about 15 minutes, but we were still plenty impressed and left wanting more.
Mirror's Edge is set in an immaculate city ripped right from the pages of Orwell's 1984. The government now controls every aspect of daily life, and the city's residents have long since given in to the comfortable yet stifled way of living. As such, people known as Runners have found their niche by transporting documents and packages. These fashion-attuned courriers navigate a complex system of conduits and runways comprised of city skyscrapers to industrial storm drains. While their business is technically illegal, authorities have always turned a blind eye rather than go through the trouble of tracking Runners. Well, all that is about to change.
We are introduced to Faith as the game opens, the spunky protagonist with an axe to grind. Speaking to the player is ex-Runner Mercury, and soon we run into the flamboyant yet cynical Celeste. For those who played the demo, the prologue should look familiar. You start off guiding Faith through a training course, followed by the first real objective in which you must retrieve the yellow Runner's bag and pass it to Celeste. Unfortunately, a news helicoptor spots Faith, and she is promptly besieged by the city's police force, referred to by Runners as "blues". They're playing rough, as the game notes, and when Faith manages to relay the package and escape, Mercury instructs her to haul ass while he does some digging into the problem. That's right, we have a controversy in the works.
I had assumed Mirror's Edge would involve missions where I actually be a Runner and deliver things to awaiting clientele or other Runners, which is most definitely not the case despite all the trailers explaining what Runners do and how they work. Instead, you are immediately absorbed into a sticky situation when Faith's twin sister, Kate, is framed for murder. Faith is seen leaving the crime scene, and now she's got even more angry blues trying to pump her full of lead. This is when the real flavor of Mirror's Edge emerges, and we can begin to judge the game.
Underneath the glamour, Mirror's Edge is all about movement, fast reactions, trial and error, and attention to surroundings. The word "innovative" is frequently used when describing this Swedish masterpiece, but does it fulfill expectations gracefully?
First off, DICE got the controls down pat, even though they may take some getting used to at first. Because this is a parkour action game, Faith isn't constantly armed, meaning the left and right bumper and trigger buttons have been freed to do other things. The two left buttons dictate jump and crouch, or up and down, and the right side lets Faith do a quick spin and throw punches or kicks. The rest of the controls are used for interaction with surroundings, disarming or using a weapon, Hint, and Reaction Time. If you're quick enough, you can pull off impressive chains of movement, seamlessly somersaulting over railings or pulling off extended wall runs before leaping to a pole and flipping into a smooth landing. It's all very satisfying when things go as planned, but I soon discovered that in Mirror's Edge, nothing ever does.
The game takes you through the edge of the city, whether it be rooftops or underground pathways, and the Hint option is meant to guide players as Faith tries to achieve her objectives. The Hint feature is quite nice in open spaces like the outdoors or wherever Faith doesn't actually need to go inside. Pressing B will point the first-person view to where you need to go, but when inside a building, the Hint feature will often guide you to your final destination, not the steps required to accomplish it. So if you're wedged against a wall, hitting Hint might just have you staring at that same wall, the floor, or some other surface in the room because the game is telling you to get onto the other side. Out in the open, Hint usually works much better and will direct the player to the next jump or climb rather than the end location. Don't be afraid to use it indoors anyway because you never know where it may lead you.
As Mirror's Edge progresses, we begin to see more of what we know, and the game's innovations have been seen before in other titles given an identical compliment when they were first released: innovative. The atmosphere can be likened that of Portal, by Valve, as Faith maneuvers through a city absent of civilians, giving the the game a feeling of isolation -- one that Chell must have experienced -- even with the flood of police and SWAT on her tail. There's no real violence involved, though Mirror's Edge lacks the dark wit Portal possesses. Interestingly enough, it shows us what happens when Portal and Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed were melted into a single concoction. While missing Portal's simplistic yet intriguing story, the Mirror's Edge narrative does the job serving as a the glue keeping various in-game events together into a fairly cohesive plot.
Like Assassin's Creed, we see a protagonist creating ripples in the ocean by questioning and defying order. The story progression between these two games is similar, and both appear to be struggling for a common goal by pushing the norms of popular gaming. Assassin's Creed can also be called a parkour action game, even as its cramped medieval cities contrast the polished dead space of Mirror's Edge, because it gives players a choice and doesn't reward excessive violence, smug sense of self-satisfaction not withstanding. While both games can be criticized for the same reasons, Assassin's Creed feels like it came closer to achieving that sense of free flowing freedom in a pulsing environment. Perhaps Faith's stark surroundings is meant to contrast the fire burning within her, that driving force pushing her to fight the establishment. With Altair, we are given insight into his mind through dialogue dispersed throughout the game, but in Mirror's Edge, we are only given brief insights via flat graphic animations that remind us of an ambitious project done on Flash. The dialogue here has about as much depth as the game's cinematic style, and the result is an equally flat character we have no empathy for. Faith becomes a mere avatar, and we are given little reason beyond her sleek design to love her.
In both games, movement can be incredibly easy or difficult in the blink of an eye. One minute, you're feeling confident and leaping before you look, and the game is forgiving enough to make up for the inevitable margin of error so that neither Altair nor Faith plummet to their deaths. On a whim, the AI renders your acrobatics moot, making the most basic jumps seem nigh impossible -- usually while fleeing from soldiers. This double standard is terribly more noticeable in Mirror's Edge, which is annoying when the police force is firing bullets instead of arrows.
When given a moment to breathe, it's easy to see where the brunt of DICE's efforts went. The cityscape of Mirror's Edge is every bit a feast for the eyes with its contemporary minimalist design, and we suddenly find ourselves immersed in a Mondrian painting without the black lines. While the look and feel of Mirror's Edge is about as far from Assassin's Creed as one can get, both Ubisoft and DICE crafted an amazing environment that is constantly tempting you off course. The sharp blow of reality hits when there are no more buildings within landing distance or red doors to look behind.
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