By Alec Meer on January 20th, 2009 at 6:13 pm.
Here comes an awkward metaphor: Mirror’s Edge (the delayed PC version of which was finally released last week) is hiding in the closet. Unsurprisingly, this only makes life difficult for it. For every moment it pretends to be an FPS, it feels wrong, and to any onlooker it’s visibly uncomfortable in this assumed role. If only it would cast off this sham and reveal its true colours – well, then we’d have a game proud of itself. Mirror’s Edge is a racing game, but it doesn’t have the courage to admit it. Be proud, ME. Tell the world what you are, cry it from those rooftops you spend so much time gallivanting across: “I AM A RACING GAME!”
But it doesn’t, and it’s a coward for it. Certainly, it’s not the game we hoped it would be from those early shots of a vast, alabaster cityscape. For all the alluring Le Parkour theme, that white world of rooftops isn’t yours to explore. Instead, you have a course – a circuit you have to follow with relative exactitude. There’s some give and take and a few canny shortcuts, but really you’re always headed in one direction. While that makes for a broken dream or two, it’s not inherently a problem: this is, after all, supposed to be a game about movement, fluidity and speed rather than about exploration.
Except it’s not that, either. Or at least it’s not that in the mode everyone will gravitate to – the story mode. Story mode isn’t very good. More critically, the reliance on as overbearing a narrative as Mirror’s Edge is yoked to actively distracts from what the game does very well, which is the mechanics of fluid roof-running. With the constant carrot of new plot points dangled in front of you, whenever you miss a jump or make a lousy landing, you fail the game. The flow’s disrupted and you’re faced with the annoyance of repetition (for this uses a fairly inconsiderately-implemented checkpoint save system) if you want to progress. That’s close enough to the standard system for any FPS, of course, but it’s different here – because Mirror’s Edge is a racing game.
While we do, to some extent, play racing games to progress, largely we’re playing to test ourselves, to better our own records and achievements. If you played a racing game because you wanted to reach the next between-race cutscene, screwing up would be annoying – it means you have to tackle that race again. If, though, you’re racing to achieve a best time or a shiny medal, screwing up means you’ve failed yourself as opposed to the game. You try again because you want to do better, not because you have to.
That’s why Mirror’s Edge story mode fails. Death, usually by falling but sometimes by bullets in the face, comes often. Death systems, in other words, we’re accustomed to from action-orientated genres. Perhaps ME deserves accolades for attempting something of a genre fusion, but if it had discarded its fairly insipid efforts to be an action game its challenges would be thrilling challenges of its players own ability, not challenges laid by arbitrary setpieces. That the story is not an interesting one, hung around thinly-sketched characters and a weirdly unspecific dystopic tomorrow, is almost irrelevant. This isn’t a game that should have a story – or if it did, no more of one than a Tony Hawk or SSX game. Fantasy sporting challenges contained by only the loosest structure: that’s what Mirror’s Edge should be.
Instead, it makes exactly the mistakes we all predicted it would when we first heard about it. It’s restrictive, it doesn’t allow for much thinking on your feet, the combat feels out of place and grows in importance far too much, it hinges around Tomb Raider deaths and it lacks the variety you’d expect from a singleplayer FPS. Mistakes so obvious that it’s almost astounding they’re there. Storyline mode has one thing going for it: it’s very short. You’ll blow through it in a weekend, easy.
Yet, once all the storyline guff and the associated uncomfortable compromises are pushed aside, there’s something sparkling and beautiful hiding. Mirror’s Edge has a time trial mode, one that’s been overlooked in all the pre-release blather about tie-in comics and whether Faith’s hot or not. It’s easy to overlook it, especially if you’ve already sampled and been disheartened by the story mode – you’ll presume it’s just cheerless repetition of levels you’ve already died a few too many dozen times on. Don’t do that. Play the tutorial, then leave the Story alone and come back to the Time Trials. It’s where Mirror’s Edge has the confidence to be what it really is – a racing game, but with legs not wheels, hands not gears.
The courses are still prescribed and that means your attention still won’t stay with them for long, but by placing visible checkpoints scattered sequentially across those beautifully bare rooftops rather than claustrophobically ushering you from setpiece puzzle to setpiece puzzle, there’s more scope for shortcutting and for adapting to an error. You’re chasing a high score, both one set by the game and one set by unseen other players, and to achieve that you trial-and-error establish the best possible route you can devise. When you fail or fall short of your goal, it’s a drive to try again, to improve yourself, which that forlorn narrative mode just can’t muster. It’s doing something similar to The Club, but with a more appealing, logical key mechanic, and with far more character thanks to that stark, serene visual style.
Faith, you see, doesn’t matter a jot – sure, she’s a vaguely successful attempt to create an iconic character and thus launch a franchise, but the game’s real character is the city skyline. Forever giddying in its scale and beautiful in that signature sterile way, the reason for it being so and whatever tale is supposed to be gripping the streets below seems so irrelevant. It’s a fantasy obstacle course. For every second that Mirror’s Edge loses sight of that, it fails. When it’s just you, the rooftops and Faith’s slim repertoire of jumps, shimmies, slides and rolls, it’s something like the urban Tarzan game we all hoped Mirror’s Edge would be. Time Trial mode rewards practice and it rewards perseverance, and it’s the only reason to buy Mirror’s Edge.
20/01/2009 at 18:26 ulix says:
I liked the story mode.
While the story itself wasn’t very good I always got incredibly thrilled when I was chased by a bunch of guys with guns, something thats entirely missing from TimeTrial.
Really not been that amped up in a game probably since Thief 2.
20/01/2009 at 18:27 CrashT says:
The story mode isn’t great but I found the time trails boring. The times when Mirror’s Edge succeeds, when it feels like something special, something different are when you’re being chased. During these sections the paths through the levels are fairly obvious and you just need to keep moving. It’s only possible in a few levels and that’s a huge problem but when it does work it something very impressive.
Without the chase, without that tension it’s meaningless and bland. Sure I could run around all day trying to beat my time but it never feels worth the effort. Shaving a second off here or there makes it feel too much like a game. The thrill of the chase that’s where it excels. Enemies behind you a playground of rooftops ahead of you… RUN.
20/01/2009 at 18:30 Stuk says:
I’ve been following this since I first saw and heard it (the music in the trailer really blew me away. Is this followed up in the game?), so I was disappointed to see the mediocre reviews. This verdict gives me hope, so I’ll still be picking it up (although not at the current £27ish).
I assume “[scores] set by unseen other players” means online leader boards?
20/01/2009 at 18:32 Joe says:
I’m with ulix, and actually put Mirror’s Edge on my to 5 list. THe story itself is nothing special, but it’s not awful either, and the pressure of being chased, broken with platforming puzzles makes this game both special, and certainly not a failure.
20/01/2009 at 18:33 Mman says:
While I loved it from the start (such that it’s the first game in a while I’ve been completely addicted to), I have to support any review that puts emphasis on the post-game content as the initial playthrough IS where the vast majority of the non-player intiated frustration is located, and the real game starts when you look back over everything for the fastest routes and techniques (as well as realising how all but a few fights can be skipped pretty easily).
I find myself focusing more on the speedruns than time trials though, probably because god-like players have already dominated the time trails, while there are still plenty of shortcuts and other stuff to unearth in the levels and still chances to get a world record even without perfection.
20/01/2009 at 18:36 AndrewC says:
I found real joy in shaving off a couple of seconds off my time trial times, which is a sure sign of a racing game.
The story missions become fun to time trial too as, once you know how to do them, all the frustrations just disappear.
Which is why I hope to crap the DLC missions come to the PC, as those levels’ abstract geometric shapes suggest getting rid of the story and focusing on the time trials.
20/01/2009 at 18:37 Meat Circus says:
Possibly the most hatefully frustrating gaming experience of last year. Such a deep disappointment…
20/01/2009 at 18:41 Pags says:
I’m with Meat; I found nothing but disappointment and broken dreams. I’m not big on racing games either, so the Time Trial mode did little to assuage my feelings of hurt. Mirror’s Edge made me a sad, sad panda.
20/01/2009 at 18:42 Tei says:
Wooot!.
Some people think the PC is the trash bin, where dump his console games. Another PC port!.. Oh man, how I hate these!.
Here is a “Pitfall II” screenshot.
http://www.defacto.lv/naudina/game/pitfall.gif
Is a 8 bits game, and is like 40 KB long, has gameplay for like 30 weeks, maybe more. I don’t know. Most people has never finished it.
But I digress… Pitfall have no weapons. All he do is jump. He can’t even kill stuff jumpin on the head (mario style).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitfall!
“I sat down with a blank sheet of paper and drew a stick figure in the center. I said, “Okay, I have a little running man and let’s put him on a path [two more lines drawn on the paper]. Where is the path? Let’s put it in a jungle [draw some trees]. Why is he running [draw treasures to collect, enemies to avoid, etc.]?” And Pitfall! was born. This entire process took about ten minutes. About 1,000 hours of programming later, the game was complete.”
20/01/2009 at 18:42 schizoslayer says:
WRONG! The Story mode is excellent with a few low points where the difficulty spikes considerably (Which is apparently mostly unique to the PC version with the Xbox Version apparently being too easy).
The Disarms are terrible not because of a bad concept but because of some glaring bugs. Press Disarm when the weapon turns red. Except in most of the animations for the SWAT guys the weapon turns red at the end of the animation after you have been beaten around the head. As you don’t carry a gun around all the time this makes the few occasions you have to fight to progress stand out (I spent a long time on the subway fight for instance because of this bug).
However I never got lost. I misjudged a jump a couple of times and there was a weird glitch with jumping between drainpipes that means sometimes you pass straight through it but for 95% of the game it was pure joy.
It also does something very very few games have achieved: Made being chased consistently fun with genuine pressure to keep moving. In most games if you stop running nothing happens. In Mirrors Edge if you stop running you will die. So you better run your arse off!
20/01/2009 at 18:46 Mman says:
Tei: What are you talking about? Also, while I haven’t played it yet (although I’m heavily considering grabbing the PC version too), the Mirror’s Edge PC porting job has been lauded in pretty much every review I’ve seen (the fact porting issues weren’t even mentioned here is probably testiment to that).
20/01/2009 at 18:53 Tei says:
“the Mirror’s Edge PC porting job has been lauded in pretty much every review I’ve seen”
The perfect cuckoo’s egg maybe.
20/01/2009 at 18:55 MrFake says:
You can glean a lot of this from the demo.
There’s the tutorial, unfairly broken up into speed-shattering segments, but with burst appeal. Then there’s the quickie demo level, which is one long, almost unbroken run from start to finish. You get to experience the fun of racing from one place to another, picking a route (albeit from few choices), and the almost unhindered speed. Then there’s the few action sequences, which murder all appeal. I figure the real game ends as soon as you encounter the first gun toting drone blocking your path; it’s console-pandering from then on.
The demo menu does have the option to do time trials, but I never tried it to see if it’s active. Hopefully they were smart enough to show that off so people could experience it before purchasing. Despite all the negativity, I still enjoyed it (up until the gun jerks).
20/01/2009 at 18:57 THEorangePANDA says:
Hell i just like this game for being different in art, unlike the trrrrilion zillllion of games that only havr graybrownpoo color that give depresion…
20/01/2009 at 18:59 Sagan says:
I just finished the story mode today, and I enjoyed it tremendously. I have only tried time trial once yet, but I will probably get back to that when I have time.
The story is pretty bad, I don’t think it makes any sense. Still I think the game wouldn’t have worked without the story mode. You need at least some context for why you are running over these rooftops. If it had been a pure racing game, they couldn’t have provided a context, because there are no famous parcours cups or myths. Also, as CrashT said, I think the game works best when you are chased.
@Meat Circus:
What about the game was frustrating? I thought it had just the right diffculty. Sure, you fall to your death sometimes, and sometimes you don’t know where to go, but I was never stuck for more than a couple minutes, and never had to try something more than three times.
20/01/2009 at 19:01 Subject 706 says:
Can you turn off the ‘run here, press button now dumbfuck’ color-codings?
20/01/2009 at 19:01 MarkP says:
The only problem with the PC port I’ve seen is the inability to remap non-letter keys to action (very annoying as I mouse with my left hand and use , . ; ‘ for FPS games all the time).
The story is too short for the price. Portal was a short game too (though longer than ME) but was part of a reasonably priced bundle.
ME is a good tech demo, but not a good game.
20/01/2009 at 19:04 Funky Badger says:
That city. Maybe it’s The City. And now I’m just thinking about Brigand Doom…
20/01/2009 at 19:04 Lilliput King says:
Its a very good port.
Also, whats all this huffin’ an’ a’ puffin’ about combat? I barely spent more than 20 minutes fighting in the whole game, because most combats are avoidable.
The story mode was reasonable – not life changing, but really good fun. It reminds me of the recent trend in the movie industry towards knowingly (almost intentionally) stupid but heavily stylised films that feel like comic strips – 300, Shoot em up (though that one was fairly dire), Sin City etc.
That said, the dialogue was fairly unforgiveably poor.
“Survivals overrated Faith. What matters is living.”
Mmmmmm.
20/01/2009 at 19:08 Mman says:
Yes, you can turn off runner-vision.
“tech demo”
Tech demo has to be the most destroyed term in existance right now. Its only meaning now is troll-speak for “a game I don’t personally like that attempts to be the slightest bit innovative in some way”.
20/01/2009 at 19:11 Helm says:
I agree with the piece, mostly. I thought the time trial mode wasn’t as fun as I would want either though because the controls are fiddly. I’ve been playing stuff like Elastomania or Nikujin for years and I enjoy speedrunning if the controls are responsive and always do what your keypresses ment to do. Mirror’s Edge, perhaps for its third dimension or because of bad coding, doesn’t have that cleanness of control that encourages speedrunning for me.
The story mode is very bad, if actual writers (not video game designers, actual, professional writers) were involved then that’s strange and discouraging.
20/01/2009 at 19:17 Sagan says:
@Subject 706: You can unlock a “hard” difficulty, where the color coding is disabled. But it isn’t nearly as annoying as the demo makes you think. Often they only color code where you have to go, and you have to figure out yourself how to get there. For example you see a pipe near the ceiling that is red, and then you have to figure out how to get up there. Or you see a red door far away, and then you need to find the way there.
And while I agree, that the combat initially feels a little out of place, I had no problems with it at all. The enemies are nearly blind. You can usually run straight to the first guy, use slow motion to knock him out or disarm him, and then shoot the rest of the enemies with his gun.
20/01/2009 at 19:20 Mman says:
Unless the PC version is different the runner vision can be turned off from the start. I actually prefer it on for aesthetic reasons though, as I find the splashings of red more striking than everything being white.
20/01/2009 at 19:21 Heliocentric says:
I’ve not played the game. But i’ve watched high def gameplay. I hope they use this lesson in first person movement to good use in battlefield 3. Why mirrors edge time trials don’t have trackmania style live play ghosts is lost on me.
Throw in a decent map editor and something mappers can use to generate pressure like flood water or collapsing buildings. There you have a game i’d rush to buy. Even a vs mode. Free runners vs soldiers the soldiers able to travel in a massively dumbed down helicopter which could impossibe to even intentionally flip, the free runners are given pac man style invincibility for quickly navigating to a checkpoint, but soldiers with a riot shield can block a narrow route, teams score not on kills but on packages intercepted and delivered so downing a runner at a distance might just have another runner pick it up one who might be boosted with a “power pill”. Sure its apeing splinter cell’s multiplayer but the idea has some merit.
20/01/2009 at 19:28 Mman says:
“Why mirrors edge time trials don’t have trackmania style live play ghosts is lost on me.”
There are ghosts (for time trials anyway).
I think the sequel could really do with outright demo recording though; I’m sure with some work it wouldn’t be TOO taxing on the game and being able to watch others in full first person would add a lot to the time trial and speedrun modes.
20/01/2009 at 19:29 Optimaximal says:
Tei, rather than trolling, please explain how ME wasn’t a good port?
I’m in the party that didn’t find the combat particularly fulfilling but found the chase mechanics wonderful – when you start being properly chased by foes who have the same moves as you, the tension is just magic (well, until you mistime a jump for the 4th time).
20/01/2009 at 19:37 J. Prevost says:
Being chased was fantastic. The places where the fight sequences fail utterly are the places where there are enemies between you and where you have to get to and there’s no choice (or at least, no obvious choice) but to kick them around so you can move on.
Bad guys as a threat and time pressure works great. And even better if it *is* possible to survive if they catch you: oops, you screwed up, beat them off and get moving again before more show up: the fight is a penalty, it’s slowing you down, but you can survive.
But when you have to run *to* them and beat them up no matter how well you’re navigating? That’s poor, real poor. (And note: it may be possible to avoid *all* of these cases with good movement, I’m not sure. But it’s certainly not obvious when you’re still new to the game.)
20/01/2009 at 19:38 Tom says:
Gotta admit Alec I strongly disagree with a lot of what you’ve said. I thought Mirrors Edge was fantastic. I love the mix of combat and running. Nothing more satisfying that wall running in to a cop, spinning him 180 and disarming him so you can blaze away at a couple of his buddies only to drop your weapon and bound off out of the reach of the rest. Or sliding straight in to a disarm.
The story was admitedly nothing spectacular but fitted perfectly in to the whole Pakour mythos. It was painfully cliched at times though but that only made me lol which is never a bad thing.
ME imo is something shiny and refreshing.
It needs more work to get the various mechanics sharper and more slipstreamed, but I love it.
One another note, and an aspect of games that very rarely gets mentioned unfortunatley, but the audio was simply amazing. From the score to the fx it was real ear candy. Anyone with a decent 5.1 setup will probably agree with me I suspect.
No need to the mention the graphics – sweet jesus!
More please.
20/01/2009 at 19:39 Heliocentric says:
Sorry. By trackmania live ghosts i refer to real time multiplayer where you can’t interfer with each other.
20/01/2009 at 19:40 MarkP says:
Spare me Mman
“tech demo” to me means there is a good concept in there and an engine that works, but the story and/or level design is severely lacking. In this case, it also means it’s waaaay too little content.
I thoroughly enjoyed some bits, and wish there were more of them. Jumping over the rooftops was exhilarating. Climbing up that crane and jumping gave me the feet-sweats.
I felt that I should have had more time to explore the world. I really couldn’t have cared less about the satchels to pick up. And I did *not* enjoy being chased when I couldn’t figure out a path that didn’t kill me, or just missed a ledge, etc.
I call the “wrong step = death” game failure n-squared puzzles. That is, there are “n” steps (for some value of n) in which you first go 1 step then die. Then you go 2 steps and die. The series 1 + 2 + 3 + … + n = n^2. That way lies madness.
20/01/2009 at 19:41 jonfitt says:
I’ve only played the Xbox demo, and when it was flowing well being chased by baddies it was good. I didn’t like brief experience of combat it showed me, and I was sad to hear that there are sections you can’t get through without clearing baddies.
I’m not attracted by the abstract DLC levels, when the city is removed it loses most of its meaning for me, I’m not into racing games and Time Trials.
I’d like to have seen the enemies used as an encouragement to go faster, not as barriers, and the levels consist of many branching routes to get to a goal.
Neither of these things seems to be the case.
20/01/2009 at 19:51 feffrey says:
I tried it and I got vertigo
Mostly from the had bob, I normally turn that off in every game.
it may be a good game, but something about head bob drives me nuts. I didn’t see an option for turning that off, but I may be blind.
20/01/2009 at 19:54 MarkP says:
Because your brain usually compensates for the head bob, I think the excessive head bob is annoying. The fact that you have to look at your feet to stick the jumps is also annoying. You don’t have the sense of presence that you do in real life (which is why 3rd person games are often used when you need that feedback — be it Tomb Raider or stealth games Splinter Cell).
20/01/2009 at 19:56 Arnulf says:
I love the game. I paid fifty euros for it and do not regret it.
That being said, the combat at times is annoying. When your great forte is running away it smells foul when the level designer puts you in a box with four baddies in it you just cannot avoid to fight.
I still find the style of the whole game refreshing. It is so very anti-FPS. I recently bought Bioshock and I’m still in shock that the same game engine is the foundation for these two antithetic games.
20/01/2009 at 20:04 Mman says:
“I thoroughly enjoyed some bits, and wish there were more of them. Jumping over the rooftops was exhilarating. Climbing up that crane and jumping gave me the feet-sweats.
I felt that I should have had more time to explore the world.”
I agree with those things.
“In this case, it also means it’s waaaay too little content.”
But not this; as the time-trials and other good places make such good use of what’s there, and despite it being the shortest game I got at christmas I’ve probably played it more than the other games I got since then combined.
That’s not to say I don’t want the sequel to be longer, and I’m not really a fan of shortness, but ME is a rare case where I don’t mind at all.
It may be a semantics thing as I’ve always considered that the term “tech demo” implies that the central aspect is a bare-bones thing to be built on by other games, when the central aspect of ME (the “new” controls) is already very fleshed-out.
20/01/2009 at 20:07 Mman says:
“as the time-trials and other good places make such good use ”
Ugh, don’t know what I did there, I mean “the time-trials and some other areas make such good use of what’s there”
20/01/2009 at 20:08 kupocake says:
Whilst I can certainly see the appeal of a Parkour racing game, I think this article is rather too enthusiastic about taking the action and narrative out of a title that is most innovative as an example of an FPS. Racing needs a game with Parkour mechanics a whole lot less than FPS does.
20/01/2009 at 20:09 solipsistnation says:
I’m sad to say that I couldn’t really even get through the demo on my 360…
20/01/2009 at 20:10 Adrian says:
I actually enjoyed the story mode. I like mirrors edge futuristic setting a lot and i thought the characters weren’t too bad. After i beat the game in medium which really only took 2 days or something i beat it in hard and that actually was pretty hard. I didnt really like the runners vision so i liked the game in hard mode a lot better because in hard mode the runners vision is disabled. what i really didnt like was that you really follow only one path and there really are like 5 shortcuts throughout the entire game. when i saw the trailers of the game i always thought that there would be multiple routes throughout the level but this actually isnt the case what really dissapointed me.
20/01/2009 at 20:15 Still annoyed says:
God, I loved Mirror’s Edge. I hated it too, of course, but the love won out in the end, and I’m almost tempted to buy it again just to play it on the PC with all those fancy PhysX-things.
Mirror’s Edge isn’t a racing game or an FPS, it’s the next evolution of the platform game. With some satisfying puzzles and refreshingly different combat thrown in.
And yeah, Mman is right about the term “tech demo”.
20/01/2009 at 20:16 Heliocentric says:
Also. Where’s the demo. No demo no buy.
20/01/2009 at 20:21 Charlie says:
Gotta say I also found the time-trials a little dull, probably because I had already died 500 times on them going through the story. I agree with Crash T, when you have enemies behind you pushing you forwards it can be amazing, giving you a real sense of urgency and its quite a rush.
However, as soon as they put enemies in front of you though the whole thing falls apart and became mindless clicking for me. Maybe its because the combat has no weight, I do a fly kick 15 feet through the air and land my foot on a guys face and he just flinches a little and shoots me in the head. But its probably because combat should have been no part of the game apart from fleeing it.
20/01/2009 at 20:22 Rawson says:
I enjoyed the platforming and chase scenes (especially when you’re the proverbial mouse), but it was sadly split up by fight scenes that were often times overly frustrating. Your character proves to be overly frail compared to the enemies, and I found there to be very little wiggle room in terms of pulling off combos. It seemed faster to simply run up to your enemies and punch them than to repeatedly try something more entertaining, only to fail and die to a shotgun blast to the face.
It’s not a bad game, but unless some awesome maps start getting churned out for it, I wouldn’t have paid full price for it.
20/01/2009 at 20:33 jsutcliffe says:
I have played both PC and console versions (albeit just the demo on 360), and I reckon the PC version to be superior. I don’t notice any graphical improvement other than being able to play at a high resolution (though I understand textures are meant to be better too) — the main reason the PC version is better is simply that the controls are tighter, thanks to a mouse being more accurate than a controller.
I like both modes, but wish there was just some way to turn off the bad guys in story mode so you can roam around with no pressure. That would be fun too.
They should also make a level/course maker tool — just letting people specify where to put checkpoints. That would be fantastic, especially if you end up with some really long courses (I’d love to chain together all the training map races, for example).
edit: Also, having read in previews that there’s an Xbox achievement for completing it without shooting anyone, I have been playing with a non-violent ethos. It’s pretty exhilarating. I think so far all I’ve done combat-wise is kick someone in the nads, and I think I’m ~75% done.
20/01/2009 at 20:39 Scott PM says:
I’ll throw in my 2 cents in with those who absolutely loved this game, despite it’s many flaws and frustrations and slightly absurd price point. Definitely a fun, fresh take on the FPS, with fantastic visuals and a good soundtrack. With a bit more polish and and a smarter story it could easily have reached Portal-like levels of brilliance.
I only wish there was a Restart Race hotkey in the time trials — tab just takes you back to the last checkpoint without reseting your clock, which is totally useless. So when I flub the first jump while trying to beat my time I have to hit ESC, click Restart Race, click OK… Seems like kind of a dumb oversight.
20/01/2009 at 20:47 Markoff Chaney says:
First off, this is an excellent port (using the 1.01 patch) with one GLARING issue, imo. That is the color of the mouse pointer. White on white and I move my mouse for 5 seconds to try to see it – AH HA there you are now, crap where did you go you bugger?
That being said, it is a port, albeit done right, with good optimization, added PHYSX (which doesn’t add anything but atmosphere, but it really does help immerse oneself and can be turned off if desired (or you don’t have the hardware to pull it off)), and we don’t have anything like an SDK that would bring this game into absolutely have territory. Those of you that tried the demo on the 360, allow me to tell you I downloaded it at a friends house and suffered through the controls and sluggish (to me) 30fps a few times. However, I have faith in DICE and, being a FPS junkie, I picked up the game(support innovation!), grabbed my trusty mouse and keyboard and was floored at how much better it plays. I have a very odd keymapping (forward is lmb, backwards rmb, s and d left and right strafe, f is fire, g grenade (or fire/disarm in this case) and v duck. I was able to totally remap to my desire with no issues. I’ll have to try the .,/ issue.
I completely agree that the chasing in this game is one feeling I have never had in a game before. Period. Just the feeling of being chased is, almost, worth the price of purchase. Seriously. Nothing that I can think of has touched it so far in my gaming. I can’t say enough positive about just being chased.
The “story” mode is contrived, feels forced, comes on too quickly and ends WAY too quickly. Worth maybe 20 bucks. At best. However, its long term “endgame” is really about polishing and perfecting. It is a Racing game with feet for wheels. Time Trials are addicting (just one more time… I can shave at least 1 more second here…) and running back through the chapters of the “story” mode is much better the second time through. Combat sucks and really does ruin the flow of the game (and it’s a game about movement and flow…) but my next run through will be one of those don’t shoot anyone attempts.
Replaying through with a different rule set (no runners vision, no shooting people) should be quite enjoyable and that’s where the game truly shines, in repetition. Time Trials and Speed Runs. This makes me think (other than the need to pad this out to a pre-announced trilogy) that maybe that’s why the “story” mode is absurdly short. Maybe it would be too overwhelming if there was a lot of content to replay and the proper enjoyment might be missed by more.
Great game, really. The main “story” is a bit short, but, honestly, it’s almost the appetizer. The biggest issue with the real meal is that you have the sneaking suspicion you’ve tasted all this before when you had that party platter appetizer. Eventually, please give us a level editor / sdk for part 2 and let us whip up our own dessert. I’m still hungry and that DLC looks like what I thought ME would be in the first place. Abstracted running, jumping, and going forward: racing ahead, but I’ll miss those enemies chasing me from behind. That really is a joy…
20/01/2009 at 20:48 bananaphone says:
The first 30 minutes are brilliant. First the feeling of jumping over the rooftops, then the tension when you’re being chased.
After that it gets progressively less fun and more irritating.
20/01/2009 at 20:53 Jim Rossignol says:
Some random observations:
- The movement system is excellent, and must immediately be stolen by other games. Moreover, it’s so much better on mouse and keyboard than on a gamepad.
- The architecture is a dream. One of the best-designed games ever in terms of having a consistent visual theme.
- Didn’t they just throw away those levels? Millions of dollars of level design gone in an instant. I mean I know most linear games do the same thing, but it’s particularly acute in this case.
- It’s incredibly vacuous as an experience. Short, with a placeholder narrative and few genuinely interesting challenges or decisions.
20/01/2009 at 21:02 PHeMoX says:
Yeah, the lack of freedom is a shame!
20/01/2009 at 21:15 Jocho says:
The fun thing about reading about Mirror’s Edge is that the game truly is a mirror – it almost tells more about the reviewer then the game. I’ve read pieces loving it to bits, some not liking it at all, some considering it a change of thinking about games – and it all reflects the writer, because the game is still the same.
Myself, I played the first few levels on the consoles, and would describe it as “Prince of Persia meets Sonic” (with an underline of “awesome”), which – again – tells more about my gaming preferences then the game.
20/01/2009 at 21:16 Mman says:
As a side-note, I’ve heard plenty of ideas on what to do in the sequel, but reading them I actually get the feeling the best way would be to combine them all; levels with several paths and lots of stuff to explore (Life of the Party with parkour anyone?), fast paced chase levels, levels where you infiltrate an area in disguise or something and can plan your route before you take what you need and bolt, a tight level based around a single area, and various other such ideas (and combinations). I could do without mostly combat-focused levels though (chapter 7 and 9, I’m looking at you) .
Step up a lot on the narrative and flesh out the world more (optional content could help a lot there). Essentially considering stuff like the sequences in-between levels feel somewhat thief inspired they could do with borrowing some more ideas in terms of varying things while faithfully sticking to a set of core mechanics.
I never really got too much of a feeling of missed opportunity from ME but, thinking about it, I have to admit there are plenty of ways they could make the story more varied without frontloading most of the frustration into the first playthrough like things currently are or dumbing down the advanced time-trial play. And I think giving up on story entirely and just making a racing game would be defeatism (although I wouldn’t complain too much).
Speaking of Thief the area in chapter 8 is called “Looking Glass”, an intentional reference?
20/01/2009 at 21:16 Skylance says:
I kinda liked ME when I played it on the Xbox, but I absolutely love the game on PC. Control is light-years better. I think I died maybe… six times throughout the entire game?
I’ve always wondered why people complain about the combat being difficult. Well, of course it’s difficult. That’s because you’re not supposed to be in combat.
Out of maybe 70-120 possible combat situations in the game, there are only maybe 10-12 times it’s particularly difficult to avoid, and only twice in the game is it actually unavoidable.
While it’s true there really aren’t that many alternate paths in a level, the obstacles are set up in such a way that there’s nearly always dozens of variations of the same path.
Learning which of these variations gives you the most speed and which is the most best use of your character’s skills is where the game really shines. It really is parkour game. Fuck style; it’s all about efficiency, speed, and more efficiency.
Sorry, ’bout the disjointed and cranky post :) I just really like this game.
- KLS
20/01/2009 at 21:18 N says:
Yeh pretty friggin bland story, and faith should take in the pooper from merc once in a wile so he would shut the hell up already. All in all not a bad game, played worse, played better. The game gives me a very “vegan” feeling don’t know why really; the characters seem to give too much fucking importance to what they do, and they way they talk… ugh, it’s like seeing 40 year olds trying to be *hip*…
20/01/2009 at 21:19 Dolphan says:
Really enjoyed the story mode. I really didn’t die all that often – I’ve played games where I’ve died a lot more, and I have a fairly low tolerance for frustration. Bits of it were irritating, but I thought it was a pretty good overall experience.
20/01/2009 at 21:32 jonfitt says:
Has anyone looked into the mapping possibilities with ME?
Are we going to see excellent single player story maps produced for the PC version?
That might be a game changer.
20/01/2009 at 22:15 N says:
take it in*… god damn, edit function may you rest in piece you old bitch you… Oh btw the wrestler guy is one of the most retarded characters in a fps yet, seems like the type that watches america’s best cop shootouts drunk scarfing cheetos and yelling ” hi-haa whip out them tazers boys, damn right serves ‘em bastard colored sons of bitches”
20/01/2009 at 22:18 Hoernchen says:
It never reaches its full potential because every time the “omg this is awesome” feeling starts to manifest itself you miss the jump. It completely breaks the flow.
20/01/2009 at 22:34 VelvetFistIronGlove says:
Jim: “The movement system is excellent, and must immediately be stolen by other games. Moreover, it’s so much better on mouse and keyboard than on a gamepad.”
That’s great news, because I started playing it on my flatmate’s xbox, got horribly frustrated by the gamepad, and am thinking of buying it on the PC as soon as it’s out on Steam here in the UK. But I was horribly afraid the PC controls would be awful like they were in Assassin’s Creed.
Speaking of Steam, why did it get a simultaneous release retail + Steam in the US, but not here in the UK/Europe? Get your act together, EA!
20/01/2009 at 22:36 Yengwa says:
I really enjoyed the game and the story. Hell I’ve been buying the comic books I love it so much. I thought it was a lot of fun, the combat wasn’t too hard and there wasn’t a lot of it either.
I didn’t really care for the time trials though, I don’t care for beating my times.
20/01/2009 at 22:39 Mman says:
“Has anyone looked into the mapping possibilities with ME?
Are we going to see excellent single player story maps produced for the PC version?
That might be a game changer.”
The developers have said the sequel will come with a level editor, so, unfortunately, that’s probably a no for the first game.
20/01/2009 at 22:53 SuperNashwan says:
It has first person hugging. More games need this. It also has required split-second interaction in the middle of what otherwise appears to be a cut scene where you’re prevented from doing anything. Less of that.
20/01/2009 at 22:55 Thiefsie says:
I’ve written about this on EG, but I played it on 360 and this was my take in as few words as possible.
Terribly Short,
Crap Story, Predictable, (I think i guessed the twist half-way through the tute level)
No opportunity to sit and look around and ‘oversee’ a level
Running rush is good when chased.
Time trials are ok, alternate paths are almost non-sensicle.
Graphical style is great, if a little bland after getting most of the way through the 6-8 hour game.
Xbox controls are crap.
I believe pc controls too might not be the best.
There isn’t really any ‘nuance’ or feel, or perhaps feedback as to what you are doing and why it won’t work like you think it will… (say… wall run jump, raise legs to get over fence, duck to roll, and keep sprinting) – You do this in the tute level to get a huge shortcut and I tried to do it in different ways about 100 times and still couldn’t get it, or the associated achievement… for no discernible reason.
Have to fight no matter what at least 2-3 times in the game.
Movement physics aren’t that amazing – Thief was fairly similar years and years ago.
Stupid ‘boss’ sequences.
Needless to say I played enough of the game as I could be bothered getting about 70% of the achievements in 2 days and returned it for a full refund to EB games… (7 day trial ‘rental’ guarantee)
I like the design of the DLC levels, alas I will never bother to try them.
20/01/2009 at 23:09 Del Boy says:
So far I don’t agree with this article (around two thirds in).
I think it’s great, anyone truly disappointed with it is doing something wrong.
Although I can’t understand the problem with ‘death’, what other mechanic could they have possibly used when you fall off a really tall building?!
20/01/2009 at 23:10 Radiant says:
The expansion, I believe, is just time trial mode and that looks awesome.
20/01/2009 at 23:16 jonfitt says:
Well that’s a pretty compelling Osbourne Effect to me.
20/01/2009 at 23:22 pathy says:
I get the feeling when I play Mirrors Edge they wanted to create two games and instead combined them.
One thing though, it shows me the potential that their movement allows. Their running, jumping and whatever else system is fantastic, and it’d be great in so many games. If they had made Mirrors Edge slightly more action oriented (Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of Faith being vulnerable and such, but the way they have designed the Story levels doesn’t stick to this very well.), allowed you to wear the armour that some of the ‘runner’ enemies do. And use a pistol. They could have not made the combat such a pain, enabled some better moves (PoP:TT style stealth kills, maybe) and such. There’s a lot they could have done.
I’d love to see more games made like this though. A Thief or Assassins Creed style game with the movement that Mirrors Edge gives would be amazing.
The game has it’s bad points, but it’s something I love. I play the game and get frustrated with the annoying, crampt levels they pass me in to, sighing as the ‘flow’ is locked down by forcing me to grab a series of pipes or to fight a bunch of guards… But then it throws me in to another ‘open’ level. Directing me generally where I am to go and letting me make it by myself. A guard popping out only provides me the opportunity to wall-kick him and move on before he has any idea what’s happened. I love that thrill.
The game would have been so much better if they had stuck to only a few guards with pistols scattered about roof tops, and maybe some street level missions. (I like the indoor levels that were large, or short, it added a nice feel to the game.)
I hope they make another, and learn. Or I hope someone copies and, and makes it better, because I can’t remember the last time I’ve enjoyed just running as much as I do in this game.
20/01/2009 at 23:29 unique_identifier says:
oh for a reality where quotes like Jim’s: “It’s incredibly vacuous as an experience” would be plastered across the box.
20/01/2009 at 23:41 Angel Dust says:
I agree with the general consensus that the best parts of ME are the chase sequences, not the time trials. The Time Trials are fun but they don’t have the adrenalin rush that the cash sequences do.
The story mode is hamstrung by the poor story, you can’t have a vague background ala HL2 when the character you are playing knows more than you, and some terrible level design and choices though. Chase sequences: great, Puzzle jump sequences with no enemies: a nice change of pace, 1-on-1 combat: fine, Cramped indoors with 4-5 enemies and an unclear objective: frustrating. For the sequel I think they really need to focus on the strengths and if they want some more level variety maybe introduce some stealth sections since I think that could fit quite well with Faith’s character.
20/01/2009 at 23:49 chiablo says:
I enjoyed it. There’s nothing in there that I would praise too highly, but it was fun.
Of course, I took a unique approach to it. Due to a bug in Vista/Win7 and Creative X-Fi cards, I have no sound in any of the cutscenes. So I skipped them all.
I’m betting that because I threw the story completely out the window I found more enjoyment than the average person.
However, a few nagging issues still remain:
1. The enemies in the game went to the Stormtrooper School of Shooting Good Guys. Although this decreased the difficulty from frustrating to enjoyable, it feels really strange. When there’s a helicopter firing thousands of rounds at me, and only one connects… it’s disjointing.
2. The game is ridiculously short. I know there is the racing mode, but no amount of ultra crisp bloomy graphics is worth a full price tag for 6 hours of gameplay. Portal got away with it because it was bundled with two other games, and L4D got away with it because there’s unlimited replayability with the multiplayer.
So if you see it in the bargain bin or on discount on Steam for about $20, it’s a must have.
21/01/2009 at 00:17 GibletHead2000 says:
Is it just me, or does anyone else think “lego” when looking at those screenshots?
21/01/2009 at 00:24 Logo says:
The story thus far (I haven’t completed the game yet) seems to do nothing but work against the game. The Game does two things very well:
1. Makes you feel like your avatar. The spatial awareness for a first person game is unrivaled and combined with the great animations the physical movement of the game is a thing of beauty.
2. Amazing tension while fleeing. The high points of the game are when you are running from something adding that tension to the movement.
Meanwhile the story works against both of these things. Faith’s strong personality and the frequent cut scenes makes you feel less like the character and more like an observer. This goes entirely against the first thing ME does well! I know for me the highlight of the plot so far has been simply the act of Faith hugging her sister. The way the animation played out made me actually feel a little connected to the characters. Everything since then has just torn that down.
As for tension the plot in ME’s is rather slow and doesn’t seem very urgent. There’s no real impending doom or any particular hurry. For a game all about movement and flow I’d expect the plot to be very tense and dramatic. If ME had a plot that was fast paced (moving quickly from dangerous situation to dangerous situation) and conveyed a better sense of urgency and need to keep moving it’d gel a lot better with the gameplay. If they had managed to do that the game would have a lot better appeal.
As for the gameplay itself I’m enjoying it a lot more now that I realize that most fights are puzzles more than fights. The majority of the seemingly forced fights can be bypassed with some clever maneuvering and good jumps for a narrow escape without needing to incapacitate foes.
The situations where you DO need to fight opponents the game is down right infuriating if you are trying to do it without shooting anyone. My biggest gripes with the combat are two parts. One is that a ‘stunned’ opponent (after a slide kick for example) can’t be disarmed meaning you have to stand around and wait for him to recover to attempt to disarm him. The other problem is that if you don’t get off the initial grab you’re generally dead. Missing the initial grab often times leaves you with no chance to make a grab at the 2nd (fatal) blow. That means that I can dispatched 4/5 enemies, mess up on the 5th and have no real option to save myself. Back away and you get shot. Try to grab again and the timing is very very difficult. It’s a no win situation.
My biggest fear with this game is that its strengths will be overlooked. The movement and self-representation stylings of this game are BEGGING to be used elsewhere. There’s so many styles of games that this could be used well in.
For example….
1. Thief-like game play. Add stealth mechanics to ME along with some carried items and create a thief like game. The player will be able to climb and clamor all over the environment to sneak past guards and infiltrate buildings. Dramatic chase scenes would also fit well into the game play adding a different type of tension to be a counter-point to the stealth mechanics.
2. Survival Horror. Being chased by the ‘blues’ can be tense enough. Being chased by a Tyrant/Nemesis like monster would be down right horrifying. Add in support to always carry a pistol and you add gun play into the game as well. With such a sense of being the avatar and the spatial awareness the tension of a survival horror game could be magnified ten fold. Also you can in a sense bring back bullet-starvation without being so annoying. Single load guns or guns that hinder movement could provide the opportunity to have fire power while at the same time limiting the player from hording them or taking them on. It would work better than bullet conservation as players won’t feel like they need to horde or save ammo for tough fights.
3. War Setting from a different angle. Imagine climbing/running through a war torn city with the mirror’s edge movement mechanics. You, the player, would be less of a soldier and more of a bystander. One possible setting could be a Jew during WWII ala The Pianist but with more fighting. You’d happen upon guns and have to take up arms more often than ME but it wouldn’t be something you can rely on. The game would still have more emphasis on movement and avoiding combat rather than the blazing guns approach.
Anyways it’s a long rant but I’ve been dieing to talk about this game since I started playing it. ME does some things very very well and it’d be a shame if those things were ignored in future games.
21/01/2009 at 00:25 Ben says:
First off: When I played this I got intense nostalgia for Oni, does anyone remember Oni? I think it was the moment that I jump kicked a SWAT guy. Some mixture of Oni with Mirror’s Edge just might be the Killer App of the genre.
One thing I think would help the game is an enhanced FOV. The farthest FOV most FPS’s allow is 90 degrees, while human FOV is more like 160 (try it out, wiggle your fingers at your vision’s periphery and see how far out you can sense the motion). Some kind of compressed blurry fisheye around the sides and edges of the screen would give a much better sense of your surroundings (and an enhanced perception of speed, did anyone else notice that it felt like you were running really slow?)
This game is also an absolute racing platformer. I resent games like this being called “parkour” games when all they do is replace ladders with pipes and bumps. Why is parkour suddenly revolutionary when Tomb Raider has been doing this kind of gameplay for ages?
I want to see a real parkour game, with moves designed to interface with the real world, instead of all these platforming games with a cityscape veneer.
21/01/2009 at 00:33 Ben says:
Also: did anyone else feel like there was about half a game missing? From the fact that there was a “mystery” character who was obviously female (and everyone insisted on calling “he”) when there wasn’t much mystery, since there were only three female characters and two choices could be automatically discarded (one being in prison and the other being you). Or the astounding rapidity in which Mayor Bad Guy became Mayor Voice In Your Ear.
21/01/2009 at 00:40 Daniel Purvis says:
As soon as I read the head, I knew you’d be making a comparison to The Club. Strangely, these are two of my favourite games from last year, both underrated.
In reading reviews, critique and discussion of Mirror’s Edge, I get so infuriated at the number of people dismissing the game on the basis that the “story mode sucked!” from the outset, without ever, EVER even mentioning the Time Trial mode or simply casting it away as an extra.
When I first played Mirror’s Edge, the first thing that struck me was the Time Trial mode. IN fact, that’s the mode that was always demonstrated in the various videos released with Parkour guys playing.
DICE should have swapped the options for Story Mode and Time Trial at the start menu to provide some indication as to what players should be hitting first. Unfortunately, the best Time Trial levels are also locked out until you complete a number of the Story Mode levels and this is one of it’s biggest faults. It tells you to go play the Story Mode then come back.
What a waste of opportunity.
Thank you for the post Alec and I do hope you’ve encouraged more people to open up a little and finally figure out what ME is really all about.
21/01/2009 at 00:41 Mindtrap says:
Mirror’s edge tried to achieve what no other FPS ever dared to try. the story isn’t the best but it drives the game, the gameplay is compeling and not repetitive like some dare to say, the race mode is there for those racing game addicts who like to shave 1 more tenth of a sec from their record…anything missing?
RPS says it is a racing game, i dont know many racing games where you have the liberty to explore the track like you want ME to be, you just have the track and that’s it, start to finish. Done. Why complaining about the lack of liberty around the maps/”tracks” ?
Yeah, it’s also a FPS game, that does not focus on guns which is something unthinkable for many FPS fans (besides Portal addicts like me of course).
It’s short. yes it is. but it’s long enough to serve as a playground for DICE to see that the concept works. Like when Valve released Portal. No one would think that it would be so successefull! but it was and now we want more!
Instead of focusing on the bad points we should be thankfull DICE took the step that only a few would dare to take. Valve before with Portal, and now DICE with Mirror’s Edge. Instead of ranting about what we dont like, lets help DICE making a sequel with all the features this one has and a lot more!
Mirror’s Edge is art and i hope there’s more from where this one came from!
21/01/2009 at 00:50 schizoslayer says:
Here’s the thing about the Mirrors Edge PC version.
It’s isn’t a port of the console version. The UI is shared for the most part but beyond that this is a PC game. Just look at who developed it: DICE. A PC developer if ever there was one. The controls are designed for Mouse and keyboard and have been ported to control pads. The PC controls are far superior to the Xbox pad as you can react as fast as you need to. The Engine has no performance problems because this game was developed on PC for PC.
The only reason this game was released later than the console versions is fairly simple: Piracy.
EA didn’t want PC Piracy to stop Console owners buying the game for the holidays. So they delayed the PC version until after the holidays. In all liklihood the PC version was ready to go and playable before the Console versions went into submission. This is why it’s harder than the console versions. Between those shipping and the PC version releasing DICE responded to the feedback that the game was too easy.
This is not a PC port of a console game. It is a PC game. Designed for PC , made on PC. Better on PC.
21/01/2009 at 00:56 MeestaNob! says:
I’m very interested in trying this myself, but the shelf/Steam price is far too high for a 5-6 game (8-9 if you’re hopeless, apparently).
I shall wait a few months, there might even be a demo by then.
21/01/2009 at 01:21 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
I’m on the fence as to the objectification of Mirror’s Edge as an ashamed racing game as opposed to a well-meaning, if somewhat clumsy action platformer.
On the one hand, it’s easy to see why one would want to trim the game’s poorly-done superfluous elements and blemishes away into a more purely appealing, sleeker, “sexier” product. Hell, on an instinctual level I’d agree with it.
On the other hand, the devs chose to make an action platformer instead of a racing game because they didn’t want to shoehorn their designs into the blatant appeal of “low mimesis.” On all layers of creation, they attempted to make a statement. In world-building, character design, and even the root concept of the game itself–first-person platformer–they chose to defy expectations and preconceptions. How well they succeeded is up to you.
You have to admit that time trial version really does look more attractive to people who aren’t totally hammered, though.
…
Also, I’m still irked that Faith’s features make her look like a caricature of Asians.
21/01/2009 at 01:32 PJ says:
I praise you Alec Meer for pointing out to general public what I was pointing out here in Poland in my reviews, and been laughed about. Big up for saying its a goddamn RACER :D
there is only one thing wrong with racing part – its exploiters, and DICE doing shit about them. fighting for better times is now completly pointless, since on almost every track REAL best times are beaten by 20 seconds by loosers who use dirty tricks.
ps. I liked story mode. Burned thru it like 6 times now, most on xbox, only one on PC (to unlock trials ofc). But I guess its a question of taste
21/01/2009 at 02:17 Andy`` says:
schizoslayer: That’s a nice string of assumptions you’ve made there. Of course, given DICE are historically a PC developer over anything else (not that they haven’t worked on consoles before) and I doubt they’d want to kill the trust of their PC followers by going so low as to formulate such a conspiracy.
More likely (speaking from some kind of experience here) the problem was a more innocent one, like the game running poorly and needing to be properly optimised on one or more target hardware configurations, especially if work on the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions left them will less time to optimise (this is their first game to be released on three major platforms at once, including the PC). Better to get two copies of the game out for Christmas rather than none at all.
PC games are great, but they come with their own special little group of development issues.
21/01/2009 at 02:26 Mman says:
DICE have already said they are patching the game soon to fix the cheaters on the PC scoreboards.
“My biggest fear with this game is that its strengths will be overlooked. The movement and self-representation stylings of this game are BEGGING to be used elsewhere. There’s so many styles of games that this could be used well in.”
Yes, this is what I’m worried about too; they already provide a great scheme that could be planted in many styles of games with only slight edits.
Considering how badly the game sold it probably will be overlooked for now. Considering post-mortem interviews have made it obvious they are listening to feedback, I just hope they can pull off the balance between casual appeal and hardcore time-shaving in the next game (rather than mostly catering to the latter).
21/01/2009 at 02:57 Pantsman says:
Here’s my opinion: Mirror’s Edge is mostly a brilliant and original platformer (or platformer-racer hybrid, if you insist) and occasionally flawed but at times excellent FPS. I know the combat doesn’t always work well, but there are very few times when you’re actually forced to fight, and of the few times where I have stood and fought there have been instances of something wonderful.
You can’t try to play it like a regular FPS. This will get you killed. You have to consciously use the environment to get the drop on individual enemies, drawing them away from the pack and doing hit-and-run attacks. The martial-arts system in the game is simple and well-thought-out, and while it does need a little tweaking, it recalls FEAR when FEAR was at its best.
I also have to second what other people are saying about being chased providing tension and drama.
If you couldn’t tell, I’m really enjoying the campaign.
21/01/2009 at 02:59 Pantsman says:
That should be “and occasionally a flawed but at times excellent FPS”.
21/01/2009 at 03:49 RealHorrorshow says:
I enjoyed every minute of Mirror’s Edge, even the FPS parts. And my god have the FPS parts been overblown. You can run past 90% of the enemies in the game if you’re fast enough, and even if you do take every chance to shoot people, you spend literally 10 minutes total, out of the entire game, with a loaded gun in your hand.
It will be on my best of 2009 list I’m sure, but somewhere in 6-10.
21/01/2009 at 04:56 VTGamer says:
I also really thought that Mirror’s Edge was a racer. I thought it analogous to Gran Turismo. Think of each level as a track, with each obstacle as a corner. The same as your improving brake and gas timing, you time your input commands. Gran Turismo had just realistic enough physics to really go to a second level about controlling the car, when the car begins to dance around your fingertips. Its the same way with Mirror’s Edge, you begin to understand the system and when you get over that curve, you begin to flow faster and faster from obstacle to obstacle (each corner of the track in Turismo). If you start thinking of each enemy as chicanes, then you start understanding that hey maybe i can even get through a section without even disarming an enemy. What made mirror’s edge system work so well is that each reaction followed a certain law, just like the driving model, and when you did it right not only were you going through it faster but smoother as well.
21/01/2009 at 05:01 VTGamer says:
BTW watch some speed runs to see how really fast you can actually go, and how few enemies, even the ones that you think you cant avoid can be avoided.
21/01/2009 at 05:16 Andy`` says:
I’m up still for no good reason (I had a good reason but didn’t do anything with it so it’s now just an excuse), so who wants some numbers?
“You can run past 90% of the enemies in the game if you’re fast enough”
Pulled from memory, so numbers might not be accurate, but they’ll be very close – there are over 100 enemies you’ll encounter as you’re running along (for the sake of argument over the following numbers, its more than 112, so its more than 90% you can avoid). About 82 of them are likely candidates for killing, that get in your way or are otherwise annoying. You can survive the entire game by killing something like 11 or 12 of them.
It’s fun, try it! It’s what most of the Speed Run mode is about too, iirc.
21/01/2009 at 06:14 Carlton says:
I have to agree with CrashT. Time trials in theory should be more exciting, since it’s closer to the game’s intended purpose, but the thrill of the racing game comes also in that you are not the only one on the course. You are actively competing with people or computers that are right there and can make things more difficult and thrilling. The most fun I have had in a racing game is when I am begin chased. When I have the chance to out maneuver and constantly look behind my back.
Those bits where you ran from the Icarus traceurs were the best, and actually made up for a lot of the shortcomings I initially had. And actually when you are chasing down the assassin the game also hits a fine stride. In that sequence you have the most dynamic interaction there is, since you’re adapting to changes the enemy makes in the environment and doing so quickly.
I actually think ME would work best as a multiplayer game where one player runs and the other chases. Maybe the runner trying to get to a checkpoint. Actually, that idea is so obvious (and the ending sets up a possible co-op experience) I wouldn’t be surprised ifa sequel for it does that.
I would honestly say Mirror’s Edge is more about the chase.
21/01/2009 at 07:05 unclelou says:
21/01/2009 at 07:07 unclelou says:
Hot damn, I completely ballsed up the quote. I am useless without an editing function. :-(
21/01/2009 at 07:21 Mark | Retroblique says:
It’s not difficult to see why so many people are bemoaning Mirror’s Edge for what it’s not rather than what it is.
The game’s aesthetic qualities set the bar so high the gameplay continually struggles to hurdle it. It comes close on a few occasions, but you’re always left with the feeling that you’re only just being afforded the merest glimpse of what DICE are truly capable of delivering within this framework.
I was a little reluctant to try this game, despite my early enthusiasm, after the console crowd uttered a collective “meh”. Most of the criticism, I recall, focused on the overwhelming frustration players felt as they plummeted to their death, having failed to make a particularly tricky jump for the six billionth time. Using a controller, I can see that being the case. Thankfully, on the PC version, control is very fluid and reflexive with a mouse. I did try it with an Xbox controller: I’m not usually adverse to using gamepads in shooters, but my word. What a nightmare.
Every chapter of Mirror’s Edge left me wanting more. Not necessarily more of the same, but more environment, more possibilities, more options. One of my favourite moments in the game is the chapter where the climax has you being chased by half-a-dozen ninjas. There’s no possible way you can stop to fight them, so you have to run and make very few fuck ups. This chapter had a level of exhilaration that was otherwise missing from most of the game. While you were still running on a fairly linear path, there was just enough scope to give you some room to improvise if you made a mistake.
Yeah, the combat felt a little out place in the game, although my current personal challenge is to get through the game on hard difficulty without firing a single bullet.
DICE need to do two things with this game. Firstly, release a level editor for the PC version. This will ensure the game survives at least a couple of years. I bought it at the weekend and look set to be throwing it into the cupboard next week once I’ve exhausted the time trial modes. Secondly, they need to release a sequel that focuses on epic chases and open-ended levels, ditch the combat and if they really must weave a story into the proceedings, ask Valve nicely if they can borrow Marc Laidlaw to write it.
Anyway, I did enjoy my time with Mirror’s Edge. It’s not afraid to be a highly-polished throwback to the frustrating 2D platformers of old. It is, however, afraid to be more than that.
21/01/2009 at 09:25 aldo_14 says:
Huh. I had an asian personage say pretty much the opposite to me, recently (when discussing the DICE artwork versus that fan-made ‘more attractive’ version).
21/01/2009 at 09:33 Schmung says:
i was one of the people who gave Mirrors Edge a bit of a kicking on these very forums when the 360 demo first appeared and I have to say that I’ve somewhat revised my opinion since then. A lot of the criticism levelled at the game is entirely valid and ditto the praise the tension and excitement of the chases, but what surprised me about my own reaction to the game was the time trials. I’m generally not someone who goes in for these sorts of things, but the saving grace (on the 360 at least) is that you can race your friends ghosts. I don’t care about Johhny Progamer spending twenty hours getting a time five seconds quicker than me, but if my obnoxious mate who I went to Uni with bets my time by half a second then I will happily spend an hour trying to beat him.
I also wouldn’t go as far as saying that the 360 controls are awful, it’s just a mouse is clearly the best tool to play Mirrors Edge with. Shame it’s not really an option for me. Is there some sort of integration with something with friends list functionality in the PC version?
21/01/2009 at 09:40 Dave L. says:
“About 82 of them are likely candidates for killing, that get in your way or are otherwise annoying. You can survive the entire game by killing something like 11 or 12 of them.”
This is spectacularly overestimating. There are only three guys that you absolutely HAVE to lay hands on over the course of the game. Two of them are on The Boat. There are maybe four or five others that disarming or otherwise taking out makes things a lot easier (also on The Boat), but with luck and speed, three is the absolute minimum.
21/01/2009 at 09:42 Hermit says:
I’m convinced the combat is actually a clever ploy to make the Story Mode seem longer. I usually play ME in 30-40 minute chunks until I hit some stupid ambush and die repeatedly. At that point I give up, knowing that if I come back tomorrow I’ve got a really crap bit to do, but I’m mostly guaranteed some decent running and jumping afterwards.
The problem with the plot is you just don’t care for any of the characters. Not your sister, not faith, not any of the runners, not Pope. They’re just names, and the dodgy 2D cutscenes don’t do it any favours.
That said when a section works, it is brilliant, and once I’ve finished the storymode I’m looking forward to some time trial action.
ME2 needs to ditch the story and just be a game about free-running postmen in the future. If they just said “Here’s the city, get from A to B” I think I’d struggle to put this down.
21/01/2009 at 09:47 Dave L. says:
Addenda: That’s not counting Ropeburn and the absolute last dude.
“In all liklihood the PC version was ready to go and playable before the Console versions went into submission.” Having worked on a couple of multiplatform games, I can say that this is highly unlikely. More likely that the 360 and PS3 versions were in such poor shape that they had to pull the PC team off to help with the console versions so they could make their submission dates.
21/01/2009 at 09:49 schizoslayer says:
Broken Edit boo
21/01/2009 at 09:53 schizoslayer says:
Unless you actually work at DICE or EA and are privy to their exact plans then your opinion of how hard it was to get Mirrors Edge working on PC is at most only as valid as mine since I’ve been working on Unreal powered games now for the best part of 4 years. As of just over 12 months ago it has been incredibly easy to get an Unreal powered game running at a good framerate on PC. You have to be a fairly terrible developer to not be able to get your game running at 30fps on mid-range hardware especially if you have set your budgets based on the limitations of the 2 consoles.
I maintain that the primary development team on Mirrors Edge were working on PC with seperate teams managing the Console builds. Right now with the latest version of Unreal you can hit 30 without even thinking about it on PS3 and 360. Especially in a game like Mirrors Edge where you are doing very little streaming and working in relatively small enclosed levels (How the engine likes to operate).
21/01/2009 at 09:58 AndrewC says:
I also want to say nice things about The Club – another game that looks like one type of game but is in fact another type of game. It’s kind of super cool – if you are willing to play it how it wants to be played.
21/01/2009 at 10:08 Sagan says:
I think a lot of you guys didn’t enjoy the game, because you had wrong perceptions about the fighting.
Complaining that you can’t win the fights by only using melee is, in my mind, just as unwarranted as complaining that you can’t beat Warcraft III by only using footmen.
There may be an achievement for playing without guns, but if you attempt to do that on your first play through, you are of course going to be very frustrated.
Also you shouldn’t try to avoid the fights. They are there, so that you get alternating parts of action (running) and slow-down. (shooting or the parts where you have to figure out how to get up somewhere) If the game was just running all the time, it would quickly become tiresome. And the fights are not much of an imposition, because they are ridiculously easy and you only have to fight for roughly a minute once every 15 minutes. The only difficulty in the fights is getting the first gun off an enemy.
The fights aren’t a large part in the game. You are only making them a large part by trying to beat them without guns or by trying to avoid them, both of which will end up just frustrating.
21/01/2009 at 10:17 Helm says:
“Crap Story, Predictable, (I think i guessed the twist half-way through the tute level)”
Not to say I’m super-empathic or anything, but I think I guessed in the very first screen we see that person and she looks at our character.
21/01/2009 at 10:21 UncleLou says:
“Also, I’m still irked that Faith’s features make her look like a caricature of Asians.
Huh. I had an asian personage say pretty much the opposite to me, recently (when discussing the DICE artwork versus that fan-made ‘more attractive’ version).”
Bit surprised about this, too. She surely looks a lot less like a caricature to me than Asians in most games from Asia do.
21/01/2009 at 10:26 bansama says:
The time trials in this game simply do not interest me. But I do find it hard to pull myself away from the story levels. Sure they’re short, but I feel they work better for it. And I have to agree that the times you’re being chased are where the real adrenaline rushes come.
I am not a fan of the console-esque checkpoint save system though and it’s about time developers dumped it. Games are far more enjoyable — especially when full of trial and error jumps, such as this one — when you are given the choice to quicksave where you want, and not where the developers dictate.
I like that you are given fairly specific paths to travel across too, as having free reign in the story mode would just detract from the element of danger you have when being chased. Although, such open ended exploration gameplay should have been provided as an optional play mode, just so the beautiful world that has been designed doesn’t go to waste. But then, I had the same feelings for Ico too.
I also hope we see more of Mirror’s Edge as the world they created is simple breathtaking, I certainly didn’t recognise that it was based on the Unreal Engine (most other Unreal Engine based games I’ve seen all tend to have a similar feel to them, or is that just me?)
I certainly see myself getting a lot of replay from this game too, despite it’s length. Again, just as I did with Ico (which was another exceptionally short game), so you know, size really isn’t everything =)
21/01/2009 at 10:28 Andy`` says:
schizo: There’s not much I can say, I guess. I haven’t worked on Unreal powered games quite as long, and only in a more superficial manner I’m guessing. Dave L.’s comment ties into what I was thinking though, and pretty much says something I should have elaborated on (360/PS3 problems -> PC team helps 360/PS3 out the door -> less time for PC work to be done). Also, it’s great that you can hit 30fps on mid-range hardware. What about the minimum spec hardware? Or are we condoning having games not run properly on the stated min spec here? ;)
“This is spectacularly overestimating.”
Probably. I always have been trying to just find quick ways through rather than finding sneaky ways of avoiding certain enemies. I’ve gone through prologue, ch1, ch2, ch4, ch5 and ch6 without killing anyone, but I always figured you had to kill the guys before pipes (ch3 cpC, ch6 cpB) or they’d easily kill you on your labourious climb up the pipe – that makes 5 of my badly estimated 11/12. I always cleared the top deck of ch7 cpB (the boat you were talking about) since I tended to die quite alot opening the door, though I managed to miss one of them and survive once (that totals to 9). I also probably overestimated on ch9 in the server room, since I tend to disarm the nearest one on the right, shoot the one on the left, then shoot the MG guy and go down the middle (12). Though I know if you’re careful you can route them around a bit and you don’t have to kill the MGer to make it up the stairs. I just never tried :)
21/01/2009 at 10:57 JKjoker says:
I have mixed feelings about ME’s gameplay, when you are outside, the path is obvious and you got the fuzz on your ass the game flows naturaly and it feels like that awesome scene in The Matrix 1 when neo is running for a phone and the agents appear everywhere, its just Great, but the conjunction of all those things is actually pretty rare in the game.
the worst parts of the game are when the path is not obvious (which is most of the time, specially indoors) and you are getting shot, that leads to several jumps of faith (which end on smashed Faith) and “wtf-is-this-door-closed?” moments which completely break the flow, you start cursing the devs while you look arround wondering : im supposed to find a door ? climb to that airshaft over there ? use the elevator ? what ? there is only one way in and one way out, every other door is closed, every other shaft is sealed with adamantium or something, the game talks about the “runner sense” but its more like “the linear path the devs created sense”
the game npcs even make sure you get annoyed by this, in the 3rd level your “navigator” says “the bullets are going to kill you, go inside” while you are running though the roofs, so you run to the next door you see … closed … in fact you have to spend about 5 more minutes in the roof before you go inside … meh
i do not get any enjoyment out of the time trials, i dont like racing games unless im racing others
as for Faith, i dont think she is hot, in fact i dont give a damn about her or her sister, since im not explained anything about the world i dont give a damn about it or anyone in it, i was expecting a deus ex/blade runner style cospiracy story but nothing man, gime something to work with …
in the end I feel ME is nothing more than a tech demo, the engine is actually pretty good, i love feeling the momentum of my character, i love how she interacts with the world, i think a good company like raven or something could make a really really good fps out of this engine ( maybe something like starcraft: ghost or splinter cell/bond with lots of climbing and escaping scenes, oh, maybe a no one lives forever 3, in fact it would fit any kind of spy/stealth fps)
21/01/2009 at 11:01 Valentin Galea says:
The graphics man! The graphics! Forget all else and play it just for that…
I honestly ‘felt’ the difference between the warmth of the sun soaked areas and the cold shadowy ones!
21/01/2009 at 11:05 JKjoker says:
fuck the graphics, gimme gameplay or die!
21/01/2009 at 11:38 schizoslayer says:
“What about the minimum spec hardware? Or are we condoning having games not run properly on the stated min spec here? ;)”
Well my point is that you can hit Xbox/PS3 quality graphics on Mid-range hardware easily. To hit minimum requires downscaling textures, lowering the resolution/AA and changing the shader model.
Basically ever since UT3 the Unreal engine has been very very easy to work with on PC and you have to try pretty hard (lots of dynamic shadows/lighting) to make a top-end PC sweat and it scales down very nicely.
So when you are basing all your budgets on the memory and shader limitations of consoles hitting 30 on PC is relatively easy. Certainly compared to pre-UT3 versions of the engine which were very much optimized for Xbox and something of a pain to get running well on PC as the engine didn’t scale as well as it does now.
21/01/2009 at 12:01 Pzykozis says:
I thought the complete opposite about the game from this review, I loved the story mode albiet somewhat shallow and soo soo very short and I hated the emphasis on time trials and speedruns cause it invariably made the game feel even shorter.
Hopefully in the sequel there’ll be more freedom to actually explore and do your own running sessions and of course a more developed story.
It’s definately in my top 5 games at this point in time due to its innovations that I think are truely great aswell as the immense rush you get when chased. Overall a great game.
21/01/2009 at 12:25 Arnulf says:
@ Schmung regarding friends list:
Yes, you can have a friends list on the PC version. You need to create an account with EA and then you can record your results on the leaderboard. The leaderboard has filters for your in-game friends list.
21/01/2009 at 14:24 Brian says:
I wish there were no guns at all in this game. I wish this was a multiplayer racing game, perhaps with very light hand-to-hand combat. In fact, what I really wish for is a 2-player hunter/hunted versus game, or maybe a 4-player CTF game. Maybe even a multiplayer futuristic rooftop football game of some sort.
This game concept could really benefit from the open-ended Unreal Tournament treatment. Imagine all the creative game modes the mod scene could come up with.
21/01/2009 at 14:59 catmorbid says:
I can’t help but think how wonderful ME would be, if they’d stick the engine and the acrobatics into a dynamic sandbox world… I really hope they’re doing that for ME2, since all the gameplay is already in there, all they’d need to do is give it a good environment to play in. It’s a good game, but sadly not worth the money I paid for it :/
21/01/2009 at 17:28 fearian says:
I have played damn near every major game of the last 6 years and mirrors edge is the most fun I have had in a long time. I cannot rember having more fun than this in a singleplayer game EVER.
So what if you die alot? I havn’t had much of a problem with it. people say the combat sucks? I enjoy it! I love slamming into a PK from the shadows then BAM BAM BAM dropping their friends with a sniper rifle. you cant get headshots like that on the 360!
Iv’e heard people say theres no story – its there but not in any obtrusive way that gets in front of me bouncing and swinging across glorious dysotopian rooftops in beautiful colour and warm shadows… hang on Im going to go play mirrors edge some more, brb..
21/01/2009 at 21:19 Tei says:
Hi guys.
No related-ish comment:
Theres a mode for Warsow that is about to run around maps as fast as posible using tricks. Ok, is nothing like what seems ME run, but maybe you guys can try, If you guys are already somewhat on “speedrunning” maps.
21/01/2009 at 21:22 Daniel Speed says:
I hate the shooting bits. Chasing bits, fine, even fun. Shooting bits where you’re likely to die, hate.
I got through a lot of the game completely avoiding confrontation, and then BAM, those pipes and the 3 guys. I was so unprepared for fighting, and the fact that as far as I can see, you pretty much *have* to fight there that this really really frustrated me.
Then there were three consecutive pipe jumps at one point, and it would never pick up the last pipe.
Then there was the sewers area, where I had no idea where to go till I eventually found a *tiny* red button.
The tiny red swingbar in the shopping mall, the tiny elevator button.
The incredibly annoying bit after the falling thing, where working out where to go seemed to be something done in 5 second increments between dying.
As I remarked to a friend, there’s nothing more annoying than a game where you’re supposed to run away, where you don’t know where to run to because of bad level design, and you’re punished for it.
These were the bits that really annoyed me, and then there was the stupidity of the EA account for time trials, and the noted wierdness that a game about parkour does not have a mode which allows you to find your own routes somewhat, as well as the loneliness of their multiplayer modes.
21/01/2009 at 23:28 bitkari says:
It’s a platform game.
22/01/2009 at 02:41 Dave L. says:
“Dave L.’s comment ties into what I was thinking though, and pretty much says something I should have elaborated on (360/PS3 problems -> PC team helps 360/PS3 out the door -> less time for PC work to be done)”
That’s it exactly. It has nothing to do with difficulty getting the PC version done, and everything to do with difficulty getting the 360 and PS3 versions done (and on time, and at the SAME time), especially since the console versions were probably the lead SKUs.
22/01/2009 at 11:22 Bhazor says:
Just want to say.
Disapointment, I fuggin called it after the first trailer.
22/01/2009 at 12:33 Mman says:
Someone has managed to hack in editor support: http://on-mirrors-edge.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=2742
It’s supposed to be kind of unstable now, but if it’s there I’m sure someone will be able to polish it up.
22/01/2009 at 13:10 Heliocentric says:
awesome sauce, wonder how robust the ai is. Adding ai drones to hastle you and this could be the best way to play the game.
22/01/2009 at 18:15 jsutcliffe says:
Addendum to my earlier post:
I finished the game, thought “hey, now time to do time trials” … and got bored after an hour. I thought they’d be more fun, but they’re so frustrating. Especially when you realise there’s really only one path to getting a good score.
I uninstalled. Maybe if that map editor stuff yields some worthwhile maps, or if the DLC looks like it’ll be decent, I’ll give it another go, but I am now disappointed.
22/01/2009 at 20:00 Hypocee says:
I bought it more for what DICE dared to try and the new things they got right than what they actually accomplished as a product. I see no conflict with my unwillingness to ever play Prince of Persia v2 which similarly aimed high and fell short LA LA LA LA.
22/01/2009 at 22:05 Mman says:
“Especially when you realise there’s really only one path to getting a good score.”
That only applies if you’re going for the world record; almost every time trial has multiple methods if you’re just going for three stars.
24/01/2009 at 02:37 jsutcliffe says:
@MMan — Indeed, but three stars is hardly a good score. I’ll wager there are very few paths that’ll net you a two-star score, even.
26/01/2009 at 01:01 Po0py says:
Excellent game. Not fussed that the story is flimsy and I would advise to try to avoid using guns altogether. This is not an fps game so don’t be shootin dat thing, y’hear? They shouldn’t have given us an option to shoot, thats just distracting and it confuses the noobs.
I’m completely addicted to time trials. It’s another one of those “I’ll have one more go and then I’ll go to bed.” games. But it is not without fault. If there is an option to view how other players have acheived their high score then I haven’t figured it out yet. I would dearly love to see how young Timmy can complete a level in under thirty seconds when I can only manage one minute ten whilst busting a gut, in an aparently faultless run. Or is there foul play on the leaderboards? I suspect there is.
28/01/2009 at 14:08 Krelios says:
I couldn’t disagree with this article more. While dying and repeating a sequence can be frustrating, the game itself is a masterpiece. I have loved almost every minute of almost every level and the fluidity of the controls when you really get the hang of it is fantastic. It is part FPS and part racing game and it wouldn’t be as good without both parts. The story is a bit cliched but it still compels you to play the next chapter to see what happens next, which is really all that I can ask from a cut-scene. Mirror’s Edge is amazing and I hope they do more games in the series.
01/02/2009 at 01:27 The Shed says:
I still feel free-roaming would be the sweetest spot for this game’s style, even if it was limited freedom like in Thief: DS. See, in GTAIV, it got fairly dull after a while when you finished a mission and you’d have a few stars to escape from. Mirror’s Edge on the other hand, would be truly thrilling if it gave you a “mission complete” notice, then left you on your own feet to leg it from those darned cops. And what about bag-catching? In the beginning of M.E., you’re basically told that you have to do jobs to eat/ live in general. Aside from that first mission, you don’t do a runner job once. In a free-roaming layout for the game, side-missions would be a given- and runner jobs would be the perfect side mission.
My main gripe with the “linear mission then shoddy cutscene then linear mission” level structure was that the missions never ended properly, and never clicked with the ensuing cutscene. The mission would start with you running, and end with you running, the fade to white would be rubbish. Again, a free-roaming structure would sort this right out- the move from missions to cutscene would be seamless. Like in Thief: Deadly Shadows.
01/02/2009 at 14:23 TheBlackJoker says:
CAN SOMEONE HELP ME PLS!!! i love this game ( for begining) but i have some problems … after i pass the last check point in the first mission when the choper fallows me everywere , i get in the elevator and after charging game it start s all over again … what can i do ???? HELP :(((((((
03/02/2009 at 21:11 Skylance says:
@TheBlackJoker
Go to GameFAQs, dude. More than anywhere on the internet, that’s the place to ask questions like that.
12/12/2009 at 20:27 MacQ says:
+1, but I don’t like the time trials. That’s because I’m not a competative guy and can’t understand the joy of repeating something til I die of boredom, just to have my nickname on a list.
And what’s with the cheaters and why haven’t they been banned and erased yet?
12/12/2009 at 20:28 MacQ says:
The +1 goes to Krelios’ post, not the article (the first post says it all about that).
25/02/2011 at 18:46 deuterium. says:
This article was so wide of the mark that it’s embarassing to read.