First replay since release! Quite glad I could shake the bugs out of my distant memories of this game being somewhere near perfect. The ways in which it's weird and frictional definitely give it some character, though. Mirror's Edge's campaign kicks off with relatively simple flow-state platforming that eases you into the control scheme with clearly signposted goals that offer a degree of player freedom which made the journey from A-to-B feel like my own. 'Runner Vision' is still a neat little gimmick as an outright replacement for waypoints and such, acting as both a diegetic and stylised way to subtly suggest to the player little tricks that they could be doing to nudge them in the right direction. Surprised to learn that the game really shines whenever a train is nearby; intense little segments that feel so fast n lethal they shredded years off my life.

It doesn't take particularly long for the game's priorities to shift to something more akin to the jumping puzzles in like, Half Life 1 or something? Often throwing you into very dense obstacle courses or industrial interiors that demand a surprisingly great deal of spatial reasoning. With Runner Vision dialling down the closer to the finale the game gets, I found myself having to stop and survey the area for anything resembling surfaces I've come to know are scalable. On one hand, it's alarmingly rare for a Triple-A title to demand such a thing from a player - but It becomes fairly clear at some point that the game has more or less forgotten the thrill of scaling rooftops and communal areas in an unbroken sprint. A handful of areas feel downright lazy however, I don't demand that a game's world caters itself to the player's moveset, but it becomes fairly apparent that Faith loses her place at points - namely the ship and carpark shootouts which are neither visually interesting or engaging to navigate. Oftentimes you're thrown into a dense warehouse area filled with props and mezzanines that it becomes a game of finding the red door of progression.

All well and good, I don't really mind all of those temporary roadblocks much. I've even had quite a bit of fun looking up speedrun tech and going back through chapters just to absolutely crush them. The kickglitch makes you feel like you're in the fuckin Matrix or something. One of my biggest gripes is honestly that the game is absolutely gorgeo, but it really doesn't want you to appreciate it. Stand still and admire the view, the incredible lighting and texture work that wouldn't look out of place in the current-gen game roster, and a squad of armed feds will eventually come and pepper you down. You can't just put Nvidia PhysX Technology into your game and not let me fuck around with the curtains.

feels like the rough draft for a failed revolution.

the platforming and sign-posting is smooth for the most part. the rough edges around the parkour gameplay that are there feel like they were intended to be fixed in forthcoming sequels that unfortunately never eventuated.

the story feels glued on, or in this case, crudely animated and inserted in. the game didn't really need a plot or heavy characterisation. what's left feels like a half-thought idea scribbled on a napkin.

and that's the frustrating problem with mirror's edge. everything feels half thought out; half fleshed out. or like every idea was walked back to make it more marketable in a post Modern Warfare shooter market. nothing other than parkour movement and maybe the bold primary colour palette feels particularly cared for or loved and laboured over.

a lot of mirror's edge leaves me saying "what if?". what if this game had a more fleshed out lore or setting or characters. what if had a more engaging plot. what if the combat were a little smoother to match your movements, instead of this precision, time-based crap. what if there no guns or shooting. faith doesn't feel like a murderer. the guns have no hud elements; no ammo counts. they are designed to encumber your movement and your ledge-grabbing. there's clearly some conscious element at play regarding gun violence and typical video game combat. what if i didn't make this game, or someone like me, because everything about reminds me of every poorly thought idea i've had, and the lack of connective tissue between concept and execution made me sit up and point at my tv several times like the rick dalton once upon a time in hollywood meme, like, "hey i recognise this kind of creative failure!"

anyway. the colours are cool, and when you find the game's flow state (which is often less than you'd like) and moving and jumping without flaw, the game shines as bright as any action game i've played. it's a shame it's a formula that wasn't sanded down to perfection and we never got the holy grail (or Casino Royale) of free-running games. maybe one day. because this a great template for a more pacifist form of video game action/violence. instead now we get a battlefield every few years.