EA usually doesn't make very much that interests me outside of the Need For Speed series, but occasionally they make something that's super interesting like this or Unraveled (which I still haven't gotten around to, but will eventually!). Aesthetically, this game owns. There's an excellent use of color and lighting here as each setpiece and landmark is clearly and carefully shaded to make such a unique visual identity that no other game before or really since has recaptured. The fact that this game happened to release in the gaming era where all the other heavily-marketed blockbusters shared the same gritty tone and oppressive color palettes also helped it stand out among its peers. It certainly did for me; I remember seeing gaming sites and magazines cover this game back then and being enamored by its visual style, and while I never did play this game in its time, I definitely gave the PS3 demo a shot. The clear blue skies contrasted with the pure white/reflective cityscape highlighted only by the red context-sensitive objective points is that good shit.
The gameplay consists of parkour freerunning from point to point in order to clear various levels. It's got a decent amount of heft to it, a la cinematic platformers like Prince of Persia or Out of this World, but done in a first person perspective and smoothened out just a tad. The level designs are open and multifaceted (except for when they aren't), and even if you get lost theres a button that points you in the right direction (except for when it doesn't). Sometimes the game slows the pace of the parkour running down to instead focus on either puzzle platforming challenges where ya gotta figure out how to get from point A to B, or combat challenges where there's tons of enemies and ya gotta beat em up to proceed. The game has a short length, roughly 4-6 hours, which honestly became a godsend to me as the further the game went, the less patience I had with it. The reason for that being....
The game makes me motion sick! I've played a lot of games in all sorts of perspectives and framerates, and with the exception of VR titles I don't get any sort of fatigue/sickness from vidya gamin. This game actually got to me though and gave me headaches!!!! The first person perspective is constantly bobbing, even when standing still, and doing all sorts of acrobatics, ledge climbing, wall jumping, pole sliding, and parkour rolling just got me disoriented. The game also has quite a closed-in FOV that didn't make things much nicer. The lack of any sort of static HUD alongside a crosshair that's just a miniscule dot also doesn't give the game any sort of static anchor on the screen to help with the motion and FOV problems. I'm sure on PC there are settings and mods to fix all of those issues, so I'd def suggest playing this there if you are sensitive to that kind of thing, but on console you just gotta take the vertigo like a man. If this game was in VR it would absolutely kill me for sure.
It's certainly a one of a kind game, for better or for worse. Can't really even blame the lack of accessibility options, this game came out at a time when most people didn't think about that kinda thing as well as them very clearly wanting to have this distinct gopro-core POV feel to it with the freerunning so yea. I don't see many other people complain about the motionsickness here and my friends that have played this were unaffected so maybe everyone else is just built different. Shoutouts to the xbox version essentially being remastered when played on series X, as there's a 4K resolution bump, native HDR support, and an FPS boost to 60 from the original games SDR 30FPS 720p output. It really makes the already-timeless artstyle shine even more, the upgrades def make this 16-year-old game look almost current gen! though honestly if you are to play this just get the PC version instead to potentially make it more comfortable...
sasuga mirrors edge. the only flat 2D TV ass game to give me headaches from playing. it was cool! but im gonna go lie down now
The gameplay consists of parkour freerunning from point to point in order to clear various levels. It's got a decent amount of heft to it, a la cinematic platformers like Prince of Persia or Out of this World, but done in a first person perspective and smoothened out just a tad. The level designs are open and multifaceted (except for when they aren't), and even if you get lost theres a button that points you in the right direction (except for when it doesn't). Sometimes the game slows the pace of the parkour running down to instead focus on either puzzle platforming challenges where ya gotta figure out how to get from point A to B, or combat challenges where there's tons of enemies and ya gotta beat em up to proceed. The game has a short length, roughly 4-6 hours, which honestly became a godsend to me as the further the game went, the less patience I had with it. The reason for that being....
The game makes me motion sick! I've played a lot of games in all sorts of perspectives and framerates, and with the exception of VR titles I don't get any sort of fatigue/sickness from vidya gamin. This game actually got to me though and gave me headaches!!!! The first person perspective is constantly bobbing, even when standing still, and doing all sorts of acrobatics, ledge climbing, wall jumping, pole sliding, and parkour rolling just got me disoriented. The game also has quite a closed-in FOV that didn't make things much nicer. The lack of any sort of static HUD alongside a crosshair that's just a miniscule dot also doesn't give the game any sort of static anchor on the screen to help with the motion and FOV problems. I'm sure on PC there are settings and mods to fix all of those issues, so I'd def suggest playing this there if you are sensitive to that kind of thing, but on console you just gotta take the vertigo like a man. If this game was in VR it would absolutely kill me for sure.
It's certainly a one of a kind game, for better or for worse. Can't really even blame the lack of accessibility options, this game came out at a time when most people didn't think about that kinda thing as well as them very clearly wanting to have this distinct gopro-core POV feel to it with the freerunning so yea. I don't see many other people complain about the motionsickness here and my friends that have played this were unaffected so maybe everyone else is just built different. Shoutouts to the xbox version essentially being remastered when played on series X, as there's a 4K resolution bump, native HDR support, and an FPS boost to 60 from the original games SDR 30FPS 720p output. It really makes the already-timeless artstyle shine even more, the upgrades def make this 16-year-old game look almost current gen! though honestly if you are to play this just get the PC version instead to potentially make it more comfortable...
sasuga mirrors edge. the only flat 2D TV ass game to give me headaches from playing. it was cool! but im gonna go lie down now