Angel Dust on 8/1/2009 at 07:53

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Just finished this game last night and overall it's a :thumb:

I had my doubts but the basic gameplay mechanics work as good as that first preview suggested. The FPS perspective doesn't cause any issues, more on what does later, and the body awareness is the best I have seen. It is really exhilirating when you hit your stride and I hope to see games rip it off liberally. Maybe tone down some of the acrobatics, since it wouldn't fit right with a lot of games, but I can certainly see the generally jumping, vaulting and sliding lending itself to some tense foot chases.

For large portions of the game the level design is very good and you can get into the flow quite easily. However there are points, and the indoor levels are particularly guilty of this, where it does descend into some frustrating trial and error. I hope if there is a sequel that DICE improve on there level design in these areas and perhaps drastically cut down on the amount of indoor areas. The whole trial and error nature does actually enchance the replay value though since after finishing you'll most likely want to have another dash through the levels, armed with your knowledge of the surroundings and sharpened skills, which is fortunate since the campaign is quite short.

The story is a huge letdown and easily the worst thing about the game. The visual style is fine and the voice acting and character designs, especially Ropeburn and Miller, are very good but the actual plot is a vague, unengaging . Huge amounts of the story are unexplained and that prevents many of the scenes from having any dramatic weight. HL2 is also vague but the unanswered questions (who are these aliens? what do they want? who is the G-man? etc) are, for the most part, ones that no-one you encounter can answer and for the one character who can, his non-disclosure adds much to his intruiging nature. 'Mirror's Edge' has unanswered questions that your character knows the answers to and when she and other characters are engaged in vague conversations regarding the society, your clients, the runners mission etc you'll just sit there feeling out of the loop.

Combat could use some work and it's forced on you a bit too much at times. On replay you'll be able to gun it past most of the enemies but initially, when you don't know your way around, you'll have to fight more often that I would have liked. The disarming moves are quite cool though and the momentum based melee combat is something that I'd like to see developed some more.

I might have spent a bit of time talking about the negative aspects but I love it despite these flaws, simply for that exhiliration you feel when you hit your stride. The PC version should control even better with the mouse look giving you the ability to really pin point the direction of those jumps.

Angel Dust on 8/1/2009 at 08:39

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Don't worry, I've been putting in a bit of time into those too! They kind of are the real meat of game as far as the gameplay goes much like Portal's least portal challenges.

Fafhrd on 14/1/2009 at 07:50

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IGN's review of the PC version gives it an 8.5, in stark contrast to the 7.3 and 7.4 that they gave the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, respectively. Not that the PC version is in any significant way a better game than its console counterparts, but that their PC reviewer actually GETS IT is interesting. I'm curious if and how the other big sites' reviews will differ (So far as I've checked, GameSpot kept it at a 7.0 for all three versions)

Angel Dust on 14/1/2009 at 09:37

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I'm also sure that the controls will be much improved thanks to the simple addition of mouse look. Lining up jumps etc will be a breeze.

EvaUnit02 on 14/1/2009 at 10:00

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No, the PC version is entirely inferior because it lacks analogue movement. You no have sense of weight and realism otherwise.

Also Runner's Vision is solely an artistic aesthetic and entirely not an optional gameplay mechanic used for highlighting the optimal route. Watching entire parts of the terrain and objects unsubtly turn bright red right before eyes totally does not break any immersion.