Fill out this form to email this article to a friend

Your name		Your email
Recipient email	You may enter up to 20 multiple email addresses, separated by commas.
Your message
Validation Code	Hear validation code
	Enter validation code

We were unable to send your email.

Click here to try again.

'Mirror's Edge' runs in right direction

By Joshua Gillin, tbt* columnist
In print: Monday, November 10, 2008

Experience sliding along the side of a skyscraper without that falling-to-your-death part. EA

Story Tools E-mail this story Contact the editor Print this story Comment on this story Social Bookmarking Digg Facebook Stumbleupon Reddit Del.icio.us Newsvine

ADVERTISEMENT Loading Video...

Ever since Computer Space was released in 1971, programmers have been trying to make gamers feel like what they were playing was actually happening to them.

Games have since used an entire toolbox of tricks to try to elicit the sensations of the emulated experience being conveyed — vibration feedback, 3D and virtual reality graphics, gyro-based wireless controllers, movement sensor grids, pressure-sensitive input devices and the granddaddy of them all, first-person perspective — each with a varying degree of success.

So after almost four decades of creating games, it's nice to see developers got one of those tricks right with Mirror's Edge.

Reminiscent of The Matrix, Dark Angel, Logan's Run and even THX 1138, Mirror's Edge is the rare first-person game that replicates the feeling of movement and speed so well, it's about as close to perfection I've ever seen in the genre.

The storyline is so much nonsense, about a future dystopia in which you play Faith, a "runner" who ferries information through a sterile cityscape to help clients avoid detection by a totalitarian government. These bits and pieces are spouted not only through nifty Samurai Jack-style animated cutscenes, but also through in-game audio from NPCs, including your handler/operator, Mercury. It's all very familiar and extraneous, but quite capable in its role to move you from set piece to set piece.

And what set pieces. The game's interface is fully first-person and based on parkour, a discipline focused on using free movement to overcome obstacles quickly and efficiently. This includes climbing, jumping, vaulting and sliding at speed, rarely pausing and always creative in its problem-solving.

This presents a problem for a genre that usually is very clunky in its movement mechanics. FPS games have a long history of making it difficult to turn, strafe, dodge and jump easily. Yet Mirror's Edge creators Digital Illusions CE pulled it off in ways that make this the most immersive console game ever, action-wise.

There is no heads-up display, and the only onscreen clue it's a game is a tiny reticle placed there to provide a focal point to prevent dizziness. It doesn't always work, since you make Faith hop fences, climb walls, leap from buildings and even jump-kick enemies using "runner vision," in which possible routes and actions are highlighted in red.

And don't think for a minute that the clean, tack-sharp graphics won't lull you into the real sensation of jumping, rolling or falling. Forward rolls are accomplished with the camera following your line of sight, tumbling as your character tumbles. You see her hands reach out to scrabble up walls, grab drainpipes and slide down zip lines. And when you stand on the parapets of a tower, your vertiginous reaction after staring between her feet is all too realistic.

Even the interface for dour moments amaze. Colors desaturate as Faith is wounded. She breathes loudly as she gets winded. When she falls, the wind rushes through the speakers (or headphones, which I highly recommend) and the screen dims as you see the ground rush toward your face, moments before a sickening, bone-crunching splat.

Mirror's Edge is by no means perfect, but it is the kind of game that makes even those who get nauseous playing FPSs want to muscle through. The illusion of fleet-footed escape as police chase you shows that games have plenty of new directions to take old genres. If they can make a flat screen and a controller feel like this, maybe the holodeck isn't as far away as we think.

— Joshua Gillin writes about video games and entertainment news for tbt*. Feel free to challenge his opinions at jgillin@tampabay.com.