Mirror's Edge Preview

E3 2008 Preview - Hands On

DICE, a company generally known for large-scale battles in war-torn lands thanks to their wildly popular Battlefield franchise, is doing things quite a bit differently from the norm this time around. Their next offering, Mirror’s Edge, doesn’t take place during a war, isn’t multiplayer, and can be completed without firing a single shot. However, whereas the game is a pretty big departure from DICE’s previous offerings, it is still shaping up to be a pretty fascinating and unique FPS, due to some great platforming mechanics.

In Mirror’s Edge, you play as a courier named Faith who is tasked with moving packages of extreme importance in a world where almost all forms of communication are severely monitored and punishable. Therefore, Faith spends a decent chunk of time running from police and the powers that be, bounding nimbly across rooftops and through buildings to evade capture.

In order to avoid her enemies, Faith uses “parkour”, an impressive form of jumping across buildings, climbing up walls, and effectively using the environment to get from one point to another. Whereas trying to do this in a game would seem like a crapshoot, DICE has put some help into the game, namely through the red objects in the environment. Whenever an object appears red, that means that you can climbing, jump off of it, grab onto it, and any other action the situation may call for.

Aside from being able to jump around the environment in order to escape your enemies, you’ll also be able to use some pretty cool combat tools in order to attack, disarm, and defeat your foes. You can slide in between their legs and kick them, jump up behind them and take their weapon away, either hitting them in the face with the butt of the gun, or shooting them. There is also an ability that lets you slow down time briefly in order to better get the drop on your enemies.

Mirror’s Edge is shaping up quite nicely, looking to be an interesting and fun take on the FPS genre that will offer unique gameplay and great graphics. Look for it to launch this November.

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