Yesterday the Mirror’s Edge demo was released on the PS3 and I’m pretty sure I was one of the first people in the world to begin downloading it. This is probably because when I got home yesterday I was checking the PSN store almost every 10-30 minutes the entire night to see if the demo had been posted. When it finally was I screamed out in joy like a happy school girl and immediately began downloading it. My girlfriend can attest to this statement. You see, I have been extremely excited about Mirror’s Edge ever since the first trailer was released back at the beginning of the year. I have actually mentioned the November 13th release date of the game to my girlfriend so many times that now she has it memorized herself. Suffice to say I have really been looking forward to this demo, so now that I have played it through twice I am happy to give you all my first impressions of this highly anticipated game.

Demo Content
When you first start up the demo you’ll see that you have access to two different gameplay modes. Everyone who downloads the demo will have access to the story mode. In the demo this mode consists of a training level and the first level of the game. If you have pre-ordered the game and have a special code from EA you’ll also have access to a 2nd mode, the time trail mode. I unfortunately have not pre-ordered the game so I did not have access to this.

The story mode in the demo provides probably around 15-30 minutes of gameplay. The first part consists of a training level, which most likely is the actual training level you’ll play in the beginning of the retail game. This is a decent sized level which teaches you most of the important acrobatic gameplay elements you’ll have to master in order to progress through the game. You’ll learn skills like jumping, ducking, sliding, beam balancing, and wall jumping all before you get to the end of the level where you’ll get taught your basic combat skills. These include punching, slide kicking, jump kicking, and disarming. You’ll also learn how to slow down time using the “Reaction Time” skill, but I’ll talk more about this later. By the end of the tutorial level you’ll know everything you need to play the game.

The 2nd part of the story mode in the first level of the game. Unless you’ve been living under a rock without internet access the last 8 months, you have probably seen the entire first level of the game in trailers. This is the level that was shown in the very first trailer when the game debuted. If you know what you are doing it will probably only take you 5 minutes to get through it, but if you don’t know your way through the level, or you want to explore, you can probably get 15-20 minutes of gameplay out of it. You’ll definitely get a chance to use every single skill you learned in the tutorial level, so I hope you were paying attention.



Control Scheme
To put it as simple as possible, Mirror’s Edge can be played using only 2 buttons and the analog sticks. You use the L1 button to perform all of your “up” commands such as jumping or wall climbing, and you use the L2 button to perform all of your “down” commands such as ducking and sliding. The game is really as simple as that. There is no complicated control structure like in Assassin’s Creed. Everything is very straight forward and simple.

Now of course I am simplifying this a little too much, as there are other buttons you’ll have to use to get through the game. R1 is used to turn you quickly around 180 degrees. This can be used in conjunction with the L1 button to jump up parallel walls. All of your basic combat skills, such as punching or shooting, are performed using the R2 button. This can be used in tandem with the L1 and L2 buttons to perform actions such as slide kicking or jump kicking. The triangle button is used to disarm your enemy. You can then choose to throw the weapon away or use it against your enemies. Last but not least, there is the square button, which is used to activate “reaction time”. This is your bullet time skill which slows everything down allowing you to easily disarm your enemies or make pin point accurate jumps. This can be very helpful in stressful situations when you have a lot of enemies to deal with.

My Thoughts on the Game
Let me start out by saying I really enjoyed the demo, but there are a couple of things that concern me. First let me go over the things I liked, and the easiest thing to point out is how gorgeous the graphics are. The game really does look every bit as good as the gameplay videos you have seen. I was playing the demo on my 50” Plasma and it truly is a sight to behold. I had no idea my PS3 could put out such vibrant and beautiful colors. I have apparently been corrupted by all of the shit brown colored FPS’s out there. Take note all of you developers out there, COLOR IS GOOD!

For the most part the gameplay in Mirror’s Edge is very fluid, which is complimented by the simple control scheme. Moving through a level quickly by climbing up ledges, wall running, or sliding under pipes takes very little effort and keeps the game moving at a very brisk pace. Thanks to a feature known as “runner’s vision” knowing where to go in a level is not very difficult. Recommended paths are highlighted in red, with yellow also being used to indicate possible ways through the level.

This leads me to what concerns me about the game. The level that is playable in the demo is extremely linear. Now let me put down a disclaimer that thanks to all of the trailers I have watched I already pretty much knew exactly how to progress through the level. That being said though, even if you have not watched any gameplay videos you will still not have any trouble at all figuring out which way to go. Correct paths are constantly highlighted in red, and most hallways only have one door in and out of them, and most building tops only have one way on and off of them. Now I’m trying not to be too concerned because this is only one level and it does not represent the entire game. The developer, DICE, has said that levels will have multiple paths through them, but this is not one of those levels I can tell you that much. I’m hoping the rest of the game is less linear then this.



The combat is also a low point of the demo. I found that it was not very easy to knock out my opponents, which doesn’t help when you are dealing with multiple enemies who are all shooting at you. Disarming also is not that simple. You have to wait until the weapon turns red in an enemy’s hands to disarm them, but the enemies flail around so much it’s hard to tell when the weapon actually turns red, especially if it’s a small weapon like a hand gun. I ended up having to use the “reaction time” skill a lot to properly disarm enemies. It was the only way I could tell exactly when the weapon in their hands turns red.

Another thing I don’t like is the sensitivity of the analog sticks. Now let me just say that I think the PS3 analog sticks in general are horrible for FPS games. No matter what game I play they are never accurate enough and they are located in the wrong place on the controller. Sony really needs to take a lesson from Microsoft on where to properly place their analog sticks, and how sensitive they should be. This is another argument though and I’ll digress for now. Suffice to say I think the control needs to be tightened up a bit with the analog sticks.

Conclusion
As I’ve already stated I did really enjoy the demo. It was nice to see that the control scheme is very simplistic and that I don’t have to have a PHD in video game controls to perform all of the acrobatic moves Faith has at her disposal. I know I spent most of the time taking about the bad parts of the demo, but it’s always easier to harp on the bad then to glorify the good. My biggest concern is really with the linearity of the game. I still have very high hopes for the actual game, and I still plan on purchasing it. Check the demo out for yourself though and make your own decisions. Mine is just one of the millions out there.



Pro’s
+ The graphics are absolutely incredibly gorgeous with a bright color pallete you will not find in many other games.

+ Thanks to a very simple control scheme, the gameplay is very fast and fluid. Most actions can be performed with only two buttons.

+ Moving through levels is very easy thanks to “runner’s vision” which highlights the optimal path in red or orange. This feature can be turned off though to increase the level of difficulty.

Con’s
- The level is very linear, with really only one optimal path to follow.

- Combat can be difficult when dealing with multiple enemies since you can only combat one at a time. It’s typically better to run then fight.

- Disarming enemies can be difficult, thanks to the fact the queue for when to disarm an enemy is difficult to see. Using the “Reaction Time” skill to slow down time is a must in these situations.

- The analog stick sensitivity is not tight enough on the PS3 version. Hopefully there will be an option to adjust this in the final game.