Developer: DICE
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Rating Guide: How I Review Games

Review:

It’s not often that you get a new experience when playing games these days.  How many times can we sit back and enjoy a first person shooter or some generic 3rd person adventure through mazes?  Thankfully DICE and EA at least heard the cries of many and offered up something new.  That something new came in the form of the year’s hottest new virtual girl, Faith, and Mirror’s Edge.

Faith is a runner and she’s out on a mission to find out the bad guys in town.  She’ll do this with some pretty wild maneuvers through buildings, on top of buildings and everywhere in between.  The beauty of it all is that you’ll be right there with her and if you play it right, you’ll feel each moment.

Gameplay, Graphics and Sound

Picture yourself running and then jumping a hundred feet across the top of building while bullets are racing towards you.  That’s what Mirror’s Edge is.  It’s an adrenaline shot of gaming that gave me a much needed dose of change.  You play as Faith and you see all the action through her eyes.

The essence of speed in the game is impressive when you build up a nice bit of steam.  The faster you go the more you get to feel how different this game is.  And then jumping from rooftop to rooftop or scaling walls while going full speed is quite the ride.  I was skeptical that DICE could pull this off but they did.

The combat in the game is the one thing that needs a lot of work.  To be honest, I tried not even doing any hand-to-hand combat and instead just running and performing jump kicks was my strategy…or slide kicks.  It just felt and looked “off” when you were taking weapons from people or fighting.

There will be no mistake though when seeing how beautiful the game is.  There are vibrant colors to keep you on track and the aerial draw distance is crazy when you’re jumping (and falling).  The sound department left a bit to be desired though.

Xbox LIVE Extras

You can test your might (or speed I suppose) against each over with Time Trials.  Each level of the game is provided for you to try and score the best finishing time.  One of the cool things about the Time Trials is that they provide a ghost of the person you’re trying to beat so that you can see how they accomplished their score.

Conclusion

Faith is new and different.  I didn’t think DICE could pull it off but they managed to create something really fresh and new.  For that reason alone it’s worth taking a look at and playing.  After allowing myself to simply take on the role of a person jumping around rooftops and on walls, the game’s intensity grew.