Why I love Mirror's Edge so much

In case you haven't heard of Mirror's Edge, it's a 2008 parkour game developed by DICE. The game or its 2016 reboot might not have been high regarding sales (which led to EA abandoning the franchise) but the 2008 game is definitely a cult classic nowadays and is remembered very fondly.

 And it just so happens to be one of my favorite games!

The Aesthetics

Mirror's Edge takes place in the fictional city in near future. It goes unnamed in the original but the reboot calls it "Glass" so I'll go with that as it's a very fitting name.

Glass looks utopian on the surface. It's white, clean... with occasional cheerful splashes of vibrant color. It very much feels like an embodiment of the 2000s Frutiger Aero aesthetic. It looks very peaceful and calming.
It's not a terribly futuristic looking city. In fact it looks rather grounded. 

However the game follows one design rule. The game doesn't have much red in it. It's mostly shades of blue, orange, yellow and sometimes pink.

Where the red comes in is the main character. Faith Connors has red gloves and red sneakers. It's a disruption which fits the story. You are a force of nature, something outside of the law and rules of the world. 



And of course the runner vision. Faith is a parkour expert. She finds her own way through the environment. And so to visualize this and help you navigate, everything faith can interact with is highlighted in red. Climbable pipes, springboards, ledges, cushions etc.
Anything you can use as a navigation point or interaction point. It's not only very helpful but also works beautifully with the aesthetic.

Then there's the shades of black. The main enemies you fight throughout the game are mercenaries working for a security firm known as Pirandello Kruger. They wear black uniforms, fly around in marked black helicopters and contrast with the white tones very nicely.

And it all just comes together like a bunch of puzzle pieces.

Mirror's Edge aged very well graphically  largely because the development team used a lighting engine known as Lightmass. And that, combined with the bright saturated artstyle... works incredibly well.

The sound design

Mirror's Edge has a fantastic soundtrack by the Swedish electronic musician Solar Fields. The calmer more parkour focused sections have a serene, calming atmosphere to them.

And then the action comes in. The music gets fast, heartpumping and rapidly escalating as the chases get more and more intense.

Speaking of running...
The sound design itself is also fantastic. The developers utilized something called "runner's bubble"
You can hear objects wooshing as you move past them and everything in the environment makes a sound. ACs and electric lines hum, you can hear cars in the distance, hear and see commercial planes flying overhead, you can hear rustling of Faith's clothing, the footsteps... it feels incredibly immersive. 

And the guns, they sound fantastic. Same sound designer as Black so if you love the meaty hollywood gun sounds from Black, this is the exact same deal. The weapons sound scary, intimidating and very bass heavy, which makes helicopter chases even more adrenaline inducing.

The gameplay

The gameplay in Mirror's Edge is fairly simple. 

You have a set of basic moves. Jumping, vaulting, climbing, spring-boarding to reach higher jumps, wallrunning etc.
And then there's the combat moves. Dropkicks, slide kicks, punches, disarming, shooting etc.

But what makes it work is that the game balances 3 kinds of situations.

On the one hand you have the calm parkour sections. They're slow, you take your time, admire the beautiful environments.

And then there's the chases. You get chased by a group of enemies and sometimes a helicopter. It's intense. Bullets flying everywhere, enemies ambushing you at every angle... those sections are faster and more challenging but full of iconic setpieces. Whether it's the crane jump, chase inside a vacant mall or sliding off a building Jackie Chan style, it's always very over the top in a fun way.



And then the combat. It might be the weakest link but still fun.
Guns slow you down and prevent you from using parkour but are very effective. Hand to hand combat is satisfying and it flows quite nicely once you learn to time disarms right.

The story and worldbuilding

Mirror's Edge takes place in an alternate version of the 2020s, over 16 years after the November riots, a peaceful demonstration against the totalitarian regime gone wrong.

Faith is a runner. Runners are a decentralized group who deliver packages to dissidents, using the rooftops to avoid flock cameras and surveillance systems. Each cell is led by a tracker and in this case, it's Faith's mentor Mercury.

One day things change, the police start cracking down on runners, Faith's sister is framed for a murder of a politicial candidate and race against the clock starts as Faith heads to uncover the conspiracy and save her sister.

It's not a terribly deep story but it's still engaging, it works and the worldbuilding still feels relevant, especially with the rise of surveillance in the recent years. And that only makes it age better.