I played the demo for EA's upcoming first-person parkour game, Mirror's Edge, tonight on my Xbox. I have to say, it was quite impressive. I have never played a first-person game that looked so clean, and gave the player so many options.
Here are just a few of the things you can do: run, jump, slide, kick, roll, climb, and wall-run. That is only about half of the things I did in the demo. Most of these are context-sensitive. For example, the left bumper is basically the "move up" button. If you are just standing, doing nothing, pressing it makes you jump. If, on the other hand, you are hanging from a ledge or standing in front of a fence, it makes you climb up. As simple as that may seem, things like that make me really appreciate the thought that went into the controls.
The visuals are almost breathtaking, and not so much in the level of detail. Rather, the style is what makes it beautiful. All of the colors are so bright and vibrant, which actually turns out to be part of the gameplay. Any object that the player can use to get from Point A to Point B is colored in fire-truck red, which often serves as a guide as to where the player needs to go. In order for these objects to stand out, everything else is an equally bright shade of blue, orange, yellow, or just plain white. It's a simple design that gives off a really unique look and feel that I absolutely love.
I feel like Mirror's Edge is a game that could reinvigorate first-person gaming. It isn't just a point-and-shoot affair. Instead of capping bad guys in the dome all the time, you're looking around the environment, trying to find the best wall to scale, or platform to vault. It's just too bad that all of my holiday gaming budget has been reserved for other games. No matter, Christmas is a great time for awesome gifts! If you want to get a better idea of what I mean by all this, either download the demo, or just watch this video:
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