MIRROR’S EDGE CATALYST
The open world ‘free runner’ sequel from DICE.
It’s not long before the hive mind that is the internet reaches a consensus…
You can avoid the reviews all you like, but you will get a sense of how a game’s being received.
There will be chatter on social media or a headline you inadvertently read while scrolling past. It’s inevitable, short of joining a doomsday cult or living off the grid in the woods somewhere.
Something I was greatly anticipating was on the horizon. Its time would come…
As the release date approached, I braced myself for the impending storm of impressions…
A consensus for Mirror’s Edge Catalyst was reached and it was mixed to say the least.
This wasn’t the end of the world. This wasn’t worth losing sleep over.
Experience had taught me that it’s always better to form your own opinion about things, rather than writing it off based on the words of others. There have been so many times I have loved something that others have dismissed. Take 2015′s Mad Max, for example…
This was a game that had been eviscerated on release. The internet consensus had not been kind. Something about it kept me curious, so I took a leap of the faith and purchased a copy.
There’s no question that Mad Max was an objectively flawed game…
It was repetitive, it was clunky, and it was not all too deep on the story front. It’s safe to say that there would be no game of the year awards on the horizon here, friend. Still? There was a whole lot of fun to be found all the same. It was strangely relaxing to drive around the post-apocalyptic remnants of the world, while fixing up my ride with all kinds of upgrades. It was all kinds of great to engage others in frenzied, over-the-top vehicle based combat too. There was an odd sense of satisfaction to methodically clearing through the game’s objectives.
While Mad Max eventually overstayed its welcome, there was a whole lot of fun to be had while it lasted that I wouldn’t have experienced if I listened to the consensus…
There was no doubt I was going to play Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. I was happy to take the risk.
I would put the swirling negativity in the periphery aside and form my own opinion.
…
What could possibly go wrong?
Holy damn, the first Mirror’s Edge made an impression, huh?
We were introduced to a sprawling city and the folks who called its rooftops home…
From the moment that first footage was shown an imagination was captured.
Mirror’s Edge looked and played like nothing we had ever seen before.
The game was framed around seamlessly free running through environments in a first person perspective — something previously only done in third person. The shift in perspective gave a whole different feel to the experience and was incredibly immersive. It was truly a thing of beauty on the visual front too, bringing to life an unusual science fiction world with a stunning art direction. While being far from perfect, Mirror’s Edge offered a ‘proof of concept’ of a variety of ideas just waiting to be honed somewhere down the line. Can you tell I’m a fan?
Since it’s release Mirror’s Edge had developed quite an enthusiastic following, one that desperately wanted a sequel. So the waiting game begun… a pretty damn long one too…
Our fanboy prayers were answered and a sequel was finally announced! It was happening!
I was anxious to see how Mirror’s Edge Catalyst would go about refining those ‘proof of concept’ ideas I pondered, especially in the shadow of the internet consensus I was trying my hardest to push out of the ol’ brain pan. There was only one way to find out, I guess.
It was time to see for myself…
Catalyst takes us back to the now all too familiar stomping grounds.
This city, man. This city. It’s one of gleaming glass skyscrapers that seem to go on forever, set against a perpetually blue sky. It’s one of a striking aesthetic that’s sleek, minimalistic, and uniformly coloured. It’s one of rooftops, where you’re repeatedly shot at while running for your life. Turns out this beautiful cityscape is a dystopian nightmare disguised as a utopian dream.
…
Ugh. Why does that always happen? Oppressive regimes? Check! Corporations out of control? Check! A surveillance state? Check! So damn Orwellian! Well, at least the place is pretty, huh?
The people being shot at? They’re called ‘runners’ and our protagonist just happens to be one!
Catalyst puts us back in the shoes of Faith, the beloved heroine of the first instalment. She’s a courier of sorts, a job with far higher stakes and peril than our present day equivalents…
Why’s it so dangerous? Well, being a runner is pretty damn illegal! Being pursued by not-so-friendly private security types is all part of their day. Personal freedoms have been so compromised that the only way to trade information with any expectation of privacy is to employ one of these folks. They’re known for stealing information too. Their methods are decidedly low tech, traversing the roof tops on foot — it takes a whole lot of athleticism.
We find Faith at an earlier point in her life than in the first Mirror’s Edge. Seems this is a prequel, huh? (That’s not entirely true either, but we’ll get back to that later!) It’s her last day of juvenile detention. She’s been here for two years. We quickly get the sense that it’s not a pleasant place to be. The guards are of the abusive persuasion and the quarters are of the close kind. There’s no looking back upon release. She disconnects from the grid and gets gone.
It doesn’t take all that long to be reacquainted with the old gang and the runner life.
Catalyst uses the opening to introduce us to the basics of the gameplay. The free running that was one of the staples of the first game is back and seems as fun as ever. You’re effortlessly sprinting, climbing up walls and leaping from roof-to-roof without breaking a sweat in no time. It’s like muscle memory kicking in. The first few runner missions are fairly simplistic, but a good place to learn the skills you’re going to be using for the entirety of the game.
You get to know the characters and all the ‘required reading’ of background detail.
Another staple of the series is quickly re-established too: the sprawling glass cityscape.
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The gameplay and visual one-two punch is classic Mirror’s Edge. It’s nice to be back.
While visually familiar, there’s a difference in the sequel that’s substantial…
The rooftop workplace of the noble runner is now a seamless open world…
There’s no longer any loading screens or compartmentalised levels taking you to new parts of the city. It’s all interconnected and there’s multiple paths to get to the same place. It’s pretty damn spectacular and sprawling upon first glance. You navigate through your new surrounds by setting a way point on your map that will guide you in-game through a series of not-so-subtle red markers. Believe me when I say this is a necessity, the world is a maze without it.
The city is as stunningly beautiful as ever, with different looks for different districts.
First impressions? So far, so good! I was ready to dismiss this whole internet consensus and mixed reviews business as the mutterings of crazy people. Mad men, every last one of them!
I tentatively progressed further into the sequel. Once again, what could possibly go wrong?
Everything. Everything could possibly go wrong. What a plot twist!
You might have noticed a few red flags in this write-up so far. The free running seems as fun as ever. The open world is spectacular on first glance. The foreshadowing was there from the start, friend. I was trying to gently prepare you for the terrible things to come…
Alas, this piece of writing is about to take a turn for the critical.
Heed the warning and turn back now if your heart can’t handle such things! God knows, the game broke my fanboy heart! (This might be an exaggeration. Who can say?) Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is easily the most frustrating, stressful, and disappointing game I’ve played in a long while. For every enjoyable moment here, there’s something awful waiting in the wings…
It’s also a game that doesn’t refine much of any thing. It even takes some steps backwards.
There’s entirely too much padding and not enough gameplay variety to be found.
The open world is graphically stunning, no question. It’s rendered beautifully on the Frostbite engine and is truly an impressive feat in visual design — it’s just one that’s filled up with excessive amounts of busy work. It felt very much like a Ubisoft game on this front. You’re tasked with doing the same repetitive and inconsequential things over-and-over again. By the end of Catalyst your map will be filled to capacity with time trials and beating the clock challenges. These are things I very much dislike in games, so your mileage may vary…
Time trials are nothing new to Mirror’s Edge. They have always been a part of the game, but up until now have been separate from the main campaign. The open world structure of Catalyst combines the two different types of gameplay into the one city. I don’t doubt that these things have a place in the game, I’m just riled at the glaring lack of any thing else if they’re not for you. Thankfully, they’re mostly optional, but when you take them away there’s really nothing much to do in this open world and I felt like the game didn’t respect my time.
I found the experience so much more enjoyable once I stuck to the main missions, abandoning the side quests and ignoring the collectables. The open world soon became pointless to me…
I felt backtracking became a huge problem here. You would find yourself constantly being directed to one side of the map, only to be told to go back the way you came minutes later. It doesn’t take all that long before you start recognising the same places you’re being asked to traverse through time-and-time again. Catalyst gives you some incentive to backtrack by introducing a variety of tools that unlock access to new parts of the city, but there’s not enough there to give you that sense of satisfaction of other interconnected Metroidvania style games.
Familiarity diluted the beautiful art direction and it began to feel less unique.
Navigation soon became chore when the way points would lead you somewhere, only to ask you to turn around with no explanation. It didn’t seem intuitive in the slightest.
By the end of Catalyst I would routinely use the the fast travel system to get to the other side of the city instead of free running. (A system that is not accessible from the start. You must unlock the ability through side quests.) When you choose to fast travel through the city instead of doing the free running thing? That’s when you know there’s something wrong here!
Enemy encounters always feel like you’re flailing about without a whole lot of precision…
Thankfully, the main campaign missions in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst are often strong. There are some great set pieces to be found here and interesting level designs, that feel a whole lot more precise than the open world surrounds you spend the majority of your time moseying through. This is when I was reminded of the first game in particular. I was enjoying myself here.
These missions worked in spite of the narrative that bound them together.
The story of Mirror’s Edge wasn’t amazing, but I’m sad to say that Catalyst is worse…
I mentioned the first game felt like a ‘proof of concept’ and that I hoped things would be refined in the second game. Well, the story and characters needed refinement the most…
That doesn’t happen here. I didn’t connect with any thing happening in this world.
Everything feels superficial and disposable. We’re asked to care about the fates of characters that the game doesn’t even take the time to develop in the slightest. We don’t get a sense of what it’s like to live in this world as a normal person or what’s truly at stake on the street level. The novelty of the city soon wears off once you realise how empty and lifeless the world actually is. The people you periodically stumble across out on the rooftops don’t seem to do any thing, they are glorified mannequins. It doesn’t feel like anyone lives in these buildings.
The first Mirror’s Edge had similar problems, but games have come a long way since then — particularly those of the open world variety. This was also building on the sturdy foundations of the first. Instead? They undo the whole damn thing! Turns out this isn’t really a prequel at all, it’s more of a reboot or re-imagining. It actively discards the narrative of the first game and chooses to do its own thing with the world and characters. It’s doing the opposite of the whole refining thing, demolishing what came before and building a-new. I wasn’t a fan.
I found myself constantly checking the story percentage to see if I was close to finishing the game. That’s something I rarely do! In fact, that’s something I actively avoid usually!
This brings me back to 2015′s Mad Max…
That was an undeniably flawed game that I was able to find the fun in.
The difference here is that my expectations were high. I was seeing this through another lens.
Some things won’t hold up under the crushing weight of expectations.
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst has insane moments of pure fun. There’s nothing quite like the adrenaline rush of free running successfully over a distance. There’s nothing like the awe of seeing a particularly amazing piece of architecture set against a sprawling city skyline. You get to do plenty of cool things in Catalyst and it’s far from a bad game. It’s just not the Mirror’s Edge sequel that I wanted or dreamed about. So, is that cause to write it off completely?
I’m certain Mirror’s Edge Catalyst will be someone else’s Mad Max…
They just need to ignore the internet consensus (this included) and take the leap of faith.
Written by Dan Clarke. June 13, 2016.
Originally published at dcpresents.tumblr.com.
