Mirror's Edge Catalyst *SP*

Played a little this morning, and based on the first half hour or so, I’m not really impressed with Mirror’s Edge’s story so far. (Yes, I know the beginning is identical to the beta, but I deliberately tried not to pay attention to story elements when I played that.) So far it’s all smoke and mirrors, narratively. I get that Faith had a sister or family or something. I get that some vague trauma befell them. I get that the Kruger corporation is EEVIIIL, but why not call it what it is—an oppressive government, a government hellbent on making you take the place in society they want you to take, for the good of everyone? The rhetoric of the game comes across like dog-whistle signaling aimed at those who believe “corporation” is itself a dirty word, but it strikes me as a lazy way to get people to care.

Contrast that with the first Mirror’s Edge, which from the first cutscene, set up a story of relationships, relationships between Faith and her parents, her sister, and her mentor. Faith’s relationship to the authorities was complicated, in no small part because her sister was a cop. Also, unlike this game, which seems to have gone full 1984, there seemed to be some hope at improvement by political means. This is all communicated very early in the first game.

In this one the runners seem like a surly bunch of hipsters--there’s some indication that Faith is bound to them by some monetary debt, so I’m not even sure I like them or get their motivations. The obvious bad guys seem like cartoons, stupidly mean-spirited in case you don’t get that they’re really, really bad, and WTF is the reason why a processing clerk at a terminal needs to wear a blast shield on his head? It’s crap like that breaks immersion for me. It’s ironic that the cutscenes play like a bad comic book, whereas the original’s cutscenes were illustrated like one, but worked for me. (Another irony—the game is about oppressive authoritarianism and heros who live off the grid, yet I can’t remember the last time a game made me accept a license agreement or made a point of telling me, in no uncertain terms, that my stats would be public.)

So far I feel manipulated, but I’m hoping the game presents some likeable characters soon. Mirror’s Edge strength always was its gameplay, and the gameplay had its difficulty spikes (I hear this one does, too). That said, the humanity of the good guys and the story motivated me, a mediocre player, to push through the tough spots in the first game because I cared. I’m not feeling yet with this one.

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Another irony—the game is about oppressive authoritarianism and heros who live off the grid, yet I can’t remember the last time a game made me accept a license agreement or made a point of telling me, in no uncertain terms, that my stats would be public.

Ok, that had me laughing pretty hard.

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The rhetoric of the game comes across like dog-whistle signaling aimed at those who believe “corporation” is itself a dirty word, but it strikes me as a lazy way to get people to care.
...
Another irony—the game is about oppressive authoritarianism and heros who live off the grid, yet I can’t remember the last time a game made me accept a license agreement or made a point of telling me, in no uncertain terms, that my stats would be public.

I'm always tickled when I think about EA CEO's making bank off people caught up in a narrative about evil corporations...

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I wasn't impressed with the beta at all. Maybe it was too limited to tell, but I absolutely hated it's open world design.

I'm holding off until more impressions come out, and even then until a price drop and an empty slot to fill in my game library.

Please, let us know what you think once you've played more!

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I don't know if I would call it an open world, in the same sense that some other games use the term. What it is, from what I saw in the beta, is a series of connected playspaces. Each one being similar to a level in the original game, but with more possible routes.

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The beta has some fun story missions and stuff and the extras were also fun.

The full game has a lot of story missions, most of which are samey, and the extra things to do are far too numerous, and largely tedious.

Another problem is that they take away your gun, I imagined because you always have an option to run, but that isn't the case. In one mission I believe I had to beat up 20 guys in increasing difficulty in what amounts to an empty room in order to get the mission to progress.

The running and jumping gameplay is very fun as always, and most story missions involve unique areas, but I think there's too much going on here. It feels like Far Cry Parkour.

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I wish Faith and Nathan Drake had a kid.

You could call her Faith N. Drake.

I'm coming for you stuntmutt!

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Turn runner vision completely off. Having it on absolutely completely ruins the game and destroys the entire concept behind the "open world". I forgot to turn it off when I started, and holy cow is it game breaking.

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Make sure to keep runner vision on, since sometimes you get lost and don't know the best place to go. Turning it off completely ruins the speedy race aspect of the game. Otherwise you have to stop every few seconds and look at your map. Totally immersion breaking since your supposed to be an experienced runner and resident of the city with GPS in her head.

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Use Classic runner vision.

I actually don't know what the difference is. I think it just turns the trail off. The getting lost part is why I didn't like the open world design. For a game about flow, having to stop and figure out where you're suppose to go really sucks.

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I find the full one hampers my ability to find the better routes for the dashes, but the classic view gives me just enough of a hint. However, after much time with the game, I'm not sure I'm going to bother going through and three starring all that crap. I managed to three star the ones in the beta, but I had no idea there would be so many. It's just too much.

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Make sure to keep runner vision on, since sometimes you get lost and don't know the best place to go. Turning it off completely ruins the speedy race aspect of the game.

The speedy race aspect of the game is in the time trials and action moments. The rest of the time, it's based around exploration. The whole point about going "open world" is that you can go wherever you want whenever you want. If you're just going to follow the red trace line, they might as well have simply made a linear game like the original.

I much prefer learning the city and working out the fastest ways on my own. You know, actually PLAYING the game.

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The parts where you move fast and actually play the game. Playing Mirror's Edge for pathfinding and mapping is like playing Destiny for inventory management.

Or, it's possible, we play the game in different ways.

The pathfinding is only worthwhile DURING the dashes and time trials. Otherwise, it's practically useless for completing the game.

If you have fun doing it, fine, but don't claim it ruins the whole point of the game. Games can have multiple fun aspects.

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The parts where you move fast.

Then in all honesty, maybe the first game would be more to your liking.

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Just because one has an open world doesn't mean I need to play Mirror's Edge: Orienteering.

Btw, edited the other post.

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Sucks--Amazon(where I pre-ordered) oversold their slots for the Collector's Edition and now they're out of stock. Gamestop is out, too. I have to wait for EA to send more copies to them, so they can do free 1-day compensation shipping to me.

Clips, streams, achievements and updates flow like wine on my activity feed, and I gotta wait. I just hope to God that it's on a disc this time!

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I went to make a dump while it was installing and it was done by the time I was!

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Do you say "make a dump" instead of "take a dump?"

That makes more sense I guess, when I think about it. Just never heard anyone say it like that before.

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I went to make a dump while it was installing and it was done by the time I was!

This wasn't over your mobile connection was it? I don't want to think about how long it took you to do your business, or anything else related to your business.

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I went to make a dump while it was installing and it was done by the time I was!

What system? On PS4 there was no install at all (or if there was, it happened in the background and I could play right away).

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I have no idea how specifically long it took. Might have been 10 seconds, might have been 10 minutes.

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Estimated shipping window: June 30th-August 10th.

Wow, dude.

Well, I certainly learned a life lesson today!

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I've seen 3 unboxing videos so far of the Collector's Edition and every single one of them had the steelbook come empty. As in, devoid of game.

Should Morpheus be worried?

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unless otherwise indicated.

The Amazon.com listing says it includes the game, so I think he'll be fine.

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I'm looking online, and it looks like they're selling nearly identical copies of this collector's edition--some with the game, and some without. Why would EA have something like this? Wouldn't it make sense(like anything's making sense right now) to include the game with every CE? Isn't that the point?

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I'm looking online, and it looks like they're selling nearly identical copies of this collector's edition--some with the game, and some without. Why would EA have something like this? Wouldn't it make sense(like anything's making sense right now) to include the game with every CE? Isn't that the point?

It's for people who'd rather have a digital copy of the game but still want the CE. I am in full support of that.

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A guy at work bought a boxed copy of the PC version from the company store. Guess what was inside?

Not only was there no disc (just a key to redeem on origin), but the case didn't even have grooves to fit a disc. It was literally a worthless piece of plastic.

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GameStop had a sale. $5 for PC version. K. Bought it. Origin code. FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU

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A guy at work bought a boxed copy of the PC version from the company store. Guess what was inside?

Not only was there no disc (just a key to redeem on origin), but the case didn't even have grooves to fit a disc. It was literally a worthless piece of plastic.

What exactly would be in it? The game is way too big to fit on a DVD, and PCs don't usually have Bluray drives.

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A guy at work bought a boxed copy of the PC version from the company store. Guess what was inside?

Not only was there no disc (just a key to redeem on origin), but the case didn't even have grooves to fit a disc. It was literally a worthless piece of plastic.

What exactly would be in it? The game is way too big to fit on a DVD, and PCs don't usually have Bluray drives.

Granted, they're not standard, but any site that lets you build one (Dell, HP, etc.) has it as an option.

Like, if you really want a to put out a physical SKU for retailers, just print those cards like XBL/PS+ use. It has to be cheaper then a useless case.

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I bought The Gold Box in CD form. 5 CDs. They could do 3-4 DVDs.

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There's no point in buying it physical if you're going to have to download it. "Oh, sometimes it's cheaper than buying digital". Well, in those cases, the problem is pretty obvious, isn't it?

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You can't change your runner emblem in game. You have to change it through the companion app or online. Fucking please.

1. Create EA account.
2. Your psn associated with the email should autodetect
3. It doesn't
4. Give up because it's just a fucking emblem

How about letting me adjust it in game? What a novel concept!

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If you can change your weird ghost thing in game, why not the banner?

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If you can change your weird ghost thing in game, why not the banner?

Because that would be too easy. I'm playing on PS4. I shouldn't ever have to even think about an EA account. It's such bullshit.

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Review soon. Game is ok but the story was worse than the first, which is saying something.

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That's what I've heard from multiple people. That's disappointing, but matches my expectations from the beta.

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They tried very hard to give them personalities, but everyone is completely one dimensional and I don't sympathize with any of their motivations. One person is literally a communist and we fight for her to get rid of the corporations. Yikes.

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They tried very hard to give them personalities, but everyone is completely one dimensional and I don't sympathize with any of their motivations. One person is literally a communist and we fight for her to get rid of the corporations. Yikes.

Geez. I think I'm going to be sick, and it ain't motion sickness. Don't know if I can finish this game.

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They tried very hard to give them personalities, but everyone is completely one dimensional and I don't sympathize with any of their motivations. One person is literally a communist and we fight for her to get rid of the corporations. Yikes.

Geez. I think I'm going to be sick, and it ain't motion sickness. Don't know if I can finish this game.

But think of the revolution, comrade.

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They tried very hard to give them personalities, but everyone is completely one dimensional and I don't sympathize with any of their motivations. One person is literally a communist and we fight for her to get rid of the corporations. Yikes.

Geez. I think I'm going to be sick, and it ain't motion sickness. Don't know if I can finish this game.

But think of the revolution, comrade.

Communists are no better than Nazis in my book, dude. Killed more people, too.

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You are standoffish with her, and work for her for a short time before going off on your own. That said, she blows up buildings and kidnaps people to get what she wants.

And, the businesses in this universe appear to be more like monarchies, run by ruling families, even with marriage alliances. So it's either batshit insane totalitarian oligarchy or luddite communism, it seems. The middle ground people seem to be the ones closest to Faith.

They're setting up a franchise with this one, clearly, but I much preferred the universe in the last story. This one doesn't make as much sense.

The 1984 esque first game made some sense. The government was democratically chosen to act the way it acted, and normal people had good lives because of it, though their freedom was limited. It's a tradeoff that makes sense to some people, and it's technically conceivable.

The new one went the other way, with what is essentially a slavery system, as far as I can tell. People work for businesses, are put in a caste, and they cannot stop working for the businesses. They live well, have leisure and stuff, but they're forced to work for whoever they work for. Government does not seem to exist, since private companies jail people and control everything. And it's not like debtor's prison, where the government jails people for breach of contract or something, it's just straight up being jailed by the business.

I don't understand.

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They tried very hard to give them personalities, but everyone is completely one dimensional and I don't sympathize with any of their motivations. One person is literally a communist and we fight for her to get rid of the corporations. Yikes.

Geez. I think I'm going to be sick, and it ain't motion sickness. Don't know if I can finish this game.

But think of the revolution, comrade.

Communists are no better than Nazis in my book, dude. Killed more people, too.

Just a little joke. :)

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They tried very hard to give them personalities, but everyone is completely one dimensional and I don't sympathize with any of their motivations. One person is literally a communist and we fight for her to get rid of the corporations. Yikes.

Geez. I think I'm going to be sick, and it ain't motion sickness. Don't know if I can finish this game.

But think of the revolution, comrade.

Communists are no better than Nazis in my book, dude. Killed more people, too.

Just a little joke. :)

I know. I can also appreciate sartorial choices that mock them. :)

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Mirror's Edge Catalyst *SP* (Gaming)