along with a dynamic lighting engine in Beast, is set in what seems to be a beautiful and utopian city. But all is not what it seems, and the city is actually heavily controlled and monitored by a totalitarian regime. To evade the watchful eye of Big Brother, runners are employed to relay information. This is where the main character, Faith, comes into the story. After her parents were killed by the government for actively protesting against the regime, she grew up on the streets. During an office break-in, she was caught by a man named Mercury, who then trained her to be a runner. Faith’s sister becomes framed in the murder of a mayoral candidate, and while confronting her sister at the crime scene, she becomes caught up in the murder herself as a suspect. Thus, Faith is thrown head first into clearing her sister’s name and find the true killer in the murder.

Mirror’s Edge takes your typical platforming adventure and injects it into a first-person view. Instead of utilizing the typical first-person camera setup, DICE gives creates a much more realistic style. By allowing the player to see from Faith’s eyes exactly as you would in real life, you can get a better visualization and sense of freedom in her movement.  When you look down, you actually see Faith’s torso and limbs.  While in full motion, as you pick up speed, the camera moves up and down as it should. When you jump, you see faith extend, flail and cycle her arms and her legs. Slide, and you will see her legs extended in front of you, roll and you see her body as she tucks and rolls out safely as she lands a jump.

To traverse the rooftops, buildings and other areas of the game, Mirror’s Edge gives the player Runner Vision, which allows the player to see the environment as a runner would. Pipes, ramps, ladders and doors will show up as red for helping the player progress through the game. Reaction Time, similar to Bullet Time in other games, is another system put in place to help the player maneuver through the game and help in confronting enemies. The game’s combat is very basic and is meant to be utilized sparingly. When confronting an enemy, it is best to try and run away than fight. If necessary, you can disarm an enemy and take their gun and use it against them, or just throw it away.  Shooting in the game is necessary at times, but most of the time is not needed. To make sure the player doesn’t spend much of their time using weapons, ammo is very sparse.

After you’re done the main storyline, you can test your skills in Time Trial runs, which are sections of each chapter, or see how fast you can make it through an entire chapter.  The game keeps track of your best times, as well as your friends and the world’s best. See how good you can get, and how quickly you can beat the next person’s time.

Graphically, Mirror’s Edge is absolutely gorgeous in presenting the city and environments. Majority of the city is draped in the color white, and features many blues, reds and oranges. This helps give the city that look of serenity, free from corruption. While climbing, jumping and running through the city, the detail of the environment and Faith’s torso and appendages is stunning.  When close up on objects, or just seeing Faith’s hands and arms as she pulls herself up or climbing a pipe, shows the amount of work DICE put into this game and her character. The other characters in the game are well designed, but usually lack the detail and effort put into Faith. Also, some may enjoy the cut scenes being done in 2D animation, and they are done well, but I found myself disappointed not seeing them in 3D. Seeing more of Faith as her 3D model in cut scenes would have made it that much more enjoyable.

The sound in this game is also done with amazing accuracy in sound effects, and some very good voice acting.  Every step, landing, gun shot, and breath is perfectly orchestrated and helps the player feel fully immersed in the experience. Later in the game when you are being chased by enemies similar to the runners, you can actually hear them running behind and around you and can even tell how far from you they are. The voice acting in the game is solid, but not perfect. I thought Merc’s voice actor played the role perfectly and is the standout performance in this category. Faith is also very solid, and gives faith the edge and attitude DICE was looking to portray in her character.  The one drawback in the voice acting is for the basic enemy characters. They are very limited in their lines and you can’t really differentiate the voices. It would have been nice for them to mix up different voice actors randomly, and not just utilize the same ones throughout the game.

Mirror’s Edge is a game about patience and trial & error. This game is definitely not for those looking for an easy pick up and play, and will cause many moments of frustration. I chucked my controller a couple times while trying to make that crucial jump, so be prepared to love this game, or hate the game. But when you finally make that jump, take out the guards or cops, and finish a chapter in the game, you feel a great sense of satisfaction.  It was that feeling that kept me going after each death, or missed jump. This game is full of moments of brilliance and showcases what will definitely be the new model in First-Person gameplay. This is a game that truly shows the power of the Playstation 3, and a must own on the platform.

Rating: 9.0/10