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GCA 2008 has come and gone and we are still pretty much disappointed that we could not be there to cover the event. However, the Experience EA event in our very own backyard in Mumbai more then made up for it, what with it’s healthy dosage of upcoming AAA titles like Mirror’s Edge, Need For Speed: Undercover and FIFA 2009 bound to put a smile on the grumpiest of the gamers.
Held at the Hotel Trident in Mumbai, we got to try out many of the games that were featured at the recently concluded Game Convention Asia 2008 held in Singapore. One of the games that have had everyone spell bound for quite a while now, besides giving rise to endless debates on whether the Third Person View of the First Person View is the better choice is Mirror’s Edge. DICE, at the helm of the game, has done a radical turnaround from their award-winning Battlefield games to a totalitarian world which Faith, the game’s protagonist and other Runners like her inhabit. After having watched countless videos of Faith soaring through the roof tops, it was quite an exhilarating experience in itself to be given the control, of which we made some good use, a couple of hard landings notwithstanding.
DICE choice of going with the First Person View for Mirror’s Edge has got it widespread attention besides a little bit of grumbling about the resulting motion sickness that it could lead to. While the first person view does tend to get a bit overwhelming at the beginning, slowly but surely, the game makes it pretty clear that DICE was in no way wrong with this choice of perspective. DICE had to go through numerous iterations to get the feel just right and that shows in the finished product. After a couple of tries, we quickly got the hang of the controls and were soon sliding under pipes and vaulting gracefully over other obstacles with the same ease of a seasoned free runner. A few slow jumps, which resulted in a nasty death brought home the fact that we would have to time our jumps pretty much the same way we would do it from a roof top in real life (not that we have ever tried that!).
The greatest help in pulling of these seemingly impossible feats is the excellent use of color in the game. While the color blue is the one that will dominate your view, the use of red and orange color on ramps, pipes and walls makes it pretty clear in one fleeting glance as to which choice of path will lead you to the next objective and which one would mean a painful meeting with the hard ground below. Such excellent use of color imparts a fresh new look to the game while being a very useful visual cue in-game. Frankly, after a multitude of games featuring the same basic color palette, Mirror’s Edge color scheme comes as a fresh breath of air. In fact, at some points, you will be so mesmerized by the colors and the crisp visuals that you will be forced to just look around, the current objectives on hand long forgotten. Sadly, with all the commotion at the press event, we could hardly hear the music properly but from what we have heard so far, it won’t disappoint you.
DICE has made it pretty clear that there will be no optional third person view in the game, so there goes the hopes of a section of the gamers. But rest assured, the way the game is looking and playing, no one will be left disappointed in the least bit. Mirror’s Edge is one of the first few games to have the PS3 as its lead console so it will be interesting to see how it performs on Xbox 360 as well when the game releases on 11th November on both the consoles. PS3 owners will have some extra love coming their way from DICE with an exclusive DLC, the content of which haven’t been disclosed yet. Expect to hear some grumblings from PC gamers as the PC version of the game has been pushed back by a month. Summing it all up, the game is looking solid and DICE can finally sit back and relax, safe in the fact that their choice of making Mirror’s Edge the way it is was indeed the right one.
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September 25th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
[...] Mirror’s Edge Hands-On @ Experience EA, Mumbai [...]