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- Developer: EA Dice
- Publisher: EA
- Genre: Action Adventure
- Release Date: 15th September 2015
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
- Game Supplied by: Xbox
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8 years ago Faith first graced our console screens and 3 years ago we first found out about Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. Years before the events of Catalyst, Faith Connors’ family was killed during the November riots against the ruling corporations, with her parents, scientists Martin and Erika shot dead and her sister Cat apparently suffocating from a gas grenade tossed into a vent, through which the girls were trying to escape. In the prologue to the game, as told by the tie-in comics Mirror’s Edge: Exordium, Faith, now a Runner, began to work on the side for black market boss Dogen, after he promised her a painting by her late mother. She was to retrieve a vaccine prototype for Dogen by stealing it from fellow Runner Celeste (who stole it herself). After finding that Celeste intended to use the vaccine to cure her sister, Faith surrendered to K-Sec personnel in remorse. Dogen uses his influence within the city to reduce her sentence to one year in juvie.
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In the present day, Faith is released from prison and meets up with fellow runner Icarus, as well as Runner cabal leader Noah, who raised Faith after the death of her parents. Dogen reminds Faith that she owes him “scrip” for the botched vaccine job and the money he had to spend to help commute her sentence. During a data grab inside the headquarters of Elysium, Faith diverges from her orders and also retrieves a valuable hard drive, but is seen by Gabriel Kruger, CEO of Kruger Security. She manages to escape, intending to use the drive’s contents to pay off her debt to Dogen. Noah is angry at Faith for involving herself with Kruger, but tells her that she needs to know what is inside the drive in order to bargain with it. Faith takes the drive to Plastic, a talented hacker, who tells her the drive contains blueprints for a top-secret project known as “Reflection”.
Meanwhile, K-Sec cracks down hard on the Runners because of Faith’s actions at Elysium headquarters. While Icarus and Faith are away, they lead a raid on the Runners’ lair and capture or kill everyone present. Faith and Icarus, believing Noah to be dead upon returning and having nowhere to go, turn to Rebecca Thane, leader of Black November, a militant resistance movement bent on destroying the Conglomerate by force. Thane explains that Faith’s parents, herself and Noah once belonged to the same group, but broke apart after Thane realized there was no peaceful way to overthrow the corporations. Black November rebels, assisted by the Runner duo, sets up an ambush to capture a high-ranking K-Sec commander, whom they intend to trade for their own captured soldiers. The mission is a success and it turns out that the captured officer is Isabel Kruger, daughter and also personal bodyguard of Gabriel Kruger.
Faith asks Plastic to infiltrate K-Sec servers and do a check on Isabel, who turns out to be Caitlyn “Cat” Connors, Faith’s own sister, who was assumed dead during the November riots. Gabriel Kruger took her in as his adoptive daughter, telling her that Faith, along with the rest of her family, was killed. Armed with this realization, Faith races back to the subterranean Black November HQ, where Thane is preparing to execute Isabel/Cat in order to send Kruger a message. Faith defends Isabel, who does not seem to remember who Faith is, and begs Thane to take Isabel above ground because the air underground has been suffocating her. Thane agrees after Faith promises her the hard drive that she stole from Kruger.
Isabel lets on to Faith that Noah might still be alive, held in a compound called Kingdom. Icarus asks to come along to save Noah, but Faith insists that he stays to look after Isabel for her because she does not trust Thane. Upon reaching Kingdom, Faith rescues a group of Reflection scientists who were detained by K-Sec for “asking too many questions.” The lead scientist, Alina, explains that Reflection involves injecting the population with nanites that can be remote-controlled through a broadcast signal as a way to regulate thoughts and emotions, thereby making people “become the Grid” and allowing corporations absolute control over citizens. Alina also mentions that Faith’s own mother Erika invented an algorithm that would later allow Reflection to be realized. Through cutscenes interspersed between the campaign missions, it is revealed that Gabriel Kruger led a K-Sec task force sent to neutralize the Connors after they realized the grave implications of Reflection and wanted out. Faith finds Noah, who is being experimented on with prototype Reflection nanites, but is too late to save him. Meanwhile, back at Black November HQ, the rebels are ambushed by K-Sec while bringing Isabel up. Icarus and the rebels are injected with Reflection nanites.
The Runners and their allies regroup at Plastic’s hideout, which is shielded from Reflection broadcast signals. Plastic and Alina work together to engineer a virus to disable Reflection once and for all. In order to do this, Faith needs to secure Gabriel Kruger’s own gridPrint, which she successfully does by breaking into his private apartment. From there she witnesses a massive explosion at The Shard, the tallest building in all of Glass (presumably courtesy of Black November). Faith still needs to go on top of The Shard, which contains the broadcast antenna and is now unstable, to activate the virus. She is confronted by Kruger at the top of the building, who attempts to stop her and accuses her of bringing death and destruction to all of the people around her. He defends his decision to launch Reflection by saying the nanites are a cure designed to keep Isabel’s chronic lung condition at bay, and that the project is about survival rather than control.
Faith subdues Kruger and his bodyguards, just as she sees Isabel at the door, who attempts to stop the virus but is too late; it finishes wiping Reflection out, thus making Isabel’s lung condition return. She then runs away to the helipad, with Faith giving chase. They fight, as Isabel accuses Faith of abandoning her behind to die in the vent after not being able to wake her up (which probably contributed to Isabel’s lung condition), while Faith attempts to remind Isabel of who she really is. Gabriel Kruger appears on a helicopter and tells Isabel to come with him, but she hesitates after Faith tells her that she saw Kruger kill their biological parents. Running out of patience, he orders his guards to shoot Faith, but Isabel runs in front of Faith to protect her. Before the guard can shoot, The Shard starts to crumble, sending Kruger’s helicopter tumbling away; Kruger falls out and Faith slides towards the edge of the helipad.
Barely hanging on, Faith almost falls to her death until Isabel catches her at the last moment. Kruger is heard calling out for his daughter to save him. Faith pleads with Isabel not to do so, to no avail, as Isabel explains that she “has to” and runs off in Kruger’s direction. However, as the helicopter rises again and flies away, only Isabel is standing in it, with Kruger nowhere to be seen. It is heavily implied that Isabel let Kruger die, because of his involvement in the deaths of Martin and Erika Connors.
In the aftermath of the story, a TV anchor reports that Isabel will now supersede her “missing” father as Kruger Security CEO. While there was no uprising in the population, Faith has successfully disabled the Reflection launch, thus keeping people safe from Conglomerate control. She retrieves her mother’s painting from Dogen and gets a tattoo of it on her right arm (this is the same tattoo she has in Mirror’s Edge). Icarus asks Faith what she will do next, with Faith answering “I’m gonna run.”
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As a first time player to Mirror’s Edge I had only seen some videos of running around what seemed like impossible walls and buildings being traversed but as the game brings you in softly with a tutorial I found this very easy to pick up and play.
It’s quite easy at first as you have limited abilities but as you progress and unlock more advanced combat, and running skills your button combinations increase and the amount you can do in game and ultimately how fast expands making it a much more fulfilling experience.
The screenshot below gives you a basic idea of upgrades.
Movement itself is incredibly graceful, responsive and frankly perfect. It does not seem to matter if it’s jumping, wall running, landing, punching or kicking everything just seemed to be effortless, you didn’t need to button bash either, wait and press for perfectly timed combinations making stunning action scenes.The last time I played a game like this was Remember Me, and much like Remember Me it was the story that grabbed me but on top of that fantastic movement and simple yet enjoyably upgrades coupled with a great visual presentation.
Mirror’s edge is somewhat different from some other high quality visual games, it’s clinical textures and bright navigation make it so clear how to progress in the game, yet when required the cut scenes show the power of the Frostbite 3 engine.
In your ear it can be a little repetitive, especially with the scraping of sneakers on the floors and walls, But with surround sound in combat you are listening for low level sounds to pick up and and attempt to continue your movement ensuring when you attack it’s with full strength.
I’m still jumping in and doing a mission or two here and there and can honestly say for the first time in a year or two that I have found a title that keeps me interested enough to keep coming back and it doesn’t need weekly challenges to do it.
Summary:
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst as a first time player is for me right up there with the top 10 of this current generation of games, perhaps it does not have the longevity of some multiplayer titles but the game itself on it’s own merits are fantastic and I can highly recommend this title, and now like many others will be eagerly waiting 8 years for the next installment (should there be one).