I have quite a bit to say about the "closed" beta of the new mirror's edge game. I have been playing the first game for quite a while, and have beaten the story around three times. What I love about the original is the sense of freedom brought on by constantly defying death/capture. The graphics are really pretty, even when compared to more modern titles. My only gripes with the game were the short story and some annoying mechanics. The nine levels, while long, provide you with an unsatisfied feeling after it all, the fighting is way too challenging, and traversing pipes and ladders takes way too long. After playing the new beta for about two hours, I can say that I am definitely not disappointed. all of the features are back from the old game, with more added. you can vault off of virtually anything, which looks really cool, you can climb through vents much faster AND open grates instead of just finding a lucky open one. Combat is vastly improved and feels more involved, Riding zip lines also looks a lot cooler, and to top it all off, you can RIDE A FREAKING DRONE. The movement mechanics are awesome, but unfortunately, many of the abilities from the last game are hidden behind an upgrades screen. They are not hard to unlock, but that may change in the full release. So that's all good, but what about the story so far? I definitely think it is an improvement over the last game. characters are more believable with better writing and voice acting, and there are no more cell shaded cartoons that ruined immersion in the first one. The new guy Icarus is admittedly annoying, but it is interesting to see some tension between characters. I saw the other day that the game was delayed even more with a release date set for the seventh of June, and after playing, I can see why. If you go to the edge of the playable area, you can clearly see spots where buildings are supposed to be, missing/broken textures and cars hovering in the middle of nowhere. This is iconic of games in beta, and while rather amusing, I hope they can get it fixed in time. Performance is pretty spotty on my graphics card, an R9 380X, and reports of frame drops and skips are frequent on forums. Normally in these situations, I would turn v-sync on and everything would be fixed with a smooth 60 fps, however, for whatever reason, v-sync DOSENT CAP THE FRAME RATE! I experienced frame rates consistently above 60, but they constantly fluctuated, causing choppy gameplay. My complaints about the options menu continue with the lack of any keyboard options, with only controller key mapping in settings. I have and always will play this game with a keyboard, and the lack of options on that front is quite annoying. From here, we move on to one of my favorite features of the beta that gives it some replayability: social play. In the last game, you could race the entire mirror's edge community on each level, and improve flow and rhythm. The new game takes this to a whole new level with user created courses complete with leaderboards. This is a fantastic feature that really bodes well for the full release. I am really excited for a full game to satisfy my need for a brand new free running game. In conclusion, the beta for Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a strong start, and aside from a few small issues, it looks like a game that could finally dethrone mirror's edge from the position, in my heart, of the best parkour game out there.
See you guys tomorrow, Toby
