Widescreen Gaming Forum

Editorial contributions to the site by me, I file under the name "The Ramblings of a Moron" for naming continuity, and to warn of non-perfect editorial skills. (Not to mention the high probability of completely moronic things being said.) This is me trying to improve my written communications as well as contribute at the same time. Without further delay:

The Ramblings of a Moron, Articles by Cynagen
This post does not reflect the views, opinions, or stance of Widescreen Gaming Forum and it's staff. It is only of my own, so anything you have against it, PM me or comment.

The Mirror's Edge, between the glossy facade and the dirty underbelly, that is where we exist. We are Runners, we are the movers of information in a society held in the grip of total media control. The city used to pulse with life, both dirty and dangerous, as well as beautiful. It's something different now, the changes came slowly, some didn't notice, others didn't care. There were few of us who resisted, but were quickly struck down, now, this is our life, on the edge.

Enter the world of Faith Conners, a Runner in a city corrupt and under "complete" control of it's government. Once you get your feet back underneath you, you enter the world which is, and which cannot be. You live on the edge, on adrenaline, and every moment is almost certain life or death. The price your clients pay for their information to be moved under the watchful eyes of the government, pales in comparison to the price you could very well pay for doing so. Though a price must be paid to keep the world free of complete opression and control, it becomes a price too high to pay for Faith, and so unfolds her story, one of mystery, death-defying feats, suicidal missions, and adrenaline rushes.

This game oozes high production quality in all aspects. The free form movement, while akin to Assassin's Creed, cannot be compared to anything else but reality itself. The feats, while choreographed and animated, still lend a feeling of purity and originality to the game. Feats which are for the most part entirely possible in real life. The music, ambient and pulsing, give the world around you a life of it's own. The graphics, which i've always defended, are well designed and lain out across the landscape. The world is a bleak white, accents of red and blue guide your way, giving you visual cue to your path across the rooftops and through the buildings, though as you turn the difficulty up, these are removed in favor of a more true to the original concept for the experience.

I would highly recommend either watching somebody play, or playing this game yourself, however, as a purchase, it's not entirely worth it's value past 1 play through. The only thing to look forward to after playing through Normal difficulty is tougher enemies, and less coloring of the environment to make it slightly harder to discern where to go, although that's already an issue at times on normal mode.

Scoring:
Graphics: 10/10
Audio: 10/10
Action: 10/10
Re-playability: 4/10 (This is where the game suffers the most, see previous notes)
Value for cost: 6/10 (In my opinion, this game is worth the $60 for the production quality, but for replayability, it's not worth anything.)

Overall score: 80%

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So its on the must rent/barrow list :P

I wont touch it till its on PC though.

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I may go to the local Internet Cafe and play it there for like $5 an hour. I have no console...

Nice short read, long live the Ramblings ! :D

Odd scoring, and then again, seems pertinent. However there's something missing in the "high production quality + zero replayability" calculation : the game's duration itself. How many hours to complete it ? Also if I'm not mistaken, not unlike in racing games, you have to learn the levels to some extent i.e you may have to replay them a number of times, even though partially, before you can avoid "traps", find the better routes and finally complete them. So maybe replayability shouldn't ultimately weight as much in the final score as in other, more "straightforward" games ?

as a purchase, it's not entirely worth it's value past 1 play through.

In other words, the less you play it, the more value it has ?! :lol: (j/k, I get your point)

The free form movement, while akin to Assassin's Creed, cannot be compared to anything else but reality itself.

Which means ? :? In Assassin's Creed, if you except freefalling from a 15-storey building's roof to a straw-filled cart, I guess movement can also be "compared to reality itself"... (sorry, I'm not fond of reviews relying to "reality", whatever that means, to describe the features of any video game) ;)

Nice short read, long live the Ramblings ! :D

Odd scoring, and then again, seems pertinent. However there's something missing in the "high production quality + zero replayability" calculation : the game's duration itself. How many hours to complete it ?

The game took me about 10-12 hours of actual game time to complete on normal, even with dying a zillion times.

Also if I'm not mistaken, not unlike in racing games, you have to learn the levels to some extent i.e you may have to replay them a number of times, even though partially, before you can avoid "traps", find the better routes and finally complete them. So maybe replayability shouldn't ultimately weight as much in the final score as in other, more "straightforward" games ?

I can see where you're coming from, you get loads of "replay" during your run through the game, but once you've completed it, and know the stunts to get from one point to another, you can easily replicate the situation the next time around.

[quote]as a purchase, it's not entirely worth it's value past 1 play through.

In other words, the less you play it, the more value it has ?! :lol: (j/k, I get your point)
Memorize the actions to get from any point to any other point in the game, and it's got 0 worth next play through. However, if you're forgetful, then maybe this game is for you since you'll probably explore all possible means.

[quote]The free form movement, while akin to Assassin's Creed, cannot be compared to anything else but reality itself.

Which means ? :? In Assassin's Creed, if you except freefalling from a 15-storey building's roof to a straw-filled cart, I guess movement can also be "compared to reality itself"... (sorry, I'm not fond of reviews relying to "reality", whatever that means, to describe the features of any video game) ;)
By all means I understand your straying from game reviews which refer to reality as a basis of comparison. The free-form movement in the game is akin to Assassin's Creed, but to me it seems a lot more credible. There are very limited points where the game breaks this rule, I'll give one example. [spoiler]There's a point in the game where you have to ride atop a subway car, and while riding atop it, jump and switch trains. After doing so, there are pipes you must duck under or jump over while the train is moving @ presumably around 45mph.[/spoiler] I failed to do so with one, and got "slapped" hard. So it lends itself to some realism, if you're trained for endurance (which is clearly the case for Runners), but for somebody of such a small frame as Faith's it should have broken a bone.

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Current build: Intel i5-4670k | 32GB DDR3 | RAID0 2x250GB 850EVOs | nVidia GTX980Ti (MSI G1 Gaming Edition) | SoundBlaster Zx | Dell 2405FPW (Landscape, primary) & HP w2338h (Portrait)