Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Review

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is a really great Action-Adventure produced by DICE and developed by Electronic Arts. It offers a great open world action packed game, but has also some features that did not increase the game’s quality. More in the review.

.

It’s been 7 years ago that you could run as a courier-runner through the city of the first Mirror’s Edge game. The game included Parkour-Elements from the ego perspective. This type of game was innovative, new and fresh back in the days. It also looked great with his simple and stylish look. Unfortunately, it was not the big hit but we were very happy as we heard that they want to release another one. And now we have the opportunity to play the game. Unfortunately, we have to say, that we think that because of the only some small changes, the game will not have the huge fanbase like the first one.

.

.

We think that Catalyst is more a Reboot than a second part of the first game. The things happening in the second game has no connection to the happenings from the first game. At the beginning of the game we can see that the main character Faith can leave the prison. After that she decided to go back to her runner-group. To this group belongs also her best friend Noah. The runners carry out Covert Delivery in the whole city.

.

.

What we like is that compared to the first game, the city called Glass is not divided into different levels. That means that the new gameworld is now a open, cohesive and free area you can explore. Unfortunately, you only can run mostly on the roof of buildings. In addition to that, we noticed, that we do not need the whole space the city offers to us. All 15 main missions that we can activate in different places are built quite linear and always follows the same pattern. Faith has to go to different areas to place a hacking module, to remove a ME-Catalyst_Faith_hangingcontroller chip or just to push a button. Most of the time we decide the way we take to the next place we also have the option to choose the ideal path. This path is even labeled in red on request with the feature called Runner’s Vision.

.

What we like is how great DICE staged the missions. For example, once you have to cover somebody and take some guns off while they are assault a place or you have to remove the ropes of a huge pendulum that saves a skyscraper.

.

What we also like is that the feeling of the game’s gameplay still exists. It is totally great to jump high over the city from rooftop to rooftop, run walls up or to slide on glass surfaces and to defy the laws of gravity. We love the immersion we get because of the great virtual feelings of the body. Faith stumbles from time to time and MirrorsEdgeCatalst_GC_Web_Screen_06_WallRunCombat_WMthe fact that we constantly can see the arms and legs of the protagonist while we run is the result that the Parkour-Simulation is almost perfect.

.

It is a great and scary feeling at the same time when we jump over a 200 meter deep abyss. We love the game’s controls and how great they work. Because of this great controls it is possible to do all action stunts very elegant. What we also like is that it is not important if you like to play the game with the keyboard and mouse or gamepad. Both devices working very well. The controls working very extremely precise so that we even can cope complex acrobatic combinations and exact jumps easily. What we also like is that DICE set the Checkpoints very well. That means that you do not get fast frustrated even if a jump should not end well for you.

.

.

For every completed mission we get experience points which can be used to upgrade our character. With this experience points we can unlock new moves, extend our life bar or unlock new combat maneuvers. What we love is the new Grappling Hook which we get in the first quarter of the game. With the help of the Grappling MirrorsEdgeCatalst_GC_Web_Screen_08_MagRope_WMHook we can swing not only across chasms, but also let us reach higher floors. It is also possible to tear down barriers.

.

It is not possible to take the enemies weapons and to shoot with it like in the previous game. In the second Mirror’s Edge it is only possible to use Faith’s body as a weapon. Unfortunately, the battles against the KrugerSec are very boring. This is because the five different types of enemies are not very clever. Most of the time they just hit the air and are running disoriented from one side of the room to the other one.

.

Like in other open-world-games there is a lot to do for Faith in addition to the main missions. There are a lot of side-quests like small missions, courier jobs, time runs or collectibles to collect. This increases the playtime of 10 hours which you will need for the main missions.

.

What we like is the so called Community-Runs. With an editor that is very easy to use we can create Checkpoint-Runs. This runs are also playable for other players. This gives you more XP and specially very MirrorsEdgeCatalst_GC_Web_Screen_02_CityVista_WMfunny for players that are hunting the best time.

.

What we like is that the game’s world is very variable. For example in addition to Glass’ Downtown-Part we also can explore the city’s underground. The Frostbite-Engine light-effects also ensure the game’s atmosphere. What we love is the game’s sounds. There are great background sounds that supports the atmosphere for example like squeaky shoes. The developers once again assigned Magnus Birgersson from Sweden for the main track of the game.

.

All in all we can say that we have a lot of fun with Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. We love the great flow of the Parkour-Feature, the great feeling and immersion we get running over the roofs. We love the game’s ME-Catalyst_Faith_standingmechanics that works once again precise and elegant. We also like the game’s story much more compared to the story of the previous game.

.

Unfortunately, we have to say that we would prefer if DICE would include more new feature than an open world. This game offers a lot potentials. On the other hand we can forgive DICE a lot. We love it to hunt for the best time, we can run in a great flow through the city and rase due to opponents. We can definitely say that the new Mirror’s Edge Catalyst works so great like the previous game eight years before. And that is the reason we can recommend this game especially for players that did not play the previous game. We think that fans of games has to know the great gameplay-feeling. We are fans of the previous game and we can confirm that we get what we expected. In addition to this we have now a huge world, more variety and a much better story that supports the gameplay. Great done DICE.

.

.

.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.