ColecoVision to iPhone Games 24

by Greg McMullin

In this ongoing look at significant moments in the history of video game design, we have already taken a look at Bungie’s Halo & Halo 2, Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls series, Nintendo’s Metroid and several others. The goal of this series is to go beyond simple gaming magazines and iPhone Apps reviews, and take a closer look at what defines memorability and quality in game design. In this twenty-fourth part of the series we will examine some more of those classic moments where video game designers undoubtedly got it right and delivered a memorable, enduring and progressive gaming experience.

Developed by Electronic Arts (EA) and released to the PS3 in late 2008, Mirror’s Edge is the first parkour based video game of all time.  Parkour, or free running, is defined as “physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one’s path by adapting one’s movements to the environment.” While this type of gameplay may seem difficult to implement into a video game, the developers of this title had the clever idea to make the main character, Faith, a sort of courier who is constantly being chased by the police, private security forces, and other baddies of assorted variety, depend on movement in order to succeed. This theme puts Faith in a position where she must be constantly on the run from the well armed enemies aiming to cut her down as she completes her missions. Her only option is to keep up her momentum, stay mobile and use her environment to her advantage as she tries to evade their attacks.

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The aspect of Mirror’s Edge that we will highlight in this article is not the engaging gameplay, the bright and sharp graphics, or the precision gameplay. Instead, we will focus on the bold choice made by the developers to put the game into the first person perspective. Interestingly, just about anyone who has played Mirror’s Edge will likely agree that the title would have worked perfectly well as a third person game. In fact, a popular mod for the PC version allows the game to be played in just that fashion. However, the first person perspective is absolutely the way in which this game must be experienced.

Much of the gameplay in Mirror’s Edge involves the building of momentum. As Faith gains speed, she also gains the ability to perform longer jumps, trickier moves and more chained actions. When performed in the first person, this style of gameplay offers a level of immersion that is seldom matched in the realm of gaming. Few moments in gaming history can match the exhilaration felt when the player successfully completes a section of Mirror’s Edge on their first try. That, however, brings us to one of the constant complaints gamers have about this title…the sometimes unforgiving difficulty. While the game is not one that would be considered difficult in the grand scheme of things, certain sections can sometimes border on controller breakingly difficult. While a rushed development cycle and a late decision to stick with first person throughout are the main culprits for this difficulty, these challenging sections are just a part of an overall experience that is incredibly rewarding and consistently fun from beginning to end.

For being the first video game in an exciting new genre, using a perspective that was courageous and truly added to the gameplay, and providing an experience that cannot be had in any other game, Mirror’s Edge will forever be remembered as a classic.