Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is almost a wish come true for fans of the original Mirror’s Edge. We’ve waited for a sequel for eight long years. Now that we have it, was it worth the wait? If you loved the first Mirror’s Edge, Catalyst is a must-buy. If you missed out on the original, then you should definitely at least try out this unique game.
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst reboots the franchise, tweaking our parkour master hero Faith Connors’ history. This time around, Faith is an orphan fresh out of juvie, after being busted for doing her job. See, Faith has been working as a runner, someone who delivers messages or important items not wanted to be seen by the Orwellian government.
That’s one of the most unique aspects of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. While being in a terribly oppressive world, the city of Glass manages to hide away all of its faults deep below the surface. Glass, despite being on the verge of social and environmental collapse, lives up to its name. Everything is white, clean, and bright.
One of the biggest complaints many had with the original Mirror’s Edge is that there just wasn’t enough of it. Thankfully, this concern has been answered by EA, almost too well. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst’s Glass is a wonderfully designed open world, with Faith welcomed to run, climb and explore as much as possible. This sense of freedom is definitely a welcome change, allowing players to tackle challenges in many different ways instead of the seemingly pre-determined paths of the original.
While the world is built for running, there are a few drawbacks to the new Glass. There are no notable landmarks or locations, so most of my time running was spent looking for the red “Runner’s Vision” line and moving forward instead of slowing down and looking around me. I suppose it could be said that moving forward as fast as possible is sort of the point of Catalyst, but there is very little reason to do otherwise outside from grabbing a nearby collectible.
Like I said though, EA has almost gone too far in terms of the content on offer. Among the main and side missions scattered throughout the world, players can also come across several optional challenges like races, time trials, delivery missions and more. Players are also able to create their own time trials and combat encounters, and can share these created missions to anyone. Throw in hundreds of collectibles, and you could be spending way more time with Mirror’s Edge Catalyst than you thought you would.
While it’s great to see so much offered, the map is almost too littered to find waypoints easily. It can also be distracting when playing, because these challenges will appear in the world as floating icons and fill your screen with information you don’t want to know.
The story in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is somewhat similar to the first one, with the secret organizations of runners working to expose the evil truths of massive corporations that have taken over everyday life. Without revealing too much, Faith finds herself aware of how damaging a new product from a mega-corporation will be, and must fight to destroy it before it can be released.
The story is pretty generic, and the ending falls flat. After seeming like Faith is about to make a major change in the world, it turns out that nothing you did mattered all that much. Along the way, you’ll meet a cast of bland and relatively lifeless characters. While the subject matter at hand is pretty heavy stuff, there is no note of humor or levity. Everyone is angry, stone-faced and devoid of any charm. The one saving grace, kind of, is the character Plastic, but even she becomes grating after a few interactions.
Thankfully, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst opted to use proper cutscenes instead of the weird E-surance-esque animations used last time. Character models looked great, and the animations really helped sell the emotions (well, anger, frustration or sadness) of the performers. Unfortunately, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst sometimes falls prey to the uncanny valley. Most animations look great; the ones that don’t really stick out.
Gameplay is very much the same as in Mirror’s Edge, with a few added moves and changes. Players will largely use the shoulder buttons, with one controlling upward movement and one controlling downward movement. Combat again returns, with light and heavy attacks done using the face buttons. In Catalyst, a new upgrade system is introduced, allowing you to increase Faith’s moves and abilities with points earned from gaining XP. Each point comes after 1,000 XP is earned, so upgrades come pretty frequently throughout the game.
These upgrades, broken up into movement, combat and gear upgrades, can be pretty fun, but seem mostly useless. For example, the movement upgrades may help you unlock new areas to get collectibles, but aren’t needed to beat the story or any side missions. The combat upgrades pretty much revolve around either doing more damage to a particular enemy type or getting more health to last longer in combat. Over half the gear upgrades are unlocked for you by playing through the story.
As for new moves, Faith can use a MagRope to swing across large gaps, pull herself up to high ledges and pull down objects in the way. Additionally, Faith has a few new running moves like grabbing poles to swing around corners. While cool-looking, this move is used so many times in a “I sure hope there’s a ledge around the other side of this building” way that it makes you wonder why anyone would use it.
While there certainly are story shortcomings and the characters could use some more life, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is fun to play through simply for the excellent first-person parkour gameplay. While many sidequests are either simple fetch quests or a race from Point A to Point B, the missions are varied enough to make me want to play through again. If Catalyst manages to get a proper sequel, hopefully DICE and EA can get a better script going before moving forward.
So what do you think? Are you excited to play Mirror’s Edge Catalyst? What are your thoughts on it so far? Let us know in the comments section below.
