This is a fairly old game , released in 2009 developed by DICE and Published by EA . It is powered by Unreal Engine 3 which powered great games like Gears Of war Series, Mass Effect Series , Borderlands 1,2 , Batman,Bioshock ,Bulletstorm and many more . This was an Original IP of EA. Because it was an experimentation EA did not shell out much resources or money into this project that clearly shows in some aspects of the game. Although it was greatly admired by Critics the game did not sell high volumes . Metacritic gave the PC version 81 , the other two variants also praised well by the Gaming community especially the critics , Official Xbox Magazine - 9.5 out of 10. Play - 9 out of 10 GameTrailers.com - 8.3 out of 10. IGN - 8.3 out of 10 .
The Setup : The government is trying to censor & monitor the city and keep them in their hands as usual the rebels or the resistance groups opposed and started a revolution to stop this from happening . The corporations used brute force to bring down the revolution and they succeeded . People who fought lost their families . Then onward every corner of city is being monitored 24/7 . Every byte of data is processed . crime rates in the city is almost down to zero .
Opening lines of the game : Once the city used to pulse with energy. Dirty and dangerous, but alive and wonderful. Now it's something else. The changes came slowly at first. Most didn't realize, or didn't care, and accepted them. They chose a comfortable life. Some didn't. And those who refused to conform were pushed to the sidelines, criminalized. They became our clients. We call ourselves Runners. We exist on the edge between the gloss and the reality: the mirror's edge. We keep out of trouble, out of sight, and the cops don't bother us. Runners see the city in a different way. We see the flow. Rooftops become pathways and conduits, possibilities and routes of escape. The flow is what keeps us running, keeps us alive.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocnI6hQO8SA[/media]
The current story starts after 18 years of above happenings. Where the main Protagonist of the story Faith is making a drop off of a runner bag which contains classified data. . Soon after the drop Merc a friend of Faith informs Faith that her sister is in some kind of trouble at pope's office . Robert Pope is running for the mayor against Callaghan taking the point of deregulation as his main goal which helps the runners and the people. When faith arrives at pope's office she sees pope's dead body on the table. She quickly understands the situation that someone framed her sister . She finds a torn paper in hands of pope on which it is written " I.C.A.R.U.S " . Soon the police arrives and Kate remains there while faith escapes . She learns that Travis Burfield security officer of pope is some how connected to pope's death through jacknife , a former runner . Due to some unfortunate events burfield finds himself hanging from the ledge . While faith tries to get some answers an unknown killer kills Burfield . Faith decides to check out the private security firm that is helping police to catch the runners . Soon she finds out that Project ICARUS is a training program for the private security forces to catch runners.Evidence also leads Faith to the trail of Ropeburn's killer to a boat in port which happens to be celeste ,a fellow runner . Soon the police arrives and both part their separate ways. Faith intercepts the convoy that is taking kate to jail and helps in escaping . After losing the Heat faith returns to her base where merc is on the edge of death . Merc tells faith that kate is taken to The Shard , Mayor Callaghan's Place. With some help of a police officer she gets access to the main server room of the city. on topof which kate is being held. she destroys all the servers which makes the computer to open all doors. when faith arrives on the top helipad jacknife has kate at pointblank. when he tries to escape with kate faith takes a leap into the heli and kicks jacknife out .the heli get hit by jacknife misfire .Kate slips off the helicpoter and will be hanging by the edge of the building faith jumps off the heli and catches kate just in time .
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32-1sxAnY2s[/media]
Long Story short : Faith is a runner which is illegal in the city. Her sister Kate is framed into a political murder . The story runs on how faith gets her sister out of this mess .
The first point i would like to say about this game is that you can complete the entire story mode without killing even a single person . Unlike other games the HUD contains nothing . Initially it did not even contained the small dot at the center of the screen but during testing people were not quite comfortable watching the barrel rolls and quick turns during gameplay thus to give a focusing point the dot was added. The game is a parkour based game , thus speed and acceleration plays a vital role in game. The sound effects are excellent in this game , As your speed of running increases the sound of air gushing into your air increases. It also shows when you are jumping long . when you run long enough at some speed you can listen to the gasping for breath . the foot steps are also clearly audible.You can disarm a weapon from a cop and use it to kill other cops around but you can't carry the gun around. Because you can't jump much with gun in your hand. There is no health bar , the only indicator of your health is the colors you see . when your health is very low the colors get grayed and will comeback to normal as you regenerate health . Often you see your hands and feet while kicking doors and catching ledges during a long jump , which makes the game more realistic . This is the only game that shows the future as it should be except the dictatorship part . There are only a few colors used in the entire game which makes it look neat and clean . Almost all buildings are either painted white or covered fully with glass . Interiors are designed with bright colors. Draw distance is great . Graphics are stunning .
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N1TJP1cxmo[/media]
Now the bad parts of the game . Story mode was not the long enough . The flow of the game is broken by the puzzle solving which is placed in every level . There is a fixed path which you have to find and follow the exact path to achieve the objective. Game is not open world which would have made it a lot of fun but given the limited resources it was impossible. The cut scenes are the worst of them all . They look like the team ran out of time and hired a cheap animation company to do the cut scenes .
Conclusion : Its a good game concept but executed poorly . More time should have been spent on the cut-scenes and they should have at least thought of 2 paths for a single objective. If you are looking for some fresh air from the regular "Kill everything that Move" type of games, its a great game to try. The time trails will keep you busy even if you have completed the story mode or You can try to collect all runner bags scattered all around the world and it is the only collectible item in the whole game .
Photo Gallery :
Characters :
Kate:
Interiors :
HUD :
Disarm :
(This is my first review so please dont bash my head against the wall)
Click here to view the article
