Transport and fast travel

When I’m walking around IRL, I often think how great it would be if you could skitch, jump on a horse, a bike, a motorbike, a moped, a scooter, a skateboard, rollerblades, ice skates, a passing dragon, a helicopter, a power boat, a kayak, on top of a car, the back of a moving bus / train, climb up a building, jump between buildings, hang-glide or parachute off a building, take a lift instantly to the top of a building, sprint infinitely, run on water, teleport anywhere in the world, or otherwise sprout wings and fly. All of these things are available to you in one video game or another. But no video game contains them all.

OK, so it would be odd to have rollerskates in the same game as dragons, and some of these transport options do overlap – you don’t need to be able to skitch and jump on the back of a bus. All you need basically is:

1) A way to travel long distances more or less instantly

2) A way to travel short distances quite quickly

3) A way to travel a scenic route at a decent pace

4) An autopilot travel option that follows the logic and satisfies the impatience of a human player

5) A way to spontaneously generate or easily access all of these options.

Mirror’s Edge

Mirror’s Edge is a puzzle-platformer, the mechanics of which are based around parkour (free running), i.e., using city infrastructure as an urban obstacle course. You play Faith, a runner who gets embroiled in a conspiracy and must scuttle across rooftops to evade the authorities while uncovering the truth.

Story

It’s a conspiracy thriller, told part in-game using radio communication and part with cutscenes, usually involving tough people talking about how they Godda Do What they Godda Do. Adequate if you like that sort of thing. There aren’t any surprises here.

Graphics

It has a basic 3D style which is already starting to look a bit dated, but not so you’d be driven to distraction. It isn’t the most polished or visually striking of games. Interestingly, Mirror’s Edge has inverted the old style of the SNES games which used more realistic graphics (sometimes actual film) for cutscenes to make up for the blocky game animation. Mirror’s Edge has manga-esque cartoon for its cutscenes, which have a more retro look than the game itself. Since Mirror’s Edge is in first-person perspective, this means that you don’t see the image of Faith depicted in the box art until the very end.