(VIDEO BELOW FOR THOSE TOO LAZY TO READ)

The original Mirror’s Edge was filled with possibilities and potential, much like a virgin about to get laid for the first time. Everyone was so excited by the idea, that despite not performing well in several areas, it’s enthusiasm and dedication to trying out some new moves got it across the line. Seven years later and it seems that rather than working on their overall game, our plucky young stud has decided to focus on their speed and size at the cost of enjoyable longevity, giving the participants brief sparks of enjoyment, but ultimately leave feeling a little underwhelmed.

In a world full of walking simulators, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst does a fantastic job of standing out in the sparsely populated genre of running simulators. While the game offers side quests, collectables and an open world to explore, do not be mistaken. As the saying goes, this game is all about the need. The need for fast paced movement. This is something that was already incredibly satisfying in the original game, and it remains so here. The mechanics have not changed in the actual movement too much at all, but the environments you are sent to explore have. Having an open world gives you the opportunity to create some awesome runs and tie in all of your skills to become a catalyst of momentum (see what I did there? Catalyst is the name of the game). As seems to be the requirement for new games in 2016, Catalyst also introduces a grappling hook, helping Faith get around the city of Glass (I shit you not, that’s what they called their white city made of pretty much just glass). It makes a nice new addition, even if it can only be used at certain points. As far as these skills and gadgets go, you wont have access to all of these from the start, even some of the basic ones, like rolling after landing. Catalyst introduces new skill trees, where you can upgrade your movement, combat or gear with XP. While this does add a bit more variety to the game, it does more to slow the player down in a game focused on speeding the player up.

One of the new additions to Catalyst is a passive online component, where you can create your own time trials by running any route of your choosing and then share them with the community. Since time trials are one of the stronger parts of this franchise, this is definitely a plus, meaning players should always have something new to do. Since I was dropped one too many times as a child, I have trouble creating things that are not a piece of shit, so opening it to the community to share is super cool. One thing that is a bit more hit or miss though is the combat, which has had a bit of an upgrade from the first game. While they have removed weapons, they have added much more depth to the melee combat. Like everything else in this game, it runs off the back of momentum. This means that when you are dashing to an objective or fleeing one of the games numerous exciting set pieces it’s fluid, fun and you feel like a badass. When you don’t have this momentum behind you and you are trapped in a room with X number of guards to beat, it becomes stale and clunky very quickly. Despite enemy classes being sparse and guards seeming to go out of their way to plummet over railings, combat is still fun for the most part, even if it is a little overused.

Something that the game criminally underused though was a good story. It served the point of moving the plot along, but was also 100% forgettable. I just finished playing and can’t remember what happened. It consists of an Asian lady, a business mogul and a leader of a resistance group going up against an Asian lady, a business mogul and a leader of a resistance group. That’s about as three-dimensional as the story gets. Round that out with characters who each have their own ‘quirks’ but nothing interesting to say and cringe-worthy dialogue, and the whole thing plays out the same as a drama movie directed by Michael Bay. The other bland part of Catalyst is its new open world. While this was a step in the right direction for the series, the ‘open’ parts of the world were devoid of colour, landmarks and life. As a runner, you spend little time on the actual ground, but even then, the lack of people is somewhat ominous. It feels like you are running around a city where every day is the season finale of Game of Thrones, and you and a couple of other random idiots are the only people who don’t watch the show and actually left their homes. The most fun environments and memorable moments come from inside buildings when you are running towards or from an objective. The open world did come with a trade-off, and that trade off was texture quality, particularly on the console versions. I reviewed it on PC to avoid this issue which worked until the game crashed my computer several times. Two hours of troubleshooting and a reinstallation later, I had a working game that deleted 4 hours worth of my saves, setting me back to square one. Hopefully this is an early glitch that gets ironed out, otherwise it’s pretty frustrating.

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst improves on the areas that made the first game a cult classic, while still being plagued by the same problems that stopped the original from being great. This is a pretty clear case if you enjoyed the first one, you’re probably going to like the new one and if you hated it, it’s probably going to be the same deal. Does this make it a bad game? Absolutely not. It’s lack of quality story, annoying characters and repetitive combat is all just background noise to the excellent parkour systems and set pieces woven into the games 8-10 hour play time. Now carry on with your day and be nice to virgins, they’re doing their best. PARKOUR!

7/10

Video Review here:

Jonathan Ashcroft

Jonathan Ashcroft is a freelance games journalist who constantly seeks approval. By day, he’s a gamer. He also likes being mild mannered and gaming.