Mirror's Edge: The Next Oni?

There are a lot of games coming out this month. 'Tis the season, after all. I'm going to talk some about a few recent games, then speak my piece on a very specific one.

I've been keeping myself busy with Fable 2, the Call of Duty 5 (World at War) beta, soon to be Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead. Oh, and of course, that work stuff.

Let me first speak my piece on the Call of Duty: World at War beta. The ability to unleash attack dogs (when you get 7 kill without dying) is the coolest thing ever. I mean it. This game definitely hearkens back to the good days of many day long Call of Duty 2 PC LANs, and the addition of all the Call of Duty 4-esque perks, matchmaking, customizaiton, and other things (such as artillery strike or dog attacks) just adds to the fun. When was the last time you were in a firefight, and actually were frightened by the sound of a dog barking, or some big black furry thing jumps in your face and bites it clean off? Absolutely brilliant to have pack of killer dogs running about the battlefield, forcing players to flail wildly. Not to mention they're a great distraction. Will I be getting the new installment in the series? Probably not. The only reason I would really purchase it is for it's Zombie Survival Mode you unlock after beating campaign. Great game, yes. Same as the old games? Pretty much. So, why wouldn't I just get it for the Zombie mode?

Left 4 Dead looks like better. 4 player Zombie coop survival. Is it really a survival Zombie game, as opposed to a twitchy-frag-fest Zombie game? Maybe not, but Zombies and Coop sound like a good bag of excitement. I will be trying the demo when it comes out on the 11th of this month, in which I will decide how good this game really is. Let me know if you need a friend to help frag Zombies.

Moving on to the topic title...

Today I picked up a particularly fascinating little demo off of Xbox Live Marketplace. I hadn't heard of it until I saw a friend playing it.

Mirror's Edge

Apparently Cliff Bleszinski of Epic Games just doesn't understand Mirror's Edge. I know where he's coming from on this. I was incredibly confused at first glance. The game is called a "First Person Shooter Action-Adventure". Some call it a "First Person Runner". The game is basically a Parkour simulation.

The story takes place in some alternate universe or future world where the government has cracked down on lots of things, creating criminals out of most people who weren't before. The game could easily be some sort of comic-book, which the style often seems to mimic. You are a 'messenger' who delivers information to and from said criminals and others in the world. The government is obviously the bad guys.

As a messenger, you must run, jump, climb, vault, and slide your way to destinations. Sounds fairly boring once you get over the fact that the controls are seamless, intuitive, and lend the game to amazing amounts of realism, both animation wise and with the first person camera work. (Example; when you run around a corner in a hallway your character puts their hand on the wall as they pass)

That is, it's boring until you take into account that you have some insane martial art skills, using combination of regular fighting and Parkour moves, along with the ability to disarm enemies or lay them out with a swift flying side kick or slide tackle. Now, this is all based off of the demo alone. There seems to be even more depth to all of this if you were playing the full game, which presents you with many more scenarios.

I worked my way into a building and through some duct work. I drop down into a hallway with a few government police telling me to freeze. I ran like a little girl. (That would probably sound funnier if the main character were not a girl) The problem is, I had fun running from them. If I fought them head on, I would have been shot and killed, easily, but this game actual promotes running, when necessary, and makes it fun.

Think of the scene from the latest Bourne movie, where Jason Bourne is running across rooftops in order to escape. Or think of Casino Royale, in which James Bond chases a fugitive near the beginning of the movie. This game creates that kind of adrenaline pumping action from a first person perspective. It's very exciting.

So why do I say it looks to me, like the next Oni? Oni was developed by Bungie Studios back when the Playstation 2 was the console bringing Change to America, called "The Second One", and wearing a little golden halo. Oni was a THIRD person action-adventure game (sound familiar? Hmm...) that used fluid controls for snapping, kicking, punching, and breaking your foes. While it was based more around combat than Mirror's Edge, (from what I can tell), the style remains the same. Not only did they both follow a comic book style, feature a female character with crazy moves, and over-use Japanese text on every box, crate, and magazine, they also seem to be following the same and very unique kind of action genre. If you liked Oni, this game is worth checking out. This EA/DICE partnership might have pulled a sneaky one on you, as they did me. It's not all so surprising though, with the EA/DICE success of the Battlefield series. It might just be surprising that they came up with a game as different as this little gem.

I believe Mirror's Edge is taking a leap (Hahaha?) forward in video game movement and world interaction, somewhat as games like Assassin's Creed have tried in the past, only to a far more real level. Some developers try radical gameplay ideas, and most of those flop around for awhile then quietly go back to the "No one did this before for a darn good reason" bin. This one might just stick. It's really something unique.

The concept of the game might not seem to interesting to hear about, but the subtlety of fluid motion and intuitive controls is something you have to play to really appreciate. I believe there's more to this game than meets the eye.