DICE hopes that Mirror's Edge will do "what Prince of Persia has done, but in first-person", according to producer Owen O'Brien, as more details of the next-generation action-adventure spill onto the Internet.I didn't expect the game to be in first person when I heard about the parkour influences, but it should've been pretty obvious when that's what DICE do best, and I'm actually glad it's that way.
The game's female lead, Faith, will sprint, climb and, of course, leap around a utopian metropolis where she's among a small faction of people who've rejected the corrupt, authoritarian methods of those in power.
That's according to a preview in the latest issue of UK magazine EDGE, which also fills in other gameplay details.
A far more physical game than the average first-person shooter, Mirror's Edge aims to give you a better sense of being in a body, paying attention to things like acceleration and deceleration, the way your head moves as you walk or come to an abrupt stop, and of course as you climb and jump.
Many of Faith's moves have been inspired by parkour, and controls are being kept deliberately simple - with movement kept away from the face buttons in service to fluency - and a "Reaction Time" slow motion feature, as well as a system of timing button presses, that dictate your success on the run and in combat.
Despite DICE's background, Mirror's Edge doesn't care so much for the "shooter" bit of FPS, either, claiming to use guns as tools rather than the focus, bias combat odds in favour of your enemies, and enforce realistic restrictions that are seldom seen in games, like being unable to perform acrobatic moves while holding a heavy assault rifle.
The final game won't actually be free-form like Crackdown or GTA (it'll simply have big levels), but that's not putting us off. Multiplayer, built around chases, is planned, but with specifics still some way away.
According to DICE, Mirror's Edge is due for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, although a release date has yet to be confirmed. The full EDGE article also includes some concept art that illustrates the player's movement options (highlighted by splashes of primary colours in-game), so have a flick through for more.
I'm not usually a fan of third person games, and they tend to become platformers more than anything else, especially when they're being released for consoles. The biggest notion of this summarization have to be the more physic driven player character.
This could be very interesting, but the question is to what degree. Will they 'just' restrict it to the animations, or will the player actually stumble and fall? If so, how will they balance it so it won't get frustrating?
In my opinion, it's about time we move away or atleast provides alternative for games that aren't based on the original Quake-physics, where one can make huge leaps and land on practically non-existent ledges, with the feets still hovering in mid-air.
Something else that caught my attention was the lead character being named Faith, and the fact that the working title used to be Project Faith before being renamed to Mirror's Edge. Being part of a rebellion in games, most often ends up with you running the forefront of it, and this might be about Faith bringing faith to the people and leading this rebellion?
Guess this summarize left me with even more questions than I had before, and I'll have to pick up that issue of EDGE whenever I get the oppurtunity and see if I can read more into it. Currently, all I've been able to write is this speculative nonsense that could mean whatever ;)
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