Despite its rather short length, Mirror's Edge is a unique FPS that stays fun while it lasts.
The story for Mirror's Edge is pretty good. You play Faith Connors, as said above. You live in a giant utopian city that acts like a paradise. Everything is monitored from calls to delivery of packages, etc. The only way to get things transferred safely is through Runners, who scale the rooftops of the city from point A to point B. Your sister Kate, who is a "blue" (also known as the police) is framed for a murder she didn't commit, and after being arrested, you have to try and clear her name by performing various things. A big drawback of the game is its length, I passed it in about 7 hours without skipping cutscenes, which are rather short, but the more difficult levels will keep the game going longer. Although some of the story is predictable and has a not so satisfying ending, the story is actually pretty good.
The gameplay is fun, since as Faith you can run up walls, swing on pipes and scale big buildings. The gameplay is actually a little addicting and will often have you going back to the time trials and challenges after you beat the game. It is also a very fast paced game and flawless runs feel amazing to play. The only problem is that the gunplay isn't too good, and feels really clunky throughout, especially since Faith can hold the gun for a limited time, and the weapons also run out of ammo pretty quickly as well, but besides that flaw it is good.
The graphics are extremely talented, as everything is clear in the outside and inside world. Although the cutscene graphics are a little too cartoon like, and are often not good at times, the rest of the graphics are amazing. The sound is also good as you'll hear everything from Faith's footsteps on the ground to her breathing as she is running away from the Blues. The only drawback of the sound was that some of the voice acting was a little too cheesy, but for only a few characters.
The A.I. is okay here, as some will chase you as you run across the rooftops, to some shooting at you as you crawl through a vent, they are all good here. You'll hardly use weapons in the game, except in a few stick situations, but they range from pistols to heavy machine guns, and different types of enemies hold each of them, from the light armored cop that holds a pistol to a very heavy armored cop that hold the heavy machine gun.
Now is when the flaws come in. The game is way too short and will leave lots of people wanting more. Some cheesy voice acting, but only for a few characters. The gunplay is horrible, but playing the game without using guns will leave the player wanting more combat. The game also gets repetitive as it mostly consists of run on a rooftop from point A to point B, open a door, ride an elevator, open another door, run on a rooftop, etc. and it just starts to feel used and repetitive after the first few levels. There are also random loading times while running that cut the action away for a few actions each time, and the elevator loading times are a little too long in length. The inside levels aren't too well, since most people will crave running across the rooftops instead of running off of walls to reach a pipe inside of a building, and since there are a lot of them, they start to get old after awhile. Another somewhat major flaw I encountered was that sometimes Faith wouldn't be able to grab a ledge or a building even though it was half an inch away from her, sending her to her death, or having to start a jump puzzle over again.
Though the game is short and has some flaws, I actually really enjoyed this one since it is the first game to introduce this type of gameplay, and I'll look forward to any games that are like this type in the future. Recommended to anybody that likes first person shooters that are unique, and that have a moderately decent storyline. An 8 out of 10.
-horrorboy