E3 2015: Mirror's Edge Catalyst is the Faith Connors that Fans Deserve

It’s been quite a while since anyone has been able to try a new Mirror’s Edge game, and sitting behind the test station during E3 today I couldn’t help but tingle with excitement. I really enjoyed the first game, and so this second one has me excited because it's so clearly a step in the right direction. Mirror's Edge Catalyst is basically everything good about the original Mirror’s Edge, but DICE has refined it, rebalanced it, and made it a more fluid, smooth experience.

During the thirteen minutes of time I was given with the game I was placed within two separate scenarios. The first portion showed me how the story would unfold through the final product, and introducing a couple of the characters that you’ll run into when you play the final game in February of 2016. The second portion was more ‘choose your objective’ style, and I was given a few different options on how I wanted to proceed. I could either ‘Run a Dash’, ‘Hack a Billboard’, or ‘Run a Delivery’.

The first thing I decided to do was Run a Dash mission in order to get myself acquainted with the controller scheme that was setup for the demo. We were using Xbox controllers, however, the game was clearly playing through a PC, evident by the mouse and keyboard with wires running into the table that I was standing at. The mechanics of the game haven’t changed much. You can still jump, vault, slide, crouch, and even quick turn. The normal wall run, pipe climb, and Runner Vision options are still in play, so all in all it was just like stepping back into the Mirror’s Edge I already knew.

The Dash mode was fairly simple. All I had to do was follow the Runner Vision marked in front of me, slide through an air vent, leap over a gap in the buildings, and climb a few ledges and staircases. The next option I decided to check out was the new ‘Hack a Billboard’ objective. This short objective basically has you climb to a high part of the map and hack into a billboard showing Krueger (the big bad corporation you’re trying to stop) information, and hack it to display your Runner tag (which is coincidentally the same image as the game’s icon). It was fun to get to experiment with the verticality of the game, which is a bit greater than it was in the initial Mirror’s Edge, but all in all it wasn’t really what sold me on Catalyst and what it had to offer.

That’s what the third objective ‘Run a Delivery’ comes in. With all the other objectives (there were only three) completed I headed over to the last marker and interacted with a vent to pick up this small USB-like device. With the item in tow I set off across the small area that I’ve been given to explore towards my objective. Halfway there I ran into my first Krueger guard.

Combat has always been a weak point for Mirror’s Edge. In the first game Faith could attack guards, and there were special moments that you could press certain buttons and complete this fairly awesome attacks. The big problem with combat, however, came down to picking up guns. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like combat. I don’t want Faith to be completely passive, and I like the idea of first person melee attacks. But when you picked up a gun as Faith, everything changed. The saddest part of it all was that there were several levels where you almost felt like you had to pick up a gun in order to continue, which made it extremely frustrating if you didn’t enjoy the changes that the gunplay made to the combat system.

Fortunately DICE has had a lot of time to change things, and refine them. This time around my punches felt good. I dropped from a zipline onto an enemy, knocking him right on his butt. As I came up from my attack another enemy rounded the corner ahead of me, and I quickly ran forward, grabbing and throwing him to the ground too. From here I jumped to another rooftop, ran forward and dropped down to the level below, right down onto another enemy. With all the enemies but one defeated I pressed on towards the last bad guy, and pulled up a roundhouse kick, which sparked a special third person finishing move. The resounding crack of the visor, and the whipping of the guard’s head as it flew backwards from Faith’s foot was fantastic, and well polished.

Of course none of the gameplay I experience today is final, and I can’t say for sure that everything I experienced will make it into the final product that ships on February 23, 2016. But, if the thirteen minutes of gameplay that I was able to check out today are any indication, Mirror’s Edge fans have a right to be excited about Catalyst, and DICE seem to really care about where Faith’s story goes from here.

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst will be available on February 23, 2016 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. For more information on Mirror’s Edge Catalyst be sure to check out my special interview with Senior Producer Sara Jansson.

Josh Hawkins

Guides Editor

Joshua holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and has been exploring the world of video games for as long as he can remember. He enjoys everything from large-scale RPGs to small, bite-size indie gems and everything in between.