The iPad version of Mirror’s Edge seemed like a pleasant enough game: mostly good enough mechanics (albeit not ones that particularly excited me), good level design. I played through it once and then went through the first few levels again trying to get speed runs.
Having said that, there was one mechanic that I didn’t like at all: the people shooting at you. I didn’t enjoy it from a gameplay point of view, but, honestly, mostly it just bugged me. I’m getting more sensitive to violence these days, and if the game had avoided guns entirely, that would have been an active plus; it didn’t, though, instead having most levels full of people shooting at you.
And, to make matters worse, the enemies had a bark of “shoot to kill”. Which they manifestly weren’t doing: you got slowed down a bit by their shots, but you could absorb a lot of bullets before you died. (And no, your character wasn’t presented as having superhuman skills in that regard.) And I don’t think that the enemies were all crack shots who had the control to knick you while lying about your intentions: that’s not the way guns work, that’s not the way games work.
It’s just lazy game design. They got rid of half the gun violence, they didn’t figure out how to get rid of the rest, and they didn’t own that decision: you’re the same bullet sponge we see over and over again, just an asymmetric one. Having to listen to an annoying bark.
More options, please?
Post Revisions:
This post has not been revised since publication.
Posts