➤ Through the mirror 🎮

Against the backdrop of a futuristic city controlled by a totalitarian regime, the Conglomerate, Faith is a girl who has just been released from prison and forced, according to the directives of KrugerSec, to reintegrate into society by finding a job within a time limit. She, however, has very different intentions: raised by Noah, the charismatic leader of a faction of Runners, parkour-savvy couriers who make their living by delivering to the rooftops of Glass, Faith has nurtured a strong desire for revenge over the years. against Gabriel Kruger, guilty of killing his parents and his little sister Kat when she was still a child.

But paying the bill won't be easy: Kruger controls the city thanks to technology and militarized squadrons ready to suppress any attempt to destabilize the established order. The plot of Mirror's Edge Catalyst is undoubtedly better than that of the original episode of 2008, with the total rewriting of the origins of the protagonist but the maintenance of some elements, although their introduction at one point is a bit of a telephone call. The cutscenes act as glue for a narrative that, as is the tradition for sandboxes, follows a main storyline but does not skimp on subplots and secondary missions, working a lot on the structure to solve another of the problems of the first Mirror's Edge, namely the lack of duration. : devoting yourself to history, optional quests, delivery missions and even timed paths (complete with a leaderboard for a comparison with the results of other users) will probably take about thirty hours. Similarly, the controversial interpretation of Asia Argento, who in the first version lent her voice to Faith, was fortunately replaced by a group of voice actors proper, capable of rendering the various situations very well - even the most intense ones - and to add value to the product.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst enhances the original experience in several ways, albeit with some limitations

Get in the flow

DICE has clearly set itself the goal of improving some of the less brilliant aspects of the original title, which also had conquered many players and offered an original and innovative experience; that of a first-person action game in which it was possible to run, jump, climb, perform acrobatics and reach a sort of nirvana, entering an endless flow of maneuvers that allowed you to move from point A to point B of the map in the fastest way and direct possible, just as the philosophy behind parkour maintains.

Unfortunately, it often happened that we had to stop abruptly, encountering cumbersome paths to interpret, which had to be completed through a series of trials and errors that hatefully fragmented the gameplay and ended up communicating exactly the opposite of what the authors intended. From this point of view, Mirror's Edge Catalyst improves things substantially, both through the gimmick of the "runner's perspective", which by default shows with a red trail the route we must take to reach a certain area, from surface to surface and in combination with 'inevitable red highlighter on objects, but which can also be turned off or adjusted to be similar to that of the 2008 episode; both by offering a level design that best lends itself to the dynamism of our movements, with a few moments in which we must proceed slowly, perhaps in balance on a tube or a beam. In most cases we will therefore be able to run, jump, slide, hook to long cables, land on awnings and quickly climb walls and pipes, all without ever interrupting the flow. The same flow loads a bar which, once full, allows us to dodge the bullets of the KrugerSec agents, especially if we decide to escape without a fight.

Many things to do

The perplexities expressed in our tried are fortunately averted, thanks to the introduction of fairly different missions from each other, practically divided into categories depending on the character with whom we will have to interact to access them.

There is the main storyline, as mentioned, in which we will be asked to reach certain places, activate switches and face enemies in furious hand-to-hand combat as more and more difficult.; but there are also optional quests that push hard on the platform component, recalling on several occasions the tombs of the old Assassin's Creed or the climbing routes of the Prince of Persia "with the glove". In such situations we will not be able to count on visual assistance and we will therefore be asked to identify the points on which to jump, the mechanisms with which to interact and the areas where to exploit the new MAG tool, a magnetic grapple that allows you to perform various actions, from swinging from platform to platform as you pull yourself up to a raised point, eventually pulling out barriers and supports, creating alternative paths. There are also typical sandbox missions, namely those in which KrugerSec control towers are deactivated, facing squads of soldiers and then fleeing and hiding from the view of the helicopters and cameras; and those of delivery, which refer to the true profession of Runners and which will see us engaged in crazy races from point A to point B to deliver the most varied goods within a very tight time limit. These situations clearly clarify that the "Runner perspective" can indeed be an advantage if you are not sure of the interactions with the environment to risk an improvised route, but at the same time it does not necessarily indicate the fastest route: by becoming familiar with the controls and enhancing the mobility of our character (see box) we will be able to discover different approaches, shortcuts and imaginative ways to cut the road that allow us to make deliveries on time. Finally, there are the speed races, those that refer to the (unfortunately) narrow multiplayer component, in which we will have the task of completing various routes, memorizing the time obtained in an online leaderboard for a comparison with friends and other users.

Let's empower Faith

Among the novelties, the protagonist's enhancement system also stands out, who can earn special points by completing the main missions and spend them to improve the characteristics related to movement, combat and equipment. The latter depends almost exclusively on the progression in the story, which brings with it the unlocking of new tools, while the other categories benefit substantially from the upgrades, allowing us to obtain a faster and smoother stunt run, as well as to inflict more damage on enemies during the clashes.

Fight!

Another round, another issue on which DICE wanted to put a hand to resolve the inconsistencies of the original work, in this case the fights.

In 2008 Mirror's Edge it was possible to hit enemies and even steal their weapons, transforming the experience into a sort of shooter, but with a whole series of limitations and inconsistencies that they had not convinced. For the reboot it was therefore chosen to prevent Faith from fighting except with punches and kicks (through the expedient of biologically calibrated weapons on the soldiers who wield them), by inserting a set of opponents not particularly large but well thought out, with agents of base that can be taken out through a simple combo of light attacks and others much less likely to be knocked down easily, armed with sticks, machine guns or pulse bracelets, to end up with an armored type, very resistant and able to delivering deadly blows. You can exploit the environment in various ways, hitting enemies to make them crash into a wall or one on the other, or even make them fall from a railing for instant elimination, as well as take advantage of a click that is activated with the button right backbone and which allows us not only to dodge their maneuvers, but also to take an advantageous position to center them behind. Of course, if the goal of the developers was to combine fighting and movement, unfortunately it has not been achieved: the clashes are static, sometimes cumbersome and even frustrating, and there is a lack of design choices that can support certain solutions, such as attack from ' high, effective but not always easy to carry out. In short, it was possible to work more on this aspect, which however discreetly carries out its task at certain moments of the campaign, creating dangerous situations from which we will have to get out with a minimum of strategy and promptness.

The Xbox One version

We also tested the Xbox One version of Mirror's Edge Catalyst in parallel, in order to evaluate any differences with the PC version. Admittedly, DICE has done a good job on the Microsoft console, everything runs smoothly in the glory of sixty frames per second. The fluidity in a title like this is a decisive point. However, even in this case, the difficulty of the consoles in reaching 1080p on the Frostbite Engine, used for the game, is felt. We have not yet had the opportunity to measure the image, but the poor general sharpness and the rather unsightly jagged edges suggest the use of a resolution around 720p, exactly like the closed beta.

Dario rossi

All here, the city?

Although the improvements made to the original formula are many, there is an underlying question that grips during the experience with Mirror's Edge Catalyst. The developers have built a sandbox structure that allows you to virtually go anywhere, but in reality it rarely happens to move between roofs, balconies or offices without using the "GPS", and therefore for the pure pleasure of exploring the scenery .

In short, the rendering of the city in the distance disappoints a bit, either for a graphic style that tries to remain faithful to the atmosphere of the first episode but ends up giving a feeling of old-gen and low polygon count; you want for the details, like the aircrafts that crowd the skies of Glass, the cars that ply the streets or the people that move in the few crowded spaces visible only from a distance, all rendered really bad. Fortunately, in the interiors things improve substantially, thanks above all to the massive use of transparencies and reflections, as well as to chromatic choices capable of giving a minimum of personality to some locations. Unfortunately, a little attention to detail is lacking, you see the reflection of the protagonist on the panel of an elevator (which, moreover, reveals a polygonal model very different from that of the splendid cutscenes, much more spartan even in the animations) but not on the windows of the buildings or on the surface of the mirrored glasses worn by Nomad, one of the supporting actors. The trick is there and it shows, in short, although the general lack of graphic complexity contributes to determining excellent performance on the test configuration, with 1080p and sixty frames per second constant, apart from rare cases, with all the effects on "ultra" . Speaking of adjustments, the PC version of Mirror's Edge Catalyst, object of our tests, allows you to change the general quality, through some presets, or to manually set the various values: textures, lighting, effects, post-processing, shadows, anisotropic filter, ambient occlusion and motion blur. The Frostbite 3 has shown good scalability, so it is possible that the game can run with dignity even on low-mid-range configurations. Less engaging than we hoped, however, the soundtrack, which is functional to the action but does not leave its mark.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

Processore: AMD FX 8320 @ 4 GHz
Scheda video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 Jetstream
Memory: 8 GB of RAM
Operating system: Windows 10

Minimum requirements

Processore: Intel Core i3 3250, AMD FX 6350
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti, AMD Radeon R9 270X
Memory: 6 GB of RAM
Hard disk: 25 GB of space required
Operating system: Windows 7 64-bit

Recommended Requirements

Processore: Intel Core i7 3770, AMD FX 8350
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, AMD Radeon R9 280X
Memory: 16 GB of RAM
Hard disk: 25 GB of space required
Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit

Comment

Tested version PC Windows, Xbox One Resources4Gaming.com

8.3

Readers (73)

8.2

Your vote

Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a reboot with precise intentions, that is, to improve the experience of the original game in many ways. The goal is centered in practically all sectors: from the fluidity of parkour to the richness of a sandbox full of things to do and fairly varied, from the excellent quality of the cutscenes and a solid narrative (even if without particular bite) to a coherent and multifaceted combat system, although far from perfect. Unfortunately, in some situations the conviction was lacking: the city, which was supposed to be the protagonist, turns out to be often anonymous and with old-gen outlines, while the final stages of the campaign lose the thread of the discussion and appear confusing and poorly designed. The end result is therefore an excellent game, full-bodied and certainly able to conquer fans of the series, but not the jewel that we hoped DICE could churn out.