The game's primary focus is running, jumping and exploring, or "Parkour", as it`s called. This is defined by an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body, and you`ll definitely be amazed at what it`s capable of.

You`ll be playing as Faith, one of the runners in Daily City who relay messages via rooftops, which has become the only way for free communication. Faith`s sister, Kate, will shortly be accused of the murder of a politician and the government will not remain uninvolved. Faith will have a tough time on her hands trying to help her sister, and quite possibly overthrow the government in the process.

The controls are simple enough, once you get the hang of it. You`ll soon be jumping and dodging like the best of them, or so you`ll think. The truth is, until you`ve played a level a couple of times, from start to finish, and memorized the correct way of jumping, you`ll be clueless as to where you`re supposed to go next. You`ll find yourself falling time after time after time after...

Mirror`s Edge is the first to implement a new first person view, with realistic body movement. Bust open a door and the screen will shake violently, make a huge jump and tilt your view down you`ll have the pleasure of seeing Faith`s feet as she`s jumping. Even when fighting you`ll be surprised at how good the disarming moves look like from this perspective. Definitely try the game for this new experience, even if you`re not masochistic enough to play the story mode to the end.

One of the most irritating things about Mirror`s Edge is how clueless you`re left throughout the whole story mode, and when I say clueless, I mean clueless regarding everything from your next location, to the way you`re supposed to take, and what exactly it is that you`re supposed to be doing there. The game boasted an incredible freedom of movement, with each taking his or her preferred way to solve each level, but once you play it you`ll realize that you were blatantly lied to. There is freedom of movement, indeed, but that only leads to Faith splattering on the ground below. If you want to complete a mission, you`ll have to take the route that was intended by the developers in the first place.

There is a thing called runners view that will color intractable items, or places where you can jump to, red, but only from a limited distance, so you`ll often find yourself plunging head first of a building, thinking it is the right way, only to see some planks color red after you`ve jumped. Take into consideration the fact that you`ll have to load the game after each fall, and sometime the checkpoints will be way behind. Another problem that I encountered was with the drain pipes that you`re supposed to grab onto, but Faith apparently doesn`t know this. Sometimes you can grab them from the first time, and other times you`ll just give up after the 10-th try and take a nice relaxing brake from the game.

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I was certainly expecting more than an advanced game of trial and error. Since the game is very short, with only 9 chapters that can be finished within a day or two, this method of trial and error will serve as an artificial way of increasing the games' duration. Even though Faith will show you where she`s heading to next, with the simple press of a button, you`ll quickly discover that this is no help whatsoever and is more of a general indication to the direction you`re supposed to go in. There usually is something between you and your goal, be it a door or some gap you`re supposed to jump over, and the magic "show the way" button doesn`t take that into consideration, so more often than not, you`ll be confused by it.

From the start of the game you`re told to avoid enemies by running from them, or, if there is no other way, fight them one at a time. That sounds great in theory, but in practice, you`ll often find yourself pitted against a large number of armored enemies, that don`t seem to want to wander apart from one another. There is no way of fighting more than one opponent at a time, whether you`re trying to disarm him by using some fancy moves, or by knocking him out, since the other guy will fill you with led. You can use their own weapons against them, if you manage to disarm one and so please, but the game is certainly not meant to be played in this way. Another thing that confused me is the fact that you`re told that all red-colored enemies are supposed to be taken out to progress, but on the later levels this doesn`t seem to apply. I still remember trying for several hours to defeat seven (red-coded) armored enemies, only to discover that it was not necessary to fight them.

Some enemies that must be taken out in order to allow you freedom of movement on the rooftops are not colored red, while other, not important troops, are, so why color them in the first place if you`re doing it wrong? Allow us to make that decision, not program everything into one set path. Sometimes you`ll be bugged by a helicopter with a mounted machine gun as well, that seems to come and go as it pleases. However, there is nothing as annoying as trying to discover the right way to jump, when you`re being shot at, only to die and try again and again.

Added up, all these small annoyances seriously take from the fun of the game, and make the story mode much more difficult than it could have been, artificially. The melee combat part of the game is weakly implemented and the fact that you`re forced into combat, when you`re told to avoid combat in the first place, is a confusing contradiction.

The one thing that is indeed fun and maybe the way in which the story mode should have been designed in the first place is the Time Trial mode where you have to complete the levels by using the fastest route available, without anyone shooting at you.

Another thing that I like is how the city is designed, with its tall white buildings and clean environment. Every level has a certain color ranging from white, to orange and green, with special items like doors and climbable items being bright red. However, as good as the rooftops and buildings look, that`s how bad the interior levels look, with the same items being used over and over again. Also, there are a lot of electrical fences and barbed wire that impede your progress, but nothing that some good jumping won`t solve.

The option of linking several jumps and tricks as you build momentum is very interesting, and if you get it right and don`t fall, you`ll have a nice feeling of accomplishment.

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Conclusion:

I am really saddened to see another possibly good game become nothing more than a good concept implemented poorly. I can only recommend trying it out at first, and then make up your own mind, since there are some that will like it for its innovative ideas and control scheme, while others will simply hate the trial and error nature of the game. While Faith's story could have been remarkable, as it is, it's nothing more than an excuse to jump through predefined hoops, mimicking freedom. That's not what I was expecting, at all!

Gameplay: 68

With an incredibly annoying story mode, that doesn't even have a story to back it up, only annoying enemies, Mirror's Edge definitely needs tweaking. The gameplay can be fun at times, with certain puzzles requiring a little bit of brainpower besides dexterity, and the Time Trial mode saves it from being just a frustrating experience.

Graphics: 85

While the PC version will certainly look better, from what I've seen in the videos, the Xbox version certainly doesn't disappoint when it comes to graphics, or frame-rate. Too bad that not the same work was put into designing the interiors, as it was put into the buildings and rooftops, since half of the game takes part indoors.

Sound: 78

The voices and music have nothing remarkable about them, and Faith is remarkably silent throughout the game. You'll get to see and listen to her in the cartoony cinematics, but that's about it. If we get to see her as we play, and go through hell, why can't we hear her as well?

Multiplayer: 87

Not exactly multiplayer per-se, but the option of competing against other people's times could be considered some form of multiplayer. This is certainly more addictive than the main story mode, and once you have the controls mastered, there's nothing to stop you from finally taking your own way through the level.

Hardware: 89

With no problems in frame-rate, the Xbox version certainly presents itself well. However, the loading screen will become a common sight on your monitor, and even though the loading time is small, the large number of times you'll have to load the game will add up.