Okay, so Mirror's Edge has been getting VERY mixed reviews from the critics so I thought I'd put in my 2 cents about this game.
First off, Mirror's Edge is not your typical first person game. Most people will just wanna run around and shoot everything full of lead in sight. In fact, this game is the total opposite. Yes, you can shoot enemies but your encouraged NOT to. Mirror's Edge isn't about shooting everything up, it's obviously about running and surviving not only huge leaps and jumps, but from your pursuers who constantly try to take you down.
Now the story is about Faith, a runner who is trying to uncover a murder that her sister Kate is framed for. It isn't a groundbreaking story by any means, but there are a few nice plot twists to keep it interesting. Faith is joined by other runners, Celeste and Mercury who help her out throughout the game. Oddly, you never actually see Merc in the actual gameplay, he's only in the 2D cut scenes. Celeste, Merc, and the villiains all seem very one dimensional and don't really have that much personality. Faith is the only character that really matters, besides her sister. Sadly the campaign in Mirror's Edge is EXTREMELY short, on my first playthrough it took me about 6 hours. And on my second playthrough on Hard, it only took me 3, yes 3 hours to complete! This is the biggest disappointment about the game. It should've been longer!
Gameplay wise, you'll either love it or hate it. I personally, loved it. The sense of movement they put in the game is amazing and immerses you into the world Faith is in. You can run, jump, 180 turn, slide, climb, and many more things. Everything is easy to execute but your timing needs to be really really quick. Some of the platforming is really tricky and your timing must be precise. Disarming is also somewhat difficult to pull off, but again timing is everything. The gunplay is also good but one thing I noticed if you pull off a headshot with a pistol, it doesn't kill the enemy with one shot at times which I thought was odd. The enemy AI is decent though most of the time they will just stand behind cover and fire at you or they'll just run at you so you can knock them out right there.
The Time Trial mode is pretty addictive if your a perfectionist. There are a total of 23 time trial levels, and you can earn up to 3 stars per level if you perform flawlessly, 2 if your decent, 1 if your below par. The Speed Run mode is much more difficult since you need to finish a full chapter of the game below the target time. The times you're supposed to beat are ridiculously tough. Thankfully, you can download other players ghosts and try to mimick their moves or improve upon them in order to beat their times. The ghosts are available only in the Time Trial mode.
Graphically this game is gorgeous. The art design is top notch. Every level you play is totally unique in every way. You won't seem like your playing the same level over and over again. Every hallway, every room, every rooftop has a massive amount of detail. Character models are well done but the animations could've been better. Most of the movement from cops or fellow runners seem somewhat robotic.
The sound and music in Mirror's Edge is fantastic. This is personally one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time. The music is calm and soothing if your running around rooftops by yourself, but when your in combat the music totally kicks up and makes the situation your in more frantic.
Overall, I think this game is worth playing. Even if your skeptical give this game a shot. Rent it, download the demo, just play it. Don't let the dumb critics fool you, this game is a blast to play.
My Score: 8 out of 10.