Dance on the Mirror's Edge

The guys that brought you the Battlefield series are working on something entirely different. Maybe they were traumatized by the levels of violence in their multiplayer shooter. Or maybe they want to use the relative freedom they now have in Electronic Arts, thanks to the success of their multiplayer shooter, to try and build a different and very interesting game.

Mirror's Edge is a game about free running. The main character, interestingly named Faith, executes a variation of what parkour practitioners are doing today in the big cities. Her aim is to get from point A to point B as fast as she can and as undetected as she can. To achieve this objective, she'll leap from building to building, she'll break through doors and sometimes free fall a couple hundred floors. Momentum is her one big ally, slowing down is the biggest enemy she has.

The game is set in the not-too-distant future. And as almost all futures, this one is dystopian, too. Massive corporations have acquired the rights to supervise people. And now, anything you transmit by electronic means can be traced and used by these corporations. The "underworld" of this future has renounced all forms of electronic communications and now only relies on "runners," people like Faith, who can get communication out quickly and undetected. Although the storyline of the game is still unknown, we can almost bet it will involve freedom fighting against the Big Brother corporations.

Being set in the future Mirrror's Edge provides the perfect setting for free running. Most of the game seems to take place on the roofs of skyscrapers. And most of the running and hiding is done on glass-like surfaces, with a direct view of the sky above and the myriads of people below. The game will be very light on guns while emphasizing the free movement of the main character and the acrobatics she can perform.

With a release date still to be announced, Mirror's Edge looks like it could be a good and attractive game that dispenses with weapons in favor of movement.

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