14 DAY TRIAL // Mirror's Edge has so far managed to impress mainly through its slick visual style and through the way it aimed to turn parkour into a viable gameplay mechanic. DICE, best known for its series of Battlefield games, which just received a new addition with Bad Company, is developing the game and Nick Channon, one of the producers, recently commented on why Mirror's Edge is a linear kind of game when everyone is obsessed with open-world titles.
Speaking to Gamasutra he claimed that the drive for open-world games can do more bad than good and that choosing that path would have likely resulted in a "watered down" version of the game. He elaborated by saying that "the reason for that is we wanted to pack as much action in as we could. As soon as we went open-world" that experience would not exist in its original form. By making levels more linear the developers were able to create a clean gaming experience, where the player has clear aims which he works to complete.
This does not mean that the game is a corridor experience, where every door is locked and only one path can be followed. Channon says that DICE "built every level out to have lots of choice. I think the thing we're really pleased about is that the amount of choice in every level is really limited to your imagination."
Nick Channon also talked about the much considered likeness between Mirror's Edge gameplay and the one seen in Assassin's Creed. He says that "we were well into development before that game came out, so, you know, that's the thing - we've tried to create a unique style, and something different." In fact, the similarities are not that deep because in Assassin's Creed the free running element is just a means of travel while in Mirror's Edge running is the actual core of the game.