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Mirror's Edge: Catalyst - new previews/videos - Closed Beta begins April 22-26th
- Thread starter ezekial45
- Start date
Wowfunhappy
Member
What do you make of Spec Ops: The Line? Or Alan Wake?
Story missions must be completed as if players went directly from mission-to-mission without leveling up, so that means the fewest unlocked skills. Who knows how they're paced out, or how much grinding is required to unlock skills. I guess that's the info we're really missing. But we do know they're unlocked one at a time, and you need a certain amount of XP to unlock one skill. They're not part of a set or something.
So... looking at all the skills on that list.. at a guess, either missions give quite a lot of XP, or you're going to be grinding your ass off.
Except that doesn't apply to a game that is mostly about time trials and leaderboards. Anybody planning to invest time in this game beyond the story will come back to use every skill they gained. It's really not as big a deal as people are making it out to be. We have no idea what it's really going to take to unlock these abilities.
I think Alan Wake is a confused blob with interesting ideas.
And going from the dev stories, I think Spec Ops: The Line sort of got lucky. Some of the biggest parts of that game's story were pulled right out of the writer's ass due to some weird real-life environmental challenges.
That one SIde Mission in the exploration video netted 500 XP. At the point he was he needed 7000 XP to unlock one skill so...
RSB
Banned
I've been watching the videos, and yep, I'm still hyped. I'd rather have everything unlocked from the beginning, and a couple of minor details are annoying (like the absence of the bone crush sound when falling from great heights) but overall, I really like what I'm seeing.
Do we know if there's a no HUD option? Having things like enemy indicators and enemy life bars is kind of annoying, so I hope there is.
Do we know if there's a no HUD option? Having things like enemy indicators and enemy life bars is kind of annoying, so I hope there is.
Yep, that's how I see it.
Not necessarily confused, just different. My understanding is that DICE had been pitching ME sequels for years before Catalyst finally got the green light. They really wanted this game even though the first was not a financial windfall. I suspect EA relented, in part, due to the passion project, keep-DICE-happy thing. But they also wanted to see a plan for real profitability.
End result? Mirror's Edge is not an art house game--it will have many of the trappings of modern AAA titles. But it will also, in many ways, be the game that DICE has been trying to make for years now.
This is all speculative, of course. But from the outside, that's what I'm guessing.
Of course, we don't know how XP scales throughout the game either. Does it all stay at the same level needed for a skill point? Does it start lower? Are rewards consistent?
Because you could take any balance and tweak it to fit your goals. If you really, really want it to be a learning system, you'll measure it out to create as little grinding as possible. A natural curve that just happens to use XP as a ruler.
T'would be nice if that were the case, but again... not enough info at this point.
OverBlood 3
Banned
Looks really rough :/
Perhaps story missions will have multiple paths like the original. They could have a path with bar swinging and a path without.
KB/M is always, in my experience, better for first person games, but if you're more familiar with controllers for that sort of thing, don't let me stop you.
A 360 controller works fine so I assume an XBone controller would work.
My personal preference is mouse + keyboard since I thought those controls worked quite well on PC.
Wowfunhappy
Member
KB/M is the way to go for the original Mirror's Edge. Lets you look around and turn much more easily.
IceDoesntHelp
Banned
So pre order doesnt guarntee access? Kinda shitty, but hey we
Huh. Watching this, they actually make it obvious when you lose focus because the world loses its intense saturation. So, y'know, hopefully there's an option to kill the meter that tells you the exact same thing.
EDIT: aw, the bone crunch really is gone. the fall is still intense, but it doesn't have that same blast of finality. it's like, whatever, try again.
Did you play the original one? It did a full first-person flip.
I actually liked it better since it flowed smoothly though. This one feels like it bounces back, but I guess on average it bothers people less.There are toggles for all the highlights! YESSSSS
Thank god.
Nabs
Member
I knew it that EA would find a way to ruin Mirror's Edge, thank god it has this crap at least now i won't feel bad for not buying it.
Tatsumi Oga
Banned
So that IGN video, is that from PC or Xbox One? It all looks really good but then i noticed low res shadows and usually that's not the case on a good enough PC, right? If that's Xbox One, it sure looks good and smooth. Not sure if this game is for me though, was never incredibly fond of the first one.
Leafhopper
Banned
A game about freedom of movement put movement abilities behind skill points.
I give up. I had hopes that this would just be a better ME but fuck.
Did you play the original one? It did a full first-person flip.
I've had it sitting in my backlog for a while now. I was always going to try the original first before committing to a purchase, mostly so I could know whether I axtually like this type of game. Maybe it's not as bad when I'm in control over what happens, so I can anticipate what kind of feedback I'm getting (similar to how it's easier to respond to inertia in a car when driving yourself).
nogoodnamesleft
Banned
um, yeah i agree its not a great thing (upgrade stuff) but ruin? overreaction much?
just watched the videos. day fucking 1. cannot wait.
Wowfunhappy
Member
Let me tell youthe roll in the first game is disorienting, even when you're in control. I don't get ever motion sick, but it still causes me to lose track for a little bit.
Learning to push through it is part of the fun, though. And, as someone who spent years doing gymnastics, it really is similar to what quickly rolling feels like.
Yeah it's ruined, no question about it whatsoever.
ME was about be free in movements and do whatever i wanted now i have to unlock stuff to perform freaking rolling.
Yes, ruin. It's not an overreaction I think. This has implications for the game design. It means that no essential mission will require "advanced" skills. The game will be geared towards beating it with your basic skillset that consists of running and jumping. Think of all the sequences in the first game where you had to execute series of complex moves to proceed. Those will be gone.
It also means that you will have to grind doing endless open world fetch quests to unlock your full potential, which won't really be required anyway. I can't really think of an open world game that did balancing against a character without any abilities versus against a fully leveled character very expertly.
Welcome to video games, where all established heroes start from scratch
Ah. That explains why Gordon Freeman dropped the crowbar on his foot in Half-Life 2.
TheVampire
Banned
Give you yet another thing to upgrade, to give you a sense of progression? Surely it will be pitifully low in the beginning of the game.
2008
Mirror's Edge Reveal Trailer This is the first time people has ever seen the game.
First thing you see Faith doing after the jump is rolling, soon after she stands on a tube like an equilibrist trying to go across two buildings and then after a small wall-running jumps into oblivion trying to grip another tube giving you the most incredible feelings of freedom of movements.
All that in the Prologue chapter.
2016
Mirror's Edge: Catalyst
Faith: "What's rolling?"
Bravo EA, bra-freaking-vo *clap clap*
Mirror's Edge Reveal Trailer This is the first time people has ever seen the game.
First thing you see Faith doing after the jump is rolling, soon after she stands on a tube like an equilibrist trying to go across two buildings and then after a small wall-running jumps into oblivion trying to grip another tube giving you the most incredible feelings of freedom of movements.
All that in the Prologue chapter.
2016
Mirror's Edge: Catalyst
Faith: "What's rolling?"
Bravo EA, bra-freaking-vo *clap clap*
I don't think anything will be ruined, but there's no need for gated skills. The old mechanics made sense and were necessary to the game's pace, drip feeding them to you does nothing for the game.
If they had incorporated several new traversal mechanics/puzzles/gimmicks/schemes then it would make some sense, but from the looks of it this doesn't even seem to have Portal to Portal 2 levels of differences.
If they had incorporated several new traversal mechanics/puzzles/gimmicks/schemes then it would make some sense, but from the looks of it this doesn't even seem to have Portal to Portal 2 levels of differences.
HueyFreeman
Banned
Well it's Faith's origin story isn't it? If this is done well and the levels are designed with it in mind, i don't have an issue with it. Might be really cool and be a better way to build the player's dexterity up - some people found the original ME overwhelming.
My goodness, we manage to find some novel shit to complain about as a community, don't we?
I feel a little better knowing the open world is actually gated behind abilities, suggesting DICE actually put some thought into how it relates to the overall game progression. Might end up feeling more like Zelda or 3D Metroid than a Ubisoft game.
I don't know about skill trees yet. In one of the previous DICE defended it by saying locking abilities convinced players to actually use them more once they actually unlocked them. I don't know if XP and levels are the best way to do that though. Maybe they should have been locked behind events in the main story. How will side missions and extras be balanced around this? Maybe some will simply require certain abilities unlocked? Could the main story gate people like this?
Maybe DICE is trying to address how difficult the first ME was for some people. A lot of people died a lot in that game. It was one of those games where you really suck at it when you first try it, but slowly get better as you figure out how to best utilize abilities and the environment.
I don't know about skill trees yet. In one of the previous DICE defended it by saying locking abilities convinced players to actually use them more once they actually unlocked them. I don't know if XP and levels are the best way to do that though. Maybe they should have been locked behind events in the main story. How will side missions and extras be balanced around this? Maybe some will simply require certain abilities unlocked? Could the main story gate people like this?
Maybe DICE is trying to address how difficult the first ME was for some people. A lot of people died a lot in that game. It was one of those games where you really suck at it when you first try it, but slowly get better as you figure out how to best utilize abilities and the environment.
petethepanda
Member
This is starting to feel like one of those "the fanbase from the niche original is going to be impossible to please" kind of sequels.
I have absolutely no memory of whether or not I signed up for the beta, lol. I assume I would have if I saw it back when signups went live.
I have absolutely no memory of whether or not I signed up for the beta, lol. I assume I would have if I saw it back when signups went live.
Um, no?
They break Faith out of prison to rejoin the Runners, and claim she already has a legend as a runner. And she can't roll. It has nothing to do with the story unless her limbs have just completely atrophied, in which case they should not be relying on her to jump around and wallclimb.
There's a balance between making an improved sequel and jacking its pacing up with obligatory skinner boxes.
BiGBoSSMk23
A company being excited for their new game is a huge slap in the face to all the fans that liked their old games.
I hope they include a TPS mode. Camera shake and low FOV in a melee FPS with free running at its score is a nightmare.
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