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Mirror's Edge Catalyst - Review Thread

N

NullPointer

Member
nynt9 said:
This goes back exactly to my previous comment in this very thread:
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Which sounds absolutely right. I'm just pointing out that you can't blame that on the open world. I seriously doubt a linear Mirror's Edge reboot would have ever ditched the combat entirely, or wouldn't have ratcheted up those arenas as you approached end-game. At least this way players have a wide swath of space to play around in on their own time, and in their own way, including time trials, which made up the longevity of the last game. It may not be a great open world, but it doesn't seem to be a net negative.

Speaking of time trials, has there been any hint of post-game support? I'm wondering whether we should expect any kind of response if glitches and exploits are found that could completely break those leaderboards.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
I'm liking it a lot, but didn't play the first so I can't compare.
 
Admiral Snackbar

Admiral Snackbar

Member
nynt9 said:
Open worlds are quantity over quality. The reason I (and many others) loved ME so much was because of the tight level design and how that played with the mechanics. Open level design a la Dishonored, sure. But pure open world design is a net negative for people who loved ME because of how singular of an experience it was.
Click to expand...

That's a fine opinion and one I personally do not share. If the game doesn't feel right for you, that sucks and I'm sympathetic. But it's not the only perspective about the game.

7s and 8s are what the last game got and we're all here because of fond memories of that one. Did you like the first one? You will probably like this one. There is less combat, it is less intrusive, and there is more to do. There are places to make your own paths and different locales within the city to get a change of scenery.

Did you not like the first one? This is very similar and while I would recommend trying it, it's a hard sell considering how closely it follows the first one.

The open world is for getting around. The missions send you into constructed levels that are unique to those missions. It has the vibe of the first game, then you're left to your own devices until you start the next mission. Don't want open world stuff? Blitz the missions. The game is short with that approach but it's there for you.

I won't pretend to believe my feelings about the game aren't biased. I truly am having fun with Catalyst and I would hope the kneejerk reactions to the mostly positive reviews wouldn't be outright skepticism. There is room out there for all kinds of games and someone else telling you it's a B- title shouldn't be a shut door, is all I'm saying. It's fun to run.
 
N

nynt9

Member
Admiral Snackbar said:
That's a fine opinion and one I personally do not share. If the game doesn't feel right for you, that sucks and I'm sympathetic. But it's not the only perspective about the game.

7s and 8s are what the last game got and we're all here because of fond memories of that one. Did you like the first one? You will probably like this one. There is less combat, it is less intrusive, and there is more to do. There are places to make your own paths and different locales within the city to get a change of scenery.

Did you not like the first one? This is very similar and while I would recommend trying it, it's a hard sell considering how closely it follows the first one.

The open world is for getting around. The missions send you into constructed levels that are unique to those missions. It has the vibe of the first game, then you're left to your own devices until you start the next mission. Don't want open world stuff? Blitz the missions. The game is short with that approach but it's there for you.

I won't pretend to believe my feelings about the game aren't biased. I truly am having fun with Catalyst and I would hope the kneejerk reactions to the mostly positive reviews wouldn't be outright skepticism. There is room out there for all kinds of games and someone else telling you it's a B- title shouldn't be a shut door, is all I'm saying. It's fun to run.
Click to expand...

I mean, I played the beta and the EA access trial, so I know how I feel about the game. I really don't care about the numeric scores assigned in the reviews. I just don't think the direction DICE/EA chose for this game is in line with what I expected. I'm still getting it but I'm not expecting greatness from it. I was already tired of running back and forth the same areas to get to and from missions in the beta. I just can't fathom how they thought this would be the right direction to grow the franchise in. From what I've seen and what the reviews say, the new elements aren't compelling/competent enough to draw in new players, and as a person who considers ME1 as one of his all time favorite games they're solving problems I didn't have with the first game and introducing bloat. I understand everyone has different priorities, but I'd rather run through an amazing 5 hour experience than run around the same open world for 30 hours trying to improve my times and get that one collectible. Even the open world felt lacking compared to other open world games.

Not even touching on the combat/AI.
 
G

george_us

Member
GHG said:
Nobody. And what's funny is we had people defending that decision in the pre-release threads. Most of those people defending it weren't even fans of the first game and their logic was that by it being open world it might have wider appeal as a result. They told us we only liked the first game so much because of "nostalgia" and that the game in its original state wouldn't hold up today. The great irony is that after these shitty reviews I doubt many of them will even buy it still.

By making it open world they not only alienated most of the fans who really wanted a sequel, but they also made the game worse overall.

Good job EA.
Click to expand...
True but, if you're DICE, how the hell else are you supposed to pitch a AAA budgeted sequel to a game that sold the majority of it's 2.5 million copies at bargain bin prices? Open world was probably the only way this game was getting made.
 
J

JigglesBunny

Banned
Did nobody make an OT?
If I was a Member again I'd have whipped one up, but since I'm out of the game, is anyone making one? Game drops in 20 minutes.
 
N

NullPointer

Member
Splatterpunk said:
Skimmed a couple of reviews, and they didn't mention it: did there end up being a way to turn off third person sections/takedowns?
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I don't see the option anywhere.

Everything else looks toggleable. I've turned off damn near everything and this is starting to feel like Mirror's Edge ;p

And at least early combat hasn't sucked yet, and is based upon staying moving - and that seems to depend upon environmental takedowns.

So far so good.
 
D

Disgraced

Member
I don't know how I feel about this. I love the first. It sounds like I might love this one too the same way I loved Watch Dogs—for the aesthetics and base gameplay—if the main issues are the story and the "collect-a-thon," or how busy the side content is. Those are non-issues, personally. Reception towards the design is so divided though. I'll have to sleep on it for a bit, which'll be a while since I'm broke as a joke after Doom and other crap right now anyway.
 
N

NullPointer

Member
PS4 LOD is very noticeable. Most of the city looks like its missing textures, and I'm seeing pipes as white until I get within 15 feet or so when their metallic sheen bloops into existence.

Also some periodic framerate hitches - short and infrequent ones, but noticeable. And on full range surround the audio cuts out for a few seconds every so often.

Restarting the PS4 just to be sure.
 
R

Roussow

Member
NullPointer said:
I don't see the option anywhere.

Everything else looks toggleable. I've turned off damn near everything and this is starting to feel like Mirror's Edge ;p

And at least early combat hasn't sucked yet, and is based upon staying moving - and that seems to depend upon environmental takedowns.

So far so good.
Click to expand...

What would you recommend toggling off? Is it a case of a unnecessarily dense HUD?
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
I preordered the new game soon after trying the beta. Loved the original.

The new one runs well on Windows 7 off an SSD, latest NVIDIA drivers, GTX 770 2GB.

However, even the tutorial area has some texture issues for me on "Ultra" or "Hyper" texture quality. I haven't tried other settings. Is anyone else seeing this with boxes?

mirrorsedgecatalyst20sascm.png
Click to expand...
 
N

NullPointer

Member
Roussow said:
What would you recommend toggling off? Is it a case of a unnecessarily dense HUD?
Click to expand...
I have everything turned off at the moment, but I have a pretty high tolerance for getting lost in open worlds, and I usually spend some quality time getting to know each neighborhood. We'll see how well the game's missions work with no HUD elements.

Its just nice to know that you can remove so much from the HUD, so you'll find a mix that works for you.
 
J

JigglesBunny

Banned
I don't know what is causing it, but there's this awful stuttering/hitching on the Xbox One version every few seconds and it's so distracting.

I'm thinking of just moving on to my PC version now and starting from scratch. The Xbox version is just such a mess visually and now performance wise.
 
Q

QuantumSquid

Member
Blizzard said:
I preordered the new game soon after trying the beta. Loved the original.

The new one runs well on Windows 7 off an SSD, latest NVIDIA drivers, GTX 770 2GB.

However, even the tutorial area has some texture issues for me on "Ultra" or "Hyper" texture quality. I haven't tried other settings. Is anyone else seeing this with boxes?
Click to expand...

Your GPU only has 2 GB of VRAM. Super high res textures require more than that in most games.
 
L

Last_colossi

Member
Ok I'm 3 hours into the trial and... I'm loving it a lot more than I thought I would. The game isn't perfect and the story isn't the best but, there's something about the mix of solar fields again and the familiar Mirror's Edge gameplay that feels good.

I would give it a 8/10 so far. (The original is a 9.5/10 for me)
 
S

Spikematic

Member
I have severe open world fatigue and a huge backlog so I decided to skip this for now. Which is a pity I guess, since I was extremely excited about it during the initial reveal. Too bad they felt the need to make it open world and shove in shitloads of collectibles and whatnots. I loathe that shit.
 
T

TripOpt55

Member
Looking forward to diving into this tomorrow. Finished off Doom, so it will only have to contend with my Uncharted 4 multiplayer addiction for my attention.
 
V

Valkyr1983

Banned
Chopper said:
No way man. It was true, in theory, in as far as killing enemies wasn't required to unlock progress, but you try running past all those armed guards towards the end of the game without getting shot to shit? No chance.
Click to expand...

I definitely pulled it off, I remember getting the trophy for no guns and then did no take downs on the second playthrough

If this game doesn't offer that choice then quite frankly it's inferior and not worth it

Should be beatable with zero combat
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
QuantumSquid said:
Your GPU only has 2 GB of VRAM. Super high res textures require more than that in most games.
Click to expand...
I know, but certain textures are super low. I just wanted to make sure it's the VRAM limitation causing this.


Side notes:
  • I thought someone said Faith's feet are invisible. You can definitely look down and see her legs.
  • Turn the music slider all the way up!
 
R

Risk Breaker

Member
toddhunter said:
Except they don't. EA are trying to make unique games which are also AAA, appeal to everybody and do well on metacritic.

This, mass effect 3, dead space 3, dragon age inquisition... All games they messed up trying to make them bigger than they really are.

I agree it is still better than what Ubisoft does, but the bar is pretty darn low.
Click to expand...

Why are you using games that are over 4 years old? Also, ME arguably changed a lot more between ME1 and ME2 then ME2 and ME3, and ME2 is the one that got the most praise so I'd say it worked pretty well.

DA:I won GOTY awards (even if I personally didn't like the progression and structure of the game).

ME:C is a risky move that is getting exactly what was to be expected for a game based around running and jumping, non-lethal combat, with no guns and a female protagonist. If you guys think the game is suddenly super safe generic AAA because of it being "open world" (as open world as Infamous is, and a natural progression for the series) then I don't know what to tell you.

I'm really not sure what the problem is. ME:C has the same gameplay only with new moves and more variety, bigger environments where you can put those moves to use, timetrials just like the first one and then side content for whoever wants to do it. Whether you like the story or not, there's a lot more of it and higher quality than in the first one. Then again I didn't really like the first one much. Some things were cool and I loved the art style, but it was the shell of a game.

You guys should also stop assuming that every single design decision is dictated by publishers.
 
M

Mechazawa

Member
The LOD in this can get preeeeeeetty fucking aggressive(on PC).

I'll be looking at a wall texture and when I back up 4 feet it immediately starts turning into a low res version. I wonder if that's contributing a lot to the blurry look the game has going on.
 
J

JarrodL

Member
The Technomancer said:
As someone who loves the first game, I don't...understand who asked for or wanted the series to go open world?
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As someone who finished the first game recently and enjoyed it, I absolutely wanted to see an open world take on it. Too many times in the original I found myself wishing I didn't have to follow through constricted linear tunnels of levels, and could instead forget the stupid objectives, pick a direction, and run whenever I want. Sommersaulting off the walls along the way.

Honestly, the hyperbolic open world hate in this thread is getting tiresome.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
I think the open world works great for roaming around and finding missions, but I kind of love how traversal feels.

Mechazawa said:
The LOD in this can get preeeeeeetty fucking aggressive(on PC).

I'll be looking at a wall texture and when I back up 4 feet it immediately starts turning into a low res version. I wonder if that's contributing a lot to the blurry look the game has going on.
Click to expand...
One thing that helps some: Make sure to turn motion blur completely off.


One negative I've noticed early: Just like in the beta, the fragile delivery missions replay the voice lines EVERY TIME. And if you screw up and need to restart early, you can only restart by killing yourself for a slow reload, instead of the time trial hold-R reload.
 
M

Mechazawa

Member
Yeah, I turned the motion blur off immediately. Light sources have insane amounts of dithering if you move your camera around with it left on.
 
Q

QuantumSquid

Member
Risk Breaker said:
Why are you using games that are over 4 years old? Also, ME arguably changed a lot more between ME1 and ME2 then ME2 and ME3, and ME2 is the one that got the most praise so I'd say it worked pretty well.

DA:I won GOTY awards (even if I personally didn't like the progression and structure of the game).

ME:C is a risky move that is getting exactly what was to be expected for a game based around running and jumping, non-lethal combat, with no guns and a female protagonist. If you guys think the game is suddenly super safe generic AAA because of it being "open world" (as open world as Infamous is, and a natural progression for the series) then I don't know what to tell you.

I'm really not sure what the problem is. ME:C has the same gameplay only with new moves and more variety, bigger environments where you can put those moves to use, timetrials just like the first one and then side content for whoever wants to do it. Whether you like the story or not, there's a lot more of it and higher quality than in the first one. Then again I didn't really like the first one much. Some things were cool and I loved the art style, but it was the shell of a game.

You guys should also stop assuming that every single design decision is dictated by publishers.
Click to expand...

I think I figured out the real reason why EA took so long to make a Mirror's Edge sequel:

They didn't want to have two franchises whose abbreviations are ME.
 
I

Izuna

Banned
It's not that open world was a bad idea, this game has a very band open world. Because of it, environments are varied than the original and is only used for going quest to quest.

8 years later and it's exactly like NFSU1 to NFSU2. It's underwhelming, and when the best part of the game is the story missions, which are simply on par with the original (and almost graphically too), the open world does nothing but makes the parkour less exciting by the time the game is done.

Time trials are still fulled with glitches and unintended shortcuts. Catayst fixed nothing. It's barely a sequel. It's like a smaller, third-party team took Mirror's Edge 1 and made a new game out of the same engine.
 
F

ffvorax

Member
Didn't liked much the first game, so I didn't expect much from this... I will skip.

Even if I don't like this "saga", I still think that with VR it could be awesome.
 
G

Gitaroo

Member
Im getting a lot of low res texture on my 970. Some time they load sometime they stay in low res forever, changing the setting doesn't help :(
 
G

golem

Member
Gitaroo said:
Im getting a lot of low res texture on my 970. Some time they load sometime they stay in low res forever, changing the setting doesn't help :(
Click to expand...

Getting texture pop in with my Titan X too. Just how they setup the engine I suppose.
 
S

SlasherJPC

Banned
How anyone can love the first and not this one, no idea. So far, a few hours in and this is definetly Mirrors Edge alright. I also feel the open world works great with the franchise
 
D

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
The big thing for me is the elimination of loading elevators. Those appeared constantly in the original and broke the flow of so many stages. Plus, those awful animated sequences between missions.
 
S

StrongBlackVine

Banned
Blizzard said:
The original was 79 on consoles -- hardly universal acclaim. Either way, it's a pleasant surprise the sequel was made.
Click to expand...

I know the first game wasn't universally acclaimed and I'm quite frankly surprised EA gave it another shot. But this game actually needs good scores to sell so it will flop and the IP will be dead.
 
D

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
StrongBlackVine said:
I know the first game wasn't universally acclaimed and I'm quite frankly surprised EA gave it another shot. But this game actually needs good scores to sell so it will flop and the IP will be dead.
Click to expand...
Definitely disappointed by the harsh stance reviewers are taking in the game. Especially coming off of the hyperbolic Overwatch praise.
 
G

golem

Member
StrongBlackVine said:
I know the first game wasn't universally acclaimed and I'm quite frankly surprised EA gave it another shot. But this game actually needs good scores to sell so it will flop and the IP will be dead.
Click to expand...

Sadly it isnt a game for everyone and probably wasn't ever going to appeal to reviewers. Not a game that will score well for just having really good gameplay mechanics
 
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