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Mirror's Edge Catalyst - Review Thread

AHA-Lambda

Member
Very much agree.

Lol.

It probably is, EA won't make a 3rd of sales are low and reviews do matter.
And besides it doesn't look like EA expects it to sell well, originally estimating about 2m copies and that the development is said to be a subsidy for open world development of frostbite
 

Tomeru

Member
The game is fun as heck, I don't see why many people are up in arms over them review scores. They are fine.
 

Dahaka

Member
As someone who lost himself a few times in the dreamlike, magical experience of the original I am looking forward to this and giving this game a fair chance without expecting it to be like ME1.
though I still kinda wish they'd continued that formula instead of going open world
 
It probably is, EA won't make a 3rd of sales are low and reviews do matter.
And besides it doesn't look like EA expects it to sell well, originally estimating about 2m copies and that the development is said to be a subsidy for open world development of frostbite
I was laughing moreso at the remark that a 72 average review score is "awful."

I fully expect this to be the last Mirror's Edge game. Seeing as how the first is my favorite game of all time, believe me when I say I was absolutely shocked it was given a sequel, especially after all of these years.

A third entry seems far out of reach though given the lack of attention Catalyst has been getting.
 

Yoday

Member
I was laughing moreso at the remark that a 72 average review score is "awful."

I fully expect this to be the last Mirror's Edge game. Seeing as how the first is my favorite game of all time, believe me when I say I was absolutely shocked it was given a sequel, especially after all of these years.

A third entry seems far out of reach though given the lack of attention Catalyst has been getting.
Agreed. I'm just happy we got this one to be honest, as I was never expecting it. It's everything I ever wanted out of Mirrors Edge, so I'll be fine if it's the final game in the series.
 

jem0208

Member
As someone who loves the first game, I don't...understand who asked for or wanted the series to go open world?
Me, and based off of the 6 hours I played in the trial and more in the beta it's fucking awesome.



Mirror's Edge is perfect for open world and whilst Catalyst's implementation isn't perfect it's still damn good.
 
Ok, as expected, the combat and open world gimmicks fucked it up. Well done EA.

And in response to those who say the original with a 81% metacritic aggregate score was not of universal acclaim either.. The reviews were particularly harsh to it and its user score is pretty much in line with the reviewer scores (81% vs 8.1).

For Catalyst, the reviews sound like very critical but the scores are stupidly high. Hence a 75% aggregate score vs 1.0 user score.

All EA had to do was listen to people who wanted this game.

Fuck you very much EA.
 

Blizzard

Banned
Looks like another game made worse by the shitty open world craze.

The sooner this fad dies, the better.
Ok, as expected, the combat and open world gimmicks fucked it up. Well done EA.

Me, and based off of the 6 hours I played in the trial and more in the beta it's fucking awesome.



Mirror's Edge is perfect for open world and whilst Catalyst's implementation isn't perfect it's still damn good.
I loved the first game (one of my favorite games ever), but I think the open world works quite well in Catalyst after playing the beta and the full release tonight. Time trials enhance things by making you find optimal routes through the various paths. Hidden bags enhance things by making you find areas you wouldn't try reaching otherwise.

User-generated content works the same way.
 

jem0208

Member
I loved the first game (one of my favorite games ever), but I think the open world works quite well in Catalyst after playing the beta and the full release tonight. Time trials enhance things by making you find optimal routes through the various paths. Hidden bags enhance things by making you find areas you wouldn't try reaching otherwise.

User-generated content works the same way.
Exactly, the open world basically means it's just Mirror's Edge 1 but more. You could completely ignore it if you wanted and the game would be just like the original ME. However if you don't ignore it you have a massive playground to run around in completing essentially an infinite number of time trials as well as a bunch of little puzzles.

All the complaints seem to be just "it's an open world with collectables therefore I don't like it". I have yet to see a reasonable critique of it. If someone could point me to a review with one I'd be interested to read it.
 

Izuna

Banned
People will probably ignore because it's pewdiepie but his comments on the game are what made me take a step back. He was really into the first game back in the day.

Still gonna pick this up but might wait for a price drop as Overwatch still has its teeth in me.


Exactly, he was clearly trying to love it. I want to see his next episode.
 

T.O.P

Banned
1.3/10 user score on Metacritic? What?

Some really great reviews

eex
Jun 7, 2016

0

This is what happens when you let SJWs make video games. All characters are unlikeable, probably just like the people who wrote their dialogues. There has been no game developed by SJWs that actually turned out be good, this is no exception, garbage. Collapse
 

nynt9

Member
Exactly, the open world basically means it's just Mirror's Edge 1 but more. You could completely ignore it if you wanted and the game would be just like the original ME. However if you don't ignore it you have a massive playground to run around in completing essentially an infinite number of time trials as well as a bunch of little puzzles.

All the complaints seem to be just "it's an open world with collectables therefore I don't like it". I have yet to see a reasonable critique of it. If someone could point me to a review with one I'd be interested to read it.

Let me copy paste an earlier comment from the beta thread:

"- You can turn off runner vision, but since the game is designed around being open world doing so makes the game a bit worse. In the first one, since it was linear, you knew that every path was a valid path as long as you could execute the moves. Here, sometimes if you try to take a shortcut it ends up being a dead end, making it trial and error, which makes runner vision more necessary. This is typical "we catered to the hardcore returning players" like DXHR, Thi4f and Bioshock infinite did where they gave the option to remove systems to make the game similar to the older version but designed the game around their existence so removing them leads to objectively bad game design."

This in itself makes the game less focused and tight. Also, going back and forth between the same areas in between missions got quite tedious for me. And the missions seem shorter with less care put into them, presumably because resources and attention were diverted to the open world instead.

Those are my arguments against the open world.
 
Looks like another game made worse by the shitty open world craze.

The sooner this fad dies, the better.
The open world is probably one of the best things about Catalyst.

Mirror's Edge is about running, and the open world is beautifully crafted to allow you to do so, freely.

Seriously, don't get what people are on about with the open world complaints. The game is literally about running and they've provided you a giant sandbox with hundreds of routes to run, and the story and side missions have paths that are designed as well as anything in the original game.
 

Feep

Banned
Basically, the main story missions seem to be exactly what ME1 was...tight, carefully designed courses. Elysium Labs was quite fun to "figure out". Runner's Vision off, of course.

Pundits didn't like the original and they don't like this. The minor annoyances melt away quickly...you reach your ME1 moveset within 75 minutes, maximum. Combat *is* more fluid than ME1, even if it isn't as fun as running. The open world stuff can be easily ignored, but I personally like how the time trials are now integrated into the main game, as opposed to off in a side menu.

8.5/10 for me so far, 5 hours in.
 

Renekton

Member
Basically, the main story missions seem to be exactly what ME1 was...tight, carefully designed courses. Elysium Labs was quite fun to "figure out". Runner's Vision off, of course.

Pundits didn't like the original and they don't like this. The minor annoyances melt away quickly...you reach your ME1 moveset within 75 minutes, maximum. Combat *is* more fluid than ME1, even if it isn't as fun as running. The open world stuff can be easily ignored, but I personally like how the time trials are now integrated into the main game, as opposed to off in a side menu.

8.5/10 for me so far, 5 hours in.
Thanks, will buy this.
 

Izuna

Banned
You can't avoid the open world. You don't have to do the side-quests, but the open world requires you to go from mission to mission.

I think most of the hate comes from fans of the original that find catalyst underwhelming. At the very least, that's the dialogue of the reviews. It isn't much worse, but it isn't better by even an inch.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
You can't avoid the open world. You don't have to do the side-quests, but the open world requires you to go from mission to mission.

I think most of the hate comes from fans of the original that find catalyst underwhelming. At the very least, that's the dialogue of the reviews. It isn't much worse, but it isn't better by even an inch.
Again, I'd say just getting rid of the constant breaks in the action that the original suffers from is a big deal.

It felt as if the game was constantly interrupted by the need to load new sections. Those elevator rides were ridiculous and really killed the pacing at points.
 

Tenck

Member
Okay played a few missions and love the game. I'll probably try and finish it by tomorrow.

Messing with some settings and saw "User generated content." What's that?
 

Izuna

Banned
Again, I'd say just getting rid of the constant breaks in the action that the original suffers from is a big deal.

It felt as if the game was constantly interrupted by the need to load new sections. Those elevator rides were ridiculous and really killed the pacing at points.

For me its the opposite. The running loses its novelty on its own. Mirror's Edge is fun when WHAT you're climbing has meaningful context. I don't know if Catayst has it, but avoiding the train for example or jumping on a helicopter were great moments.

Of course there are those who seem to just love running around. In that case, if anything, the open world isn't open enough haha.
 
I hate that EA is getting the brunt of the hate for this turning out to be mediocre, they're the ones who greenlit a second Mirror's Edge and they still published the first one.

Between the abortion that was Battlefield 3 on consoles, Battlefield 4's launch problems, Battlefront 3 and now this... maybe people just need to get over the fact that DICE isn't a top-tier developer anymore.
 
I hate that EA is getting the brunt of the hate for this turning out to be mediocre, they're the ones who greenlit a second Mirror's Edge and they still published the first one.

Between the abortion that was Battlefield 3 on consoles, Battlefield 4's launch problems, Battlefront 3 and now this... maybe people just need to get over the fact that DICE isn't a top-tier developer anymore.
You do know that DICE made frostbite, right? The engine that pretty much everything at EA is now using.

I'd say that alone makes them top tier - and their games are utterly gorgeous, too.

Battlefront had a flawless network launch, evidencing that they've learned from BF4, and the only complaint was the nebulous "content" one.
 

jrush64

Banned
Some really great reviews

eex
Jun 7, 2016

0

This is what happens when you let SJWs make video games. All characters are unlikeable, probably just like the people who wrote their dialogues. There has been no game developed by SJWs that actually turned out be good, this is no exception, garbage. Collapse

lol. What do they mean that SJW made the game?
 
Basically, the main story missions seem to be exactly what ME1 was...tight, carefully designed courses. Elysium Labs was quite fun to "figure out". Runner's Vision off, of course.

Pundits didn't like the original and they don't like this. The minor annoyances melt away quickly...you reach your ME1 moveset within 75 minutes, maximum. Combat *is* more fluid than ME1, even if it isn't as fun as running. The open world stuff can be easily ignored, but I personally like how the time trials are now integrated into the main game, as opposed to off in a side menu.

8.5/10 for me so far, 5 hours in.
All I needed to hear. Loved the first so I'm definitely in for this.
 
Just finished the opening quest before calling it a night. I'm just playing the trial right now, though, because I have zero interest in spending $90 after taxes on a Mirror's Edge game. Or, really, anything.

To be honest, now I remember why I didn't care if they made a sequel or not. The parkour isn't that fun and so far the combat and AI are pretty bland.

It's early, but right now it's hard to be excited for more. Hopefully it will get better, though, because noe that I've started it, I'll have to play the rest.

After my trial ends, I will be waiting for the library to get it in.
 

jem0208

Member
You can't avoid the open world. You don't have to do the side-quests, but the open world requires you to go from mission to mission.

I think most of the hate comes from fans of the original that find catalyst underwhelming. At the very least, that's the dialogue of the reviews. It isn't much worse, but it isn't better by even an inch.
If you don't enjoy running through the world why are you even playing ME? The entire game is about movement.


Let me copy paste an earlier comment from the beta thread:

"- You can turn off runner vision, but since the game is designed around being open world doing so makes the game a bit worse. In the first one, since it was linear, you knew that every path was a valid path as long as you could execute the moves. Here, sometimes if you try to take a shortcut it ends up being a dead end, making it trial and error, which makes runner vision more necessary. This is typical "we catered to the hardcore returning players" like DXHR, Thi4f and Bioshock infinite did where they gave the option to remove systems to make the game similar to the older version but designed the game around their existence so removing them leads to objectively bad game design."

This in itself makes the game less focused and tight. Also, going back and forth between the same areas in between missions got quite tedious for me. And the missions seem shorter with less care put into them, presumably because resources and attention were diverted to the open world instead.

Those are my arguments against the open world.
Fair enough, those are some reasonable critiques.

That said, I'd argue that learning the world is part of the fun, experimenting with different routes and learning the best ways to get from A to B is a major part of ME. The odd dead end was slightly frustrating but it made learning the city and its different paths was all more rewarding. In my 6 hours with the trial there was only one time when I felt the need to turn runner vision on and that was just after being introduced to a new mechanic so I wasn't sure what to look for. If you occasionally check the map you shouldn't run into many dead ends.

Also the main missions were linear so didn't have those issues, I'd also argue that they were very well designed. The Anasi tower was especially awesome.

There is also fast travel so if you really did get bored of running through the city you can bypass a lot of it.

That said, the problems you're describing definitely aren't big enough to say that the open world ruins the game and if you look at the benefits of the open world I think they're fairly negligible.

You've got a massive playground to explore with essentially endless content in the form of new time trials created by the community, this alone makes up for any issues imo. But then you've also actually got quite a lot of decent side content. Things like the data cores or the hackable billboards are actually quite fun little puzzles.

It seems like people are focusing way to hard on the pointless but completely optional collectables and writing the game off as Ubisoft wannabe because of it.



I'm on my phone by the way so sorry if any of this doesn't make sense or is formatted poorly.
 

Alienous

Member
It did stand out to me in livestream footage I've watched I've seen players having to traverse a mission area they already completed just to get to their destination.

It seems like bad design - in an open world those mission areas ought to be out of the way. But instead it seems like they built a ton of mission areas then stitched them together with rooftops and called it an open world.
 
If the story missions are just like the original and you don't have to delve into side stuff or unlocks to progress, I guess I can overlook the open world

I'm sick of games where I just wanna blast through the story and move on to another game but the pace is bogged down with all the travel and side stuff constantly blasting in our face screaming "DO ME!"

I literally want like maybe 10 hours out of this that tops and see all the story beats and be done. Mirrors Edge 1 is one of my favorite games ever, because it's always moving at such a fast pace and is such a joy to replay
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
Anything said on length yet?

The game doesn't do anything daft like DA3 did where the story is gated off by side content does it? =/

If the story missions are just like the original and you don't have to delve into side stuff or unlocks to progress, I guess I can overlook the open world

I'm sick of games where I just wanna blast through the story and move on to another game but the pace is bogged down with all the travel and side stuff constantly blasting in our face screaming "DO ME!"

I literally want like maybe 10 hours out of this that tops and see all the story beats and be done. Mirrors Edge 1 is one of my favorite games ever, because it's always moving at such a fast pace and is such a joy to replay

Pretty much this.
 

Alienous

Member
Is it me or does the running look more fluid in Mirror's Edge 1, particularly when turning? That game had the camera bank slightly when you're running and you quickly turn, but Catalyst keeps the camera entirely level - it's noticible in videos but maybe it isn't such a big deal in gameplay? It makes the running look more robotic.
 

Izuna

Banned
I think the purpose of the argument isn't to say "I think this game is garbage because of open world", but more about suggesting how it could have been better. Having higher expectations for a game that got it right enough the first time isn't strange. Since Mirror's Edge, almost every other game has some form of parkour, some more rewarding, some faster and others that complement the gameplay of an entirely different genre; shooter, survival horror, even beat 'em up.

After introducing us to parkour that didn't completely suck: the sequel reboots the story and tells another uninteresting one.

Now we have a game that so clearly has said: gun combat just doesn't work, gives us a few combos, making us fight longer without disarming and making the entire gameplay simply running.

Even the most defending comments seem to say the story missions as just as good as the original, making it evident that the running in the open world isn't as good. If that's the case, then they took Mirror's Edge and filled it up with less exciting gameplay in between.

The concept of an open world is great in theory, perhaps even while it's being played, but the impact of Catalyst doesn't compare to the original. "Thank god, there's more Mirror's Edge." Is the exact description of this game, whether the individual ranges from "liked" to "love". Unless it's been a very hard 8 years, what another couple of months?

--

I'm just practicing putting my thoughts into words, I think I've said all I needed to.
 

Alienous

Member
I would like to see more games justify their open world. I've seen nothing of Mirror's Edge Catalyst that does that, quite the opposite actually. It looks like padding. It does seem, having not played the game, like a fairly small experience wrapped up in an open world. And traversing the open world seems like nothing more than navigating a really terrible level selection menu. And as others have said it kills replayability.

Ah well.
 

nynt9

Member
If you don't enjoy running through the world why are you even playing ME? The entire game is about movement.



Fair enough, those are some reasonable critiques.

That said, I'd argue that learning the world is part of the fun, experimenting with different routes and learning the best ways to get from A to B is a major part of ME. The odd dead end was slightly frustrating but it made learning the city and its different paths was all more rewarding. In my 6 hours with the trial there was only one time when I felt the need to turn runner vision on and that was just after being introduced to a new mechanic so I wasn't sure what to look for. If you occasionally check the map you shouldn't run into many dead ends.

Also the main missions were linear so didn't have those issues, I'd also argue that they were very well designed. The Anasi tower was especially awesome.

There is also fast travel so if you really did get bored of running through the city you can bypass a lot of it.

That said, the problems you're describing definitely aren't big enough to say that the open world ruins the game and if you look at the benefits of the open world I think they're fairly negligible.

You've got a massive playground to explore with essentially endless content in the form of new time trials created by the community, this alone makes up for any issues imo. But then you've also actually got quite a lot of decent side content. Things like the data cores or the hackable billboards are actually quite fun little puzzles.

It seems like people are focusing way to hard on the pointless but completely optional collectables and writing the game off as Ubisoft wannabe because of it.



I'm on my phone by the way so sorry if any of this doesn't make sense or is formatted poorly.

Now, I'm only trial+beta deep into the game, but almost none of the open world platforming was interesting enough of a challenge that it felt as satisfying as the highs of ME1. While a large amount of decent platforming is mostly fine (though it can get tedious going back and forth between missions), I'd rather have a smaller amount of more focused platforming. Sure, the story missions seem to be fine, but one can only assume that the effort dedicated to the open world could have been instead spent on creating more story missions. And I'm not one of those people who unequivocally hates every open world game. It's just not aligned with what made the first game great for me. I can see that for some people that is exactly what they want (like my post earlier in this thread, depends on why you thought ME was great), but for me it's just a disappointing sequel. Still a pretty good game, mind you, just not the same heights as the original. I know the comparison has been made and dismissed earlier in the thread, but at least in some aspects (especially combat) Dying Light puts this game to shame. That EA, with all their resources, can't beat Techland is pretty disappointing. Though the Dying Light part of my argument is a side track, and for all I care this game could have had absolutely 0 combat. Though I gotta say I preferred disarming to whatever this game's combat system is.
 

Izuna

Banned
I tried the Dying Light demo again. Really wish it had less motion blur and a higher FoV. I might return if I ever get a PC good enough for it.
 

jem0208

Member
Now, I'm only trial+beta deep into the game, but almost none of the open world platforming was interesting enough of a challenge that it felt as satisfying as the highs of ME1. While a large amount of decent platforming is mostly fine (though it can get tedious going back and forth between missions), I'd rather have a smaller amount of more focused platforming. Sure, the story missions seem to be fine, but one can only assume that the effort dedicated to the open world could have been instead spent on creating more story missions. And I'm not one of those people who unequivocally hates every open world game. It's just not aligned with what made the first game great for me. I can see that for some people that is exactly what they want (like my post earlier in this thread, depends on why you thought ME was great), but for me it's just a disappointing sequel. Still a pretty good game, mind you, just not the same heights as the original. I know the comparison has been made and dismissed earlier in the thread, but at least in some aspects (especially combat) Dying Light puts this game to shame. That EA, with all their resources, can't beat Techland is pretty disappointing. Though the Dying Light part of my argument is a side track, and for all I care this game could have had absolutely 0 combat. Though I gotta say I preferred disarming to whatever this game's combat system is.

I'd disagree with the idea that the open world isn't interesting. Some of the earlier sections are fairly simplistic but later areas introduce a lot of different options in how to get from point A to B. It's not quite as deep as the missions but I think it's still good enough that it can provide a tonne more content.

Fair enough if you'd rather have more linear content but I'd argue there's far more room for replayablility with the open world.

That said, my initial comment was directed at those who were saying the game has been ruined by introducing an open world. From what you're saying it seems like you think the game is still good but could have been better without the open world which is fair enough. However, I want to read why people think the game is much worse because of the open world.
 
Looks like another game made worse by the shitty open world craze.

The sooner this fad dies, the better.

Yep. Those are my sentiments exactly. I'll still get it since I loved the first game, but I really wish open-world didn't have to infect everything. Not all games benefit from it. Hi, MGS5.
 
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

I played the beta and it just made me want to play the original. Just looked and felt too much like the first game to me. Although I haven't played the original in a long time so I might be wrong.


I guess what I'm trying to say is that maybe it's not the reviewers but the game itself isn't all that interesting
 
What a shame. Beloved game gets Longshot sequel which is worse than the original. Sorry to say but that's usually the end for a series.
 
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