Two things I really loved the most about the first one, and what made it so memorable to me was Solar Fields' soundtrack, and the super brightly coloured environments. Like orange and green walls and stuff.
How does the soundtrack and the vibrancy of the environment stack up against the original? Just as good? Better? I'm hoping to get it at the end of the month anyway, just curious for some impressions
Two things I really loved the most about the first one, and what made it so memorable to me was Solar Fields' soundtrack, and the super brightly coloured environments. Like orange and green walls and stuff.
How does the soundtrack and the vibrancy of the environment stack up against the original? Just as good? Better? I'm hoping to get it at the end of the month anyway, just curious for some impressions
So far the music has been pretty forgettable and I really prefer the visuals of the originals' environments more. It had way more contrast and looked more 'lively' than Catalyst. It's hard to explain.
But I'm really enjoying the game though. Traversing through the environments still feel good. And sometimes feels a bit more streamlined than the original (in a good way).
So far the music has been pretty forgettable and I really prefer the visuals of the originals' environments more. It had way more contrast and looked more 'lively' than Catalyst. It's hard to explain.
But I'm really enjoying the game though. Traversing through the environments still feel good. And sometimes feels a bit more streamlined than the original (in a good way).
Two things I really loved the most about the first one, and what made it so memorable to me was Solar Fields' soundtrack, and the super brightly coloured environments. Like orange and green walls and stuff.
How does the soundtrack and the vibrancy of the environment stack up against the original? Just as good? Better? I'm hoping to get it at the end of the month anyway, just curious for some impressions
Once you reach max speed, the game raises the soundtrack volume and cranks the color saturation, so it looks about as vibrant as the original game I think. I've found 3 areas I mentioned earlier that I thought were really beautiful, as good as or better than the original. Two of them were unique compared to the original too.
I don't remember a particular song in the original besides the credits song / theme and maybe a couple of puzzle themes, and I've played it a LOT. The Catalyst music is decent ambient with a couple of especially good themes, but it may not be quite the original's quality.
The game is definitely just as vibrant as the first. The first section of the open world isn't quite as interesting but the main missions and other districts you unlock are gorgeous imo.
Two things I really loved the most about the first one, and what made it so memorable to me was Solar Fields' soundtrack, and the super brightly coloured environments. Like orange and green walls and stuff.
How does the soundtrack and the vibrancy of the environment stack up against the original? Just as good? Better? I'm hoping to get it at the end of the month anyway, just curious for some impressions
The soundtrack is good, and sometimes even great. The music shares a cohesive theme but offers a lot of variety in tone and pace, despite the game kind of encouraging the fast speed. It mixes with the visuals to give sort of a abstract, surreal feel a lot of the time, where I feel like the original game felt more exaggerated to provide a sense of style and urgency.
The visual style is nice but I feel like the complexity of the open world design in some places feels a bit confusing with abstract parts kind of seeming to bleed into one another at high speeds, which can make it very difficult to detect routes, even when just straight forward wandering. To me, it feels a like a little bit of a hang up sometimes, but I think it's more of a level design issue than a visual one -- I still very much appreciate the high contrast whites with bright colors intermixed. The level design seems really rock solid during the majority of missions, but the open world does have that sense of losing track of placing and routing for me.
Depends on how interested you are in time trails and side content etc. If you'll be doing that sort of thing then there are tens of hours of content. There's a lot to do in the world.
Only 1 time in on HowLongToBeat at 6.5 hours from someone that was speedrunning the first game. They also said that they think it would take about 7.5 - 8 for a regular person.
I'm imaging around 20 to do all the side stuff too.
EDIT: Looking at a guide, I'm about halfway through at 4 hours. Some messing around with trials in there.
Depends on how interested you are in time trails and side content etc. If you'll be doing that sort of thing then there are tens of hours of content. There's a lot to do in the world.
It's the best. It's especially satisfying working out new routes that cut down times by half what the suggested Runner Vision route is. That element of the game fully justifies it's giant world, the practical application of the map in some of these point A to B races is the best. I do kind of wish the end point of some of the races came up on your HUD like most mission objectives, although the fact that they don't makes me really inspect the environment for landmarks, which I do appreciate.
One other thing, I haven't found too much use for the coil action yet, perhaps because I just unlocked it, but I've mostly been able to clear over ledges and fences with plenty of distance under me. Oh and spring-boarding is the best. The. Best.
.One other thing, I haven't found too much use for the coil action yet, perhaps because I just unlocked it, but I've mostly been able to clear over ledges and fences with plenty of distance under me. Oh and spring-boarding is the best. The. Best.
It's so weird that DICE would leave on by default a setting that makes the game look like trash. Especially since there's already an auto setting that should be able to detect how much VRAM you have and reduce texture quality automatically!
It's so weird that DICE would leave on by default a setting that makes the game look like trash. Especially since there's already an auto setting that should be able to detect how much VRAM you have and reduce texture quality automatically!
Turning the limit off can crash the game -- I think it's more complicated than just picking a texture quality setting. The game has to juggle all the world's textures, decide which ones are nearby, which ones should stay in memory, and so forth.
The beta seems to have helped the game. I've only gotten stuck in one spot and had to reload a checkpoint. I did find an annoying problem though where I died right after Plastic started talking. I completely lost the rest of the conversation, and possibly the following conversations. I tried reloading the last checkpoint, and got teleported across the world to my destination AND lost all the conversations. Replaying the mission skips that part, so I'm now watching on YouTube to see what I missed.
So I haven't actually hated the open world level design that much, or the delivery side quests. I feel that unlike a lot of other open world games where you have to race against the clock to get from point A to point B, at least it kind of makes sense and fits in for you to be racing to a dropoff point. I'm still only an hour or two in and I have to wonder, does anyone else feel like they're just barely finishing delivery missions? Am I missing something that will shave seconds off of my route or are they all just that close before you unlock some extra moves. For reference I didn't have the jump & tuck (whatever that's called) or the run-up-wall-and-jump moves when I did my deliveries.
I feel like in the first game (and I was playing it very recently), I was constantly using it on every chain link fence, I feel like I'm just bounding over everything with the springboard technique.
I've been playing pretty much the whole day, and I've only got three hidden Trophies left so I'm thinking that's three main missions until the end of the game. I imagine it'll end up being 8-10 hours for the main missions alone, then of course the real meat of the game will be in the time trials and speedrunning. I don't know how well the game is set up for that, though (like I don't know if you can just pick your time trials from a menu or if you have to physically run to the starting point in the world, which would be a pain), but I'll get started with that once I've finished the story.
Man, what a stupid story this is. I mean, it has moments where the nice slick graphics and the occasional good-looking character model might convince you something interesting is going on, but in reality it's just so dumb. I think it is such a missed opportunity to reboot Mirror's Edge and then just do the same tired 'evil corporation' plot all over again. The spirit of Mirror's Edge is just bright, stark colours and free-running; you could set it anywhere in history, or anywhere in the future, and it'd still work. Imagine a Mirror's Edge in space, or in ancient times, or just anywhere except another near-future white city, with basically all the same plot points as the first game. Why just do the same thing again?
Worse, if you've played the first game you already know exactly what's going to happen. At no point did I ever consider for a second that
Cat wasn't Faith's sister, yet the game tries to convince you that she's Kruger's daughter until, *GASP* she is Faith's sister OMG! Like, yeah. Yes, that was always 100% obvious. Why even waste time on that?
And this whole thing with
Noah, or Nomad, or whichever one it was that was supposed to have died off-screen in the raid. Obviously he was still alive, because we didn't see a body, but the big reveal once you get to Kingdom is *GASP* he's still alive! Oh wait, he just dies ten seconds later. Then there's a weird moment where Faith looks at the console in the corner of the room, and I assumed she was going to put him back on the table to revive him or something, but... nope.
One thing I really feel they've botched is Runner Vision. I always turn it off when I'm in a story mission, because finding my own way through is part of the fun and there are often environmental markers that point you in the right direction anyway (lighting, electrical cables, etc). But then I have to turn it right back on as soon as I get into the open world, because it's a fucking maze and it's impossible to get anywhere unless you're following the red path. The game desperately needs a button you can press to just pulse out the 'where the fuck do I go?' marker. Like, instead of having the words 'RUNNER VISION OFFLINE' on my screen all the time and making me hold R3 to turn it back on, just let me click R3 whenever I need to have the red thing swoop by so I don't have to go into the menu every time.
Also every time you have to fight in an arena it's a goddamn nightmare. The new combat abilities are wonderful for when you're on the go, using the environment to clobber people as you move past without losing speed, but when the game just dumps waves of dudes at you and expects you to kill them all with your fists it feels like garbage. I just imagine someone watching me from above, this crazy lady just running in circles trying to jump off stuff to kick dudes and never getting it lined up right. It's a mess. It'd be so much easier to just disarm one of the guys with the guns and blaze those motherfuckers.
I don't want to be too down on the game, because I am enjoying it. It has a couple of really nice improvements over the first game, though overall I wouldn't say it's a better game. The open world has been nothing more than a hassle so far, just a big maze full of hundreds upon hundreds of collectibles that I mostly try to fast-travel through. The abundance of side-mission types mean you spend the first couple of hours of the game having to learn how to do all of them; while Mirror's Edge 1 had you tear-assing around from moment one, Catalyst has you spend hours learning how to find microchips and hunting down dead pigeons before you're allowed to get to the good stuff. I feel like I'm probably going to try for the Platinum Trophy, to match my one from the first game, but I'm not looking forward to spending hours and hours ticking off every checkbox in this Ubisoft-ian bloat factory.
The story missions have been great so far, though they're completely separate from the open world. You start the mission and you're locked off into an ME1-style level, complete with 'YOU ARE LEAVING THE MISSION AREA' warnings if you dare stray from the path. The level design here is a lot more fun and interesting in these. And there are some really great side mission types, too, with the Gridnode platforming challenges and Plastic's Metagrid chase things being my favourites.
(Oh, let me say that Plastic is the absolute worst Big Bang Theory nerd character I've seen in a while. Her only character trait is that she doesn't understand jokes because she's a techie hacker. "I'm going to need you to reroute the encryption mainframe" "Huh? Could you say that again in English?" *pause for canned laughter*)
tl;dr it's good but it has problems. It's better than the original in some aspects and worse in others. Maybe in another eight years they'll make a third one and it'll be just right
So I haven't actually hated the open world level design that much, or the delivery side quests. I feel that unlike a lot of other open world games where you have to race against the clock to get from point A to point B, at least it kind of makes sense and fits in for you to be racing to a dropoff point. I'm still only an hour or two in and I have to wonder, does anyone else feel like they're just barely finishing delivery missions? Am I missing something that will shave seconds off of my route or are they all just that close before you unlock some extra moves. For reference I didn't have the jump & tuck (whatever that's called) or the run-up-wall-and-jump moves when I did my deliveries.
Seems like most of you are actually enjoying it so far, maybe this is another one that is better than reviews. I absolutely loved the first, so I might pick this up after work today.
I think Plastic is kind of awesome. Her attitude clashes nicely with the other characters on the comms. I certainly didn't think of the Big Bang Theory, which has grated on me in the past. It's also neat to see how many (4?) of the main characters are minority women. And 2 of them are minority men.
About getting lost in the open world, time trials and deliveries help a lot with that. When you have to shave down time to 3-star something, you learn the open-world routes well...and then when you're actually roaming through the world, you find yourself doing the same routes.
Seems like most of you are actually enjoying it so far, maybe this is another one that is better than reviews. I absolutely loved the first, so I might pick this up after work today.
About getting lost in the open world, time trials and deliveries help a lot with that. When you have to shave down time to 3-star something, you learn the open-world routes well...and then when you're actually roaming through the world, you find yourself doing the same routes.
Yeah, I expect the open world to come into its own once I start on the time trials and side missions. I already experienced this in the few hours I played of the beta; it makes good on that thing we all wished Mirror's Edge 1 had where we could explore and experiment to find our own routes to shave seconds off our times. That's going to be really cool once I actually get started on all that stuff.
But for just ploughing through the main missions I'm finding it a hassle. Especially since it's such a hub-and-spoke kind of open world, rather than just one big open area. In order to get anywhere you so often have to go all the way back to the Runner's Lair and then take one of the paths branching off it. I Fast Travel whenever possible, but of course you need to do the Gridnodes before you unlock Fast Travel, and some of those areas are just a real pain to get to. Like, the only way to get to a whole new district of the city will be to climb up one particular ladder through a little hatch down one specific alley in a sewer, and I'm just never going to remember that.
Seems like most of you are actually enjoying it so far, maybe this is another one that is better than reviews. I absolutely loved the first, so I might pick this up after work today.
It 100% better than the reviews make it out to be.
I feel like a lot of the reviewers missed the point of the open world. A lot seemed to have judged it with the same criteria as with other open worlds even though it really shouldn't be. It's not the most interesting world but as a free running playground it's superb imo.
Destructiod probably has the best review of it imo (although I'm actually quite enjoying the story, terribly cheesy writing and all).
Seems like most of you are actually enjoying it so far, maybe this is another one that is better than reviews. I absolutely loved the first, so I might pick this up after work today.
If you enjoyed the first, you'll enjoy this one as well. Unless you're one of those "OPEN WORLD EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW" people, in which case: Uh... try it anyway.
If you enjoyed the first, you'll enjoy this one as well. Unless you're one of those "OPEN WORLD EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW" people, in which case: Uh... try it anyway.
To comment a little more on a related issue, reviewers and open world complaints...
I feel like some of the open world complaints for this game were not well thought-out. In the original game, you selected time trials from a menu. In this game, you access them in one giant playground that you slowly learn to master. Why is the first, menu-based solution better than the new one? It's fine to say that it's goofy to accept missions from random people in the environment, but the open world itself is a great context for the missions themselves.
Turning the limit off can crash the game -- I think it's more complicated than just picking a texture quality setting. The game has to juggle all the world's textures, decide which ones are nearby, which ones should stay in memory, and so forth.
Sure, but isn't that every open-world game (and really every game in general, to some degree)? I don't think I've ever seen a "limit GPU memory" option before, let alone one with such a dire warning message. I'm pretty sure none of the Battlefield games had it, for example. It also seems like a pretty severe reduction in texture and image quality to set as your default (like, I can't imagine consoles looking this bad!), though I haven't yet tried with the limits off. It'd be like Microsoft recommending you always run Windows in Safe Mode.
One thing I really feel they've botched is Runner Vision. I always turn it off when I'm in a story mission, because finding my own way through is part of the fun and there are often environmental markers that point you in the right direction anyway (lighting, electrical cables, etc). But then I have to turn it right back on as soon as I get into the open world, because it's a fucking maze and it's impossible to get anywhere unless you're following the red path. The game desperately needs a button you can press to just pulse out the 'where the fuck do I go?' marker. Like, instead of having the words 'RUNNER VISION OFFLINE' on my screen all the time and making me hold R3 to turn it back on, just let me click R3 whenever I need to have the red thing swoop by so I don't have to go into the menu every time.
I really wish there was an actual "classic" runner vision mode, where the only things you see are objects in the world highlighted in red. I don't want the red arrows in the current Classic mode and I definitely don't want the Fox Sports(TM) hockey-puck streak to show you exactly what you're supposed to do. I've been trying the game with runner vision off to see if it becomes a major issue, but I haven't done a ton of wandering through the world yet.
Man the game is good! My fears where not for real.
I feel, unless it becomes a drag towards the end, that this is going to be one of those nice and unique open world games. It works for it and it is weird since it is an open world rooftop game.
Going back to the gameplay is so much fun. Loving it so far.
I got caught up in some of the wallrunning, one mission has a what looks like a long wallrun jump up and no room to start. I must have missed that 20 times, the frustration didnt help any either. So when you are running and need to get to a higher ledge what is the best way to get it? I finally made it, but cant for the life of me figure out what I did different. Run to the wall hold LB, then hit LB again to jump?
All in all liking the game, playing on the XB1 and Im not one of those sensitive to minor graphical but have seen some noticeable frame-rate drops and some graphic pop-in. Not enough to impact enjoying the game.
When running, it's a quick bit of acceleration when coming from a stop. It's invaluable when trying to shave fractions of a second off a dash or time trial score. A similar thing was actually a glitch in the first game and was so popular in the speed running community that it seems DICE decided to officially add it to the game.
In combat, it's a quick dodge left or right that can allow you to get behind an enemy.
Depends on how interested you are in time trails and side content etc. If you'll be doing that sort of thing then there are tens of hours of content. There's a lot to do in the world.
Only 1 time in on HowLongToBeat at 6.5 hours from someone that was speedrunning the first game. They also said that they think it would take about 7.5 - 8 for a regular person.
I'm imaging around 20 to do all the side stuff too.
EDIT: Looking at a guide, I'm about halfway through at 4 hours. Some messing around with trials in there.
Thanks for the replies guys, I really enjoyed the first game and am intrigued by Catalyst. Still I think I might wait for the price to drop a bit before picking it up, lord knows I have enough to play now anyway
Seems like most of you are actually enjoying it so far, maybe this is another one that is better than reviews. I absolutely loved the first, so I might pick this up after work today.
I read some of the reviews and I don't get why they are negative. At first I thought it was because of the progression tree, but that hasn't even been an issue for me.
The game feels exactly like the old one at least in the running which is what really counts.
I thought it being open world and not linear would be an issue, but this looks promising. Like a unique take on the open world genre that is growing so stale. Mission might be 'repetitive' but who is going to argue against something that repeats what the game is about.
The story I really don't care about that I just wanna run. I am sure it is still miles better than Watchdogs.
One criticism though, we got to see the street in the intro part, but it seems the whole open world for now is on rooftops, which is cool and unique, no problems with it, I just kinda want more verticality. I guess this is not a negative but a "I want more of this" complaint.
I got caught up in some of the wallrunning, one mission has a what looks like a long wallrun jump up and no room to start. I must have missed that 20 times, the frustration didnt help any either. So when you are running and need to get to a higher ledge what is the best way to get it? I finally made it, but cant for the life of me figure out what I did different. Run to the wall hold LB, then hit LB again to jump?
In three years this is going to be on generation end "underrated" lists and I hope everyone who didn't buy it accepts the personal responsibility of fucking up if the franchise dies 🐸☕️
In three years this is going to be on generation end "underrated" lists and I hope everyone who didn't buy it accepts the personal responsibility of fucking up if the franchise dies 🐸☕️
In three years this is going to be on generation end "underrated" lists and I hope everyone who didn't buy it accepts the personal responsibility of fucking up if the franchise dies ��☕️
I was looking at more 6/10 reviews this morning. As his last sentence, a reviewer wrote somethink like "The Mirror's Edge franchise is likely dead now. And it might be for the better."
How could you want an innovative franchise like ME to not comeback? Am I playing the same game as other people? I mean, it's maybe not the ultimate ME game we all wanted but it doesn't deserve the backlash. And I'm sad for DICE who fought for years to get this game published.
Anyway, I can see how things will turn from now on on this forum:
July 16: "Mirror's Edge Catalyst flops harder than original. EA reports the game didn't meet expectations."
May 17: "Mirror's Edge Catalyst was such an underrated game."
March 18: "EA confirms the development of Mirror's Edge 3 is cancelled; franchise failed to connect with gamers."
