Review: Mirror's Edge Catalyst

Current mood: doo dee doo...

I finally caved and played the reboot of a beloved video game title, 7 years after it's released. Life is happening and I would like to clean up the backlog before that, so here we are. I booted up the thing and apparently the online servers shut down just last December woaaahh... I got one (1) online trophy but I'm never getting the others now haha

Throw out all you know about the original because everything is different now! The story, the vibes, even the characters have different roles. Some were never mentioned, but then again this is a prequel-reboot, so it's not surprising.

Faith, our leading lady, just got out of juvie! She is reckless and has learned nothing from her 2 years in prison, so she gets into trouble with the big powers of the city during her first run, and this is not mentioning her debt to crime czar Dogen. The people in her life have been very tolerant of her fuck-ups, especially considering what got her in juvie in the first place, but not Icarus. He joined the runners while Faith was rotting in a futuristic cell, and the two don't see eye-to-eye... at first. Eventually, the big powers raid the runner's lair to get their shit back, Noah (Faith's mentor) and many runners die in the conflict. They uncover a conspiracy and with some help from former employees of the big powers, decide to bring the fight back to them. 

In the end, despite the radical ways the resistance try to cripple the big powers, nothing really changed. Society went on ahead like nothing happened; the ruling class still sit comfortably on their clean, shiny thrones; the only difference is that Faith now knows her sister Caitlyn is still alive and is one of the big powers.

Gameplay: there is a reason I kept putting off playing this game and it's because of the skill progression and later, its combat. What do you mean I have to unlock roll and 180 turn (when these are available from the get-go in the first game)? Gear upgrades sure but basic movement skills??? It gets better once you get the hang of it but the combat sucks balls. One of the worst aspects of the first game was the combat, the devs knew it but made it worse anyway. There's a few sections in the main campaign where you have to stand and fight waves of enemies... in a game where speed and mobility is everything and you are encouraged to run. Make it make sense! However, not all's bad! The one thing I enjoy in this game - running. There's a lot of explorable nooks and crannies with hidden collectibles and it helps that the environment is gorgeous. Just *chef kiss*. Never get tired of running through the rooftops in the city. Instead of fast travelling to a safe house I sometimes take the scenic route and run all the way to my destination, because why not. Only gripe? Stay still to admire the skyline for too long (usually near a security camera) and enemies start spawning. Overall tolerable so I give it a 7.

Story: it didn't really have a satisfying end. I guess EA wanted to leave some room for a possible sequel so they don't want to put a definitive full stop on this. It wasn't such a big deal for me (my motivation to play this was never about the story) but I would also like for the player's actions to make an impact. I don't want to run and fight through waves of goons and fling myself through skyscrapers just for the devs to say "your actions didn't make a difference". At least the first game had some semblance of closure; Faith runs to save her sister, and in the end she did. This game? Faith is not running to pay her debt (in fact, she should, but we never see her pay Dogen back), she's not part of the resistance (if she was, her actions would make some sense), and her motivation to run for 'the good of the people' or 'freedom' didn't actually come until the last few story campaigns, so what was she supposed to represent in the early missions? It just doesn't make sense for her character arc, especially someone who got sent to juvie for 2 years. You'd think she knew better. There's also too much lore scattered in different media and the worst thing is that the official website is now gone, so you cannot access the worldbuilding stuff on there anymore. I'm intrigued, but only a 5.

Music: the music always, always save the final score and MEC is no exception, because if the devs chose to ignore the complaints about the combat what they didn't choose to ignore is the praise for the music. There's an option to increase the music volume!!!! Due to nostalgia factors it's not as 'familiar' as the original but Solar Fields did what he does best and delivered. Instead of a liminal space type vibe, Catalyst has more of a sci-fi, semi-cyberpunk score that fits with the setting. I could stay and enjoy the ambiance but spawning enemies would never let me.

Overall rating: nyeeehhh it was fine all things considered. They nailed the aesthetics but it was a little too futuristic for my tastes. Catalyst is almost two steps away from becoming Cyberpunk 2077, it's pleasing to the eyes but not believable, at least not yet. Good graphics, great music, acceptable gameplay (combat sucked) but story needs a lot of work. If I was a person who put emphasis on the story, it may just go down to 5... but I'm not and this is not an RPG, so I give it an 8.

Catalyst is mostly saved from a low rating by the fact it is the second first-person traversal/platform whatever-the-hell-its-genre-is game I own (the first being the original Mirror's Edge, obviously) and I don't have a frame of reference for what I want or like in this genre. It improved on the traversal aspect and gave us a semi-open world to play with, but I still wouldn't put this on the same level as the original. Chalk it up to nostalgia I guess.

Despite the flaws I really enjoyed my time going through this game. I just wished the update didn't fuck up screenshare.