Okay, so sports and games have always had a bit of a love affair going on. For football there's FIFA and Pro Evo; for basketball there's NBA and for boxing fans there's Fight Night. There's even PGA tour, if you love golf so much you want to play it indoors, on your PS3. However, you just know things are getting silly when fans of parkour, or freerunning, get a little bit of gaming heaven. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Mirror's Edge.

Mirror's Edge comes from one of EA's many studios, and takes the player into a modern city where a group of freerunners are used to relay messages, unbeknown to the government. However, the danger doesn't stop at great heights or falling off a zipline; government agents attempt to track you down and shoot you, while you have to jump, run and fight your way out of the pickle you're in. It's all quite snazzy.

The demo was very promising. The controls were easy to master, with all upwards tricks being controlled by L1 and downwards moves by L2. Fighting was good, too, with the ability to counter-attack and disarm opponents. The guns resembled a Walther PPK in design and were satifsying to shoot, although lacked much graphical 'shapow'.

The full game will follow Faith, the main character, and her journey through the danger of being a parkour messenger. The game will feature a Time Trial mode, as does the demo, but the demo version of the mode can only be accessed with a pre-order keycode. Graphics are good, although a little cartoony and occassionally slightly pixelated in cutscenes.

Mirror's Edge is a surprisingly original take on the sports genre, and incorporation of combat for the more violent of players is sure to lure many shooter fans into buying the game. I know the one group of people they were aiming for, though, and I doubt they'll deny it.

Adrenaline junkies.

Linford

Labels: Demo Impressions, EA, Freerunning/Parkour

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