Mirror's Edge

[Dipstick]

What does this mean? That there's a die-roll to determine whether you'll actually do a wall run or fall to your death? The success of the moves -- jumping, coiling, wall-runs, etc. -- are all dependent upon your distance, approach angle and timing. If set up correctly, you'll never miss. The challenge is for the player to be consistent.

I suspect the issue is more with the physics and hit detection, more than anything. One good example of this is the final jump on the time trial for Cranes 2. It's a long jump, and there are five possible outcomes: clear the gap in stride, clear the gap into a slide, catch the edge of the building, catch the edge of the building in a hard landing, and not clear the gap and plummet to your death. I've done that jump about 34543543 times and I still can't tell which outcome is coming until it actually comes. (And if you're wondering, I'm always taking the jump at the same speed).

Another example is that on certain drops, sometimes the game will just let you land and sometimes the game will asses a hard landing penalty, and there's no real clear reason why. I saw this a lot on the first drop during the sniper sequence in chapter 9 (and taking a hard landing there is bad, as you're pretty much dead).

Why? Again, disarms are based on distance and timing. Done correctly, you'll never miss. Never. Also, combat is extremely and, contrary to a previous post of mine, I believe you can avoid every single confrontation.

There are several places where fighting is required:

• The fight in chapter 3, after running from the helicopter for the first time. You'll get shot down trying to go up the pipe otherwise.
• The fight in the mall in chapter 5. You will get mauled by the machinegunner trying to make the adjustment necessary on the crossbar to clear the final jump.
• After you get spotted by the chasers in chapter 8. Same setup as the one in chapter 3, but now the chasers make this more annoying (at least they don't climb pipes).
• The lobby in chapter 9. The machinegunner will destroy you while you're pushing the button for the elevator to come down otherwise.

(To be fair, these sequences may have alternate solutions that I missed.)

The combat got tolerable once I got used to it (and figured out that the AI is horribly predictable: running slide kick, knee, 1-2 punch over and over again will knock anyone out short of the chasers), but they combat scenes really were where I got hung up 90% of the time on my first playthrough -- I could see why people don't like them.

[B-Ri]

hint on chasers
they all ALWAYS do high roundhouse kicks, just slide kick them in the stomach. Theyll take a step back, then run toward you again to do yet another roundhouse kick. Rinse repeat.

[Prince Planet]

but they combat scenes really were where I got hung up 90% of the time on my first playthrough -- I could see why people don't like them.

I can, too (although I sort of enjoyed the combat). But I don't how see how it sucks the life out of the 1P mode. Combat is a really small part of the game.

[Frogacuda]

I picked it up last week at Target for $44 and I enjoyed it tremendously. The game gets many things right but it ends fairly quickly and you just want more from the game (more hand to hand moves, more levels, multiplayer, etc.) I hope it gets a sequel.

For a linear game about running from one point to another, I found it to be fairly lengthy, honestly. But it's sort of hard to appreciate fully on the first run through anyway, since the real joy of the game is about maintaining your momentum in creative ways and it's hard to do that until you're familiar with the level.

I wanted to love the game, but the inconsistent controls sapped the fun out of the speedruns. Combat sapped the fun out of the singleplayer campaign.

The idea is really to avoid combat, aside from maybe the occasional disarm (which is just pure timing and doesn't require any combat per se). Once you've got it down, combat amounts to bum-rushing an enemy, getting to close range and then tapping Y when they swing at you. Easy peasy.

[bVork]

What does this mean? That there's a die-roll to determine whether you'll actually do a wall run or fall to your death? The success of the moves -- jumping, coiling, wall-runs, etc. -- are all dependent upon your distance, approach angle and timing. If set up correctly, you'll never miss. The challenge is for the player to be consistent.

Boxes that are too high to just jump onto but too short to grab and then lift up onto are found frequently throughout the game. Don't tell me you never jumped up and down several times hoping the game would decide to let you climb onto an object.

Why? Again, disarms are based on distance and timing. Done correctly, you'll never miss. Never. Also, combat is extremely and, contrary to a previous post of mine, I believe you can avoid every single confrontation.

Evidently you weren't as good at the hand-to-hand as me, because I have a certain combat achievement that you are lacking...

I suspect the issue is more with the physics and hit detection, more than anything. One good example of this is the final jump on the time trial for Cranes 2. It's a long jump, and there are five possible outcomes: clear the gap in stride, clear the gap into a slide, catch the edge of the building, catch the edge of the building in a hard landing, and not clear the gap and plummet to your death. I've done that jump about 34543543 times and I still can't tell which outcome is coming until it actually comes. (And if you're wondering, I'm always taking the jump at the same speed).

Another example is that on certain drops, sometimes the game will just let you land and sometimes the game will asses a hard landing penalty, and there's no real clear reason why. I saw this a lot on the first drop during the sniper sequence in chapter 9 (and taking a hard landing there is bad, as you're pretty much dead).

The most obvious example I found with control inconsistencies is the first wallrun in Playground 1. I played that time trial over and over again. I could do the balancing beam in my sleep. But it seemed that 1/3 of the wallruns I attempted simply failed to connect. I know I was doing things as close to identical as possible on each run, so I'm going to blame the controls for being too finicky to allow for consistent play. Maybe the PC version's digital control will alleviate issues, but I have no desire at this point to play the game any longer.

There are several places where fighting is required:

• The fight in chapter 3, after running from the helicopter for the first time. You'll get shot down trying to go up the pipe otherwise.
• The fight in the mall in chapter 5. You will get mauled by the machinegunner trying to make the adjustment necessary on the crossbar to clear the final jump.
• After you get spotted by the chasers in chapter 8. Same setup as the one in chapter 3, but now the chasers make this more annoying (at least they don't climb pipes).
• The lobby in chapter 9. The machinegunner will destroy you while you're pushing the button for the elevator to come down otherwise.

(To be fair, these sequences may have alternate solutions that I missed.)

Don't forget the parking garage! 4 swat guys with machineguns who don't like to split up!

The mall fight in chapter 5 was one I didn't have an issue with, oddly. The level had enough routes that I found one that let me wallrun above the machinegunner and stomp his ass, then continue looping around to get back to the front.

The four snipers near the end were a real pain. It seemed utterly random whether they'd shoot my ass down, and there was no real way to avoid taking them on since they'd just shoot you in the back if you tried to run past them.

The combat got tolerable once I got used to it (and figured out that the AI is horribly predictable: running slide kick, knee, 1-2 punch over and over again will knock anyone out short of the chasers), but they combat scenes really were where I got hung up 90% of the time on my first playthrough -- I could see why people don't like them.

My main issue with the combat is that it kills the momentum that the platforming really tries to impart - you end up running around a single area in circles trying to split up enemies and take them out, since you'll get murdered in most cases if you just try to run by. The arbitrary AI also gets in the way, since you really can't hope to disarm somebody if they are within line of sight of any other enemy, and it's random whether they'll decide to split up for you.

The idea is really to avoid combat, aside from maybe the occasional disarm (which is just pure timing and doesn't require any combat per se). Once you've got it down, combat amounts to bum-rushing an enemy, getting to close range and then tapping Y when they swing at you. Easy peasy.

Says somebody who wasn't good enough at the "easy peasy" combat to get through any chapter of the game without firing a gun.

[Prince Planet]

Evidently you weren't as good at the hand-to-hand as me, because I have a certain combat achievement that you are lacking...

Uncle! Uncle!

Be serious. Please.

[Frogacuda]

Says somebody who wasn't good enough at the "easy peasy" combat to get through any chapter of the game without firing a gun.

I only beat the game yesterday and haven't looked at the achievements and I'm about to lend the game to someone else because I really can't be allowed to have a game this addictive right now.

[bVork]

Uncle! Uncle!

Be serious. Please.

Quite serious. Gamerscore is worthless but some of the more esoteric Achievements are a good indicator of skill - particularly when somebody is suggesting that complaints about combat are due to one not being good at it.

[Frogacuda]

Disarm and pop is much easier than fighting though. It really is.

[Dyne]

I kill everybody.