Mirror's Edge Catalyst

The missions themselves are of decent quality. They are certainly repetitive, environments seem to just be the same thing over and over again, and it distracts from the core gameplay too often, but there's catharsis to be had from its setpieces and parkour. The open world on the other hand is a sloppy experience with no intrigue of its own. Side objectives are far too repetitive without any strong catharsis, and thus it didn't take long for me to realize that spending my time on them was worthless, so i just ignored them. What i was left with was having to walk an entire block after every mission before and after starting it to get to a semi-interesting experience. The open world becomes the elephant in the room quick, a drag that engulfs every facet of the game. Missions become short moments between the slog that mirrors edge catalyst seems to find so much worth in just by its existence without any of the actual substance that it should have.more for the sake of more. The scope destroys the focus, and mirrors edge catalyst becomes a blur.

Mirror's Edge wasn't quite a great game, but there was something there underneath the rough edges, something special, that made it one of the standout games of its year. As is so often the case with forced sequels, Catalyst misunderstands the brilliance of the original, taking the surface elements of that game whilst leaving the soul behind and plopping them into a generic open-world framework, adding next to nothing in the process. The fundamental parkour gameplay is as good as you remember it being and recaptures that exciting, fresh feeling that the first game had in spades, but everything else is uninspired to varying degrees: the banal cookie-cutter world that you will find yourself endlessly circling the same stretches of, the side content/collectibles that are a repetitive chore to work through, the characters who are irritating stereotypes (Faith in the original was hardly a fleshed-out character but had a compelling moodiness; here, she's more like a bratty teenager) and the dialogue which is genuinely awful at times and sounds written-by-committee to within an inch of its life.

Despite the entertainment of the parkouring, this is a thoroughly mediocre experience and to paraphrase Jeff Goldblum, the game designers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could make an open world Mirror's Edge game, they didn't stop to think if they should.

Catalyst is a pretty middling experience. Its distinct art direction is the only noteworthy factor; practically every other aspect struggles to meet average. The game's development just feels severely rushed. The game is open world, but the main quest levels are tightly railroaded, offering little in terms of alternative solutions to the platforming. Similarly, side quests feel like they were built out in a few days, there's little variation and recycled assets. The combat fails in the same vein. It's sufficient to spam a handful of the options and the "wanted" system doesn't escalate in an interesting way, capping out quickly once again having minimal variety in enemies and interactions.

Going back to the open world environment, we see the same issue. There's virtually nothing to see other than the same reductive cubist white-on-black architecture everywhere, no NPCs to talk to outside of the cookie cutter side quests/challenges mentioned, and hardly people in sight at all, come to mention. It can't be argued that the homogeneity of the architecture is some sort of statement about monopolistic corpo-governance or anything like that, it's clearly a time saving technique.

There's plently more examples of its shortcomings, but there's been too much repetitiveness already. In short, the game feels unfinished, and the main quest only gets a reccomendation if you happen to be into parkour and its particular art style.

I'd never tell you the first Mirror's Edge is a flawless masterpiece; there are a couple of things Catalyst does better, and in general I'm happy it got a sequel at all. But man, did playing this just get tiresome. The game is still at its best with its platforming and at worst with its combat. In fairness, they committed to having no guns this time around, but combat is still as inorganic and clunky as ever, and enemies take way more punishment. The open world element is also frustrating, not only because it increases travel time away from actual setpieces in game design, but because the map design is asinine. There is no natural flow between each section, making the design very railroaded and killing any sense of momentum between missions.

The music is ace, and the story, while still boring, was slightly more developed than the original, but the first game presents a much leaner and cleaner experience despite its awkwardness with its new idea. Catalyst hides most of its fun setpieces for the final few missions and if you're not doing puzzle-platforming or races, it's just a slog.

The first mirror's edge was amazing, something new and fresh. We had to wait 8 years for a follow up and sadly it is a reboot. Honestly it took me a while to realise it was a reboot and I still do not understand why. Also the game tells you to read a comic to know the beginning of the story.

Gameplay is fun, what you would expect, but nothing new. The game also falls in the trap of "open world makes everything better", sadly that is not always true.

Story, well it has been a while and I can't remember anything, so I would think it is fair to say forgettable.

Platinum is doable but adds nothing to the game except annoyances.

If you never played a Mirror's Edge it is worth playing, but play the original if you have the option.