I remember reading a comment about the textures in Mirrors Edge. That "clean whiteness look" you see everywhere all over the city was actually supposed to be more darker and gritty look. The devs plastered on the white color first before moving onto the the darker shade until they realized that it actually looked really good with how it already was. A clean city with a dark story.
It's the same dissonance that Portal does. Things look perfect on the surface, but the cracks in the story make that clean look give you a sense of foreboding.
An artist on DeviantArt called the look of the city "like living inside an iPod". He meant it in the best way and I can't disagree with the assessment.
This game will be forever carved into my brain as one of the best games I have ever played. Just the soundtrack sends me back on such a nostalgia trip.
Yeah its a great game, ive never had such feeling for having a body in a game before or since. And Lisa Miskovsky, the singer in Still Alive, is a Swedish national treasure
Whereas for me, it's one of the games I own but have never got further than the tutorial. Yes, I suck at it, but it also completely fails to grab my attention - I have no desire to put in the time to get better. Be a boring world if we all liked the same things.
Im so happy that people are still talking about this game years late. For me this game is something special, it will be forever in my heart, such a nice and unique concept for a game
Pro tip: you can coil after a jump to break through glass without losing momentum. Furthermore, you can sprint into glass and brace before impact to break through. You lose a tad bit of momentum with this move but it’s barely noticeable plus it looks really cool
To this day, the sound of "Still alive" gives me goosebumps. One of my favourite games to this day and has meant a lot to me over the years. Even managed to learn speedrunning for it to finish it just under the hour mark. So much fun
@@FishyNiden Baldur's gate, heroes of might and magic, diablo (quite a tone jump from 1 to 2, and no need to talk about what happened later), civilisation, spellforce, age of empire. On top of my mind, from the games I've played. There are quite a number of sequels that do live up to their legacy and beyond. I get your feeling though, there are far too many sequels poluted by greedy monetisation & other idiotic "formula to success"
I was in college when this game came out, and I vividly remember being startled by someone coming up to me cosplaying Faith. She handed me a flier advertising the game, and then she ran off. It was a good cosplay, but I thought it was unfortunate that we were in like a grassy field with no parkour opportunities. Then I wondered at how tiring the job had to be, running around like that.
I dunno why but my brain immediately jumped to the courier in Skyrim when I read this. Just some rando running up to you, handing you a flyer, then running away again.
Fun facts about the game: Jacknife is "foreshadowed" to work for the big guys by wearing blue, which is the color of the cops, and Cel working for PK security is also foreshadowed by her personal stats being all confidential in the cutscene where Faith finds out about project Icarus while everyone else's stats are available for the cops to see.
@@Nako3 The mayor in the city, Callaghan, owns the big construction firm that's rebuilding the city after the riots, so he's essentially paying himself to build a new city however he wants. Meanwhile, certain people are trying to expose that corruption, namely Robert Pope (the man who is killed near the beginning of the game). So mayor Callaghan has him killed by Celeste and frames Kate, Faith's cop sister as a way to cast doubt on the city's police force as a way to shift public trust away from the police. Combined with the new Runner Cops who are trained to arrest/kill the runners who are, I'll remind you, being shown as a sort of terrorist force to the entire city, trying to completely dismantle the police and replace them entirely with Pirandello-Kruger security as a way to completely take control of the city in every single way.
I think a thing to note is that the more you shoot, the more enemies with guns show up in levels and they start brining in swat guys and harder opponents as well. So you want to avoid shooting as much as possible.
@@KasumiRINA That's the point. The game is about freedom of movement. The setting is a police state where movement and freedom are restricted. The government that shot the Protag's family for protesting for freedom will also shoot their daughter for moving freely. Guns are used by the state to restrict the movement of the people. The act of picking up a gun physically slows the protagonist down and limits her movement. The gunplay is clunky because the protagonist is not an expert gunman. The combat slows the game down because the point of the game is to keep moving and avoid fighting. The literal basis of the setting is "This government is bad because it is violent towards its people and actively opposes the freedom of those people." It is *ludonarrative perfection* that acting like the police-state you are fighting against instead of the freerunner you are is the slow, clumsy, brutish way to play the game that it winds up being. Picking up a machine gun means you can't move freely anymore, and now the problems you could avoid with your superior freedom of movement can only be solved with gunfire. Faith is an expert freerunner and a passable martial artist. She isn't a soldier. The guns should feel bad to use. You missed the point of the game.
Wait, is that true? That's so cool. Either way, the guns never bothered me as much as he let on, because they are so uninteractive and clunky that I'd usually just toss them right away
If you complete the game without killing anyone then you get the "test of faith" achievement. I'm not sure if that's just if you don't shoot anyone or if you also don't cause deaths by - for example - causing someone to fall from a great height.
The plot of Mirror's Edge really starts making sense when you read in the behind the scenes that Rhianna Prachett was brought on when all but a couple levels of the game were done and completely made. There was only so much even a really good writer can do in that short a time frame when most everything is already locked in.
I think she did well. And, just like how combat isn't the main focus of ME, nor should writing be the main focus of games. I think Rhianna told an excellent story that did its job - it didn't get in the way of the gameplay, and the dialogue-level writing was awesome.
I also resist the idea that Rhianna Pratchett is a "really good writer". Her dad was a generational talent, and she is not her dad. Her credits list is a bunch of gun-for-hire stuff with nothing that actually is remembered for its story. I really do not think she would have had the same opportunities if she didn't have her surname.
The fact that this game came out 15 years ago and is still the best movement based games is crazy. Also, it hasn’t aged a day, because the art style is just that good.
Best movement based game is Ghostrunner by a huge mile. But without ME, as flawed as it can be, first person parkour would've never been a thing. It says lots when their own sequel sucked so bad.
@@CockatooDudeThe art style matches the futuristic theme of the world, not a limitation at the time. Assassin’s Creed, Infamous and Crackdown all began releasing around the late 2000’s and they’re not only parkour heavy, but open world, far more detailed settings, and tons of NPCs walking around. Mirror’s Edge’s is a very linear game, a color scheme limited to mostly white, silver and red, and the most enemies ever present at a time is maybe a dozen, but even that’s only during the larger set pieces.
considering that later other games based on parkour were created and all of them did it better, you arecompletely wrong. Dying light does it better in every possible aspect.
The composer, Solar Fields, is a bloody master as well. The score really carries this game, in my opinion. Absolutely look up his other work if you enjoyed it at all, one of the kings of ambient.
Yeah I think he composed a few songs for Catalyst because I remember hearing some bangers on there as well. I basically played through the "sequel" with the OST constantly blasting on UA-cam to maximize the experience.
It's funny because I almost always listen to video game soundtracks. And do so on Spotify. But one day, I just randomly got Solar Field recommended after a bit of music browsing on UA-cam (which is generally _not_ VGM). Loved it. Loved it so much it's one of the few "normal" artists I've followed. And then it turns out their best work is _also_ a video game soundtrack
I was confused by this for a second, but I think the line was intended to be read as "portal, too, had an end song called Still Alive" rather than "portal two had an..."
Want you gone is fine. wouldnt expect anything less from Jonathan Coulton. Still alive though takes the real cake. And Mirrors edge version of still alive has such a great melody to it I listen to it here and there on youtube/spotify out of nostalgia for all these years.
Har du fått någon diagnos angående handsmärtan från vården? Hur började det? Vad har du för symptom? Är det lika på båda händerna? Hur känns smärtan, vsr sitter den? Ilande, brännande, molande osv Hur länge har du haft det? Hur har det förändrats med tiden? Är det något som gör det bättre/värre? Vilka undersökningar har vården gjort? Vilka behandlingar har testats?
One of my favorite games ever. It actually has a trophy for finishing without using guns, which I did on my first playthrough and I totally suggest everyone does it, which to me means the devs made the gunfighting clunky on purpose to put you off doing it.
I thought the same while playing first time. It is absolutely logical that the police will chase you with guns in that lore. And it would have destroyed the immersion if you were not able to use their guns, because nearly everyone would do that. But a gun is a kind of heavy and clunky thing, it completely changes the way someone moves. So it is totally fine how they designed the gameplay about guns.
@grieveromega6060 exactly. It plays into the way you're supposed to play. Guns shouldn't feel natural to the kind of character faith is. You might as well put them aside. And it made thr game much more enjoyable to me, due to the extra challenge. Though the last fight was a bitch to do without any weapons
They did. I've listened to interviews with the dev team where they say that they explicitly and purposely made you slow and cumbersome when using guns so that it incentivised the player not to use them.
I know that people like to complain when parkour games have color coded (usually yellow) interactables that break the immersion of the world and I understand it to a point. But something to remember with mirrors edge that you pointed out already is that this game really was the first one to do it and it was basically required to train players for the revolutionary new movement design that is now taken for granted. Back in the day, if they didn't paint anything red, it would've meant absolute failure for the game because players at large just wouldn't know what to do or where to go and drop the game fairly early despite tutorials. Nowadays, when a first person game talks parkour, mirrors edge style is the standard we expect to see, and I think it deserves more appreciation for that.
I'm sure it's been mentioned but it should be said that one of the achievements for this game is to never shoot a gun unless you absolutely have to. In which case there is one scene where you have to use a sniper rifle on a vehicle convoy and you take one shot. The rest of the game can be completed without it and I made it a point to make sure that when I played it that I would get that achievement the first time and did without too much difficulty.
A test of Fayth. If i recall it just meant dont shoot people, you can still shoot windows and open up ways, as well as shoot the server racks to get to the top of the shard, but yeah, i took it as thats the way that it was meant to be played, the guns are clunky because they're meant to be clunky, its not Fayths way to shoot people and it works as one would use a crowbar to unblock a path as opposed to a weapon for combat.
Yeah, I was also wondering wtf he was on about when he said that the best way was to take out one cop and shoot your way through the rest. Pretty sure in my later playthroughs I never picked up a gun by default, save for that convoy.
Really want Josh to earn this achievement then do a followup. All of his "combat ruins the pacing of the game" and "forced combat" comments had me going crazy. The combat sections are so good when you drop kick one guy, throw his gun at his friend's face then disarm that second guy and keep running.
I Feel für same, i was 16 when this Game released, ans i didnt have the Money for it but the Demo. I got my first part-time job just to be able to buy this.... Good Memorys...
Same. My first thought on clicking this video was "I can't believe Mirror's Edge is old enough that I'm feeling nostalgia for it." It just turned 15 a few days ago... yikes.
- first major complaint is the gunplay in Mirror's Edge WHAT? I'm pretty sure there is an achievement for literally never firing a shot. Every time I played I would disarm someone and immediately drop the gun. Faith is a freerunner, not a soldier. The "best option" was not to shoot, it was to RUN.
The gunplay being clunky and awful is genius honestly. As stated, the games focus is on the movement, if the gunplay felt good then players would do it because it doesn't inconvenience them, but in this game it does, the guns suck and don't feel great to use and thus detracts from the experience giving players an incentive not to bother and just try to run past police. There's even an achievement for never using a gun.
Pacifist run is the proper way to play it. Even the combat sections are just puzzles too, they only require you to try and figure out who to knock out first, who and how to approach next, and so on until everyone's incapacitated.
@@Malidictus I remeber playing this like 3 times, and did not come across a part I was forced to use guns, maybe in a tutorial? just disarm and thow it away
Goosebumps, just hearing the titlescreen melody. Me and my friend would race ourselves through this game. Trying to be faster then the other one... This game will forever have a special place in my heart.
Man i remember playing this game on my laptop in 2014. I was playing this nonstop, i think i replayed this game 10x in a row starting a new game immediately after completing the story. It’s so good, so nostalgic and it’s badass. So many good memories. I could go on forever.
Solar Fields did the soundtrack to this and their music is phenomenal, I love their music so much and this game introduced me to them. This game holds a special place in my heart.
There is actually a way to go through all of the game without even hand-to-hand combat(minus the obligatory bossfight). There s even a short message in the corner of pause screen telling you if you didnt shoot anybody. That alone made me make a playthrough just rushing past enemies and it felt much better. yeah, you will die a lot plaing this way, but the satisfaction of that kind of playthrough is real.
Yes. I played just like @nicomorin1998 and it's much more fun and it doesn't ruin the feel of the game. It's also possible that gunplay was specifically designed like that to discourage ppl from using them while still giving them the opportunity to shoot the enemies if they can't beat them otherwise.
I have done 2 playthroughs on Normal without guns. It’s hard. But totally doable. Might have to try it on Hard at some point. Now THAT’S the ultimate challenge.
What I like about the color themes in Mirror's Edge is that they also stand for each district, faction or a group within that world. Like the Blue is usually government and police, Red is you and the other runners, Yellow is Ropeburn, Orange is Pirandello Kruger.
Their companies specifically I think it was. Even nature had to go white because green was the colour of "Robert Pope and Associates" There was a red area as well but I forget if there was an associated company there or if the companies didn't use it because the runners did?
I did my Hard clear and "Nobody shot" run at the same time and man, what a difficult run. Immensely satisfying though. A little correction though; you ARE allowed to fire guns, you're just not allowed to hit anyone. It doesn't usually make much of a difference but shooting out the glass in RB's office doesn't invalidate the challenge.
I remember my friend got this in game in college and it was incredibly difficult and making alot of the jumps were nearly impossible. Few years later I found out about the anti-piracy system for this game....
@@TheExileFox What if the gun play part of Mirror's Edge you absolutely hated to point ruined the game for me, how would Deadcore be? I don't hate shooters, quite few I enjoy a lot, I just hated the whole shooting and being shot at in Mirrors Edge, it just felt so out of place way they did it and hated way it controlled.
I genuinely studied and dissected Mirror's Edge in college as part of my Games Design course. It's kind of affirming to hear the same points I brought up there mentioned here, too. Just the fact that the movement was its strongest mechanic and the game kept tearing you away from it was its biggest flaw. Also, if you get the chance, look up the speedrun videos of this game. There are some genuinely amazing runs where fights are bypassed solely by being faster than them. We're talking the police busting into a room you were in three seconds ago.
The game that got me into speed running in the first place! Not sure if you got super deep into the bugs in your analysis but it’s certainly a special game lol
His griping about all the gunplay hurt to hear. I never once, beyond when FIRST starting out (and later restarted because I wanted the achievement) shot anybody. The game gives you PLENTY of cover. You're supposed to use it, to dodge, run around, and use the parkour, NOT the guns. It's a shame he took the easy way out, which IS an option to those not able to master the parkour or impressive melee options it gives you (and you can totally cheese that by slide kicking someone in the knee, then punch them in the dick and then another punch to take out 99% of the enemies), because it sounds like it hurt his experience.
@@tyrongkojy It does hurt the experience. He never said there was no cover, he said that gunplay is boring and slow the game down. The melee options are cool but clunky
And yet he chose the boring option, despite Faith NOT being a combat vet. You chose the slower option, don't complain that the game slowed down.@@alexandrebelair4360
One of my comfort games. I revisit this every few years to replay it. I always loved the color palette and the way the city looks, plus it feels so good to play
In France, parkour gained its popularity with the 2001 movie Yamakasi by Luc Besson (Nikkita, Léon, The Fifth Element...). Having not watched it since it came out, I can't tell if it aged well. I don't even know how many people outside French-speaking countries have heard of it. Sébastien Foucan was part of the free running group Yamakasi but doesn't star in the movie. Odd fact: the name "parkour" was a registered trademark in France between 2001 and 2011, co-owned by Sébastien and another member.
Sebastien is still kicking in his 50's. All of those guys are still training to some degree, whether it's parkour or stunts or martial arts. I played hackey sack with Seb last summer in a park in London and he's still agile and strong as fk for an older dude 😂
I used to train parkour(in Sweden), and that movie was mentioned a couple of times among the group. I watched it, tbh wasnt a huge fan of it. Look fondly upon the training though it was actually quite fun.
Dude, I was a little disappointed to not see a reference to Yamakasi, i remember watching it time and time again, very early 00's aesthetics that make it funny today.
Its wild how old this is now. I really still think of this era as "modern" and "next gen". God... im fucking old. I remember waiting half a decade for Skyrim to come out and I truly thought the graphics were unimaginably beautiful. Time flys.
Just think how it will be in 20 years and then maybe you'll understand your own parents more in regerds to technology and new things. It's a somewhat sad feeling to me.
I had a PS2 in my teens/early 20s so in my head anything past the PS2 still feels like "next gen". Thinking about how the PS3 is nearly 20 years old makes me feel like a fossil
Funnily enough, in my friends group we were talking about PS2 era even before XBOX360 and PS3 were announced. And PS1, Dreamcast, gameboy were always Console Era. Next-gen era will always be XBOX360 and PS3 for me and friends because it was an overused term in that time period. Today its just modern console era (since PS4, Xbox one) as i think consoles in general are not really consoles anymore.
Mirror's Edge was the first xbox game I ever got...Honestly, it was my first console game that wasn't on the gamecube. I put hours and hours into this game, and then I sat by my dad and watched him play through it. It was the first game we really shared together. Hearing that title screen music again threw me way back and honestly made me tear up a bit. Thank you for making this video! So many good memories.
@54:02 Small correction, Still Alive was the ending song of the first Portal, which released before Mirror's Edge. Which makes it even more confusing, since it was only one year between the releases.
_"three years later Portal _*_too_*_ would have an ending song called..."_ Wanting to give im the benefit of the doubt.* *Also can't help being _that guy._
@@CorkyMcButterpants I get what you're saying, but that makes even less sense imo. It's either: 1) He got mixed up and said Still Alive was the ending song of Portal 2 when it was Portal 1. 2) He got mixed up and said Portal 1 came out three years after ME with Still Alive as the ending song, which is what your correction suggests. I think it's more likely that he got mixed up in the first way, not the second. Either way, it's a very minor mixup and doesn't really matter since it's just a throwaway joke anyway.
I can already imagine what would happen if Dice decided to make a Animal Crossing like game: Dice: "We're going to make a game about socializing with other people and making friends." Executives: "I don't think people would like that. Lets add guns just to make sure it could sell."
The guns really ruined Mirror's Edge, I remember a number of people who just burnt out on the Boat level because it was just gunfight, some boring parkour, then more guns.
There was also a french film in 2004 called "district 13" (Banlieue 13 in French) that helped get parkour and free-running into the public eye. Still love that film.
I remember watching the big chase scene leading to the rooftop leap on youtube and then desperately trying to find the film for me to watch because at the time I was obsessed with parkour.
District 13 is THE parkour movie I think of first. Crazy it wasn't mentioned! There's a move where he goes through a tiny gap over a door and it's like he flows against the ceiling to do it and it's stuck in my brain forever. Love it!
@@stevenesbitt3528 To be honest, they could remove the 62 FPS cap, add a FOV slider (both possible with a mod), fix the 4K UI scaling and call it a day. Some lightly brushed-up character models would make the game look impeccable.
I don’t care what anyone says teenage me was so emotionally invested in this games everything. I remember crying so hard after seeing the credits knowing I made it through something so unique. The immense loneliness in the parkour running really made my introvert holler
Imo the gun-play in Mirror's Edge is more of a brute force option to get past a point if you can't move quickly enough through an area, or beat the enemies through disarming/hand-to-hand combat. There's an achievement to beat the game without killing an enemy with a gun (or shooting a gun?) excluding parts where using a gun is mandatory, which is the superior way to play since it gives you an extra push to figure out more of the advanced movement controls.
"excluding the parts where using a gun is mandatory" I'd also like to point out that asking a player to play sub-optimally for the best gaming experience doesn't make the best gaming experience
To get the achievement at one point you need to fire one sniper rifle round this is the only time it is necessary to fire and doing it at any other points will fail the achievement. The run really needs to be done on easy but it's very enjoyable.
Yep, that achievement was a blast and serves as a bit of a counterpoint to the forced gun issues, because they're not actually forced. In fact, I haven't played this game in close to a decade, and watching this I still got the muscle memory that the slide kick into standing punch is the easiest way to knock out any enemy non-lethal, lol.
His griping about all the gunplay hurt to hear. I never once, beyond when FIRST starting out (and later restarted because I wanted the achievement) shot anybody. The game gives you PLENTY of cover. You're supposed to use it, to dodge, run around, and use the parkour, NOT the guns. It's a shame he took the easy way out, which IS an option to those not able to master the parkour or impressive melee options it gives you (and you can totally cheese that by slide kicking someone in the knee, then punch them in the dick and then another punch to take out 99% of the enemies), because it sounds like it hurt his experience. And yes, the achievement was for not shooting a gun. Well, not KILLING anyone with a gun. You can 100% kick that guy off the construction site and still get it.
@@tyrongkojy so you're saying that beyond your first playthrough you didn't use guns? Isn't it a bit too demanding to ask people to not judge the game based on their first playthrough? I also remember him saying that it was doable on normal mode but on difficult it was just way more efficient to shoot
18:51 This intro cutscene still gets me - it's a perfect blend of audio visuals in a game. The music that slowly creeps in and the subtle breath intake before landing on the crane to top it off with a slow motion feels so good.
Mirror's Edge is one of the most satisfying games to play, ever. It also has such an incredible aesthetic and sound design. It just flows, you get immersed with that graceful mix of simplicity and complexity
The way you described mirrors edge already made me feel old as it still feels like a game that hadn’t released that long ago, but then when you started talking about parkour before it.. In high school it was very obvious to my French teacher that I wasn’t interested in learning a 2nd language (you had to learn either Greek or French at my school) so she tasked me to “research” an upcoming trend in France called parkour.. I basically got to sit on youtube and watch the jump movies etc. for every French class for half a semester and loved every minute of it.
Mirror’s Edge is one of those pieces of media that made me feel nostalgic the very first time I booted it up. I don’t quite know how that works, but the minimalist art style, clear blue skies, and the soundtrack speak to me somehow.
I am so glad you covered this Gem ❤ for me personally it's probably in my Top 5 of favourite games ever, especially for those calm sections you talked about. The soundtrack and the running was so satisfying. Also the Challenge-Runs and Parkours you could do were amazing. I spent hours on it trying to get the trophies😂
Mirror's Edge will forever be one of my, if not favorite then, most memorable games. The visuals, the music, the gameplay and even the story combine into something utterly unforgettable for me. I've even had serious thoughts through the years about getting Faiths arm tattoo, but I never took the leap pun intended.
So cool of you to briefly go over the history of Parkour. I picked it up when Casino Royale came out. Followed Sebastian Foucan, David Belle, the whole gang. My friends and I were hooked. Mirror's Edge came out and I bought it day one. Played it forever. What a great game. I remained a free runner for about 10 years from 9-19 y/o.
Fun fact. Mirrors edge was originally an engine and tech demo that dice was using to test new options for future battlefield games. Pieces of its engines and movement systems would then become the foundation for another ea tital. Titanfall.
The one bit about the story I found really badly written was when Celeste was revealed to be a traitor and Faith & Merc first reaction wasn't: "We need to abandon our HQ because they definitely know where it is!" No, Merc stays put and Faith even sends her rescued sister there. To no surprise later the HQ gets raided and destroyed, Kate re-captured and Merc is dead. Hellooooo! Why did they not abandon an obvious compromised hiding place!!?
Well it really is not badly written when you take into the account WHAT KIND of equipment was inside their hideout, and the massive logistics that would require for relocation. To top it all, what Merc did inside that was his primary source of income, so even if he were to abandon the equipment alongside the hideout, it would be near borderline impossible to get back to the position they were in before, not to mention that police would have a massive stash of data seized regardless.
@@MaksFaks-kl1zj he's not running a legit business. These runners are outlaws in a dystopian world. When compromised, you smash all the equipment and run. That's resistance 101. Building up a new hidden base is a far secondary concern when running for your life. If they managed to build a base the first time, then they are resourceful enough to do so again elsewhere at a later time.
@@mystman7722 No one here said they were running a LEGIT BUSINESS. You would know if you'd read the comics or had paid attention to the story in detail in the first level is that these runners are no mere outlaws that are out for themselves only, but are a criminal network that earns money through selling of illegal information and data. Now combine this with the fact that Merc practically had a supercomputer with borderline sci-fi specs that occupies good portion of the hideout, from which he was even able to earn all of that money through years and years of criminal activity, you get yourself into situation where it is practically impossible to move out unless external help is involved. And you are telling me that he should have smashed all of that, without worrying or at least considering an option to save all of the important data on a portable device? Cool story bro, next thing I am gonna hear is that you don't need no food to survive, just sheer determination and will.
I remember seeing parkour for the first time in Yamakasi 2001 and being really impressed by the parkour. Later discovering this game was a treat. Haven't seen the movie in more than a decade, but judging by my memories it still should hold up for anyone interested. Might actually rewatch it myself.
I remember getting this and the cell shaded prince of Persia game back in the day Two movement focused games with their own unique and beautifully realised worlds and environments They seemed like companion pieces and that’s not just because I got them on the same day
I will never forget the theme "Still Alive" by Lisa Miskovsky! I get goosebumps every time I hear it just like the first time! This game was so well put together (apart from few bugs here and there)!
This video is, as always, excellent. My only point of contention is that moving in a "flashy" manner is a hallmark of Free-Running, which is related to but not the same as parkour. Parkour isn't intentionally flashy. Parkour's primary goal is efficiency of movement
You never actually have to engage with the gun mechanics. It is quite literally a skill issue in that regard. That's why there's an achievement for playing on hard and never firing a gun. You also had the portal 2 song mixed up. Still Alive is from the first Portal game. Portal 2's ending song is "Want You Gone"
I remember when this game most famous for causing motion sickness! The reticle is a massive help there but god help anyone who ever plays it in VR. The fps character animations in this game were incredible. I started opening push doors with the back of my forearm in real life after playing this, and was disappointed that that was cut from Catalyst.
Catalyst didn't cut the bashing through doors with your arm, if you right click on approach that's how faith goes through em. Or at least, if it was cut, it was added again cuz when I played it was the best way to go through doors while maintaining focus.
Yep, I'm replaying the game right now because of this video and that was the first thing I thought of too. It would probably make a lot of people sick, but I'd give it my best try lol.
The closest experience I could think of to get the same height experience as Mirror’s Edge in VR might be Minecraft or Skyrim. I’m not usually prone to altitude sickness in video games, but climbing a tall mountain in Skyrim and looking down, or staring into the deep caves of Minecraft can be a little bit dizzying if done for too long. Lol.
I had a fever dream once that a version of Mirror's Edge existed that gave you the ability to punch your way through the game, but if you ever shot someone with a gun, there was the sound of breaking glass, a hud with crosshairs and an ammo counter would appear, the music would get angry, you'd lose the flow state mechanic forever, and it would turn into a call of duty
i had my ps3 for a couple months back then bought it with my own money from my first real job in my life and the day this game was released i bought a new tv just for it because i was so hyped for mirrors edge sinc the first trailer good old times and still one of my favorite games. nice video man i really enjoyed it.
i use it as my desktop backgroud. i have a Faith's eye-tattoo-shaped tattoo on my left arm. and i got into rock climbing and bouldering as a hobby going on 12 years now. i related to this game on a spiritual level as someone who grew up in an authoritarian country.
There was a french movie from 2004 called District 13, written by Luc Besson. Not sure how popular it was, but that was my first contact with parkour. I guess it inspired Mirror's Edge too, because of kinda similar themes.
Yes, just like they also made a movie called "yamakasi" in 2001, about the same theme. Basically early 2000's the "parkour" started to gain hype, coming from Asia, asian dude doing crazy stunt while runing, jumping roof to roof and so on , which was called "yamakasi", it gained attraction in EU especially France, hence why they made the afformentioned film, and once it gain popularity, it got renamed "parkour" which a stylized version of the word "parcour" which mean "route" or "run through" in french (yeah you know back in the days we liked to put K everywhere too look cool... right mortal kombat ?) , then it became a world popular thing and the rest of the story is in the video (:
I think that was my first contact too, and free running was an early 2000s thing that all the kids in the UK knew at the time. It was already popular before Daniel Craig became James Bond.
Mirror's Edge was one of the first games I beat when I was growing up, and this video took me back and cranked the nostalgia up to 11. Fantastic video.
The ending is kinda hilarious if you actually think about it. There are still two guys nearby, and now everyone knows where you are because of that helicopter explosion, and now you have to cart around your sister who I assume can't parkour. You better hope Miller can single-handedly drive them away because you're not getting out of there otherwise. Also, not mentioning The Sands of Time when talking about parkour in video games feels really wrong.
@@SuperLlama42 No. This is right as Faith turned around, noticed them standing there then boarded the copter. They had ample time to shoot her before she turned around and even afterwards took a few seconds before she got behind cover.
@@Ergeniz I think its because the bad guy told them not to shot if she stood there remember that whole bit one was supposed to be a big boss fight (not sure how faith would had been separated from the bad guys) before the fight stats the whole thing was cut off to just a run forward, jump, kick and end. why they just teleport I have no clue. could been part of the scraped badguy want to fight (shooting gallery) sadly the devs never got that part finished. because I think there was an ide somewhere where the grunts would when looking back a second time would been seen running down the stairs.
This still is my most satisfying Platinum trophy on PS and one of my top ten games. Having to speedrun each chapter for a set time broke the game in ideas on where to go for me, but I enjoyed it immensely. I really wish this series would make a comeback. I'd be there day one.
Great video, glad this underrated gem of a game is still getting some love. One tiny nitpick: the ending song from Portal 2 is 'Want You Gone', not 'Still Alive'. 'Still Alive' was the ending song from the original Portal, which actually came out a year before Mirror's Edge.
This game got me into Ambient music, thanks to Solar Fields (the artist of the OST), before even playing the game. To this day, more than a decade later, he is still one of my favourite artists. Even today, I listened to the OST of this game whilst studying. Love this immersion into such a fantastic game, thank you!
I loved the combat, and you know what the key was? I ignored the disarm. Took down all the enemies with slides and jumpkicks, using movement to divide and confuse enemies. Feels more like how Faith would actually fight than grabbing an AK and drilling some fools. You can take out every enemy in the game that way, even the ones you're supposed to run past. Good times!
I remember constantly dying on a level because i was disarming and trying to shoot everyone. Until my uncle was like "just ignore the disarming and just run pass." And it worked. The gun play and combat just felt like another puzzle. Do you really need to do it here? Or can you just run pass? Maybe a little both?
Whenever i played mirror's edge i always throw away the gun when they give me one. Feels a lot better doing fist and kick combat than shooting. I think the reason they made the gun play so bad in this game is because they want the player to throw away the gun.
Yeah, it definitely feels like you're just not meant to use a gun except as a last resort...and it sells that idea very well. If I'm remember correctly, Catalyst leaned into that concept as well but gave more combat options - more counters, traversal options like running off walls into kicks, throws, etc...while preventing you from using a gun at all. Better combat encounter gameplay as a result...bit of a loss on the thematic side, since the player wasn't making the choice.
No, it's because the person using the gun isn't an experienced shooter, so it feels clunky and akward in her hands. But i'd still rather have a gun when going up against tanky enemies. It doesn't make sense that a tiny 100 pound female can beat a juggernaut into submission with her bare hands
i played it. and it was a really bad game. it looked pretty good with the memory altering and such. but its story didnt make sense and combat was quite boring
Still Alive is one of my favourite soundtracks, that first note triggers some pavlovian memory of playing games with my best friends, before work, kids, adult stuff became the norm. I can clearly remember the feeling of the song starting at the ending sequence & how I was avoiding looking at my friend on the sofa next to me because I was getting choked up. The game was a beautiful and memorable experience for sure.
I think you missed one thing story wise. Cel is also the runner training the cops. There's too many hints she gives off that she's the bad guy through the game, so I hope there were few people surprised, especially after she knows your moves in the roof battle. Project Icarus wouldn't have worked unless a runner turned, so she sold out long ago. This improves the story overall, instead of the thinking that the cops have caught up to the times and learned parkour.
Heh, I never played at all and watched this video, and I was like “another ‘runner’ huh? Obviously a hidden turncoat”. Funny to see that trope guess immediately confirmed!
I remember learning about the singer Lisa Misovski, the singer of the track Still Alive that they used in the commercial for this game. That track really hooked me into the vibe the game was presenting. The track gives the feeling of flying almost, works so great with this game.
Love the feeling that Mirrors Edge give the player, from time to time I still just vibe to the OST on Spotify and imagine myself running around like that. It is amazing how they take the oppressive feeling of a big city and make you somehow feel like you have all the freedom in the world just running around.
"Still Alive" never fails to give me goosebumps. Mirror's Edge: Catalyst is a decent game as well. Everything is a bit fleshed out, but as a result it loses its focus a tiny bit. Still very much a recommend from me though, if you enjoyed the first one. Just be prepared, it's basically a complete reboot story wise. It is also more free roam, and has a skill tree which basically doesn't matter. I really like the game though. And it's often on sale dirt cheap.
eh, for me ME2 is just the worst kind of game, the ol' "lets take what was unique and original in the first game, and now we know it will sell, slap in a bunch of modern game slop" which at that time was padding, skill trees and forced open areas with no actual good design. May be "good" but its a shadow of its potential. Shouldve gone to a passionate indie, not a corporate chart chaser.
Strongly disagree. Catalyst felt like it lost it's path, it was far more focused on gunplay and as somebody who was obsessed with the original Mirror's Edge, I hated Catalyst.
Back in 2008, I was a massive fan of free running and parkour. I watched all the UA-cam videos I could find of it and practiced learning flips and stuff in my back yard. Even made a small group of friends at school who would all go do parkour together. I thought Mirror's edge was awesome and 100% the game, playing the time trials a ton to try to get some of the top spots. It did the "simple concept done well" thing perfectly.
seeing the game play and hearing the soundtrack, got me so nostalgic, mirrors edge will always be the first game that made me fall in love with videogames. Even while watching this video when you showed the ending sequence and when the full song of 'still alive' started playing I got emocional cuz this game will forever be my childhood. I wont say its amazing but it was an amazing core memory (I rarely see peopled talking about it, I appreciate this video a lot)
Love this! I know what you mean about the Project Icarus reveal but personally I like it, and actually prefer it to some big generic 'they're going to do some giant evil thing!'. ME's storyline is surprisingly radical for the time, and it fits that this is just another small bit of freedom the state is trying to curtail - it feels like that would be kinda how it works in real life (in a less silly seeming way!), losing your rights and things you can enjoy one seemingly small thing at a time until there's nothing left and regular people didn't even notice anything happen
I liked project icarus as it was essentially "The runners have outdone our efforts thus far, so why don't we try to use their own tricks against them?" Not ever runner is as good as Faith either, nor will there always be those situations where a runner could get creative to escape their pursuers. Plus with the use of the free-running cops, they can cut off those creative escapes by taking multiple approaches around the roof tops, cutting off potential escape routes. This would lead to the runner constantly having to think on their feet, and even possibly realizing they're running out of escape routes and are possibly being boxed in by the cops and the icarus cops.
I still listen to the theme song regularly. Never beat it, just couldn't get past chapter 10 but I replayed those other 9 levels so much. Its very sentimental to me.
Quick correction: the slow motion is actually there to make lining up moves easier, not to assist with disarming enemies. It's actually pretty well implemented, because if you need it as an assist feature you can almost always count on flow before a precise jump, whereas if you're able to do the main line of the level without it you'll have plenty to help with finding more efficient lines. The game teaches you this because the opening cutscene of the first proper level shows Faith using it to line up a jump.
I always thought the gunplay was bad on purpose. It's supposed to be a trap by ruining your flow, and killing people, in my mind, is not the message the game is trying to send. I don't remember ever using a gun because I felt bad shooting the goons. The game is intentionally rewarding you for being a pacifist because of the design. It's about being a better person in a terrible system.
Making a system bad on purpose is still making a bad system, and expecting your players to not use one of the core systems of your game is stupid Wouldn't it be better to just not have guns ? Or have a character that doesn't know how to use them at all ?
@@drone124 Read the comments or most reviews and you'll quickly realize how it very much didn't It discouraged players from playing the game, not much more You could achieve the exact same result by having Faith being VERY bad at handling guns, making them pretty much useless, but at least you'd be sure that players would without a doubt understand that it was done on purpose and that it's not a viable option Meanwhile, in the game, it is not only a viable option but pacifist runs are harder than "regular" runs, so why would you assume that that's what the game expect you to do ?
Rhi's done some impressive story work over the years, her humour is a definite strongpoint for the Overlord games she worked on. But she was only an additional writer for BSI, working on the sidelines with the (from my recollection just mooks) minor AI voice over development.
Is it me or does Josh looks and dresses in a way that doesn't make him seem a gamer or youtuber, but rather an up and coming author/detective who's about to embark on a mystery supernatural crime drama where he'll try to be the reluctant yet optimist protagonist through the series?
There's actually a ps2 game all about Free Running simply called "Free Running" that stars Sebastien Foucan as both the tutorial giver and interstitial boss races peppered throughout the game. The races also all take place in the first level, they just get harder and harder routes as you keep returning to it. It's very fun.
If only Freerunning / Parkour was a thing 10 years earlier 😭 that was a great part of my childhood, which got stopped after my forehead met a concrete curb. I did heal with no permanent physical damage, but my days of risky jumps, tree-climbing, wall-climbing, rooftop-climbing were left behind.
Solar Fields producing the music for this is the best thing that ever happened. I got thoroughly addicted to that type of music genre back in my teens, thanks to this game!
Used to play through the whole game every day when this came out. Beating it on the hardest difficulty without killing was brutal but very rewarding to achieve.
I remember reading a comment about the textures in Mirrors Edge. That "clean whiteness look" you see everywhere all over the city was actually supposed to be more darker and gritty look. The devs plastered on the white color first before moving onto the the darker shade until they realized that it actually looked really good with how it already was. A clean city with a dark story.
It's one of those cities that just screams "this city is *too* clean and perfect... that's fishy"
I've heard the term "grim light" to describe it
It's the same dissonance that Portal does. Things look perfect on the surface, but the cracks in the story make that clean look give you a sense of foreboding.
An artist on DeviantArt called the look of the city "like living inside an iPod". He meant it in the best way and I can't disagree with the assessment.
@@michaelrussell3890oooh I like that name
This game will be forever carved into my brain as one of the best games I have ever played. Just the soundtrack sends me back on such a nostalgia trip.
seriously. Still alive from ME has been in my playlists for over a decade
@@RTristanBanks me too! I replay both these games over and over and they're one of my favourite things to play when listening to podcasts and stuff
Yeah its a great game, ive never had such feeling for having a body in a game before or since. And Lisa Miskovsky, the singer in Still Alive, is a Swedish national treasure
Whereas for me, it's one of the games I own but have never got further than the tutorial. Yes, I suck at it, but it also completely fails to grab my attention - I have no desire to put in the time to get better.
Be a boring world if we all liked the same things.
On my overall favourites.
It's damn near a flawless game IMO.
Im so happy that people are still talking about this game years late. For me this game is something special, it will be forever in my heart, such a nice and unique concept for a game
No
but yes@@Sedona_FD3S
Absolutely, this game is ageless and unique. When people say that games are art, this immediately comes to mind.
@@echodelta2172 Yes
Pro tip: you can coil after a jump to break through glass without losing momentum. Furthermore, you can sprint into glass and brace before impact to break through. You lose a tad bit of momentum with this move but it’s barely noticeable plus it looks really cool
To this day, the sound of "Still alive" gives me goosebumps.
One of my favourite games to this day and has meant a lot to me over the years. Even managed to learn speedrunning for it to finish it just under the hour mark.
So much fun
Sometimes I find myself putting it on loop and just dissolving in the song. It's ethereal!
lmaooo for me aswell. Even thinking about still alive gives me goosebumps.
Same here with the song.
It just makes me tear up if it plays out of the blue. Probably just nostalgia, but it's a beautiful song
go on a night joy ride whilst blasting that song..... windows down keep in mind
You should play sequels and call it "Did it get better?"
What a depressing series it's gonna be
We already kno what the result is with catalyst LOL. still a fun little game but nothing close to the original
@@FishyNiden Baldur's gate, heroes of might and magic, diablo (quite a tone jump from 1 to 2, and no need to talk about what happened later), civilisation, spellforce, age of empire. On top of my mind, from the games I've played. There are quite a number of sequels that do live up to their legacy and beyond.
I get your feeling though, there are far too many sequels poluted by greedy monetisation & other idiotic "formula to success"
A lot of games don't even reach their peak until the 3rd entry, so this would be a very interesting series.
Beautifully said.
I was in college when this game came out, and I vividly remember being startled by someone coming up to me cosplaying Faith. She handed me a flier advertising the game, and then she ran off. It was a good cosplay, but I thought it was unfortunate that we were in like a grassy field with no parkour opportunities. Then I wondered at how tiring the job had to be, running around like that.
Wtf, was she autistic or something? I have a lot of questions lmao
I dunno why but my brain immediately jumped to the courier in Skyrim when I read this. Just some rando running up to you, handing you a flyer, then running away again.
I guess no one hangs around on rooftops anymore eh. The times we live in.
@@Madhattersinjeans If it makes you feel any better there's a nice rooftop I used to hang around on earlier this year.
@@Madhattersinjeans I used to hang out on rooftops during my middle school and high school years. Haven't really found any good roofs since then.
Fun facts about the game: Jacknife is "foreshadowed" to work for the big guys by wearing blue, which is the color of the cops, and Cel working for PK security is also foreshadowed by her personal stats being all confidential in the cutscene where Faith finds out about project Icarus while everyone else's stats are available for the cops to see.
Also "Celeste" is a light shade or blue in Spanish
@@kokorochacarero8003 Also, when Jacknife was born his mom wrapped him in a BLUE blanket...
I didnt get the story, who was behind all of that?
@@Nako3 The mayor in the city, Callaghan, owns the big construction firm that's rebuilding the city after the riots, so he's essentially paying himself to build a new city however he wants. Meanwhile, certain people are trying to expose that corruption, namely Robert Pope (the man who is killed near the beginning of the game). So mayor Callaghan has him killed by Celeste and frames Kate, Faith's cop sister as a way to cast doubt on the city's police force as a way to shift public trust away from the police. Combined with the new Runner Cops who are trained to arrest/kill the runners who are, I'll remind you, being shown as a sort of terrorist force to the entire city, trying to completely dismantle the police and replace them entirely with Pirandello-Kruger security as a way to completely take control of the city in every single way.
@@UnderTheSkin13 Thanks!
I think a thing to note is that the more you shoot, the more enemies with guns show up in levels and they start brining in swat guys and harder opponents as well. So you want to avoid shooting as much as possible.
That's a bad choice, game has poor combat and trying to make it work, makes it harder.
@@KasumiRINA That's the point. The game is about freedom of movement. The setting is a police state where movement and freedom are restricted. The government that shot the Protag's family for protesting for freedom will also shoot their daughter for moving freely. Guns are used by the state to restrict the movement of the people. The act of picking up a gun physically slows the protagonist down and limits her movement. The gunplay is clunky because the protagonist is not an expert gunman. The combat slows the game down because the point of the game is to keep moving and avoid fighting.
The literal basis of the setting is "This government is bad because it is violent towards its people and actively opposes the freedom of those people." It is *ludonarrative perfection* that acting like the police-state you are fighting against instead of the freerunner you are is the slow, clumsy, brutish way to play the game that it winds up being.
Picking up a machine gun means you can't move freely anymore, and now the problems you could avoid with your superior freedom of movement can only be solved with gunfire. Faith is an expert freerunner and a passable martial artist. She isn't a soldier. The guns should feel bad to use.
You missed the point of the game.
Wait, is that true? That's so cool.
Either way, the guns never bothered me as much as he let on, because they are so uninteractive and clunky that I'd usually just toss them right away
If you complete the game without killing anyone then you get the "test of faith" achievement.
I'm not sure if that's just if you don't shoot anyone or if you also don't cause deaths by - for example - causing someone to fall from a great height.
@@Rapscallion2009 it's specifically for not shooting anyone, you can still use melee
The plot of Mirror's Edge really starts making sense when you read in the behind the scenes that Rhianna Prachett was brought on when all but a couple levels of the game were done and completely made. There was only so much even a really good writer can do in that short a time frame when most everything is already locked in.
So they took the Miyamoto approach to design
NO
I think she did well. And, just like how combat isn't the main focus of ME, nor should writing be the main focus of games. I think Rhianna told an excellent story that did its job - it didn't get in the way of the gameplay, and the dialogue-level writing was awesome.
@@napoleonfeanor or, miyamoto took mirrors edge approach to writing ;)
I also resist the idea that Rhianna Pratchett is a "really good writer". Her dad was a generational talent, and she is not her dad. Her credits list is a bunch of gun-for-hire stuff with nothing that actually is remembered for its story. I really do not think she would have had the same opportunities if she didn't have her surname.
The fact that this game came out 15 years ago and is still the best movement based games is crazy. Also, it hasn’t aged a day, because the art style is just that good.
When the art style is designed to work with the graphical limitations of the time, it doesn't age.
Best movement based game is Ghostrunner by a huge mile. But without ME, as flawed as it can be, first person parkour would've never been a thing. It says lots when their own sequel sucked so bad.
@@CockatooDudeThe art style matches the futuristic theme of the world, not a limitation at the time. Assassin’s Creed, Infamous and Crackdown all began releasing around the late 2000’s and they’re not only parkour heavy, but open world, far more detailed settings, and tons of NPCs walking around. Mirror’s Edge’s is a very linear game, a color scheme limited to mostly white, silver and red, and the most enemies ever present at a time is maybe a dozen, but even that’s only during the larger set pieces.
considering that later other games based on parkour were created and all of them did it better, you arecompletely wrong. Dying light does it better in every possible aspect.
Check Titanfall 2.
I beat Mirror's Edge in one night on a Gamestop Demo console while waiting for the midnight release of Wrath of the Lich King. Loved it.
That sounds like a very pleasant memory.
I like this, but I bet if I were waiting for my turn, I would have hated you :D
When I saw the lenght of this video my first thought was "weird, the video is longer than the actual gameplay"
Honestly that sounds like an awesome experience, running on walls then gettin' on the grind
Good times those were, just a great time for new games
The composer, Solar Fields, is a bloody master as well. The score really carries this game, in my opinion. Absolutely look up his other work if you enjoyed it at all, one of the kings of ambient.
That OST has been on my running playlist for over a decade.
Yeah I think he composed a few songs for Catalyst because I remember hearing some bangers on there as well.
I basically played through the "sequel" with the OST constantly blasting on UA-cam to maximize the experience.
@@Soliye.He definitely did, the whole OST for catalyst was composed and produced by him.
It's funny because I almost always listen to video game soundtracks. And do so on Spotify.
But one day, I just randomly got Solar Field recommended after a bit of music browsing on UA-cam (which is generally _not_ VGM).
Loved it. Loved it so much it's one of the few "normal" artists I've followed.
And then it turns out their best work is _also_ a video game soundtrack
Quick correction for 54:02 Portal 1's end song was Still Alive, Portal 2's was Want You Gone.
I was confused by this for a second, but I think the line was intended to be read as "portal, too, had an end song called Still Alive" rather than "portal two had an..."
@@Erin-beansno because Portal came out before Mirror's Edge and Portal 2 came out 3 years after as he says in the video
@@Erin-beansthe English language, everybody! 😂
@@Erin-beans But he also said "3 years later" Portal 1 was released in 2007, Mirror's Edge released in 2008.
Want you gone is fine. wouldnt expect anything less from Jonathan Coulton. Still alive though takes the real cake. And Mirrors edge version of still alive has such a great melody to it I listen to it here and there on youtube/spotify out of nostalgia for all these years.
The art direction of this game was phenomenal
For years ,I wanted to live there. Such a vibe.
Har du fått någon diagnos angående handsmärtan från vården?
Hur började det?
Vad har du för symptom?
Är det lika på båda händerna?
Hur känns smärtan, vsr sitter den? Ilande, brännande, molande osv
Hur länge har du haft det?
Hur har det förändrats med tiden?
Är det något som gör det bättre/värre?
Vilka undersökningar har vården gjort?
Vilka behandlingar har testats?
Disagree. It is stark and dystopian and purely functional. It works, but was hardly worthy being called phenomenal art.
@@edge1247In a stark, white, minimalist, glass, steel and concrete dystopian hellhole of a city?
For the love of God, why?
And the shitty cheap corpo animation bits in there were even worse. And were already bad when it came out.
One of my favorite games ever.
It actually has a trophy for finishing without using guns, which I did on my first playthrough and I totally suggest everyone does it, which to me means the devs made the gunfighting clunky on purpose to put you off doing it.
Spoiler - no.
I thought the same while playing first time. It is absolutely logical that the police will chase you with guns in that lore. And it would have destroyed the immersion if you were not able to use their guns, because nearly everyone would do that. But a gun is a kind of heavy and clunky thing, it completely changes the way someone moves. So it is totally fine how they designed the gameplay about guns.
@grieveromega6060 exactly. It plays into the way you're supposed to play. Guns shouldn't feel natural to the kind of character faith is. You might as well put them aside. And it made thr game much more enjoyable to me, due to the extra challenge. Though the last fight was a bitch to do without any weapons
They did. I've listened to interviews with the dev team where they say that they explicitly and purposely made you slow and cumbersome when using guns so that it incentivised the player not to use them.
The guns weren't clunky, that's the thing. It was just boring.
It was totally added at the publisher demands. The trophy supports my hypothesis imo.
I know that people like to complain when parkour games have color coded (usually yellow) interactables that break the immersion of the world and I understand it to a point. But something to remember with mirrors edge that you pointed out already is that this game really was the first one to do it and it was basically required to train players for the revolutionary new movement design that is now taken for granted. Back in the day, if they didn't paint anything red, it would've meant absolute failure for the game because players at large just wouldn't know what to do or where to go and drop the game fairly early despite tutorials. Nowadays, when a first person game talks parkour, mirrors edge style is the standard we expect to see, and I think it deserves more appreciation for that.
The red never bugged me at all or broke my immersion, to me it always felt like how faith just saw things naturally. I like the red!
I'm sure it's been mentioned but it should be said that one of the achievements for this game is to never shoot a gun unless you absolutely have to. In which case there is one scene where you have to use a sniper rifle on a vehicle convoy and you take one shot. The rest of the game can be completed without it and I made it a point to make sure that when I played it that I would get that achievement the first time and did without too much difficulty.
A test of Fayth. If i recall it just meant dont shoot people, you can still shoot windows and open up ways, as well as shoot the server racks to get to the top of the shard, but yeah, i took it as thats the way that it was meant to be played, the guns are clunky because they're meant to be clunky, its not Fayths way to shoot people and it works as one would use a crowbar to unblock a path as opposed to a weapon for combat.
Yeah, I was also wondering wtf he was on about when he said that the best way was to take out one cop and shoot your way through the rest. Pretty sure in my later playthroughs I never picked up a gun by default, save for that convoy.
Really want Josh to earn this achievement then do a followup. All of his "combat ruins the pacing of the game" and "forced combat" comments had me going crazy.
The combat sections are so good when you drop kick one guy, throw his gun at his friend's face then disarm that second guy and keep running.
@@DurkenGamingYou can throw weapons?
@SaltDoesArt it's been years, maybe I'm remembering wrong? But I was pretty sure you can throw pistols
this was one of my first loves as a gamer, it enthralled me as a kid and it still has that effect now
Same. It’s one I revisit every couple of years. Such a great game.
This "as a kid" made me feel way too old rn xD
this and perfect dark zero
Grown man with a sexualized anime child pfp? Cringe. No way your parents respect you
Easily entertained I see
mirrors edge is retro? oh no, i'm old
I Feel für same, i was 16 when this Game released, ans i didnt have the Money for it but the Demo. I got my first part-time job just to be able to buy this.... Good Memorys...
Dude. I felt that.
Welcome to the club. Have a drink, _you're old enough._ 😉
Same. My first thought on clicking this video was "I can't believe Mirror's Edge is old enough that I'm feeling nostalgia for it." It just turned 15 a few days ago... yikes.
So retro............
- first major complaint is the gunplay
in Mirror's Edge
WHAT?
I'm pretty sure there is an achievement for literally never firing a shot. Every time I played I would disarm someone and immediately drop the gun. Faith is a freerunner, not a soldier. The "best option" was not to shoot, it was to RUN.
The gunplay being clunky and awful is genius honestly. As stated, the games focus is on the movement, if the gunplay felt good then players would do it because it doesn't inconvenience them, but in this game it does, the guns suck and don't feel great to use and thus detracts from the experience giving players an incentive not to bother and just try to run past police. There's even an achievement for never using a gun.
Pacifist run is the proper way to play it. Even the combat sections are just puzzles too, they only require you to try and figure out who to knock out first, who and how to approach next, and so on until everyone's incapacitated.
@okbVinyl even the sniper section is basically. Dodge the red dots.
The problem isn't so much the guns as the combat. It's terrible, but also required in multiple places.
Exactlty. Gunplay is just an addition, never meant to be main focus. Don't play the game the way it wasn't meant to, basically.
@@Malidictus I remeber playing this like 3 times, and did not come across a part I was forced to use guns, maybe in a tutorial? just disarm and thow it away
A VR version of this would be awesome and scary.
there are some videos on yt of people playing it in vr.
NO
YES!
@@Blody1337 true true
near instant puke fest from motion sickness :P
Goosebumps, just hearing the titlescreen melody. Me and my friend would race ourselves through this game. Trying to be faster then the other one... This game will forever have a special place in my heart.
it was my first game on the PS3, I played through it so many times and loved every moment
Man i remember playing this game on my laptop in 2014. I was playing this nonstop, i think i replayed this game 10x in a row starting a new game immediately after completing the story. It’s so good, so nostalgic and it’s badass. So many good memories. I could go on forever.
I played this so often, I started speedrunning it and doing repeated runs.
God the movement was so strong when the timing was precise.
Literal speed run in this game
Solar Fields did the soundtrack to this and their music is phenomenal, I love their music so much and this game introduced me to them. This game holds a special place in my heart.
Just listened to them. Awesome! You should try Carbon Based Lifeforms. You might like them if you're into Solar fields.
agreed, i found them through the official sound track and honestly with out their music this game would not be what it is.
@neonether3466 haha I love world of Sleepers already man! Been listening to them for years too
i always remember this song, its so special for me too
And he did a phenomenal job in the sequel. Both soundtracks were incredible ❤
There is actually a way to go through all of the game without even hand-to-hand combat(minus the obligatory bossfight). There s even a short message in the corner of pause screen telling you if you didnt shoot anybody. That alone made me make a playthrough just rushing past enemies and it felt much better. yeah, you will die a lot plaing this way, but the satisfaction of that kind of playthrough is real.
There's also a trophy/achievement for making it through without guns.
Meanwhile I did a play trough beating up everyone in my way without firing a single shot
Yes. I played just like @nicomorin1998 and it's much more fun and it doesn't ruin the feel of the game.
It's also possible that gunplay was specifically designed like that to discourage ppl from using them while still giving them the opportunity to shoot the enemies if they can't beat them otherwise.
I have done 2 playthroughs on Normal without guns. It’s hard. But totally doable.
Might have to try it on Hard at some point. Now THAT’S the ultimate challenge.
Test of Faith
Complete the game without shooting an enemy.
What I like about the color themes in Mirror's Edge is that they also stand for each district, faction or a group within that world.
Like the Blue is usually government and police, Red is you and the other runners, Yellow is Ropeburn, Orange is Pirandello Kruger.
Their companies specifically I think it was.
Even nature had to go white because green was the colour of "Robert Pope and Associates"
There was a red area as well but I forget if there was an associated company there or if the companies didn't use it because the runners did?
Loved Mirror's Edge, even did the "no shots fired" challenge. Addictive game, the way they made platforming work in first person is amazing
That was the last one I needed to do to get the platinum trophy, took me a while lmao
I did my Hard clear and "Nobody shot" run at the same time and man, what a difficult run. Immensely satisfying though. A little correction though; you ARE allowed to fire guns, you're just not allowed to hit anyone. It doesn't usually make much of a difference but shooting out the glass in RB's office doesn't invalidate the challenge.
I remember my friend got this in game in college and it was incredibly difficult and making alot of the jumps were nearly impossible. Few years later I found out about the anti-piracy system for this game....
You mean he played on Harcoure mode?
Deadcore is a game that plays like Mirror's Edge but has a lot better gunplay. Might be worth trying.
@@TheExileFox What if the gun play part of Mirror's Edge you absolutely hated to point ruined the game for me, how would Deadcore be? I don't hate shooters, quite few I enjoy a lot, I just hated the whole shooting and being shot at in Mirrors Edge, it just felt so out of place way they did it and hated way it controlled.
Imagine actually falling for anti-piracy measures, jesus fucking christ dude
a lot
I genuinely studied and dissected Mirror's Edge in college as part of my Games Design course. It's kind of affirming to hear the same points I brought up there mentioned here, too. Just the fact that the movement was its strongest mechanic and the game kept tearing you away from it was its biggest flaw.
Also, if you get the chance, look up the speedrun videos of this game. There are some genuinely amazing runs where fights are bypassed solely by being faster than them. We're talking the police busting into a room you were in three seconds ago.
Everytime the cops slowed me down I'd sigh and say why!
The game that got me into speed running in the first place! Not sure if you got super deep into the bugs in your analysis but it’s certainly a special game lol
His griping about all the gunplay hurt to hear. I never once, beyond when FIRST starting out (and later restarted because I wanted the achievement) shot anybody. The game gives you PLENTY of cover. You're supposed to use it, to dodge, run around, and use the parkour, NOT the guns. It's a shame he took the easy way out, which IS an option to those not able to master the parkour or impressive melee options it gives you (and you can totally cheese that by slide kicking someone in the knee, then punch them in the dick and then another punch to take out 99% of the enemies), because it sounds like it hurt his experience.
@@tyrongkojy It does hurt the experience. He never said there was no cover, he said that gunplay is boring and slow the game down.
The melee options are cool but clunky
And yet he chose the boring option, despite Faith NOT being a combat vet. You chose the slower option, don't complain that the game slowed down.@@alexandrebelair4360
One of my comfort games. I revisit this every few years to replay it. I always loved the color palette and the way the city looks, plus it feels so good to play
In France, parkour gained its popularity with the 2001 movie Yamakasi by Luc Besson (Nikkita, Léon, The Fifth Element...). Having not watched it since it came out, I can't tell if it aged well. I don't even know how many people outside French-speaking countries have heard of it.
Sébastien Foucan was part of the free running group Yamakasi but doesn't star in the movie.
Odd fact: the name "parkour" was a registered trademark in France between 2001 and 2011, co-owned by Sébastien and another member.
Sebastien is still kicking in his 50's. All of those guys are still training to some degree, whether it's parkour or stunts or martial arts. I played hackey sack with Seb last summer in a park in London and he's still agile and strong as fk for an older dude 😂
My boyfriend was called Yamakasi after this film was shown in Ukraine. It was big among teenagers, but not hugely popular otherwise
I used to train parkour(in Sweden), and that movie was mentioned a couple of times among the group.
I watched it, tbh wasnt a huge fan of it.
Look fondly upon the training though it was actually quite fun.
Dude, I was a little disappointed to not see a reference to Yamakasi, i remember watching it time and time again, very early 00's aesthetics that make it funny today.
Ah yes, the French Art of running away. Timeless really.
Its wild how old this is now. I really still think of this era as "modern" and "next gen". God... im fucking old. I remember waiting half a decade for Skyrim to come out and I truly thought the graphics were unimaginably beautiful. Time flys.
Same, I still think of the ps4 as new...
Just think how it will be in 20 years and then maybe you'll understand your own parents more in regerds to technology and new things. It's a somewhat sad feeling to me.
I had a PS2 in my teens/early 20s so in my head anything past the PS2 still feels like "next gen". Thinking about how the PS3 is nearly 20 years old makes me feel like a fossil
@@andret3739 I remember at some point thinking "man, is that Elder Scrolls Oblivion ever gonna be released?"
Funnily enough, in my friends group we were talking about PS2 era even before XBOX360 and PS3 were announced.
And PS1, Dreamcast, gameboy were always Console Era.
Next-gen era will always be XBOX360 and PS3 for me and friends because it was an overused term in that time period.
Today its just modern console era (since PS4, Xbox one) as i think consoles in general are not really consoles anymore.
Mirror's Edge was the first xbox game I ever got...Honestly, it was my first console game that wasn't on the gamecube. I put hours and hours into this game, and then I sat by my dad and watched him play through it. It was the first game we really shared together. Hearing that title screen music again threw me way back and honestly made me tear up a bit. Thank you for making this video! So many good memories.
Mirror's Edge did one thing exceptionally well: Movement.
Mirror's Edge did one thing exceptionally bad: Saving glass fragments.
@54:02 Small correction, Still Alive was the ending song of the first Portal, which released before Mirror's Edge. Which makes it even more confusing, since it was only one year between the releases.
Exactly what i was gonna say, good on you
_"three years later Portal _*_too_*_ would have an ending song called..."_
Wanting to give im the benefit of the doubt.*
*Also can't help being _that guy._
@@CorkyMcButterpants I get what you're saying, but that makes even less sense imo.
It's either:
1) He got mixed up and said Still Alive was the ending song of Portal 2 when it was Portal 1.
2) He got mixed up and said Portal 1 came out three years after ME with Still Alive as the ending song, which is what your correction suggests.
I think it's more likely that he got mixed up in the first way, not the second. Either way, it's a very minor mixup and doesn't really matter since it's just a throwaway joke anyway.
lol @@Highonwater3X
I was just tryna be a smartarse with wordplay.
I can already imagine what would happen if Dice decided to make a Animal Crossing like game:
Dice: "We're going to make a game about socializing with other people and making friends."
Executives: "I don't think people would like that. Lets add guns just to make sure it could sell."
So basically Longvinter.
"Animal Crossing: Murder and Guns" Or Animal Crossing that looks normal but it slowly turns into a horror game with guns in it.
Animal crossing but you hunt the animals after becoming friends
The guns really ruined Mirror's Edge, I remember a number of people who just burnt out on the Boat level because it was just gunfight, some boring parkour, then more guns.
That works just call it USA simulator 2023
There was also a french film in 2004 called "district 13" (Banlieue 13 in French) that helped get parkour and free-running into the public eye. Still love that film.
I remember watching the big chase scene leading to the rooftop leap on youtube and then desperately trying to find the film for me to watch because at the time I was obsessed with parkour.
He invented parkour: the lead actor.
Then they remade it with Paul Walker and the same dude from the original (David Belle) and called it “Brick Mansions”
District 13 is THE parkour movie I think of first. Crazy it wasn't mentioned! There's a move where he goes through a tiny gap over a door and it's like he flows against the ceiling to do it and it's stuck in my brain forever. Love it!
Impressed other people have knowledge of this
the visuals on this never age, it could have been released this year
The character models are really the only thing that betrays the game’s age.
Yeah I would defo buy a remaster with newer character models etc
@@stevenesbitt3528 To be honest, they could remove the 62 FPS cap, add a FOV slider (both possible with a mod), fix the 4K UI scaling and call it a day. Some lightly brushed-up character models would make the game look impeccable.
I don’t care what anyone says teenage me was so emotionally invested in this games everything. I remember crying so hard after seeing the credits knowing I made it through something so unique. The immense loneliness in the parkour running really made my introvert holler
Me too man. Easily one of my favourite things I ever did as a teenager was learn to play Taioo's version of the main theme on piano.
Same. Both Mirror's Edge "Still Alive" and Halo soundtracks stuck to my teenage years.
Imo the gun-play in Mirror's Edge is more of a brute force option to get past a point if you can't move quickly enough through an area, or beat the enemies through disarming/hand-to-hand combat. There's an achievement to beat the game without killing an enemy with a gun (or shooting a gun?) excluding parts where using a gun is mandatory, which is the superior way to play since it gives you an extra push to figure out more of the advanced movement controls.
"excluding the parts where using a gun is mandatory"
I'd also like to point out that asking a player to play sub-optimally for the best gaming experience doesn't make the best gaming experience
To get the achievement at one point you need to fire one sniper rifle round this is the only time it is necessary to fire and doing it at any other points will fail the achievement. The run really needs to be done on easy but it's very enjoyable.
Yep, that achievement was a blast and serves as a bit of a counterpoint to the forced gun issues, because they're not actually forced.
In fact, I haven't played this game in close to a decade, and watching this I still got the muscle memory that the slide kick into standing punch is the easiest way to knock out any enemy non-lethal, lol.
His griping about all the gunplay hurt to hear. I never once, beyond when FIRST starting out (and later restarted because I wanted the achievement) shot anybody. The game gives you PLENTY of cover. You're supposed to use it, to dodge, run around, and use the parkour, NOT the guns. It's a shame he took the easy way out, which IS an option to those not able to master the parkour or impressive melee options it gives you (and you can totally cheese that by slide kicking someone in the knee, then punch them in the dick and then another punch to take out 99% of the enemies), because it sounds like it hurt his experience.
And yes, the achievement was for not shooting a gun. Well, not KILLING anyone with a gun. You can 100% kick that guy off the construction site and still get it.
@@tyrongkojy so you're saying that beyond your first playthrough you didn't use guns? Isn't it a bit too demanding to ask people to not judge the game based on their first playthrough? I also remember him saying that it was doable on normal mode but on difficult it was just way more efficient to shoot
18:51 This intro cutscene still gets me - it's a perfect blend of audio visuals in a game. The music that slowly creeps in and the subtle breath intake before landing on the crane to top it off with a slow motion feels so good.
Idk why, but it always gives me a lump on my throat. It's just so good.
I remember watching so many free running or parkour videos that came out of uk back then. Was so cool. Especially before youtube was really monetized.
Mirror's Edge is one of the most satisfying games to play, ever. It also has such an incredible aesthetic and sound design. It just flows, you get immersed with that graceful mix of simplicity and complexity
your run through the beginning of the game has me feeling some POWERFUL nostalgia. damn.
The way you described mirrors edge already made me feel old as it still feels like a game that hadn’t released that long ago, but then when you started talking about parkour before it.. In high school it was very obvious to my French teacher that I wasn’t interested in learning a 2nd language (you had to learn either Greek or French at my school) so she tasked me to “research” an upcoming trend in France called parkour.. I basically got to sit on youtube and watch the jump movies etc. for every French class for half a semester and loved every minute of it.
50:10 millers animation is INCREDIBLE for a 2009 game
Seems standard for 2009.
2007 has CoD4 which had a lot of very convincing movement animations.
@@element1111 if you say so
Mirror’s Edge is one of those pieces of media that made me feel nostalgic the very first time I booted it up.
I don’t quite know how that works, but the minimalist art style, clear blue skies, and the soundtrack speak to me somehow.
My 1.5yo daughter is sick and we watched this while in bed. She kept saying hello to you josh when you showed up haha 😂
I am so glad you covered this Gem ❤ for me personally it's probably in my Top 5 of favourite games ever, especially for those calm sections you talked about. The soundtrack and the running was so satisfying. Also the Challenge-Runs and Parkours you could do were amazing. I spent hours on it trying to get the trophies😂
Mirror's Edge will forever be one of my, if not favorite then, most memorable games. The visuals, the music, the gameplay and even the story combine into something utterly unforgettable for me.
I've even had serious thoughts through the years about getting Faiths arm tattoo, but I never took the leap pun intended.
So cool of you to briefly go over the history of Parkour. I picked it up when Casino Royale came out. Followed Sebastian Foucan, David Belle, the whole gang. My friends and I were hooked. Mirror's Edge came out and I bought it day one. Played it forever. What a great game. I remained a free runner for about 10 years from 9-19 y/o.
Fun fact. Mirrors edge was originally an engine and tech demo that dice was using to test new options for future battlefield games. Pieces of its engines and movement systems would then become the foundation for another ea tital. Titanfall.
Wait Mirrors edge uses the source engine? As far as I know, Titanfall uses the source engine. Altough heavily modified.
i call bullshit. mirrors edge and titanfall are 5 years apart, made by separate studios, and not even on the same engine.
@@thunfisch4938 It runs in Unreal Engine 3, and Titanfall uses a modified Source engine (based on the Portal 2 branch).
The one bit about the story I found really badly written was when Celeste was revealed to be a traitor and Faith & Merc first reaction wasn't: "We need to abandon our HQ because they definitely know where it is!" No, Merc stays put and Faith even sends her rescued sister there. To no surprise later the HQ gets raided and destroyed, Kate re-captured and Merc is dead. Hellooooo! Why did they not abandon an obvious compromised hiding place!!?
I was like WTF back then
Well it really is not badly written when you take into the account WHAT KIND of equipment was inside their hideout, and the massive logistics that would require for relocation. To top it all, what Merc did inside that was his primary source of income, so even if he were to abandon the equipment alongside the hideout, it would be near borderline impossible to get back to the position they were in before, not to mention that police would have a massive stash of data seized regardless.
@@MaksFaks-kl1zj he's not running a legit business. These runners are outlaws in a dystopian world. When compromised, you smash all the equipment and run. That's resistance 101.
Building up a new hidden base is a far secondary concern when running for your life. If they managed to build a base the first time, then they are resourceful enough to do so again elsewhere at a later time.
@@mystman7722 No one here said they were running a LEGIT BUSINESS. You would know if you'd read the comics or had paid attention to the story in detail in the first level is that these runners are no mere outlaws that are out for themselves only, but are a criminal network that earns money through selling of illegal information and data. Now combine this with the fact that Merc practically had a supercomputer with borderline sci-fi specs that occupies good portion of the hideout, from which he was even able to earn all of that money through years and years of criminal activity, you get yourself into situation where it is practically impossible to move out unless external help is involved.
And you are telling me that he should have smashed all of that, without worrying or at least considering an option to save all of the important data on a portable device? Cool story bro, next thing I am gonna hear is that you don't need no food to survive, just sheer determination and will.
I never even knew Celeste died until now
I remember seeing parkour for the first time in Yamakasi 2001 and being really impressed by the parkour. Later discovering this game was a treat. Haven't seen the movie in more than a decade, but judging by my memories it still should hold up for anyone interested. Might actually rewatch it myself.
I remember getting this and the cell shaded prince of Persia game back in the day
Two movement focused games with their own unique and beautifully realised worlds and environments
They seemed like companion pieces and that’s not just because I got them on the same day
I loved Prince of Persia 08. I was sad it didn't get a 3d sequel.
I will never forget the theme "Still Alive" by Lisa Miskovsky! I get goosebumps every time I hear it just like the first time!
This game was so well put together (apart from few bugs here and there)!
No
@@Sedona_FD3S yes
@@Key-Knight87 true
This video is, as always, excellent. My only point of contention is that moving in a "flashy" manner is a hallmark of Free-Running, which is related to but not the same as parkour. Parkour isn't intentionally flashy. Parkour's primary goal is efficiency of movement
You never actually have to engage with the gun mechanics. It is quite literally a skill issue in that regard. That's why there's an achievement for playing on hard and never firing a gun.
You also had the portal 2 song mixed up. Still Alive is from the first Portal game. Portal 2's ending song is "Want You Gone"
I remember when this game most famous for causing motion sickness! The reticle is a massive help there but god help anyone who ever plays it in VR.
The fps character animations in this game were incredible. I started opening push doors with the back of my forearm in real life after playing this, and was disappointed that that was cut from Catalyst.
Ha that’s so funny, I still sometimes close fist hit elevator buttons just how Faith does in this game too.
Catalyst didn't cut the bashing through doors with your arm, if you right click on approach that's how faith goes through em. Or at least, if it was cut, it was added again cuz when I played it was the best way to go through doors while maintaining focus.
It could be a nightmare for some people but I'd love for this series to be remade in VR.
Yep, I'm replaying the game right now because of this video and that was the first thing I thought of too. It would probably make a lot of people sick, but I'd give it my best try lol.
I can feel motion sickness coming on just reading that.
Stride is kinda mirrors edge for vr. Its decent
I vaguely remember seeing a video from jacksepticeye where he was playing a vr version, so maybe there is a mod for it?
The closest experience I could think of to get the same height experience as Mirror’s Edge in VR might be Minecraft or Skyrim. I’m not usually prone to altitude sickness in video games, but climbing a tall mountain in Skyrim and looking down, or staring into the deep caves of Minecraft can be a little bit dizzying if done for too long. Lol.
I had a fever dream once that a version of Mirror's Edge existed that gave you the ability to punch your way through the game, but if you ever shot someone with a gun, there was the sound of breaking glass, a hud with crosshairs and an ammo counter would appear, the music would get angry, you'd lose the flow state mechanic forever, and it would turn into a call of duty
i had my ps3 for a couple months back then
bought it with my own money from my first real job in my life
and the day this game was released i bought a new tv just for it because i was so hyped for mirrors edge sinc the first trailer
good old times and still one of my favorite games. nice video man i really enjoyed it.
i use it as my desktop backgroud. i have a Faith's eye-tattoo-shaped tattoo on my left arm. and i got into rock climbing and bouldering as a hobby going on 12 years now. i related to this game on a spiritual level as someone who grew up in an authoritarian country.
There was a french movie from 2004 called District 13, written by Luc Besson. Not sure how popular it was, but that was my first contact with parkour. I guess it inspired Mirror's Edge too, because of kinda similar themes.
Yes, just like they also made a movie called "yamakasi" in 2001, about the same theme.
Basically early 2000's the "parkour" started to gain hype, coming from Asia, asian dude doing crazy stunt while runing, jumping roof to roof and so on , which was called "yamakasi", it gained attraction in EU especially France, hence why they made the afformentioned film, and once it gain popularity, it got renamed "parkour" which a stylized version of the word "parcour" which mean "route" or "run through" in french (yeah you know back in the days we liked to put K everywhere too look cool... right mortal kombat ?) , then it became a world popular thing and the rest of the story is in the video (:
@@DaftBoy06i forgot about Yamakasi, thanks! And MK movie had those backflips or crazy kicks, that was fun xd
Everyone always forgets about Rocket Power. :(
Our French teacher "made" us watch D13 in class! Also my first introduction to parkour. I miss her, she was cool.
I think that was my first contact too, and free running was an early 2000s thing that all the kids in the UK knew at the time. It was already popular before Daniel Craig became James Bond.
Mirror's Edge was one of the first games I beat when I was growing up, and this video took me back and cranked the nostalgia up to 11. Fantastic video.
Deadcore is a game that plays like Mirror's Edge but has a lot better gunplay. Might be worth trying.
"Still Alive" from the Mirror's Edge soundtrack is still on a couple of my playlists. Will never stop loving that song.
The ending is kinda hilarious if you actually think about it. There are still two guys nearby, and now everyone knows where you are because of that helicopter explosion, and now you have to cart around your sister who I assume can't parkour. You better hope Miller can single-handedly drive them away because you're not getting out of there otherwise.
Also, not mentioning The Sands of Time when talking about parkour in video games feels really wrong.
It also didn't make sense that the men behind her prior to jumping on the helicopter didn't fill her with lead.
@@Ergeniz I'm assuming they went "Oh god a falling helicopter" and went inside. But then they'd just come back out afterwards
@@SuperLlama42 No. This is right as Faith turned around, noticed them standing there then boarded the copter. They had ample time to shoot her before she turned around and even afterwards took a few seconds before she got behind cover.
@@Ergeniz I think its because the bad guy told them not to shot if she stood there remember that whole bit one was supposed to be a big boss fight (not sure how faith would had been separated from the bad guys) before the fight stats the whole thing was cut off to just a run forward, jump, kick and end.
why they just teleport I have no clue. could been part of the scraped badguy want to fight (shooting gallery) sadly the devs never got that part finished.
because I think there was an ide somewhere where the grunts would when looking back a second time would been seen running down the stairs.
He did mention Prince of Persia, unless you mean a different Sands of Time?
This still is my most satisfying Platinum trophy on PS and one of my top ten games. Having to speedrun each chapter for a set time broke the game in ideas on where to go for me, but I enjoyed it immensely. I really wish this series would make a comeback. I'd be there day one.
Hail to you, my proudest Platinum also!
Really demanding for both short term memory and rhythm.
Great video, glad this underrated gem of a game is still getting some love. One tiny nitpick: the ending song from Portal 2 is 'Want You Gone', not 'Still Alive'. 'Still Alive' was the ending song from the original Portal, which actually came out a year before Mirror's Edge.
Wow that stadium jump was for sure a throwback, jumpstarted my whole interest in parkour when I was in elementary school! Amazing docu-video essay
This game got me into Ambient music, thanks to Solar Fields (the artist of the OST), before even playing the game. To this day, more than a decade later, he is still one of my favourite artists. Even today, I listened to the OST of this game whilst studying.
Love this immersion into such a fantastic game, thank you!
I loved the combat, and you know what the key was? I ignored the disarm. Took down all the enemies with slides and jumpkicks, using movement to divide and confuse enemies. Feels more like how Faith would actually fight than grabbing an AK and drilling some fools. You can take out every enemy in the game that way, even the ones you're supposed to run past. Good times!
this game doesn't have fun combat tho, no matter how you fight
I mean, giving someone a flying kick is always fun
On all my playthroughs I'd use disarms but straight away drop a gun, this way you neutralize enemies fast but don't get to shoot
I remember constantly dying on a level because i was disarming and trying to shoot everyone. Until my uncle was like "just ignore the disarming and just run pass." And it worked. The gun play and combat just felt like another puzzle. Do you really need to do it here? Or can you just run pass? Maybe a little both?
Whenever i played mirror's edge i always throw away the gun when they give me one. Feels a lot better doing fist and kick combat than shooting. I think the reason they made the gun play so bad in this game is because they want the player to throw away the gun.
Yeah, it definitely feels like you're just not meant to use a gun except as a last resort...and it sells that idea very well. If I'm remember correctly, Catalyst leaned into that concept as well but gave more combat options - more counters, traversal options like running off walls into kicks, throws, etc...while preventing you from using a gun at all. Better combat encounter gameplay as a result...bit of a loss on the thematic side, since the player wasn't making the choice.
No, it's because the person using the gun isn't an experienced shooter, so it feels clunky and akward in her hands. But i'd still rather have a gun when going up against tanky enemies. It doesn't make sense that a tiny 100 pound female can beat a juggernaut into submission with her bare hands
@@ChaotiX1but it is possible given proper technique and form irl
@@TR-qf2gt it is not possible irl, it is ONLY possible in the game.
@@ChaotiX1sure thing
Solar Fields did an absolute bang out job on this games soundtrack. It's iconic.
Those ambient tracks knock me out faster than any substance known to man
Josh, if I may recommend a subject for an other video, there was a game called "Remember Me" which seemingly everyone forgot about.
They didn't forget. No one played it because it sucked. Massively sucked.
Ironic, id say
i played it. and it was a really bad game. it looked pretty good with the memory altering and such. but its story didnt make sense and combat was quite boring
Capcom alone has soo many old games that deserve to he dusted off
A lot of people disliked it. Personally I really enjoyed it
Still Alive is one of my favourite soundtracks, that first note triggers some pavlovian memory of playing games with my best friends, before work, kids, adult stuff became the norm. I can clearly remember the feeling of the song starting at the ending sequence & how I was avoiding looking at my friend on the sofa next to me because I was getting choked up. The game was a beautiful and memorable experience for sure.
I think you missed one thing story wise. Cel is also the runner training the cops. There's too many hints she gives off that she's the bad guy through the game, so I hope there were few people surprised, especially after she knows your moves in the roof battle. Project Icarus wouldn't have worked unless a runner turned, so she sold out long ago. This improves the story overall, instead of the thinking that the cops have caught up to the times and learned parkour.
Heh, I never played at all and watched this video, and I was like “another ‘runner’ huh? Obviously a hidden turncoat”. Funny to see that trope guess immediately confirmed!
i thought it was Jacknife
Both, technically, but not sure which turned first@@raziel7148
You know I've been playing this game for over a decade and I never got the rat metaphor until now.
I remember learning about the singer Lisa Misovski, the singer of the track Still Alive that they used in the commercial for this game.
That track really hooked me into the vibe the game was presenting. The track gives the feeling of flying almost, works so great with this game.
Fantastic song, that one.
Ea released 6 or 8 official mixes last year on YT but idk if they are still up. Most of em were pretty catchy.
@@marcing115 Those are on the CD you got with the game.
@@havtor007 I'm sure most people won't experience those anymore, sadly. Another L for digital only games
Love the feeling that Mirrors Edge give the player, from time to time I still just vibe to the OST on Spotify and imagine myself running around like that. It is amazing how they take the oppressive feeling of a big city and make you somehow feel like you have all the freedom in the world just running around.
"Still Alive" never fails to give me goosebumps.
Mirror's Edge: Catalyst is a decent game as well. Everything is a bit fleshed out, but as a result it loses its focus a tiny bit. Still very much a recommend from me though, if you enjoyed the first one. Just be prepared, it's basically a complete reboot story wise. It is also more free roam, and has a skill tree which basically doesn't matter. I really like the game though. And it's often on sale dirt cheap.
Catalyst OST is incredible. Somehow manages to be even better than the original.
This was a triumph
eh, for me ME2 is just the worst kind of game, the ol' "lets take what was unique and original in the first game, and now we know it will sell, slap in a bunch of modern game slop" which at that time was padding, skill trees and forced open areas with no actual good design. May be "good" but its a shadow of its potential. Shouldve gone to a passionate indie, not a corporate chart chaser.
@@MysteriousStranger50at first i was like "what? Mass effect 2 was great!" Then realized, oh yeah, mirrors edge catalyst is ME2
Strongly disagree. Catalyst felt like it lost it's path, it was far more focused on gunplay and as somebody who was obsessed with the original Mirror's Edge, I hated Catalyst.
Omg i had that main theme tune stuck in my head for years and couldn't figure out where it was from! Thank you!
Back in 2008, I was a massive fan of free running and parkour. I watched all the UA-cam videos I could find of it and practiced learning flips and stuff in my back yard. Even made a small group of friends at school who would all go do parkour together. I thought Mirror's edge was awesome and 100% the game, playing the time trials a ton to try to get some of the top spots. It did the "simple concept done well" thing perfectly.
seeing the game play and hearing the soundtrack, got me so nostalgic, mirrors edge will always be the first game that made me fall in love with videogames. Even while watching this video when you showed the ending sequence and when the full song of 'still alive' started playing I got emocional cuz this game will forever be my childhood. I wont say its amazing but it was an amazing core memory (I rarely see peopled talking about it, I appreciate this video a lot)
Love this! I know what you mean about the Project Icarus reveal but personally I like it, and actually prefer it to some big generic 'they're going to do some giant evil thing!'. ME's storyline is surprisingly radical for the time, and it fits that this is just another small bit of freedom the state is trying to curtail - it feels like that would be kinda how it works in real life (in a less silly seeming way!), losing your rights and things you can enjoy one seemingly small thing at a time until there's nothing left and regular people didn't even notice anything happen
exactly what is happening irl in the west at the moment although people are starting to notice
I liked project icarus as it was essentially "The runners have outdone our efforts thus far, so why don't we try to use their own tricks against them?"
Not ever runner is as good as Faith either, nor will there always be those situations where a runner could get creative to escape their pursuers. Plus with the use of the free-running cops, they can cut off those creative escapes by taking multiple approaches around the roof tops, cutting off potential escape routes. This would lead to the runner constantly having to think on their feet, and even possibly realizing they're running out of escape routes and are possibly being boxed in by the cops and the icarus cops.
Amazing I haven’t thought of this game for a while, thank you! I had a blast playing this back in the day!
Yes. I still play it today.
Stop, you shouldnt.
@@SimonasVitkus Thanks for telling me what to do. Your life that boring is it?
@@SimonasVitkus Why?
@@Lingerminator playing this ancient clunky game lol
@@SimonasVitkus
i still play fallout,bg,roller coaster tycoon 1-2 to this day
I still listen to the theme song regularly. Never beat it, just couldn't get past chapter 10 but I replayed those other 9 levels so much. Its very sentimental to me.
Quick correction: the slow motion is actually there to make lining up moves easier, not to assist with disarming enemies. It's actually pretty well implemented, because if you need it as an assist feature you can almost always count on flow before a precise jump, whereas if you're able to do the main line of the level without it you'll have plenty to help with finding more efficient lines.
The game teaches you this because the opening cutscene of the first proper level shows Faith using it to line up a jump.
Just watching this inspires fear in my ankles and knees.
I always thought the gunplay was bad on purpose. It's supposed to be a trap by ruining your flow, and killing people, in my mind, is not the message the game is trying to send. I don't remember ever using a gun because I felt bad shooting the goons. The game is intentionally rewarding you for being a pacifist because of the design. It's about being a better person in a terrible system.
Yup there is a PS3 trophy for not ever firing a gun during a playthrough
I completely forgot the game even had a gun-
Making a system bad on purpose is still making a bad system, and expecting your players to not use one of the core systems of your game is stupid
Wouldn't it be better to just not have guns ? Or have a character that doesn't know how to use them at all ?
@@ZZZZordan but does it achieve its design goals? Discouraging a common gameplay trope for thematic purposes is pretty cool
@@drone124 Read the comments or most reviews and you'll quickly realize how it very much didn't
It discouraged players from playing the game, not much more
You could achieve the exact same result by having Faith being VERY bad at handling guns, making them pretty much useless, but at least you'd be sure that players would without a doubt understand that it was done on purpose and that it's not a viable option
Meanwhile, in the game, it is not only a viable option but pacifist runs are harder than "regular" runs, so why would you assume that that's what the game expect you to do ?
The daughter of one of my favorite authors wrote BioShock infinite??? wow. you really learn the weirdest of things in the most unexpected places
and she is bad. xDDDDD
Rhi's done some impressive story work over the years, her humour is a definite strongpoint for the Overlord games she worked on. But she was only an additional writer for BSI, working on the sidelines with the (from my recollection just mooks) minor AI voice over development.
infinite was terrible lmao
No, that's a mis-accreditation. It only takes a brief search to see she only did additional writing, Ken Levine was behind the main story.
For a terrible game I loved infinite.
Is it me or does Josh looks and dresses in a way that doesn't make him seem a gamer or youtuber, but rather an up and coming author/detective who's about to embark on a mystery supernatural crime drama where he'll try to be the reluctant yet optimist protagonist through the series?
he reminds me more of a snooker player lol
i'm still waiting for a dirk gently esque type to take him on wacky adventures.
You mean Sherlock Holmes?
🙄
Damn, that's a long way of saying he's really hot
There's actually a ps2 game all about Free Running simply called "Free Running" that stars Sebastien Foucan as both the tutorial giver and interstitial boss races peppered throughout the game. The races also all take place in the first level, they just get harder and harder routes as you keep returning to it. It's very fun.
If only Freerunning / Parkour was a thing 10 years earlier 😭 that was a great part of my childhood, which got stopped after my forehead met a concrete curb. I did heal with no permanent physical damage, but my days of risky jumps, tree-climbing, wall-climbing, rooftop-climbing were left behind.
When I first heard about Parkour, my first thought was, "Oh like Jackie Chan".
Solar Fields producing the music for this is the best thing that ever happened. I got thoroughly addicted to that type of music genre back in my teens, thanks to this game!
Used to play through the whole game every day when this came out. Beating it on the hardest difficulty without killing was brutal but very rewarding to achieve.
"merc you can stop pretending not to listen now" and "no idea faithy i just go there for the pretzels" are hilarious