E3 2015 Hands On — Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

Mirror's Edge Catalyst

While At E3 I Was Able To See Mirror’s Edge Catalyst In A More Intimate Setting Than Just The Trailer. Here’s My Take On It

Moving into E3 Mirror’s Edge Catalyst was another one of those titles that received the announcement treatment just before the expo proper and I wasn’t expecting to see much more than a few gameplay demos and factoids abound. During the EA press event though it was let loose that those at E3 would be able to actually play Mirror’s Edge Catalyst on the floor alongside the February 23^rd, 2016 release date on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. I was lucky enough to be able to get my dirty little hands all over Mirror’s Edge Catalyst to see if it lived up to the hype we all had so far as well as see if the bells and whistles for the reboot to the Mirror’s Edge franchise would be the game we’ve been waiting for from DICE.

From the start of things here in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst it looks like Faith starts out as one of the members of the “evil corporations” and is in turn liberated to run amuck. Pun intended. You can read all of that as the basic tutorial before we were let loose into the city to test out those free-running skills as well as how open the world is without loading screens. This is where Mirror’s Edge Catalyst became vastly different from the original title as it is no longer just a linear game played through the story but the world is completely open. Not only open, but it is large and full of all kinds of things to do even though the demo on the show floor only had three options available for Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. Something we can’t knock as it was just a demo.

I had my reservations when it was brought up about the openness of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst‘s world as I didn’t see how they would create something so vast to play with the controls yet not have you get lost. In fact when you set way-points on the map your runner vision kicks in and highlights all of the ledges, poles, jumps, and slides you will need to take to get from point A to point B in the fastest manner possible. Other games have done this with a GPS style line to follow but for Mirror’s Edge Catalyst it completely fits the game’s world and mechanics. The pathfinding algorithms must be intense to be able to do this but it looks like DICE has completely pulled it off with almost no issue. At least no issue on my end.

From here we were allowed to embark on a few of the side-missions in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. At least I assume they are going to be side-missions in the game as one was a timed trial, another a “puzzle” to get to a billboard to hack it, and the last to deliver an item from one location to another with a few guards trying to stop you along the way. Nothing that felt like it was main mission based but it definitely gave you a feel of what Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is going to have to offer when it finally launches. If nothing more it showed off the combat and parkour system that Mirror’s Edge should be famous for by now. If you have no clue on that play the original title.

This all of course brings me to the main question everyone will have about Mirror’s Edge Catalyst; how does it compare to the original? It is a reboot to the franchise of sorts but it looks like all of the free running and combat have been vastly improved upon and it feels amazing. I am hoping that some of the more advanced moves you could pull off in Mirror’s Edge were only disabled because this was a floor demo but I was able to get back up running and jumping as I was back in the day. Sadly the combat, even though I hardly used it before and this time, still felt a bit wonky and difficult to pull off. Although when you do manage to pull off some killer combos there are new finishers in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst that make you feel like the total badass that Faith is.

If nothing else DICE has captured everything that we would want to be in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst as of this E3 demo. I can’t completely agree that there were no loading screens as boasted during the EA conference as it was only a few side missions and technically when you died or fell there was a bit of load time to get back in but it wasn’t anything too insane to deal with. If anything Mirror’s Edge has been completely captured here again and I think this is going to be another addition to the franchise we have all been waiting for. I can’t wait for more on Mirror’s Edge Catalyst but be sure that when we get it we will have it right here so don’t stray too far as we will update it all when we have it.