2/5 ★ – curt924's review of Mirror's Edge Catalyst.

The word of the hour is "why?" WHY does this play nothing like the first Mirror's Edge. Why is this game open world. Why does the story suck so much. Why did it take me 4 years and 3 attempts to finally finish the sequel to one of my favorite games of all time? Catalyst is bizarre in that I have no idea who this game is for. The streamlined controls and the overbearing Runner's Vision seem to imply that EA was hoping to reach a larger audience than the first one with this game. However, The ridiculously hard side content and open world method of learning every intricate detail of the map feels like it's aimed at the more hardcore fans of the series. The result is a mishmash of ideas and systems that don't really feel like they are from the same game. At least it looks pretty though. The game looks and sounds great, with incredible lighting effects and Solar Fields returning for a soundtrack that, while not quite as good as the first game's, is still very well done and gives the game a really unique atmosphere. The City of Glass is a really unique location too, where a Cyberpunk setting is actually disturbingly clean. Light reflects and bounces off of surfaces, and seeing Faith's reflection in passing windows is really cool. I noticed some poor quality textures occasionally, and some animations needed some more polish, but it's overall one of the best looking games of the current gen. Sound design is pretty good too, with punchy sound effects during fight sections and many great uses of ambient audio as you run across the city. Unfortunately, I can't sing the same praises for the story here. I'm not going to pretend that Mirror's Edge had an amazing story or anything, but at least there were memorable characters that had some charm to them, along with writing that didn't make me want to beat a kitten. The story here is absolutely dreadful. Each character, with the exception of Noah, is insufferable. Even Faith feels like an annoying bratty version of her first game self, and has zero motivation behind her actions. Not sure if making everyone unlikable was the goal here, but that's what they accomplished. That's before we even cover the annoying and super generic cyberpunk story that's a "commentary" on free will and political influence. Give me a fucking break. The ending sequence is one of the worst ways I've ever seen a video game end, and it gives zero closure to the many open threads that the game has. It legitimately feels like they ran out of money and just ended the script halfway through production. The majority of my time with this game was failing and redoing delivery missions over and over and over again because I was far too stubborn to accept defeat and move on to the Main Missions. It's not even like those delivery missions give you much in the way of rewards. They also aren't helped by the fact that all the runner's clients are just total assholes for no reason?? The deliveries themselves are actually really difficult, especially when playing without runner's vision, but they can be a little frustrating when you have to restart them 10+ times. I only found out later that I was missing a pretty essential skill for these side missions that would let me climb up ladders and poles faster. They are still pretty hard even with this skill, but I feel like 3 hours of my run time would've been shaved off if... ya know... the skill tree didn't exist?? SO WHAT'S THE POINT of this annoying ass skill tree? Most of the upgrades are pretty meaningless garbage, like extra damage from wall kicks or some other minuscule shit that isn't fun to earn at all. Others are ESSENTIAL running skills that rapidly speed up your traversal time during story and side missions. Stuff that was already with faith in the first game is now locked behind a skill tree. Literal basic stuff like rolling and quick turning is now an unlockable skill, which feels cheap. Even stuff that could be a cool skill in the tree isn't actually unlockable via leveling up. All of the gear that allows you access to the different areas of Glass are locked behind mission specific objectives, and they are pretty much always just given to you in a cutscene. This sucks, and really makes the skill tree feel detached from the game. Outside of the skill tree and side missions though, the gameplay can feel pretty good. At least, when it isn't fucking up and sending Faith flying off roofs for no good reason. Movement is much more fluid and bouncy than the first game here, which makes traversing rooftops more fun, although less rewarding than the first game. Faith regularly makes impossibly high jumps and acrobatic feats that should rip her body to shreds, but I can ignore that for the sake of the game. Seeing the same areas over and over again can be tiring though, especially during the first half of the game where it feels like you spend forever in the same starting district. Things become a little more interesting at least once you get to the construction zone. The game is actually at its best here when you are completing main missions, since that's obviously where the majority of the level design time went. The missions range from forgettable to pretty good, but never quite reach the same heights from the first game. Even The Shard makes a return as the final level for this one, but it's far less memorable and more scripted than the 2008 version. Overall, this is pretty much a straight downgrade from the first game. Even the well done aspects here aren't as good as the simple brilliance of the Mirror's Edge, and it consistently made me wish I was just playing the first one. It's a bloated mess of a game that has no idea what it wants to be, and I wish DICE would've taken some more time to really get this right. Unfortunately, I imagine we won't be seeing any more Mirror's Edge any time soon.