A good chunk of you probably know who DICE are. They’re the guys behind Battlefield and the modern entries of the Stars Wars: Battlefront series. They’re also one of the biggest developers at Electronic Arts, or whom we all know as EA. They make some of the most heavily funded titles in the world, and a majority of people hate them. The purest example of how money does not automatically make a good product, and combined with EA’s greedy business practices showcase how shameless a company can get. Expecting their players to consume and spend on products without noticing the quality drop of their games. It sucks that after all these years of developing and working on games the team at DICE have become heavily disrespected. Unfortunate as there are people on that team who genuinely care about what they do for a living. Talking about games and controversial developers is hard, because for every terrible thing they do there’s a small little voice in the back of your mind saying they are capable of good. If they just took the time to think and plan out their actions they can make something good. They can develop a great game!
As much as I hate Electronic Arts they have been making an attempt to put out better games in recent memory. They’ve begun to help with the publishing of indie games like Tales of Kenzera and Lost in Random. They took a chance with the Dynasty Warriors devs, Omega Force, and a year ago published Wild Hearts which a lot of people consider the first major competitor against the Monster Hunter franchise. They stuck with Josef Fares and put out It Takes Two which won a ton of awards back in 2021, and last year they assembled a team to remake Dead Space which I hope signals to them that investing in single player titles is better than overfunding multiplayer games people forget about in a year. Although that last point might not matter anymore as they cancelled plans for a remake of Dead Space 2. Point I’m trying to make is that folks can change. They can identify their flaws, try to improve, and fix what was broken before. Electronic Arts have been trying, , and I believe DICE can do so too if they just tried.
With today’s topic discussing one of their past attempts to make a game that isn't centered around making a game with a heavy competitive multiplayer focus. Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst, the reboot to the 2008 cult classic Mirror’s Edge which many consider one of the best speedrunning games to be ever made. I covered Mirror’s Edge in one of Brief Looks a while back and my reception for it was pretty positive. There were some faults mainly dealing with the story and combat that wasn’t needed, but its core gameplay loop was executed finely alongside a world that still looks beautiful to this day. However, I guess the original didn’t go out as well as DICE hoped and they never went back to it. That wasn’t until eight years passed and they decided to give this forgotten series another go. Releasing Catalyst all the way back in 2016 and delivering a larger in scope game. Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst was the reboot of the franchise and the game DICE hoped would finally rocket the series towards success. Sadly that is not what happened as reviews were not very good and the game undersold. Just like the original eight years have passed and I don’t see DICE coming back to it anytime sooner.
Having played Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst my reception for it is on two sides. On one hand there is something special here. The parkour, world, and what made Mirror’s Edge unique remains intact and in some cases I would consider Catalyst an improvement. However, I also understand why it failed as the direction Catalyst went wasn’t the best for the Mirror’s Edge formula. DICE went for what a lot of Triple A devs do now and that is to make a Ubisoft game. To go open world and majority of the time going open world carries risks. Going open world means to change the flow and design of a game, and while there’ve been exceptions like Elden Ring it didn’t work so well for Mirror’s Edge. This is an alright game. I don't think Mirror's Edge: Catalyst is terrible and I did have fun with it. If you were to ask me if I could recommend it to a casual Triple A gamer I would tell you yes. It’s the change in direction and flaws that prevent me from seeing it as a great game, and today we’re going to discuss why this is such the case.
Story
Our tale of parkour flashiness and shining white skylines follows Faith. At a young age she lost both of her parents during a riot, and was taken in by Noah the leader of the Runners. They’re a small faction that operates by themselves, and they take on dangerous jobs and heists to retrieve items for their clients. Faith went to prison for a short time after failing to pay off her last client Dogen, but when released she made her way back to Runner HQ to redeem herself. So out she goes running amongst the beautiful world, and eventually she’s given orders to nab some data from a Kruger Security stronghold. K-Sec is basically the law. They control a majority of the city and if any person tries to oppose them they are dealt with lethal force. They’re the ones people keep rioting against and why Faith’s parents were killed. It’s also why her sister disappeared, but that’s a mystery for another time. Faith takes on this dangerous job, notices a spy breaking into the building just when she’s about to leave, and this spy attempts to steal a data drive within the compound. Gabriel Kruger, CEO of Kruger Security, enters the room and kills the spy. Thinking no one else is there until you nab the drive in front of him and run away to safety.
You may have disobeyed your orders, but the drive contains information about a new invention being developed by Kruger Security. You don’t know what it exactly is, but over time it's hinted to being a device designed to control the masses. To manipulate the emotions of people so that no one will oppose the might of Kruger. You want to stop that from happening so off you go to run around the world some more, thwart Kruger’s plan, and save the people of this fair city. All just through the power of parkour. As Michael Scott once said, “PARKOUR!” (Crashing sound)
Gameplay
In Mirror’s Edge you’ll find yourself parkouring around the environment to get to where you need to be. Running, jumping, wall running, riding ropes, vaulting, sliding, rolling, and the list goes on. Anything you can do with real life parkour you can probably do in Mirror’s Edge. That is if you can master its movement system and know when to press the right button inputs at the right time. Over time you unlock new equipment that allows you to explore more of the world such as a grappling hook, deactivation device, and upgrades to said grappling hook for longer distance or yanking down barriers. Occasionally you’ll have to fight enemies while running or progressing far enough into the story, and this is where combat comes into play. You’ll have to alternate attacks and strategies for different kinds of foes as some of them will block your attacks or push you over if you just mindlessly button mash. A unique addition to Catalyst is runner’s focus. Basically if you run for a long enough period of time without stopping or changing your direction you build up focus. If you have a ton of focus and an enemy decides to do something like shoot at you it doesn't do any damage. Instead you tank the blow and get to keep moving. If you have no focus at all it deals a direct hit.
That’s why when you’re in a small arena it’s important not just to alternate how you fight, but in what ways you get around. Outside of the main mission there’s quite a few things to do such as the side missions, collectibles, and control points you can liberate. Everytime you complete one of many tasks you earn experience points. When enough are earned you level up and this allows you to spend skill points on new skills. Whether that be more traversal moves, combat options, or improving your gear. Each upgrade makes a huge difference to your character so make sure you spend them wisely on what you need. Outside of that there’s not much else for me to say on Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst. It’s more of the first game but open world, and your enjoyment of this will depend on whether you liked the first game and are fine with the open world direction. Let’s just hope you can stop Kruger's plans and liberate the public from cruelty.
Thoughts
Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst sticks itself in a weird spot. There’s quite a few things this game does right and wrong, and you cannot choose to either love or hate it. The game is alright. That is the simplest description you can give a video game. It’s fine and anybody else you recommend will probably think it’s just fine as well. Let’s get what this game does right out of the way first. The movement is good. It was good in the first game and it may even be better in Catalyst. Faith is still limber, but has a bit of weight. Jumping, sliding, and rolling just when you’re about to hit the ground has heft to it and it feels great when you get back up after doing these moves and run some more. Despite the game going open world it still has some set pieces that make you switch between moves and feel awesome for when you pull off a variation combo well. The movement requires skill and thought, but it’s satisfying when you finally master it. When you understand it for all it is and live the dream of being a parkour master. It’s the fantasy Mirror’s Edge aims for and still achieves all these years later. The art direction is another aspect still splendid to this day. A city made entirely of white with the only colors separating certain things apart being red and orange. The two colors signaling where to go or what buildings may be important to go to. The game continues that trend of guiding you through colored highlights or streaks of red, and while it may be a bit handholdy at times the visual effects of it are still pleasing to look at.
The game doesn’t take too long to beat and honestly I can get by it’s short runtime. Catalyst isn’t aiming to be a collectathon open world game, and just wants you to run around. To have fun. The question now is how much does it succeed at being both a Mirror’s Edge and open world game? Despite me appreciating how Catalyst isn’t a grindy open world game I feel that a majority of what you collect in Catalyst is completely useless. There’s datachip you can loot, but you can’t do anything with them. There’s towers you can shut down, but they’re not like vantage points in a Ubisoft sandbox game where it reveals more of the map because the map is fully revealed from the get go. Plus the map is not very big in general so you shouldn’t get confused on where you need to go. There’s no need to explore this world, so half the time you end up focusing on the main objective. You think by going to the open world Mirror’s Edge and its movement would benefit from this. To begin this parkour playground where you can creatively express yourself, but what if I told you it’s more limited. Somehow when running back through areas you’ve been before you still find yourself doing the same thing and maneuvers to get to where you need to be. Probably due to the guidance system automatically highlighting what object to parkour over.
Now some people may argue to just deactivate the system. Fair point. However, the original used a similar system and it was less noticeable despite the original being more linear and tight. It was probably due to how the game flowed and every stride forward felt like meaningful progres. This brings me onto my major point is that the number one thing Mirror’s Edge lost when going for an open world formula was its replayability and wanting more. The reason Mirror’s Edge is such a respected title is how much you want to go back even after beating the game. You want to see if you can navigate those levels better. Get to your goal quicker, or see what strategy would save you a few seconds of time. The linearity increased the replay value in this case, because now the player considers what to do to obtain a new personal goal. Catalyst is not on this same boat. The open world loses that sense or urgency and wants the first game. Why jet to your goal when you can take all the time you need outside a few story missions. Why speedrun when there’s not a reason for you to speedrun in the first place? What is the point of doing anything new when I get the same results no matter what? This is the major reason Catalyst is inferior despite making an attempt to improve. It went forwards and backwards at the same time. It went nowhere.
The only other thing I can complain about is that the story, while better than the original, isn’t still that very good. It’s about standing up against corrupt corporations, but that doesn’t work for three reasons. One, the characters aren’t all that very interesting. Two, important moments seem to happen outside of your view and cutscenes so the personal impact doesn’t hit the way you had hoped. Thirdly, this is a game published by Electronic Arts, so them attempting to do a story like this doesn’t work very well. Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst is alright. It’s a conflicting video game. I do not hate it, but I do not love it either. It’s alright. It’s a shame it’s not any better, because now all DICE wants to do is churn out more competitive multiplayer crud. They don’t want to change or experiment when that’s what leads to improvement. Wanting to do things differently. Wanting for more than just money and personal gain. Wanting to make art rather than just products for consumption. I give Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst a 7.5/10 for being alright.
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