The Flow of Consciousness

Faith from Mirror's Edge

I just finished playing Mirror’s Edge this morning on my PC. I bought the game late last year through Steam when it was on sale. It came out early last year with much fanfare, but the game was a mixed commercial success. It has an 81% Metacritic score, though, with slightly less for the console versions.

The story revolves around a twentysomething Asian girl named Faith. She lives in a city or country dominated by a totalitarian regime with an iron fist grasp on communications and travel in the city. So, in order to get packages and messages, folks who would rather their business remain unknown to the city utilize couriers on foot, called “runners,” of which Faith is one. She’s employed by a runner named Mercury, who trained her after her parents were killed in some riots protesting the totalitarian regime. Celeste is a coworker of Faith who is a little shady. Faith’s sister is a cop who gets framed for the murder of a prominent businessman and rising politician—a candidate for a hotly contested mayoral race against incumbent Callaghan.

The game follows Faith as she rescues her sister, Kate. Another cop, Miller, is a friend and protector of Kate, but he pretends that he’s in on it in order to save Kate.

The game is absolutely beautiful. It’s honestly one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played on PC.

Mirror's Edge screenshot

I think the screenshot might be from the Xbox 360 version, but it looks even better on PC or PS3—I’ve played it on both.

The general gameplay dynamic is running, jumping, sliding, ducking, and falling. Frantically. Everywhere. It’s more of a first person running/falling game than a first person shooter. There are a few occasions where guns are available and arguably necessary. It’s possible to disarm baddies, but it’s difficult without the use of the “bullet time” feature of the game.

The controls were easy, but some of the moves necessary to climb to great heights (wall jumping, primarily) are difficult to pull off even after some practice. The soundtrack of the game is almost worth the cost alone. If I can find a way to extract the music from the game, I’ll be listening to it quite frequently. It’s upbeat yet relaxing ambient new age stuff, if you’re into that kind of music during coding or typing or something.

Unfortunately, the game was, well, short. Very short. Steam says that I played it for six hours. I know there was one area in which I spent nearly an hour trying to figure out how to walljump to where I needed to get to. That means that this game, if played by someone with quicker reactions and better timing, could likely be complete in 3-5 hours. That’s not worth the $50 it was when it came out. It was worth the ~$7 I paid for it. Hearing the soundtrack, I’d have paid $15-$20 for it.

My other complaint was that the story was very shallow. I think this is primarily because of its length, or lack thereof. I didn’t get attached to any of the characters, despite my compassion for their plight.

Celeste

I think that Mirror’s Edge would make a great movie, though. The action is sporadic enough and could likely be condensed to be a two hour film. I think that Devon Aoki could play Faith, with Malin Ackerman as Celeste, Eric Bana or Byung-hun Lee as Jacknife (depending on the which concept they follow), and Hugo Weaving, James Marsden, or Billy Bob Thornton as Miller. I’m undecided on the portrayal of Mercury or Ropeburn, but I think Vin Diesel could be the former and Michael Clarke Duncan as the latter. Yeah, I know Ropeburn’s white, but MCD would rock in the part, just like he did as Kingpin in Daredevil.

Movie dreams aside, I classify Mirror’s Edge as a decent game if you can get it under $20. It’s worth a play through, even if just for the beautiful graphics and soundtrack.

Update, 21 May 2010: I neglected to mention that a part of what spurred me to write this after playing the game was an Escapist article entitled Stumbling Through Mirrors’ Edge. It’s a great look into how the game is confusing overall, and how it could have been incredible. I agree with most of the sentiments, but still liked the game.

Congressman Altmire,

I write to urge you to argue and vote against H.R. 5990, the “Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act” recently introduced by Rep. Jim Matheson [D-UT]. This legislation unfairly targets video games without citing a reason for the ban on sales to minors, and fails to acknowledge the similarly violent, sexual, and other objectionable content of equivalently-rated television and film.

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board is merely a self-regulatory body established by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). The review process for video games is based on developer submission of pre-recorded content to the Board, not the Board or its agents actually playing through the video game. This can result in omissions causing a lighter rating or misjudgments causing unfair, heavier ratings.

In fact, two major video game publishers/distributors–Activision and Vivendi Universal–recently left the ESA. A third and one of the largest of its kind in the world, Electronic Arts, is rumored to be considering leaving, as well. They disagree with the ESA’s policies; that is their reason for leaving, as far as I know.

Also, there is no constitutional grounds for this prohibition. Article I Section 8 of the Constitution makes no mention of entertainment media, and more than likely citizens’ rights groups will cry foul that this legislation violates the First Amendment. The interstate commerce clause would allow the Federal government to prohibit sales to minors or mandate rating across state lines as partially stated in Section 2(a) of H.R. 5990, but not within the states–that’s a states’ rights issue supported by the Tenth Amendment.

Moreover, the legislation will do almost nothing to prevent video games with content not meant for minors. Parents will purchase games for their children irresponsibly and without regard for content. If the federal government should do anything in regards to video games with objectionable content, it should urge the ESA and ESRB to educate parents about the rating system and perhaps ask the ESA to mandate that all retailers adhere to guidelines and face penalties or ejection from the ESA if a retailer is caught selling high-rated video games to minors.

If such legislation passes and withstands a constitutionality trial, then a dangerous precedent will be set by which other entertainment media (books, film, television) could, or even /should/ be equally regulated/prohibited.

The Video Game Voters Network is at it again, this time sending letters to the presidential candidates.

I changed the title to Responsibility Education, Not Unconstitutional Regulation to more closely match how I feel about the policy.

Video Game Voters Network: Write the Candidates

Check out the Congressional letter-writing campaign, too!