Gaming Thursday: Mirror's Edge

After talking about the demo for Mirror's Edge last week, I was glad to get a copy of the full game from my brother to see how well it held up.

Not surprisingly, it's a bunch of fun to run around the city jumping from building to building and running across walls. It's the same thing that I loved about the demo, only with a bunch more room to play around in. Similarly, the same problems that bothered me in the demo were back full force.

I understand that the guys shooting at me and attacking me are there to add tension to the game, but I really just find them to be highly annoying. There is nothing more frustrating than to be running perfectly through the game, only to be shot in the back by a bad guy that I had previously ignored because I thought the focus of the game was running and not fighting. While on this subject, having a helicopter constantly shooting at me while I make my way up a building is a pretty dumb idea on the bad guys' part. I mean, I'm standing on the side of an office building filled with innocent people enjoying their view out their large windows, when a barrage of bullets intended for a single runner penetrates the glass and takes down Jimmy from accounting... and these guys are supposed to be cops.

Well I think they are cops anyway, because the story is so meaningless and dull that I automatically hit the skip button as soon as possible. I don't really care why I'm running from place to place, all I want to do is run.

So, if it weren't for the story and the incredibly annoying combat/gunfights, I would find Mirror's Edge to be so much more fun. As it is, I'm having a hard enough time convincing myself to finish playing it when I have Left 4 Dead giving me a much better time blasting zombies (more on that soon) and trying to get my Paladin up to level 80 on WoW (although I'm having trouble getting that done with so much going on). Basically, I like Mirror's Edge when it is doing what it does best - encouraging you to run. When it tries to add in the rest of the junk, it just seems to fall (get it? like falling off the buildings... never mind).