When I first heard Mirrors Edge Catalyst was going to be Faith’s origin story I was a little put off as I wasn’t too excited to play a prequel. However upon entering our initial screening the presenter explained that this is in fact a spiritual reboot and this time we are starting from the start.
The world of Mirrors Edge takes place in the mega city Glass and, unlike the previous version, Mirrors Edge Catalyst will have a more open world concept within the city with multiple objectives, side quests and collectibles spread all throughout the city, when and how to complete the objectives is up to you. What is also nice is that now when you select a mission from the map the trademark red markers will highlight the best way. So now instead of all usable things being red all the time they will only turn red when it will take you to your requested destination, great when navigating the much larger city of Glass.
Focus this time around was more on “keeping your flow” meaning your ability to pull of certain moves requires you to have “flow” or speed. This gives the game a little more of a natural feel and when you are in your element it feels fantastic. Fighting has also been streamlined to focus more on speed, since Faith is just a runner its much more advantages for her to pull of quick hits than to stick around for a full on brawl or take on someone pointing a gun at her. I was able to take down all enemies in the demo easily without breaking pace, from wall run slams to surprise flips from behind the action is much more fast paced (hard to believe).
The simplistic clean art style returns with just a little more color and from what I have seen so far I am eagerly awaiting my chance to get my hands on the full version February 23rd 2016 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.