Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst has been delayed until 24th May 2016 with the disappointing news coming directly from Sara Jansson, Senior Producer of the game and was published on the Mirror’s Edge website.
Jansson says that they want to deliver the “best possible experience” and to me it shows that they are trying to deliver a product, something that is worth investing both your time and money in. Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst, or if you’re like me, Mirror’s Edge 2, was due to be one of the top releases due for early 2016 and this delay has given me some thoughts on whether the newest instalment of Mirror’s Edge will be as good as the original or even better.
We see developers delaying games all the time, the producers and designers want to get things just right and I can hardly blame them. It is all too often that the market is littered with half-finished rush jobs that glitch out at you as if to say “look what happens when you want me before I’m ready!” like rushing your partner to get changed to go out to dinner in ten minutes rather than the mandatory one hour and 45 minutes. The best example of a rushed release must be Assassin’s Creed Unity where we were greeted with characters that seemed to defy nature by appearing with no face whatsoever.
I applaud the DICE team as they are actually making sure that this next instalment will not me a patchwork of faults, glitches and stapled on bits of gameplay that otherwise make games that are released too early almost unplayable. At least with this newest instalment we should be guaranteed a game that doesn’t make you look at creatures drawn directly from the underworld.
When we were given the first Mirror’s Edge, it was something that broke out from the norm and gave us an experience almost like no other, well other than running normally in the park or on top of tall buildings. The first game gave us the adrenaline rush of running at top speed along rooftops, through office corridors and along subway stations whilst being chased by all and sundry. It gave us a unique perspective of having to make decisions at breakneck speed in a first-person viewpoint. It did have its bad points; the gunplay left a lot to be desired at times and Faith was seemingly built like a soggy water biscuit when it came to grappling with the enemy. One of the most apparent of these flaws would be when Faith, deciding that she’d had enough of this world, would leap gracefully off the side of a building, whether this was player generated or not, it was still irritating as sin.
But I digress, Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst seems like a vast improvement on the last title and I for one am really much looking forward to seeing how DICE will build on its success with Mirror’s Edge (ME).
One glimpse into the newly developed world of ME:C is with this video they released in early August.
This video shows us a quicker, smoother, more fluid Faith as she glides over rooftops and slides through squat passageways. The developers have clearly taken on board the shortcomings of the previous game and that is probably why they have delayed it until May next year. Faith looks faster, stronger, more agile. The world around you looks infinitely more polished, the colours are richer and the environment around you, although seemingly almost identical from the previous game, looks like it has had a major facelift. Even the combat mechanics look a lot smoother, playing on Faith’s agility and quick reactions. Although I might add the video we have been supplied with is pre-alpha footage and a lot can change from then until release day.
One thing I am really hoping for is some sort of free-roam aspect to the game where you can leap and slide to your heart’s content in the world of ME:C. Between now and release day the developers will make sure that they are giving us the finished article. As mentioned earlier, there is nothing more galling than spending your hard earned cash on something that is clearly not ready. I think that DICE are doing the right thing, they are giving us something that will be worth the wait. All the signs so far show us that it will be something special and so, all we need to do is keep the faith.
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