Mirror's Edge is a fairly unique game that's all about the gameplay style. You are running, jumping, sliding, and moving towards a goal, no matter what the obstacles.

A critical thing to understand here is that the start-up period of the game is ROUGH. You are expected to be able to wall-jump, balance on thin rails, jump over chasms, and do other challenging things. The controls are going to be hard to get used to. Don't give up. It could be frustrating. Stick at it, and give yourself time to get used to those controls. Keep working through the initial levels. The reward is well worth it.

Once you become used to the controls, the game really becomes captivating. You're expected to race top speed through a variety of obstacle courses. You have to think on the fly, react instantly, and pay attention to clues. It draws your mind in to focus on the moment.

You can replay levels to try different paths, to try to get a better speed, and simply to have fun. So even if you "solve" a level in one way, there are reasons to go back and replay them multiple times.

This isn't a long, drawn out epic game that requires 80 hours of in depth juggling of stats and memorizing family trees. You can get through a complete start-to-finish run of the game in about ten hours. So you can learn all the basics in the game in a long weekend of playing - and then replay given levels that you love as you have time. So on one hand you can rent the game to see what it's like. If the gameplay is a style you adore, then you can keep replaying levels to your heart's content.

I think it's important to mention two things.

First, again, the start-up challenge is there. Some people will have issues making it through the first level or two. The controls are not "natural" for many players to master. Stick with it. Give yourself kudos for trying, and keep at it. It's well worth it.

Second, if you get motion sick in games, this game might trigger it. There is a lot of fast movement, deep chasms, and swirling skies. So if you tend to be prone to those issues, you might want to try the game out first to see how well you do with it.

So with those things said, this game has an enormous amount of fun to offer. Well recommended!

Rating: 5/5

I purchased this game with my own funds in order to do this review.

Buy Mirror's Edge from Amazon.com