Mirrors edge: Evolution or Gimmick?

[J'aen]

Really? I've beaten the campaign mode several times, and I'm not sure which sections you mean.

 

[Tryzon]

It certainly intriguing in my eyes, although how long the game will be stretched out for depends on how many things you can do with the same sweet novelty.

 

[Cakelord]

If the game sells well other games will follow it (Using the Domino theory that was first applied in dentistry). Having no HUD isn't a gimmick, everything about the Wii, now that's a gimmick!

 

[J'aen]

Those screencaps were taken from multiplayer mode, and the camera was positioned to catch the most possible light. You wouldn't get screens like that playing normally.

 

[Arbre]

Evoloution. DICE is always looking to be innovative, even if that comes at the price of story.

I'm looking at their track record, and what I see is a list of good games (minus a couple of bad ones) and no title which could be labeled as innovative, even less a series which would warrant the "innovative studio" sticker like if it was a recurring thing.

I think Mirror's Edge would work better in Quake 3 Arena maps (considering where the idea comes from, it's not that absurd).

It's always a shame when anyone brushes of anything new as a 'gimmick' and no less so here.

I'm not saying Dice will succeed but at least they're TRYING something new which is more than can be said for 90% of developers.

This is right they're trying, but in what is it new exactly?
Shenmue and Breakdown had the full FPS experience thing. Other games already have the jump mechanics, and third person perspective games like Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed have already made the climb and grip thing.

Maybe the single innovation there is trying to mix a few of those things together. Like the Wii, where the innovation was to clump things together as the default package.

What people tag as gimmick is the first person view, because other than that, if you look at it like a game where a camera followed you, I wouldn't see much originality here.

As for the white world, Sonic Unleashed has a fair dose of them, and it's almost there.

You'll notice that the vast majority of the awesome comments on the internet are all about the bleached walls and rooftops, that is, a set of textures definitely whitish, with an overall strong luminosity.
Yes, it's different from the doom and gloom staples, but for fuck sake, that's only textures.
And people think graphics become more and more irrelevant? Bollocks.

There's also something weird, it looks like the character is lying back.

 

[Larmo]

I think the game looks great but maybe a little to white but its still got a few months before release so they can dye one of the buildings blue or something.

but i don't have a problem with the runner-vision its doesn't make you take the path there indicating you can try another route if necessary or you want to.

 

[Miracleknight]

This is right they're trying, but in what is it new exactly?
Shenmue and Breakdown had the full FPS experience thing. Other games already have the jump mechanics, and third person perspective games like Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed have already made the climb and grip thing.

What they're trying to move the FPS genre away from is the fact that you're a floating pair of arms with guns. I can't think off the top of my head of many (or any, I think Breakdown did?) FPSes where your whole body is interacting with the world in a first person perspective. And honestly there's not much reason these days other than not wanting to bother with it for FPSes to do that. That's the part of evolution that's happening here, a small leap from floating arms and guns into legs and a body that actually interacts. What will determine if it is an evolution is if shortly after this game's release, developers start implementing the same feel to FPSes.

However I am confused by the Shenmue reference as I'm not sure what part you're referring to there since it was a 3rd person game, unless you mean like, lucky hit etc. But yes you're right that Breakdown did it first, unfortunately it didn't catch on (Breakdown is definitely a game that takes more abuse than it deserves, which may be why it didn't catch on from there).