From the ground up, this game is built on the concept that the player's movement and speed are their most powerful weapons. This is reinforced by every visual, audio, and gameplay cue that the game could have conjured and explored to its fullest potential. This unique sense couldn't be created by simply giving the player the ability to perform death-defying leaps if it didn't allow them to look at Faith's world as a real parkour runner would. With levels presented in a linear manner, the player's available paths almost always include a good handful of different strategies and many ways to get there. For some stages this means finding the best way around guards, for others it means using the impressively wide levels to find unmarked shortcuts. While making for interesting gameplay, I thought that the complexity and length of each level went a long way in selling me on the game's world as a real place. Of the moments that are strictly linear, I found myself enjoying them the way that I enjoyed the platforming heavy moments found toward the end of Ico. These moments were perfectly placed in the game's timeline and did a good job of mixing things up and keeping the experience fresh.

A big part of why these aspects worked so well is because of the game's attention to detail as Faith. From staring down at Faith's own feet to time jumps, to the way the perspective will lean into her turns, and the convincing physicality of the her breathing, DICE did a remarkable job of putting players into the nimble shoes of their character. The sense of movement is exhilarating when Faith is able to string together a series jumps, vaults, and wallruns. I may have fell to my death more times than I did in N+, but it just served to make those moments of success that much more sweeter.

As I mentioned in my preview of Mirror's Edge, controls never become an issue with moving around, making jumps, or climbing, but most players will find some annoyances with how combat is handled. In essence, many will come away of this game thinking that the gunplay is purposely broken and I'm inclined to agree with them. It doesn't control well, there are extremely limited amounts of ammo, and it's just not fun. But I don't see this as a bad thing. This game is about running, not headshots and doublekills. If Faith was a crack shot on par with Macrus Phoenix, it would feel as if the designers were unsure of their freerunning thesis. By making discouraging the player go for a gun as the primary solution to their enemies, the game takes a bold stand behind its solid foundation of platforming. Once adjusted to the game's lightening speed, players can find some of the most natural and fluid platform action this side of Mario.

One of the most immediately noticeable features of this game is its visual design. Set pieces look as if they were taken from the pages of an Ikea catalog and have a strictly enforced matching color scheme to match. Asides from just looking pretty, these design choices help make a mark on the gameplay. The dominate color featured in any given environment will tell the player what to expect. Green walled areas are generally safe. Yellow areas are around puzzles. Red objects can be used to draw attention to where the player should be looking. Because of its consistency and flawless execution, this element of the game impressed me so much that I will use it as a standard measurement for other games. It is everything that artwork in games should be: as beautiful as it is useful.

I've seen lots of people talking about how short this game is and I honestly think that they couldn't be more wrong. True, the game's story will only last you five to seven hours, but I don't think that's all there is to it. Try to think of Mirror's Edge as a racing game. The purpose of it isn't to just run through a level once and never look at it again, but to perfect your movement through it. After beating a level in story mode, you'll unlock it in the time trial and speedrun modes. These modes encourage diehards to go over each and every surface featured in the game to find new ways to sprint through their surroundings in the quickest way possible. It's more than just trying to one up a friend on a leaderboard. It really makes you look at each room in a new way. Even when you find the best route, flawlessly executing your performance through each level is something that will draw you back in for just one more try. I'll never understand why EA didn't make what is easily the most engrossing aspect of this game available to everyone in the demo.

Even with this display of depth, I'm sure that there are still people out there that will play this game all the way through its story and just won't get it on a fundamental level. The easiest sign of this will be if the person received the "Test of Faith" achievement/trophy. This goal requires the player to complete the entire story mode without using firearms on enemies. That's right; you can go through the whole game without killing a single person. Usually gameplay goals like this are reserved only for the most hardcore of Metal Gear Solid fans, but here represents the game's ideological core. Why kill if it isn't necessary? Why destroy environments when you can use them? Why fight if running can be so much more fun?

When describing the game to a friend, I found myself using the sentiments that I use to describe other first person perspective genre benders like Metroid Prime and Portal; Don't go into this expecting a traditional shooter, you don't have to be good as FPS's to enjoy this, and it may not be for everyone but everyone should give it a chance.

8 out of 10

The PS3 version was used for this review. No significant differences between the PS3 version and 360 demo were apparent to me. So fanboys should fight over something else.