This game was one that my sister bought years ago to play on my PS4, and it's been sitting on my shelf collecting dust for awhile. I was bored, so I decided to give this one a shot.

I thought going in that this game was supposed to be a reboot/soft sequel of the original Mirror's Edge. I usually don't like to start games, or movies, in the middle of their run, but I figured I'd be alright with Catalyst. I would be wrong. The story and world building in this game is very sparse. There's a real brief opening narration explaining the basics of how this sci-fi world works. Basically, the city of Glass operates as a less humorous version of the Outer Worlds. People are considered 'employs' who are there to serve the corporations that reside in the city. The Runners, which your character Faith is a member of, are the cool kids of the city, running around on rooftops delivering mail. That's all you really get about the world's lore. The game starts dropping names like Omnistat and Reflection and the character talk about them like I should understand the importance of these names. I get not wanting to get bogged down in exposition, but maybe a little blurb in a pause menu encyclopedia would've been appreciated. And some of the characters have some history with Faith that I never quite understood, mostly Dogen. Again, maybe this was all explained out in the first game, but I felt like I never knew what half these people were talking about.

The main story is pretty basic, cause this game feels like it wants to be for cool kids who don't want to play anything with too much nerdy sci-fi. Your parents are killed in some type of riot when you're young and your sister is captured by the evil CEO who raises her as his own. The CEO is also unveiling a new drug, or something, that would let him control people. That's all you really get in the way of story.

You spend the game exploring the city of Glass. This is one of the high points of the game. The world design is very cool. It's a very sterile, sleek looking city. All the buildings are stark white or other primary colors and covered in windows. It's a very unique sci-fi look that makes this game stand out from others. Sometimes though, it does go a little style over function. You can climb just about anything and with all the windows and sharp angles, if you aren't paying attention, you can leap off the side of the building to your death. You also only play within a small section of the city.

While this game doesn't have a HUD, which i appreciate. It does have a way to help guide you around the city. Your path is highlighted in red through the world. Pipes or doors you should go through glow red sticking out from the white buildings. It is cool to see the art style being used to inform gameplay.

Now, the biggest selling point for this game is the gameplay, namely the traversal mechanics. This game is 1st person platformer more than anything. There is combat, but it's very basic, and it should be. You're an overzealous messenger, not a combat vet. You are best suited to run from most fights. There's a bar you fill as you run uninterrupted called Focus. If you keep it up you can dodge bullets and brush past enemies. There are a few occasions where you do have to stay and fight. In those situations, you do more damage if you keep moving and use the environment to knock out the baddies.

Most the time though, you are parkouring around the rooftops. First person platforming can be a little awkward, but the developers did a good job making it feel natural here. You can jump and climb, of course, and also perform wall runs, swing across gaps, and back jump up vertical parallel walls. There was a few times it felt a little clunky, like when I was attempting a wall run and I would just scurry upwards instead, sometimes followed by falling to my death. Granted the parkour mechanic is sort of a one trick pony. That fact along with only a small part of the city being exploreable, which means a lot of backtracking, means it's a good thing this game is relatively short.

All in all, this game is definetly not worth it for the story. You can find plenty of better sci-fi tales. The real reason to try this is for the gameplay. It's fun when you get in the flow and are bouncing around rooftops like those guys on YouTube that do "real-life Assassin's Creed" videos. I'd say this is worth trying for anyone really. It's short enough that you don't have to sink a lot of time into.

The original Mirror’s Edge was a tightly focused, linear game centered around navigational puzzles and intermittent gun/hand to hand battles. The story ended abruptly but seemed to set up a clear continuation to come.

I didn’t play Catalyst when it came out in 2016, mostly because it had taken 8 whole years for the sequel to be made and because I’d heard a lot of complaints about its open-world nature losing the appeal of the formula. But having just replayed Mirror’s Edge and going straight into Catalyst, I was surprised to realize this game isn’t a sequel at all. It’s a reboot. Yes, a reboot of a single-game franchise, made 8 years later. I guess Lords of the Fallen remaking itself 9 years later doesn’t quite get the record for that speedy turnaround.

Catalyst stars the same main character, Faith, and the same general premise: a tightly controlled city of unequal wealth distribution is becoming even more tyrannical, and the small group of off-the-grid professional parkour messengers called “Runners” are working to undermine its rulers. Like the first game, it starts with a pretty good setup and hints at a lot of interesting plot-lines only to drop almost all of them and come to an abrupt ending that seems to promise a continuation. Next year will be 8 years since this game came out, maybe we’ll get one then.

The big difference in the setting is that the first game was contempary, but this one is blatantly futuristic, with flying cars, nanomachines, and bits of cybertech gear, including biometric locks on guns that mean this time you’ll be relying entirely on hand-to-hand combat. That combat is weird. It’s surprisingly difficult to wrap my head around, and is both extremely simple but still kind of confusing to get into. It’s a bit frustrating because it ALMOST looks cool, ALMOST feels really good, but very frequently devolves into extremely awkward slapstick that legitimately looks like the enemies are bad actors in a martial arts film pretending to get knocked around. Kick a foe, and they’ll stumble over three or four steps, then grab a railing and fling themselves over it, or will theatrically slam into their allies with far more force than you actually hit them with. By the end of the game I started to get the hang of it, realizing that you need to constantly be moving and using parkour, mixing in attacks almost like tricks in a skateboarding game, rather than standing and fighting. When it works, it does feel really slick and cool, but it often falls apart, and I wish just a little more work had gone into the combat mechanics to make it really shine.

But combat is secondary. The real focus is still on parkour, with more emphasis now on speed and momentum than in puzzling out a route. Controls have been simplified, and the game is overall much easier than the previous game, but the environments are even more beautiful and fun to explore. With a wide open world and each district having it’s own style, the setting is better than ever and the best aspect of the game over all. The first person platforming still works great and feels good to use, and even simplified, it’s still a bit of a challenge and not something you can take for granted.

So the biggest change is it’s open world. I’m not a fan of open world games, but I was initially pleasantly surprised that it felt pretty good in this particular game. A game about parkour fits very well into a more freeform environment, and the game’s Runner Vision system that sends out a line to follow to whatever waypoint you choose works really well at letting you get around the environment without ever having to really stop and consult the map. It also doesn’t make the parkour mindless, since it will generally give you a middle ground route that you can easily improve on by looking for little skips and faster passes along the way. But ultimately, I just don’t care for the format of dumping lots of copy and paste generic missions all over the map. Once I’d done a couple of each type to see what they were like, I basically ignored them all and just mainlined the main mission. Despite this, I still completed all but 1 of the more significant, story-integrated side quests, which were generally of decent quality.

I was really high on this game in the first half, and in the second I basically just settled into a comfortable stasis with it. It’s a good game, doing most of what the original does well and forging a bold new direction. The story is a huge letdown, but flows very swiftly, is well acted and animated, and never wears out its welcome, so it could be worse. I think the first game is better by virtue of having a simple, clear vision and executing on it pretty perfectly. But I’m glad I played this one, and I think anyone who enjoyed the original will get value out of this one as well.

I new this game didn't get the warmest reception, to put it mildly, but I gave it a chance. I really liked the first one, and that one didn't received the best reviews also, so I wanted to believe that I could love this one. Unfortunately, this game is terrible. Almost every single element was made worse from the first game.

The linear levels that in the first game kept the pacing controlled and the novelty flowing is replaced by a hub-based open world which kills any sense of urgency and makes you re-run the same corridors over and over and over again. Every safe-house stands at the end of a long route that you need to revisit every time you want to start a mission and then go to to the first waypoint.

Instead of instantly going to the next mission to keep the game moving, you get long and boring stretches of nothing, as you go to the red dot on the map that kicks in the actual interesting bits. The open world also features a the usual lot of useless collectibles, which again kill any sense of flow. How can you run unimpeded through the city if you need to stop to steal a chip from some box? The icons clutter the already hard-to-read map and make navigating the city more frustrating that it should.

Really, the open world is at the heart of this failure. This game is about tight gameplay, constant forward momentum and running through new areas. Once I ran through a level, I want to start the next one immediately, not flaff around for an eternity in the same corridors I have almost memorised by now. The game loses all its identity with the loose structure of an open world and the repetitive areas.

The combat, which in the first game was not great, is made even worse by the inability to use guns. It also feels stiff and unimpactful, as your kicks connect with all the weight of a styrofoam ice box. I finally lost all my patience when the game locked me into an arena-like area and forced me to beat waves of increasingly stronger enemies. What the hell were they thinking?

Some people praise it soundtrack but I can only ask what soundtrack are they talking about? Music is almost a non-entity here. Again, compared with the first game, it's a complete letdown.

Even the graphics are kind of duller. Gone are the blindingly white concrete, hard shadows and striking visuals of the first game. Now it's all dull glass and crappy dynamic shadows that only move when you move just to destroy any sense of immersion.

I'm really disappointed and the truth is that I have no one to blame but me.

Catalyst is a reboot -a "rebirth" actually- of the original Mirror's Edge. It bulds upon its predecessor improving almost every aspect of it.

• The original city of Glass felt rather dead, because you hardly saw anyone and there was no sign of human activity either; this has been improved immensely, and now you (almost) feel like the city is brimming with life.
• The parkour, which is the main aspect of the game, has also been greatly improved. We've got more fluidity, more moves, some gadgets...
• Combat has also been improved. People still complain about it, but our characters are runners not boxers, so it is about surviving and doing what you can. I also like the fact that devs got rid of the guns - in the first game there were some fights in which I had to lay aside the gamepad and use the keyboard and the mouse, but not this time -.

Okay, so what has not improved?

• The story. First, I don't get why a reboot was necessary. Couldn't they come up with a way to continue the story? It feels odd to have the characters you knew change precisely when you start to know them. Also, the story is nothing much, and sometimes it feels rushed. It's very hard to understand the reactions of some characters at several points in the story.
• Faith, the heroine. I liked her better in the first game. Here, she seems arrogant and full of herself. I think it has a lot to do with her body language.

Lastly, I would like to comment on the open world nature of this game. Some users feel like it has made the game worse. Well, I can't really see why. You can now travel anywhere you like in the city, and choose whether you take on a main story mission or a side mission. If you just follow the main story then there is little difference with the first game. The fact that there are side missions and time challenges within the game - not outside as in the original game - makes for a more cohesive experience, although I can't see many gamers not going straight for the main story missions (it feels awkward to stop for some time trials when the world is waiting for you to save it).

If you played the original Mirror's Edge, you no doubt got excited about returning to the world of first-person parkour with Mirror's Edge Catalyst. Since they waited almost 10 years to put out another game, I was a little fuzzy on the story line going into it, and honestly I'm not sure I could even re-hash it after beating the game. But what I can tell you, is that the game play alone is enough to pick this one up just for a while.

The parkour controls feel much smoother than its predecessor, and you will find yourself getting lost in the city, just running and jumping on and over everything in your path. I frequently set way-points down on the map to help guide me to my objectives, and even with the game's HUD system point out the correct path, I found myself wandering all over the place. Not just because there are tons of collectibles and things of that nature to discover, but because finding new routes to my destination was truly enjoyable. Because while the HUD does point you in the right direction (via a red line, like the original Mirror's Edge), it only gives you A path, not necessarily the fastest one. You'll realize this is true the first time you attempt a "Dash," a time-trial where you are given 1-3 stars based on your time from Point A to Point B. Like collectibles, there are a ton of these in the game to beat as well.

If you're a completionist, this game has a lot of stuff for you to do once you finish the main story, like the time trials and collectibles I mentioned. If that sort of thing is up your alley, pick this game up. At the very least, I recommend renting because the game play is just too much fun to pass up.

The word of the hour is "why?" WHY does this play nothing like the first Mirror's Edge. Why is this game open world. Why does the story suck so much. Why did it take me 4 years and 3 attempts to finally finish the sequel to one of my favorite games of all time?

Catalyst is bizarre in that I have no idea who this game is for. The streamlined controls and the overbearing Runner's Vision seem to imply that EA was hoping to reach a larger audience than the first one with this game. However, The ridiculously hard side content and open world method of learning every intricate detail of the map feels like it's aimed at the more hardcore fans of the series. The result is a mishmash of ideas and systems that don't really feel like they are from the same game.

At least it looks pretty though. The game looks and sounds great, with incredible lighting effects and Solar Fields returning for a soundtrack that, while not quite as good as the first game's, is still very well done and gives the game a really unique atmosphere. The City of Glass is a really unique location too, where a Cyberpunk setting is actually disturbingly clean. Light reflects and bounces off of surfaces, and seeing Faith's reflection in passing windows is really cool. I noticed some poor quality textures occasionally, and some animations needed some more polish, but it's overall one of the best looking games of the current gen. Sound design is pretty good too, with punchy sound effects during fight sections and many great uses of ambient audio as you run across the city.

Unfortunately, I can't sing the same praises for the story here. I'm not going to pretend that Mirror's Edge had an amazing story or anything, but at least there were memorable characters that had some charm to them, along with writing that didn't make me want to beat a kitten. The story here is absolutely dreadful. Each character, with the exception of Noah, is insufferable. Even Faith feels like an annoying bratty version of her first game self, and has zero motivation behind her actions. Not sure if making everyone unlikable was the goal here, but that's what they accomplished. That's before we even cover the annoying and super generic cyberpunk story that's a "commentary" on free will and political influence. Give me a fucking break. The ending sequence is one of the worst ways I've ever seen a video game end, and it gives zero closure to the many open threads that the game has. It legitimately feels like they ran out of money and just ended the script halfway through production.

The majority of my time with this game was failing and redoing delivery missions over and over and over again because I was far too stubborn to accept defeat and move on to the Main Missions. It's not even like those delivery missions give you much in the way of rewards. They also aren't helped by the fact that all the runner's clients are just total assholes for no reason?? The deliveries themselves are actually really difficult, especially when playing without runner's vision, but they can be a little frustrating when you have to restart them 10+ times. I only found out later that I was missing a pretty essential skill for these side missions that would let me climb up ladders and poles faster. They are still pretty hard even with this skill, but I feel like 3 hours of my run time would've been shaved off if... ya know... the skill tree didn't exist??

SO WHAT'S THE POINT of this annoying ass skill tree? Most of the upgrades are pretty meaningless garbage, like extra damage from wall kicks or some other minuscule shit that isn't fun to earn at all. Others are ESSENTIAL running skills that rapidly speed up your traversal time during story and side missions. Stuff that was already with faith in the first game is now locked behind a skill tree. Literal basic stuff like rolling and quick turning is now an unlockable skill, which feels cheap. Even stuff that could be a cool skill in the tree isn't actually unlockable via leveling up. All of the gear that allows you access to the different areas of Glass are locked behind mission specific objectives, and they are pretty much always just given to you in a cutscene. This sucks, and really makes the skill tree feel detached from the game.

Outside of the skill tree and side missions though, the gameplay can feel pretty good. At least, when it isn't fucking up and sending Faith flying off roofs for no good reason. Movement is much more fluid and bouncy than the first game here, which makes traversing rooftops more fun, although less rewarding than the first game. Faith regularly makes impossibly high jumps and acrobatic feats that should rip her body to shreds, but I can ignore that for the sake of the game. Seeing the same areas over and over again can be tiring though, especially during the first half of the game where it feels like you spend forever in the same starting district. Things become a little more interesting at least once you get to the construction zone. The game is actually at its best here when you are completing main missions, since that's obviously where the majority of the level design time went. The missions range from forgettable to pretty good, but never quite reach the same heights from the first game. Even The Shard makes a return as the final level for this one, but it's far less memorable and more scripted than the 2008 version.

Overall, this is pretty much a straight downgrade from the first game. Even the well done aspects here aren't as good as the simple brilliance of the Mirror's Edge, and it consistently made me wish I was just playing the first one. It's a bloated mess of a game that has no idea what it wants to be, and I wish DICE would've taken some more time to really get this right. Unfortunately, I imagine we won't be seeing any more Mirror's Edge any time soon.