Mirror's Edge Catalyst (2016)

The game has a leveling system where you can choose wich branch to prioritize (movement, combat or improvements). The thing is that you need to lvl up to unlock basic stuff on the movement part wich is super anticlimatic. Protagonist already knew how to do the things that you will be unlocking in the first game, so literally no sense.

Also the running doesn't feel fluid. I found my self spamming Alt key to trigger the red line to know which direction should I go because the default visual helpers are too scarce and the red line that shows the way appears at high interval (maybe each 2 seconds? Doesn't actually matter but I felt it was too much. For example, when you turn a corner and have several paths ahead and the line hasn't appeared you have 2 options, press Alt key to trigger the red line or wait until the red line appears and shows you the correct path).

Also the combat against the hardest enemies felt super bad. Only kicks and dodging are effective but for some reason, some of their attacks are automatically targetted to you even if you dodge, to the point that while they are in the middle of a throwing kick, (that is, standing in one leg and the other one streched or getting to it) if you dodge to their left or right, their leg literally turns 90º to you as if they had a robotic coxis?? xD

History and visuals where nice as the first game.

Overall, felt mediocre, would recommend it but don't play it with any expectations.

7.5/10

The parkour in Catalyst is better than the first one, feeling smoother and more fleshed out, so in that way Catalyst is a resounding success. It's never been more fun to run, jump, slide and grappling hook your way across a city. I can't stress just how much fun the moment to moment action is. I

I'm also a fan of the music and art style, which is reminiscent of the first game in a lot of ways. I think the style has aged well and strangely enough, the music makes a lot of the platforming rather soothing.

Unfortunately, there are two things that really bring the game down: the combat and the open world.

The combat is a problem that has returned from the first game, except the first one didn't put such an emphasis on it. It still feels incredibly unsatisfying most of the time, resulting in a bunch of kicks over and over, maybe disarming a guard. If you're lucky, you can pull of a neat trick attack where you run off a wall and land a dropkick, but a lot of the environments are so open that it's not always possible to do so. So that means you are stuck running around like a moron in one of the fighting scenes; some of which go on way too long and made me want to quit playing the game.

Catalyst follows the trend of incorporating more free roam elements into the fold. You can now run around the city and do side missions for people -- but these get boring quickly since there's not a lot of variety to them. You end up seeing a lot of the same areas, which takes the excitement out of the running. You can unlock fast travel but I don't feel like I should want to fast travel in Mirror's Edge. This is just one of those cases where a more linear experience would be welcome.

People have criticized the story and characters, but I think they're fine. The plot isn't anything revolutionary, but conspiracies involving corporations and other authorities never gets old. I cared a little about Faith, and I think the voice acting was good. For the most part it all gels and I don't think it's an aspect of the game that is deserving of condemnation.

So Catalyst isn't what it could have been, but I still enjoyed myself.