Mirror’s Edge is by far one of the best games I’ve played this year. As a level designer, I would often spend hours running around my levels, trying to make those impossible jumps helping to ensure that end users would not be able to cheat my creations. Many times I felt like there could easily be an entire game based in that kind of play, but we often spent more time removing jumping puzzles from our maps than adding them.

I see a lot of complaints about the art style, which really perplexes me.  Most games that use the Unreal engine focus on gritty realism, almost to the point of being too much, with ME, it’s a breath of fresh air to see something bright, colorful, and different.  Personally, I love the in-game art style, feels like something new.  That said, about the only complaint I do have about the game is the cinematic art style, gah, a poorly done anime look with jerky South Park’esque movements and lipsynching.  Good thing I could care less about the story (skip!)(skip!)(skip!)

Either way, ME is a solid mix of traditional FPS gameplay mixed with Tong Hawk and Tomb Raider. It’s a real treat to see a new idea like this make it onto the shelves, I just hope the sales hold up this holiday against the other big boys like Gears2, CoD5, Fable2, etc.  At least selling well enough to encourage EA to keep building new IP, and of course, a ME sequel.