It's been eight years and I can't move on. It's also been almost sixteen years and it's even worse.
There was nothing like Mirror's Edge, there is nothing like Mirror's Edge, and there never will be anything like Mirror's Edge again.

TL;DR: Despite its flaws, Mirror's Edge Catalyst cemented itself as one of my absolute favourite video game experiences of all time. The City of Glass is a place that never gets old and the gameplay associated to it never ceases to amaze me.

Back when the first game released I didn't hear much about it. That's until it randomly popped up in my YouTube recommendations one day, and that's when the obsession started. Nowadays it comes and goes, but that's when it all started: in 2009 sitting at my computer after school.

It wasn't even good enough to run the game then. I had to hog my mother's laptop to play it as I obsessed with everything the game had to offer. Coming from the Xbox 360 demo, young me ended up mind-blown by the game's presentation, aesthetic, soundtrack, and gameplay. It was smooth, fluid, like anything I had ever played before.

Fast forward to 2015. There's this new game that gets announced, promises to be bigger and bolder than the previous one. This was rumoured for years. At the time everyone thought Mirror's Edge would have been a trilogy. After all, that's what DICE had in mind.
Teenager me's jaw was on the floor. Did this really happen? That childhood obsession making a return? And it's releasing... "When it's ready"? I was burning up with excitement. There are very few moments in my life that I remember this dearly, let alone video game and Internet stuff. But seeing Faith running and jumping from building to building with a style I was all too familiar with, alongside mind boggling visuals and colourful environments amongst the minimalism that engulfed its world, all in an open world... At first it was a choice I questioned.

This open world is a choice I respect. It was a bold decision, and it paid off. Although The City was an abandoned metropolis losing the shine of its former glory, seeing a cleaner and bustling location in Glass was a great change of pace. Even though at times the city felt way too clean, but I'm fine with this flaw. None of this obscured the even smoother and fluid movement that now feels even more polished than the first game after replaying both a bunch of times.

While the story certainly is far from being a masterpiece that also happens to mirror a lot of the first game's plot points (and locations), it still felt coherent even if it felt like certain parts were vaguely stitched together using filler content. I still enjoyed the rivalry between Icarus and Faith which grows into an odd bond of two opposites. Seeing both characters having to work together despite their issues led to interesting dynamics between the two alongside further development of Icarus's character. This was the highlight of the story to me, which is unfortunate given how much is happening in the game and how little changes upon its ending. I wish Isabel was less of a plot device and more of an actual character. By the end, nothing between her and Faith changes despite who they are to each other. I wish she had a presence during the end-game, with Isabel finally getting a grip and breaking from her Kruger branded shackles. I could appreciate her more in the first game which has a much better introduction to its plot as well as a more natural development.

But those flaws are things I can look past thanks to everything I mentioned already alongside... The soundtrack.
Solar Fields coming back was a big concern I had back in 2015. No one else could capture the essence of this game better than him, and so no one could replace him. Fortunately, and a big sigh of relief ensured then, he was enrolled to compose an excellent soundtrack for Catalyst. And once more, everything clicked together: it was an exact fit. Nothing feels better than running and jumping while hearing Solar Fields's synths and soft drums. This time, DICE have implemented something they couldn't for the first game: a fully dynamic soundtrack. The music now reacts to your every move, fading in and out different elements of the songs and applying different effects to them. This experience is still mind-blowing all these years later.

Despite its many flaws, I have a strong connection with this game. I enrolled in the beta then, thoroughly enjoyed every second of it, pre-ordered the game in 2016, and fell in love immediately. I am unbelievably sad that there will never be something like Mirror's Edge again despite DICE still showing a ton of love for it. The first game, after all, were the best times DICE ever had working on a video game (or so they claimed back then). Catalyst, to me, had the same amount of love poured into it. While there are mechanics that feel out of place, the way the original premise was expanded into more than made up for it. I loved, I love, and I will love this game.

Then the servers got shut down. You should have been there when it was alive: user generated beacons we'd sign with our name and date to tell "Hey, I was there too!" as we challenged each other to reach improbable places, player made time attack runs with some coming up with the most insane of routes and some blazing through the courses... It wasn't much, but it brought a whole lot of wealth of content to the game. Even though you would be alone most of the time on those roofs you would still find ways to connect with other people. These connections, even though I have never met any one else, are things I will always remember. Dear runners, thank you for those good times.

EA, DICE. If you are reading this, bring this franchise back. It doesn't have to be a sequel, a prequel, or another reboot. We all want more of it, we hunger for it.

As I listen to the game's soundtrack while writing this entire review, I can only smile at the times I had with this franchise. At some point it made me want to get into parkour. Now that I grew older, it is motivating me to go just a bit further: find some time in my life to take better care of myself and just have fun. After all, if there are two things this game taught me, it's to keep enjoying things no matter what other people have to say.

The second thing?

[**IF YOU CANT LAUNCH GAME** PUT EA APP IN OFFLINE MODE BEFORE LAUNCHING]

okay so... If you want to play another mirrors edge game then, cool. this is one i suppose.

The cutscenes and acting however, make me angry-cringe to the point i have to skip them. As a result I no longer give a crap or know anything about the story. That Icarus dude is absolutely unbearable to listen to and his design is like someone said 'we want him to look like a 10 year old tried to design a "cool" guy'. I've never encountered cutscenes make me feel like ripping my eyes out this way until now.

The now lack of storyline (im choosing to keep my eyes) leaves the game with only its essentials - the controls, movement and the fun of the activities. which honestly just feel badly thought out, clunky and repetitive.
There are times the trail just stops at a wall, and you have to kinda wiggle your position / the camera around until a 'push E' option flashes on the screen.
The times when your 'runners vision' is offline just seem like an unnecessary slow down to what is meant to be a fast paced game with a flowing free feeling.
The combat borders on comical and is repetitive very quickly but the game forces you into several combat situations all the same.
The movement speed feels slow too - I find myself constantly wanting to push some kinda extra go faster button that doesn't exist. and the default key layout is really awkward.

THEN, you add in the fact that because EA have disabled their servers, you cant launch the game without referring to Reddit or Steam forums for workarounds provided by members of the public. Some people are literally having to remove game files manually to just play the game. I feel its very unethical for EA to do openly take your money but not make sure the game runs, and to just leave the community to wipe their sh*tty *sses after them.

If anyone is struggling with this issue by the way, try switching your EA app to offline mode and re-launching the game before you go deleting anything, as this may fix the issue for you

Pretty good sandbox for messing around, planning routes, running, coiling, tumbling and doing cool moves. The time trials, leaderboards and everything created by other players just showing up in your world and showing you cool places to race is just amazing - like, just the fact that you can click a few buttons saying "start here, get this checkpoint, end here" and it will show up in other players' worlds, full with leaderboards, is really cool!
...except the servers are down now. None of the above is true anymore and I was just teasing (yet you will still need an EA account for some reason). I bet the community has found a way to host their own, though, so do check it out if you get this game.
SInlgeplayer is fine - garbage story in a breathtaking world with a good sandbox and some great mission setpieces - I particularly liked the construction site, for example.
Install on SSD or be prepared for lag spikes that ruin your time trials (honestly, prepare either way!)

In short, I really liked planning routes, perfecting time trials, reaching highest tops and most hidden nooks - only get this if you really want more of that.

I enjoyed Mirror's Edge when it initially came out. It's been a minute since I played it, so I decided to pick up Catalyst, as I had never played it. Unfortunately, I think the open-world concept is too much of a good-thing. While I wanted felt like I wanted 'more' from the original ME, I think that was just a feeling of how smooth the environment progression felt compared to Catalyst's open-world format.

OG ME felt small, while 3 hours into Catalyst, I've been skipping cutscenes and wishing for a fast-travel (you do wind up unlocking it), which seems like a bad thing for a movement-based platformer/adventure game. Oops! Anyways, it's competent, wasn't broken in any way for me (online is deep offline for a while now), but I just don't dig it. Makes me realize how good OG ME was

Great follow up to a great game, just wish EA was a reputable company

I have way more hours on console and ea app. This game has quite a bit of flaws and is a bit underwhelming but I still enjoyed it. I would love to see them at least try at another mirror's edge game.

a game to play when you just want to pass the time,a short game but i am glad it is short because if game is longer it will seem repetive right now 50 % completed but did not play long time .not a bad game equavilant to watching netflix just to pass time . for me. basicly you just climb and run around with a lot of karate kicks and dodging pick up and deliver stuff .

nice

even if this game is a reboot, i hella like it, you just zone out in the city of mirrors

i love the game but jesus christ the fly trap mission is god awful