Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Is the Best Ubisoft Open-World Game From EA You’ve Ever Played

Livin' on the Edge.

When Mirror's Edge was released in 2008, it was praised for how well it implemented its free-running first-person mechanic, but criticized for its overly linear paths and standard gun combat breaking the flow of the game. For this 2016's reboot, D.I.C.E. has clearly taken the criticism to heart, while adding a City of Glass open-world hub. Based on the game's upcoming closed beta, Mirror's Edge Catalyst improves on Mirror's Edge in nearly every way by applying open-world mechanics to its freeform method of movement that wouldn't be out of place in an Ubisoft open-world game.

Make no mistake, Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a reboot, opening with Faith being released from a juvenile corporate prison, rejoining her runner tribe of parkour pals, and making a go at do-gooding her way through the city. The main mission structure of the beta takes the player just far enough for Faith to get sucked into something much larger than her personal struggles. These story missions are great at teaching the player the game's basic mechanics, in tightly-controlled indoor environments or paths through The City of Glass.

The mechanics include a more nuanced combat system; Faith no longer is able to use firearms, meaning that combat is a mix of fast punches, hard kicks, and momentum-based attacks. Building and driving momentum fills up a meter for a special ability to dodge gunfire, making constant fluid movement the game's priority. It's a huge advancement over the gunplay sections from the first game, which felt stilted and disjointed by forcing the player to stop moving.

If there's one thing that feels odd about Mirror's Edge Catalyst, it's that it gates some of the abilities from the first game to a progression skill-tree system. You can lose a lot of momentum in the middle of a run if you haven't unlocked Faith's skill roll ability. Similar regular abilities from the original game, like being able to do a 180° turn after jumping to rebound off a wall must also be unlocked, creating an experience boundary for the completion of certain objectives. Having these locked up at the start may feel odd for fans of the original game, but it actually gives the game a more gradual learning curve In adopting it's more advanced techniques.

You'll definitely want those abilities for the open-world objectives in Mirror's Edge Catalyst's rooftop traversal areas, which are filled with side-missions and quests. These missions run the gamut from races, timed deliveries, sabotage combat missions, and billboard hacking, which requires you to climb to one of the game's high points. These will probably sound familiar to anyone who's played an Ubisoft open-world series like Assassin's Creed or Watch Dogs, but they feel particularly strong and well placed in Catalyst's demo, with each feeling like it's been crafted uniquely to the free-running challenges of the environment.

Catalyst's open world rewards exploration. While running between objectives, the game will throw up navigation recommendations in Faith's Runner's Vision by turning different parts of the path ahead the color red. However, this isn't always the fastest path to the objective, and at least one side mission in the beta—that has a stringent time limit—requires you to go off the path to make it to the objective in time. Exploration also helps the player find collectibles, like the floating energy ball "gridleaks," and survellance chips that can be removed from servers posted all around the city.

EA and DICE representatives were excited to show off the game's social features, where you could really see what they expect to get out of the beta; in particular, leaderboards for side-mission content and the ability to craft your own races to challenge other player's skills and abilities by laying down your own waypoints to create skill challenges for other players. Towards the end of the demo, I spent most of my time trying to get the best score on one of these races, rather than the in-game side missions.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst's refinement of the mechanics of the original game, the open-world environment, and social game mechanics, all point towards a game that has been deliberately created to improve on what had worked, and replace what didn't. In just about every way, it already feels like a clear step forward for the franchise. The closed beta will start on April 26, 2016 for selected players who had already registered as Frontrunners (ha, see what they did there?) on the Mirror's Edge Catalyst website. It will release on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on May 24, 2016.