1 00:00:02,010 --> 00:00:06,269 Hi. I'm Mark and this is Game Maker's Toolkit 2 00:00:06,269 --> 00:00:11,510 Mirror's Edge is one of those games that was crying out for a sequel. One that would polish 3 00:00:11,510 --> 00:00:17,039 up the first-person platforming, rethink the story, get rid of the guns, and just add a 4 00:00:17,039 --> 00:00:18,289 bunch more stuff. 5 00:00:18,289 --> 00:00:22,880 And, hey, we got it! Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a sequel - or a prequel or a reboot or 6 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:27,160 whatever - and the controls are more responsive, the cutscenes don't look like they were made 7 00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:30,740 in Flash, the guns are gone, and there's way more content. 8 00:00:30,740 --> 00:00:35,829 But, if the reviews are anything to by, it didn't quite work out. And I think the culprit 9 00:00:35,829 --> 00:00:46,339 might be one contentious change to the franchise: the introduction of an open world. 10 00:00:46,339 --> 00:00:50,589 The original Mirror's Edge presented most of its levels like an obstacle course. There 11 00:00:50,589 --> 00:00:55,749 was a linear route through the world and you had to build up, and then maintain momentum, 12 00:00:55,749 --> 00:01:01,510 by stringing together parkour movements over a series of springboards, fences, and zip 13 00:01:01,510 --> 00:01:02,379 lines. 14 00:01:02,379 --> 00:01:06,120 You'd often see your route in front of you - highlighted in the bright red of Runner's 15 00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:11,470 Vision. But the challenge was to pinpoint that path while at top speed, to look for other 16 00:01:11,470 --> 00:01:16,170 routes that could be quicker, and to actually pull off the moves - the jumps, tucks, rolls, 17 00:01:16,170 --> 00:01:18,440 wall runs, and quick turns - with precision. 18 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:24,410 And at other times, the game slowed down. Here, Mirror's Edge turned into a platforming puzzler 19 00:01:24,410 --> 00:01:30,470 where you tried to find a path up a tall tower, using a maze of platforms and obstacles. 20 00:01:30,470 --> 00:01:37,110 As for Mirror's Edge Catalyst. No, actually, all that is true of Catalyst, as well. Because 21 00:01:37,110 --> 00:01:42,450 almost every story mission, and some of the side missions, take place outside the realms 22 00:01:42,450 --> 00:01:46,740 of the open world - in locations that are linear and intricately designed to be run 23 00:01:46,740 --> 00:01:49,890 through once and in one direction only. 24 00:01:49,890 --> 00:01:54,840 Those missions take place in skyscrapers, office buildings, underground facilities, 25 00:01:54,840 --> 00:02:00,260 and giant server hubs you can't access while free roaming. Which means the open world is 26 00:02:00,260 --> 00:02:02,810 relegated to other roles. 27 00:02:02,810 --> 00:02:07,640 So it's a way to get from mission to mission, and a place to practice parkour. It's filled 28 00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:12,019 with collectibles if you're into that sort of thing, and it also houses a number of side 29 00:02:12,019 --> 00:02:17,129 missions. And so maybe these non-essential quests could actually take advantage of the 30 00:02:17,129 --> 00:02:19,079 sandbox City of Glass? 31 00:02:19,079 --> 00:02:24,269 If we want to understand how an open world can lead to gameplay that really takes advantage 32 00:02:24,269 --> 00:02:28,569 of having a large space to play in, there are plenty of games we can look at. 33 00:02:28,569 --> 00:02:32,999 Games that give the player a huge breadth of options in how they approach a mission, 34 00:02:32,999 --> 00:02:38,680 or give them a feeling of mastery by repeatedly exploring the same locations. But considering 35 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:43,469 the speed of Mirror's Edge, perhaps the best place to look would be a game like Burnout 36 00:02:43,469 --> 00:02:44,810 Paradise. 37 00:02:44,810 --> 00:02:50,159 Here's a super speedy franchise that successfully transitioned from linear tracks to an open 38 00:02:50,159 --> 00:02:55,529 world. And I think that's because every event takes advantage of the game being set in a 39 00:02:55,529 --> 00:02:56,909 sandbox city. 40 00:02:56,909 --> 00:03:02,320 Races and marked man challenges send you from one side of the map to the other, and there 41 00:03:02,329 --> 00:03:07,249 are no limits on the route you can take. Road rage and stunt run events let you take 42 00:03:07,249 --> 00:03:12,010 down cars and rack up combo points in any way you wish and you don't have to worry about 43 00:03:12,010 --> 00:03:16,060 hitting dead ends because the city spills out in every direction. 44 00:03:16,060 --> 00:03:20,120 Because you're constantly racing over the same roads again and again, and all of 45 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:25,599 Burnout Paradise takes place inside the city, you quickly start to learn routes and shortcuts, 46 00:03:25,599 --> 00:03:28,849 and know where to top-up your boost or cut a few corners. 47 00:03:28,849 --> 00:03:33,469 Plus, every race ends at one of eight finish lines on the map, so you'll soon become very 48 00:03:33,469 --> 00:03:37,989 familiar with the roads and shortcuts leading to those end points. 49 00:03:37,989 --> 00:03:41,689 Mirror's Edge Catalyst doesn't really work like that. 50 00:03:41,689 --> 00:03:47,090 Side missions like dashes, fragile deliveries, covert deliveries, and dead drops are all 51 00:03:47,090 --> 00:03:52,749 point to point runs, but to arbitrary spots and on short, predetermined routes. And while there 52 00:03:52,749 --> 00:03:56,629 are often shortcuts that will give you a better time, they're usually just off to the 53 00:03:56,629 --> 00:03:58,299 side of that main route. 54 00:03:58,299 --> 00:04:02,859 That makes it feel like the open world has been carved up into tiny chunks and at that 55 00:04:02,859 --> 00:04:06,949 point you might as well just put them all in a menu and call it Mirror's Edge. 56 00:04:06,949 --> 00:04:10,919 Because they ultimately feel no less linear than the races in the first game, which saw 57 00:04:10,919 --> 00:04:16,720 small sections of the main story levels turned into speed runs. As well as bonus, pure platforming 58 00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:20,410 challenges set in bizarre abstract worlds. 59 00:04:20,410 --> 00:04:25,280 Side Note: because Mirror's Edge didn't need to reload an entire chunk of an open world 60 00:04:25,280 --> 00:04:30,590 every time you fluffed a jump, it didn't have to have annoying loading screens during races. 61 00:04:30,590 --> 00:04:35,340 Anyway. What you'll find is that the shortcuts in Catalyst's side missions are found much 62 00:04:35,340 --> 00:04:41,000 like they were in the original Mirror's Edge: through repeated playthroughs of that specific 63 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,630 event, rather than from your overall knowledge of the City of Glass. 64 00:04:44,630 --> 00:04:49,400 Which will be, I'm willing to bet, very limited. And that's for a few reasons. 65 00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:52,680 One is that because the main missions don't take place in the open world, you just don't 66 00:04:52,680 --> 00:04:57,410 spend enough time there to learn the layout. Two is that the city has few familiar landmarks 67 00:04:57,410 --> 00:04:58,880 to help you navigate. 68 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:03,250 And third, which is the most important, is that the game is almost impossible to play 69 00:05:03,250 --> 00:05:08,860 without obsessively and blindly following this wispy red trail. Check out this video 70 00:05:08,860 --> 00:05:13,730 for more on how following little dotted lines harms your ability to engage with a game's 71 00:05:13,730 --> 00:05:14,900 world. 72 00:05:14,900 --> 00:05:19,360 You can tone down Runner's Vision or turn it off entirely but the confusing design of 73 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:22,170 the city almost makes it a necessity. 74 00:05:22,170 --> 00:05:27,320 Strangely for an open world, the City of Glass constantly funnels you into linear corridors, 75 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:32,420 where you're trapped between towers too tall to scale, or buildings too low to land on, 76 00:05:32,420 --> 00:05:35,290 or enormous gaps between rooftops. 77 00:05:35,290 --> 00:05:40,080 This is good for giving you that classic Mirror's Edge feeling of flowing through an obstacle 78 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:46,020 course but it's horrible for navigation. Especially between these big clusters of buildings that 79 00:05:46,020 --> 00:05:50,360 have just a few ways to get between them. 80 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:54,260 So your floating waypoint thingy might be right in front of you, but the only way to 81 00:05:54,260 --> 00:05:58,200 get to it is to take a huge detour around here. 82 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:02,440 This is likely a technical issue, to do with loading the different chunks of the open world 83 00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:06,990 into memory. But while gamers can put up with some hidden loading screens, it's harder to 84 00:06:06,990 --> 00:06:10,250 stomach when it starts to really impact the way you navigate the world. 85 00:06:18,710 --> 00:06:22,990 What all this means is that Mirror's Edge Catalyst can't really provide missions like 86 00:06:22,990 --> 00:06:28,620 Burnout Paradise. Or, perhaps, Crazy Taxi. In that game you had a vague arrow pointing 87 00:06:28,620 --> 00:06:33,590 towards your destination and to make it under par time you needed both good driving skills 88 00:06:33,590 --> 00:06:36,900 and some knowledge of how the city was laid out. 89 00:06:36,900 --> 00:06:40,810 This could have been a fun mission type in Mirror's Edge where you would pick up and 90 00:06:40,810 --> 00:06:44,720 deliver packages from one side of the the open world to the other. It would provide 91 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:49,490 a new type of gameplay to compliment the linear levels of the campaign - and test you on both 92 00:06:49,490 --> 00:06:53,450 navigation of the city and your ability to maintain momentum. 93 00:06:53,450 --> 00:06:57,750 But I don't think it would work in the maze-like and fractured City of Glass, because you'd 94 00:06:57,750 --> 00:07:05,060 spend the entire time simply following that wispy red line, or just falling to your death. 95 00:07:05,060 --> 00:07:09,450 One thing that does work well is the way that players can make their own time trials, using 96 00:07:09,450 --> 00:07:13,870 any route through the City of Glass. That wouldn't really work in a linear game, like 97 00:07:13,870 --> 00:07:17,620 the first Mirror's Edge, where all the best bits have already been turned into races. 98 00:07:17,620 --> 00:07:21,690 But would it be naughty to say that Burnout Paradise did it better by just putting leaderboards 99 00:07:21,690 --> 00:07:25,930 on every road so you're passively competing with other players and it makes you always 100 00:07:25,930 --> 00:07:30,250 want to race fast, take risks, and become a better driver? 101 00:07:30,250 --> 00:07:35,290 Or how the collectibles in Burnout were only ever about smashing through gates and billboards 102 00:07:35,290 --> 00:07:40,780 as you drive and not stopping dead in your tracks to open up a fuse box. And how mission 103 00:07:40,780 --> 00:07:46,240 givers don't just stand around like zombies but rocket past you and goad you into giving chase? 104 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:55,120 But, back to Catalyst. There is one more mission type that actually does take advantage of 105 00:07:55,130 --> 00:08:01,560 the open world. These security hub side quests see you beating up a bunch of guards, smashing 106 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:04,900 up a tower, and then running away from a helicopter. 107 00:08:04,900 --> 00:08:10,020 Now, like the stunt run events in Burnout, you can just run in any direction, sprinting 108 00:08:10,020 --> 00:08:15,139 this way or that and taking any route you can to maintain enough momentum to outrun 109 00:08:15,139 --> 00:08:20,090 the chopper. There is no predetermined path and no specific direction, and any small 110 00:08:20,090 --> 00:08:24,389 understanding you have of the City of Glass will help you avoid dead ends and drops. 111 00:08:24,389 --> 00:08:31,139 But, sadly, the best way to finish those missions is to just follow the red line which automatically 112 00:08:31,139 --> 00:08:35,810 routes you to the nearest safe house, where the chase is immediately called off. 113 00:08:35,810 --> 00:08:37,190 So close! 114 00:08:37,190 --> 00:08:42,310 Stuff like this shows that a Mirror's Edge game could utilise an open world. The mechanics 115 00:08:42,310 --> 00:08:47,180 are not incompatible with free roaming and, in fact, an open play space could lead to 116 00:08:47,180 --> 00:08:53,830 another style of mission to play. To compliment the linear and puzzle-like missions. 117 00:08:53,830 --> 00:08:59,020 But many unfortunate choices - like the weird layout, the reliance on Runner's Vision, the 118 00:08:59,020 --> 00:09:04,570 short-sighted side quests, and the main missions being off in their own locations - all mean 119 00:09:04,570 --> 00:09:09,090 that this open world just doesn't quite work. 120 00:09:09,090 --> 00:09:15,680 In an interview, design director Erik Odeldahl said "I'm 100 percent sure that other teams 121 00:09:15,690 --> 00:09:21,270 within DICE, and other EA studios will learn and look at what we've done and probably use 122 00:09:21,270 --> 00:09:25,900 it in some way, especially when it comes to these big, big worlds". 123 00:09:25,900 --> 00:09:30,630 Which should worry me. But seeing as how EA seem to have completely forgotten all the 124 00:09:30,630 --> 00:09:35,420 clever stuff they achieved in one of the best open world games they ever made, I don't think 125 00:09:35,420 --> 00:09:38,520 their memory is all that great. 126 00:09:41,460 --> 00:09:45,920 Thanks for watching! Lemme know your thoughts on Mirror's Edge in the comments below. I 127 00:09:45,930 --> 00:09:49,660 actually do like the game quite a bit, even if the open world was fumbled. 128 00:09:49,660 --> 00:09:54,380 Also, a quick note to say thanks for all the kind words on Boss Keys, which is my spin-off 129 00:09:54,380 --> 00:09:59,940 show about dungeon design in Zelda. I wasn't sure how that would be received, so I'm relieved 130 00:09:59,940 --> 00:10:03,790 that you like it. Link's Awakening is up next, as requested! 131 00:10:03,790 --> 00:10:08,390 Finally, Game Maker's Toolkit is made possible by everyone who donates on Patreon, but a 132 00:10:08,390 --> 00:10:11,320 special shout out to these top-tier supporters.