What Mirror's Edge Catalyst Should Have Learned From Burnout Paradise | Game Maker's Toolkit

Hi. I'm Mark and this is Game Maker's Toolkit

Mirror's Edge is one of those games that was
crying out for a sequel. One that would polish

up the first-person platforming, rethink the
story, get rid of the guns, and just add a

bunch more stuff.

And, hey, we got it! Mirror's Edge Catalyst
is a sequel - or a prequel or a reboot or

whatever - and the controls are more responsive,
the cutscenes don't look like they were made

in Flash, the guns are gone, and there's way
more content.

But, if the reviews are anything to by, it
didn't quite work out. And I think the culprit

might be one contentious change to the franchise:
the introduction of an open world.

The original Mirror's Edge presented most
of its levels like an obstacle course. There

was a linear route through the world and you
had to build up, and then maintain momentum,

by stringing together parkour movements over
a series of springboards, fences, and zip

lines.

You'd often see your route in front of you
- highlighted in the bright red of Runner's

Vision. But the challenge was to pinpoint
that path while at top speed, to look for other

routes that could be quicker, and to actually
pull off the moves - the jumps, tucks, rolls,

wall runs, and quick turns - with precision.

And at other times, the game slowed down. Here,
Mirror's Edge turned into a platforming puzzler

where you tried to find a path up a tall tower,
using a maze of platforms and obstacles.

As for Mirror's Edge Catalyst. No, actually,
all that is true of Catalyst, as well. Because

almost every story mission, and some of the
side missions, take place outside the realms

of the open world - in locations that are
linear and intricately designed to be run

through once and in one direction only.

Those missions take place in skyscrapers,
office buildings, underground facilities,

and giant server hubs you can't access while
free roaming. Which means the open world is

relegated to other roles.

So it's a way to get from mission to mission,
and a place to practice parkour. It's filled

with collectibles if you're into that sort
of thing, and it also houses a number of side

missions. And so maybe these non-essential
quests could actually take advantage of the

sandbox City of Glass?

If we want to understand how an open world
can lead to gameplay that really takes advantage

of having a large space to play in, there
are plenty of games we can look at.

Games that give the player a huge breadth
of options in how they approach a mission,

or give them a feeling of mastery by repeatedly
exploring the same locations. But considering

the speed of Mirror's Edge, perhaps the best
place to look would be a game like Burnout

Paradise.

Here's a super speedy franchise that successfully
transitioned from linear tracks to an open

world. And I think that's because every event
takes advantage of the game being set in a

sandbox city.

Races and marked man challenges send you from
one side of the map to the other, and there

are no limits on the route you can take. Road
rage and stunt run events let you take

down cars and rack up combo points in any
way you wish and you don't have to worry about

hitting dead ends because the city spills
out in every direction.

Because you're constantly racing over the
same roads again and again, and all of

Burnout Paradise takes place inside the city,
you quickly start to learn routes and shortcuts,

and know where to top-up your boost or cut
a few corners.

Plus, every race ends at one of eight finish
lines on the map, so you'll soon become very

familiar with the roads and shortcuts leading
to those end points.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst doesn't really work
like that.

Side missions like dashes, fragile deliveries,
covert deliveries, and dead drops are all

point to point runs, but to arbitrary spots
and on short, predetermined routes. And while there

are often shortcuts that will give you a better
time, they're usually just off to the

side of that main route.

That makes it feel like the open world has
been carved up into tiny chunks and at that

point you might as well just put them all
in a menu and call it Mirror's Edge.

Because they ultimately feel no less linear
than the races in the first game, which saw

small sections of the main story levels turned
into speed runs. As well as bonus, pure platforming

challenges set in bizarre abstract worlds.

Side Note: because Mirror's Edge didn't need
to reload an entire chunk of an open world

every time you fluffed a jump, it didn't have
to have annoying loading screens during races.

Anyway. What you'll find is that the shortcuts
in Catalyst's side missions are found much

like they were in the original Mirror's Edge:
through repeated playthroughs of that specific

event, rather than from your overall knowledge
of the City of Glass.

Which will be, I'm willing to bet, very limited.
And that's for a few reasons.

One is that because the main missions don't
take place in the open world, you just don't

spend enough time there to learn the layout.
Two is that the city has few familiar landmarks

to help you navigate.

And third, which is the most important, is
that the game is almost impossible to play

without obsessively and blindly following
this wispy red trail. Check out this video

for more on how following little dotted lines
harms your ability to engage with a game's

world.

You can tone down Runner's Vision or turn
it off entirely but the confusing design of

the city almost makes it a necessity.

Strangely for an open world, the City of Glass
constantly funnels you into linear corridors,

where you're trapped between towers too tall
to scale, or buildings too low to land on,

or enormous gaps between rooftops.

This is good for giving you that classic Mirror's
Edge feeling of flowing through an obstacle

course but it's horrible for navigation. Especially
between these big clusters of buildings that

have just a few ways to get between them.

So your floating waypoint thingy might be
right in front of you, but the only way to

get to it is to take a huge detour around
here.

This is likely a technical issue, to do with
loading the different chunks of the open world

into memory. But while gamers can put up with
some hidden loading screens, it's harder to

stomach when it starts to really impact the
way you navigate the world.

What all this means is that Mirror's Edge
Catalyst can't really provide missions like

Burnout Paradise. Or, perhaps, Crazy Taxi.
In that game you had a vague arrow pointing

towards your destination and to make it under
par time you needed both good driving skills

and some knowledge of how the city was laid
out.

This could have been a fun mission type in
Mirror's Edge where you would pick up and

deliver packages from one side of the the
open world to the other. It would provide

a new type of gameplay to compliment the linear
levels of the campaign - and test you on both

navigation of the city and your ability to
maintain momentum.

But I don't think it would work in the maze-like
and fractured City of Glass, because you'd

spend the entire time simply following that
wispy red line, or just falling to your death.

One thing that does work well is the way that
players can make their own time trials, using

any route through the City of Glass. That
wouldn't really work in a linear game, like

the first Mirror's Edge, where all the best
bits have already been turned into races.

But would it be naughty to say that Burnout
Paradise did it better by just putting leaderboards

on every road so you're passively competing
with other players and it makes you always

want to race fast, take risks, and become
a better driver?

Or how the collectibles in Burnout were only
ever about smashing through gates and billboards

as you drive and not stopping dead in your
tracks to open up a fuse box. And how mission

givers don't just stand around like zombies
but rocket past you and goad you into giving chase?

But, back to Catalyst. There is one more mission
type that actually does take advantage of

the open world. These security hub side quests
see you beating up a bunch of guards, smashing

up a tower, and then running away from a helicopter.

Now, like the stunt run events in Burnout,
you can just run in any direction, sprinting

this way or that and taking any route you
can to maintain enough momentum to outrun

the chopper. There is no predetermined
path and no specific direction, and any small

understanding you have of the City of Glass
will help you avoid dead ends and drops.

But, sadly, the best way to finish those missions
is to just follow the red line which automatically

routes you to the nearest safe house, where
the chase is immediately called off.

So close!

Stuff like this shows that a Mirror's Edge
game could utilise an open world. The mechanics

are not incompatible with free roaming and,
in fact, an open play space could lead to

another style of mission to play. To compliment the
linear and puzzle-like missions.

But many unfortunate choices - like the weird
layout, the reliance on Runner's Vision, the

short-sighted side quests, and the main missions
being off in their own locations - all mean

that this open world just doesn't quite work.

In an interview, design director Erik Odeldahl
said "I'm 100 percent sure that other teams

within DICE, and other EA studios will learn
and look at what we've done and probably use

it in some way, especially when it comes to
these big, big worlds".

Which should worry me. But seeing as how EA
seem to have completely forgotten all the

clever stuff they achieved in one of the best
open world games they ever made, I don't think

their memory is all that great.

Thanks for watching! Lemme know your thoughts
on Mirror's Edge in the comments below. I

actually do like the game quite a bit, even
if the open world was fumbled.

Also, a quick note to say thanks for all the
kind words on Boss Keys, which is my spin-off

show about dungeon design in Zelda. I wasn't
sure how that would be received, so I'm relieved

that you like it. Link's Awakening is up next,
as requested!

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