Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a 2016 first-person action-adventure platform game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in June 2016. It is a reboot of the 2008 game that focuses on protagonist Faith Connors. Upon release, Mirror's Edge Catalyst received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the free-running gameplay and visuals, but criticized its storyline and combat system. In December 2023, all servers for Mirror's Edge Catalyst were shut down by EA, leaving all multiplayer game features inoperable and some achievements unobtainable.
Gameplay
Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a first-person action-adventure game in which the player takes control of Faith Connors as she progresses through the futuristic city of Glass. Similar to the original Mirror's Edge, players traverse the city using aspects of urban exploration and parkour movements to complete missions and evade or fight enemies. Players can also make use of environmental objects such as zip-lines and ledges, and equipment; this includes a MAG (Manifold Attachment Gear) Rope and a Disruptor to travel across buildings, disable certain systems (such as large fans or security cameras) and aid Faith during combat. When players mark an objective on their map, Faith's "runner vision" is activated and some scenery items automatically highlight in red. These act as guides to lead players towards their objective. The use of levels and linear gameplay found in the first Mirror's Edge has been replaced with an open world, free-roaming environment. This gives players more freedom in traversal, allowing for the use of multiple paths to reach one's objective. In addition to the campaign's mission, side activities such as time trials, races and environmental puzzles are featured. Additionally, items called GridLeaks can be found across the world that can be collected by players. Combat mechanics of the game received an overhaul and a new combat system was developed as traversal is greatly emphasised in the game. Also, though only used sparingly in the previous game, Mirror's Edge Catalyst has removed the use of guns by the player altogether, focusing on Faith's running and parkour movements and quick melee-style attacks to take down or evade her enemies. Faith enters focus mode while she is running, and with sufficient focus Faith can evade bullets from enemies. According to Sara Jansson, the senior producer of the game, the combat and fighting featured is an extension to the game's movement instead of a separated set. When Faith is performing a finishing move, the game switches to a third-person perspective. Mirror's Edge Catalyst contained several multiplayer features, which DICE called Social Play. This asynchronous online service has been discontinued on the 9th of December 2023 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam and EA App. While there are no live co-operative multiplayer or side-by-side competitive modes, the game features asynchronous multiplayer in which a player's actions in the game can affect the world for other players' games. Among these are Time Trials which, unlike in the 2008 game, are not pre-defined by DICE. Instead, these checkpoint-to-checkpoint paths are set by any player whereby others can race against them at their leisure for faster times. Players are also able to place Location Emitters for other players to track down, an exploration activity similar to geocaching.
Synopsis
Setting The game takes place in the dystopian, futuristic city of Glass, the showcase city of the nation of Cascadia, governed by a totalitarian corporatocracy. Cascadian society is highly stratified, and most citizens work for the corporations and are connected to the Grid, a massive social surveillance system digitally connecting everything and everyone in cities like Glass. The corporations are secretly preparing to launch a project, called Reflection, to control the populace through the Grid. So-called Runners, freelance messengers skilled at parkour, refuse to be connected to the Grid and live on rooftops, making their living from covert delivery jobs while evading corporate security. The game centers around a Runner named Faith, and her efforts to help other Runners overthrow the corporate government and stop Reflection.
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