The first hour of Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, had me thinking of another, similar title: Remember Me, a 2013 action game, where you play as a young woman, with the ability to steal and manipulate the memories of others. This concept would have been otherwise brilliant, if not for the addendum it was buried beneath layers of unnecessary combat. With this in mind, the combat lead protagonist, Faith, is forced to perform during Catalyst, does not feel as fluid or as entertaining as the parkour movements - but, more on this later.
Faith Connors, is a lovely looking young woman, recently released from juvenile detention. Within a minute however, she is back to her old tricks, working as a 'runner', someone who, as the title may suggest, runs packages from one destination to another. This underground movement is led by Noah, a father figure of Faith's. Alongside Icarus, a runner, profusely adept at the craft, and Plastic, a wizard-class hacker, Faith works to undermine the nefarious governmental organization, Kruger-Sec, owned by manipulative overlord, Gabriel. When Faith steals a classified project titled Reflection, she becomes public enemy number one, wishing to use it to pay off the debts she owes to Dogen, the city's most dangerous crime-boss.
Amassing a plot concerning family, growing-up, and survival, Catalyst suffers from predictability, with many of the plot twists recognizable several hours before their reveal. Moreover, though Faith is provided some level of depth, which assists in capturing our attention with sentimentality, other characters are seldom fleshed out, which is a shame considering how interesting (especially Plastic) they are. The conclusion of the game, much like the characters, adjunctively contains little depth, refusing to answer a number of important questions, though the original title, of which Catalyst is a prequel to, perhaps fills in some of the blanks.
What Catalyst does best however, is the fluidity of Faith's movements. Though some of these are initially denied to the player, and must be upgraded, it doesn't take long before Faith is not just incredible; she's sensational, and playing as her is just wicked sick! Jumping, wall-running, flying; words cannot begin to describe how dazzling all of this feels, and in this sense, Catalyst is a success.
In building up momentum, Faith acquires focus, which allows her to temporarily cease taking damage from enemy attacks. When it comes to facing Kruger-Sec soldiers, the game advocates for players to use the environment, to increase Faith's offensive potency, though on many an occasion during main quests, players find themselves trapped in an arena, where such advantageous opportunities do not exist. Instead, players are required to chip away at opponent's health, which is a brutally slow process. Occasionally however, combat can, thankfully, be avoided altogether.
The game is played in an open-world environment, which includes a number of optionable side quests. These incorporate deliveries and races, alongside expanding Plastic's networks, all of which are time-sensitive. The most fun of these however, is breaking into massive computer networks. Exploration, if not to find all of the secrets, then to admire the graphically beautiful environment, is really fun, the colors, textures and buildings feeling so vivid and futuristic, however, the occasional lag in rendering does mean some areas don't live up to standard. Moreover, the soundtrack, which is as serene as it is mysterious, adds to the experience.
In summary, over the course of my 12 hour play-through (which includes all the times I fell, and bumped into glass doors), I deduced that Catalyst is good, but not great, the awkward combat and lacking depth causing players to lose focus (pun intended). However, the exploration, movement, graphics and sound are truly immersive.
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