Mirror's Edge: Catalyst - PS4

Mirror's Edge: Catalyst is a reimagining of the 2008 game Mirror's Edge. It takes place in a futuristic setting known as the “City of Glass”. The dystopian city is ruled by a conglomerate that has turned its citizens into mindless slaves chasing status and wealth. Faith Connors, the same protagonist from the first game, is one of the people living off the Grid, the vast network system that connects (and spies on) everything and everyone. She works as a Runner, roaming the city's rooftops as both a courier and a burglar. Runners had been tolerated by the conglomerate and its K-Sec security forces for a few decades, but that soon changes at the start of the game. It begins the moment Faith is released from prison and returns to her Runner friends, though flashbacks also reveal her past, what happened to her family, and how she got mixed up with various people. Why she was in prison is soon explained — she has to repay a debt to gang boss Dogen. During a heist at K-Sec headquarters, she ignores orders and steals a hard drive that upsets the fragile balance in place, and soon K-Sec cracks down hard on the Runners, trying to recover the drive. With the help of Runners, the militant organisation Black November, and other characters, she soon learns of a sinister project called Reflection that threatens to completely transform Glass and its citizens — unless Faith can stop it.

Just like the original, it relies heavily on parkour movement to explore the city, escape, find entrances, and take down or disarm enemies. Moves such as jumping, sliding, climbing, balancing, wall-running, swinging, rolling, diving through windows, using zip lines and a grappling-hook-like MAG Rope, as well as kicking down doors, can be quickly chained together. Certain areas can be revisited with upgrades, such as the MAG Rope, to reach places that were previously inaccessible. As in the first title, elements in the environment glow bright red to indicate they can be used when Runner's Vision is activated, and emit a pulse. Optionally, these markers can be made less noticeable or removed entirely. Enemies can be targeted with melee attacks, always with the goal of taking them out as quickly as possible.

Punches and kicks have different effects depending on your movement speed, and running at top speed builds up a kind of shield that makes Faith largely invulnerable as long as she keeps moving at that speed. Kicks and punches can be aimed in a specific direction, for example to knock guards off buildings or into each other. Weapons can no longer be used, since they're now tied to their owner via biometric data. What's completely new in this game is that the city has been turned into an open world that can be explored in any direction, rather than a series of linear levels. While there's a main story path to follow, there are also plenty of side missions and jobs you can pursue freely. There's also a large map on which waypoints can be set to move around quickly.

By completing missions, Faith earns experience, which is eventually converted into upgrade points. These can be spent on movement, combat and gear, improving her abilities through separate skill trees for each category. New to this game is that not all moves are available from the start — some, like the 180-degree turn, the double wall-run or a quick side-step, need to be unlocked gradually. The game features time-trial missions with leaderboards, where ghosts can be shared with friends so they can try to beat your score using the Social Play feature. It's also possible to design and share custom routes as challenges. Alongside regular missions based on movement and combat, there are new types of tasks called Grid Node puzzles. These are slower-paced than the others and focus on finding the right route through a busy environment, but also feature a laser security system that lets you use Faith's movements to slip past the security lasers. Most of these are optional missions used to unlock fast-travel points. Other missions involve deliveries, distraction missions (keeping K-Sec busy) and dash missions (a race against the clock). There are also five types of collectibles: documents, electronic parts, GridLeaks, secret stashes and surveillance recordings. Certain billboards can be hacked to display a selection of logos.

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