Game of the Year: Mirror’s Edge (Xbox 360/PS3)
2008 was a pretty damn strong year for games. You had blockbuster sequels, innovative indie games, major 1st party releases, and quirky web games. Yet amongst this sea of quality releases stood Mirror’s Edge. It’s the definition of the a love/hate game, DICE, unconcerned mostly with anything besides the core concept of parkour, stripped the game of just about anything else remotely tangential. There’s no open world, no silly block puzzles, just about all combat is avoidable (with one or two major exceptions). The game is merely about running from point A to point B in the quickest, most elegant path possible.
Mirror’s Edge was muddled and imperfect in its central story mode. But where the true beauty of the game emerged was in the brilliant time trials. Removing all forms of combat and opening up the environments ever so slightly created a true paradise for runners. And by eschewing everything except the essence of running the beauty of the game emerged. You made sure every little crouch jump, every fall was the right height, every path was optimal to take fractions of seconds off the clock.
Few games were as addicting as Mirror’s Edge in time trials. I certainly got hooked. And this is why I find Mirror’s Edge to be the best game of 2008.
Thanks for reading everyone. I started gamedrinkcode this year as a place to dump all my thoughts and musings on games. I hope to continue as regularly next year as I did at the end of this. Have a great New Years and I’ll be back Friday.
Leave a Reply