Attempting to successfully deliver brand new gaming concepts in an industry filled with me-too copycats, sequels, and tired gameplay mechanics is always risky business for developers. Thankfully, EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) has taken that leap of faith and crafted Mirror’s Edge, a unique and invigorating first-person platform/action/adventure/shooter.

As noted in our preview of the game, Mirror’s Edge takes place in a near-future dystopian metropolis; a sterile, geometric, and homogeneous cityscape whose government holds the reins tightly and authoritatively on its population in an effort to maintain an Orwellian society of surveillance, control, obedience, and ignorance.

The city itself appears to have had structures from real-world locations inserted into its skyline, from Seattle’s Space Needle to Chicago’s Sears Tower to any number of other contemporary edifices. The composition of this whitewashed urban jungle carries the message that Mirror’s Edge could potentially be set anywhere in the world. Absent, however, is anything old or impure. Each building stands as an impersonal and uninviting column of steel and glass; any predating the current regime -- any with character -- has been torn down and forgotten, just like the culture they aim to dissolve. There is nothing historic about this place. Gone, too, are the usual grays and browns of a worn, living city. Nearly every surface is white, from the roofs and walls right down to the sidewalk. Even the office plants and the trees in Centurion Plaza are devoid of color. It is reminiscent of a hospital, detention facility, or psychiatric ward.

Runners like Faith, the game’s heroine, oppose this way of life and work to deliver packages and correspondence between the pockets of citizens who hold onto the old ways. Because of this disobedience, government agents hunt them like rats, forcing them underground and onto the rooftops to deliver their assumed messages of revolution.

To the player, this means controlling Faith as she runs from point A to point B, avoiding armed officials and performing feats of acrobatics and urban running normally reserved for parkour traceurs. What separates Mirror’s Edge from other games of this nature is its perspective. This is a first-person game, but unlike most first-person shooters players are made very aware of Faith’s physical presence, from head to toe. The camera bobs, tilts, and tumbles as Faith traverses the rooftops, and her arms and legs often find their way into the field of view as she runs, jumps, and climbs over various objects. Players are meant to feel as though they’re literally looking through Faith’s eyes, and the lack of any on-screen health or ammo information serves to reinforce that feeling.