Mirror’s Edge
So I’ve been doing a playthrough of Mirror’s Edge for the first time in a long time and it reminds me why it’s one of my favorite games that I keep coming back to. If you don’t know, Mirror’s Edge is basically a parkour game that takes place in a vague city state where you play a courier named Faith, with couriers being one of the last ways to transport messages and packages safely without government oversight and censorship. You avoid the police while discovering a conspiracy that threatens the couriers and Faith’s very own sister.
While the story is fairly simple and leaves much to be desired, one aspect that draws me in is the subtle world building. You get sections where on the billboards it makes notes of trying a nicotine patch product so as to “not break the law!” Then a blink and you miss it radio broadcast informs us that all tobacco and various other such products have been deemed illegal by the city mayor and most likely have been for a while. You then get messages left by other couriers commenting on what is happening in game and giving us a glimpse into just their mundane life. Or when you’re in an elevator and you get to read a section on the November Riots and how that event calls back to a number of characters’ backstories, including Faith’s, and how it still matters in the present.
I really appreciate when a studio does something like this, giving life to a world that unfortunately has to be empty due to budget and time constraints, as well as other factors. It makes it feel like your character is affecting the world while giving people some personality as well.
I also like to think that the Runners symbolize both literal and spiritual freedom. You have the lower class who have to go underground thanks to the oppression of the upper class who literally live and rule above them in skyscrapers and high rises. But, the Runners are both figuratively and literally above those in government, running along the rooftops and going beyond the bounds of societal rules and authority (which has its pros and cons). I mean, Faith literally says in the beginning of the game that the Runners live in between society, on the “Mirror’s Edge” (make an insert credits here joke).
