So, there was always going to be a strong probability that I would wind up loving Catalyst as well. Some of the same things I loved about the first game are very much present here. The running mechanics are still fun. The combat is even smoothed out a lot more, even having elements that make it fairly satisfying! I'm still super into the visual style of the world, even if the whole "color palette based on terrorist threat level colors" schtick has kind of lost its contextual relevance almost a decade after George W. Bush left the oval office. Solar Fields once again slays it with their score. And I still enjoy Faith as a character, as well as some of the anti-corporatism story elements. All of those have carried over to make it a fun, enjoyable game. And I really liked it!
But it's hard to say that it's much improved outside the combat. The biggest, most controversial change is that they've attempted to make this an open world game. This has netted complaints from people who thought it wasn't open enough and people who thought it was too open! There are problems with what they did, from a strangely fractured map to the way missions were designed to keep players within a certain area rather than explore the world, but in terms of the size, it's fine. Mirror's Edge succeeded with level design. It kept everything linear. Players didn't get total freedom to wander around the skyline. Instead, the game focused on having players speed through each obstacle course of a level. Players were required to learn the course and become comfortable with the controls. Precision and maintaining momentum were important, because each level was designed for a specific thing. In Catalyst, each story mission ultimately feels that way too, but much shorter and less memorable. Even more, there just isn't much to explore.
Running from mission to mission along the rooftops is itself satisfying and fun. It gives you a relatively safe space to practice and hone your skills as the premiere parkour runner. But the side missions are neither interesting nor conducive for exploration. Even more, there's just nothing to really explore, frankly. Don't get me wrong: I love the world of Mirror's Edge. And to some extent, the free running does make it feel more like an actual world. But it isn't exactly like it's a vibrant world with a lot going on. There isn't really anything to do, and there's not much to see. This is a corporate world, after all, focused on removing differences and to, as the Network in The World's End did, "Starbuck" everything. It's a super stale world for the player, because it's supposed to be a stale world in context of the game's story.
At the end of the day, the lack of things to do (a common problem across open world games) actually winds up making the game feel pretty linear overall. I'd really be surprised if people who played a majority of the game actually felt like it was "too open." For me, personally, it was just the right amount. Enough that I felt like I was within an actual world, but not enough that I was regularly distracted with side quests.
There are a few key elements to combat, though, that make it noticeably improved. The first and most significant thing is that they simply abandoned gunplay. You can no longer pick up firearms the way you did in the first game. This prevents any scenarios where there are too many enemies and you just go for the one with the gun, yank it away, then awkwardly try playing the game in a sort of first person shooter fashion. A lack of gunplay also works to further the idea of momentum being important. You can't just pick up a gun and hunker down. You need to keep moving! That means either fleeing when you encounter a group of cops, or it means fighting them by constantly staying in motion. "Traversal attacks" have you use your environment to gain momentum, thus making your strikes more powerful. These elements not only make the combat more fun and satisfying; it also makes it more cohesive with the central mechanics of first person running.
Quick corner turns make running along a building ledge seem more awesome, but the biggest addition to the running gameplay is the grappling hook. Normally, this is a kind of boring extra that doesn't add that much to the game, but here it actually kind of does. First person swinging is surprisingly fun. It can also be very helpful for escaping security forces. The ultimate problem, though, is that it is pretty limited. There are a few sections where you get to use it, but you largely can avoid them with the fast travel option.
The story itself is nothing incredible. It starts off pretty great in an accidentally meta-contextual fashion. When you first put in the disc, the very first screen you are brought to is not the start menu. It's an EA licensing agreement. You must scroll down the boring terms and conditions that no one reads, and then you get access to the start menu. The game itself opens up with Faith being released from prison. Before she steps out to enter the world, she must endure listening to a corrections officer go down a laundry list of terms and conditions she must abide by in order to retain her freedom. I'm pretty sure there is no real, meaningful connection between those two things, but given the anti-corporation aspects of the story, it felt a little bit like a shot at companies like EA.
Otherwise, the story isn't exactly anything to write home about. They try to do the whole "Faith and her sister are on opposite sides" thing again, but somehow make that even less interesting. Even worse is that final cutscene. You spend so much time trying to ruin things for Kruger, the man in charge of everything, who has shaped the world into what it has become. And yet, all the player does is run to the top of his skyscraper. The cutscene then shows Faith essentially beating him. So when you get that "Mission Complete: Defeat Kruger" pop up afterwards, it feels rather hollow. "I didn't defeat Kruger," I thought. "The cutscene did." It's an unsatisfying ending. Imagine how much more impacting that fight between Faith and her sister would be if you actually controlled Faith during that scene.
In fact, the entire final level is lackluster. The majority of the game is so focused on forward momentum and speed. And yet, the final level features a ton of climbing pipes and using the auto-grappling hook that lifts you up. Neither really allows for the typical running gameplay that is the core of it all.
In fact, the entire final level is lackluster. The majority of the game is so focused on forward momentum and speed. And yet, the final level features a ton of climbing pipes and using the auto-grappling hook that lifts you up. Neither really allows for the typical running gameplay that is the core of it all.
Ultimately, I would say this: I think if you really liked the first Mirror's Edge, there's a good chance you'll really enjoy Catalyst. If you felt underwhelmed by the first game, then you'll likely feel that way here too. I'm a bit more inclined to suggest that the first game actually is the better of the two even if Catalyst might be a more cohesive package overall, but they're also different enough in many ways that I don't know that it's totally fair to compare them.
There is one big similarity, however. As much as I love both games, they're the same in that they have a lot of unexplored potential. It's almost as if the developers understand that they have a lot of really neat, great, or interesting ideas. It's just that they don't really know what to do with them. There is a ton of unrealized potential here, just as there was the first game. By the end, you realize they clearly hope to make more games in this world. Certainly, I would like another installment! I just hope they flesh some things out a lot more than they have.
REDUCTIVE RATING: It's Fine.
(Rankings from worst to best: Terrible!, It's Pretty Bad, It's Fine, It's Pretty Good, Incredible!)
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