History VideoGame / MirrorsEdge

* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: The Shard. This bluish and reflective prism-shaped skyscraper counting over 100 floors and serving as the government HQ can be seen looming in the distance from practically any point of the City, enforcing the theme of constant surveillance.

** Disarm-counters instantly take down an enemy, and give you a free weapon, but you need to be in melee range (which means rushing at some one who is shooting at you), and you need to have very precise timing. Enemy melee attacks do a lot of damage, too, so if you fail to grab once, you might not get a second chance.

* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: The Shard. This bluish and reflective prism-shaped skyscraper counting over 100 floors and serving as the government HQ can be seen looming in the distance from practically any point of the City, enforcing the theme of constant surveillance.

* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: The Shard. A bluish and reflective prism-shaped skyscraper counting over 100 floors and serving as the government HQ can be seen looming in the distance from practically any point of the City, enforcing the theme of constant surveillance.

** Steam vents are particularly irritating obstacles because they require you to stop and rotate the nearby valves for a couple of seconds. This is a game where even ''braking down'' reduces your success chances.
** Usually these vents will kill you if you try to just pass over them, but there's one in the [[EternalEngine Pirandello-Kruger]] level which will only cause mild damage, [[GoodBadBugs if it hurts you at all]], allowing you to [[SequenceBreaking entirely skip turning the associated valve]].

* SceneryPorn: The City of Glass looks amazing from the prospective of a runner.

* ShiningCity: The City of Glass looks amazing but peel away the surface and it is pretty ugly.

* MentorOccupationalHazard: [[spoiler:Mercury, a mentor to many runners, including Faith, is killed near the end game. It's by one of his own pupils too!]].
* MissionControl: Mercury. ''"I find the work, chop it up, farm it out. The runners do it. It's a tidy arrangement. Everyone gets paid, and nobody sees a thing."''

* BulletTime: "Reaction Time". For when precision maneuvering is a matter of life and death, accept no substitutes.

* EliteMook: The Pursuit Cops can do a lot of the same parkour moves Faith can, so outrunning them can be challenging. They also deploy smoke grenades to obfuscate incoming attacks and do not hesitate to use their tasers on Faith if they're unable to reach her directly. In addition, they're extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat [[note]]if you haven't spent a lot of time fighting, and don't know how the [=PCs=] telegraph their attacks, you're in for a [[CurbstompBattle walloping]][[/note]], making it nigh-suicidal to attack them head-on. In case one is brave enough to do so, the Wall Run Kick becomes crucial to defeating them, allowing Faith to [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard take them out with one of her disarming grabs]], and attacks from above are still an instant knockout. [[EscapeSequence Merc will advise you to flee]] whenever you encounter one.

* ABloodyMess: In the first post-tutorial mission, Faith bursts through a door and the first thing she sees is a splatter of red on the wall that looks like a spray of blood, until she looks around and sees it's just spilled paint.

** The [[SubwaysSuck subway]], like the mall, was closed for renovation.

* TrainEscape: ''Subway'' trains though quick application of Parkour.
* TrainingDummy: Celeste serves as one during the tutorial on hand to hand combat, and gun usage.

* ConvenientlyEmptyBuilding: The game takes place in the height of summer, so it's not immediately apparent that many of the levels take place during very early morning or late evening when most people would still be sleeping or have finished work several hours ago. The mall is closed for some reasons (though there are commercials in the game claiming it's open 24/7) and another level is a construction site. However, it's all deliberate, as the complete desolation in the middle of a major city is a large part of the game's dystopian theme.
** Certain malls and most stores close down on Sundays, especially in Sweden and it's Scandinavia sister countries. On the other hand, it could be that the store closed on a unmentioned holiday, in which most Scandinavia stores and malls close down.
** The mall and [[SubwaysSuck subway]] were both closed for renovations.

* EliteMook: The Pursuit Cops can do a lot of the same parkour moves Faith can, so outrunning them can be challenging. They also deploy smoke grenades to obfuscate incoming attacks and do not hesitate to use their tasers on Faith in the event they're unable to reach her directly. In addition, they're extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat [[note]]if you haven't spent a lot of time fighting, and don't know how the [=PCs=] telegraph their attacks, you're in for a [[CurbstompBattle walloping]][[/note]], making it nigh-suicidal to attack them head-on. In case one is brave enough to do so, the Wall Run Kick becomes crucial to defeating them, allowing Faith to [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard take them out with one of her disarming grabs]], and attacks from above are still an instant knockout. [[EscapeSequence Merc will advise you to flee]] whenever you encounter one.

* EliteMook: The Pursuit Cops can do a lot of the same parkour moves Faith can, so outrunning them can be challenging. In addition, they're extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat [[note]]if you haven't spent a lot of time fighting, and don't know how the [=PCs=] telegraph their attacks, you're in for a [[CurbstompBattle walloping]][[/note]], making it nigh-suicidal to attack them head-on. In case one is brave enough to do so, the Wall Run Kick becomes crucial to defeating them, allowing Faith to [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard take them out with one of her disarming grabs]]. [[EscapeSequence Merc will advise you to flee whenever you encounter one]].

* EliteMook: The Pursuit Cops can do a lot of the same parkour moves Faith can, so outrunning them can be challenging. In addition, they're extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat [[note]]If you haven't spent a lot of time fighting, and don't know how the [=PCs=] telegraph their attacks, you're in for a [[CurbstompBattle walloping]] [[/note]], making it nigh-suicidal to attack them head-on. In case one is brave enough to do so, the Wall Run Kick becomes crucial to defeating them, allowing Faith to take them out with one of her disarming grabs. [[EscapeSequence Merc will advise you to flee whenever you encounter one]].

* EliteMook: The Pursuit Cops can do a lot of the same parkour moves Faith can, so outrunning them can be challenging. In addition, they're extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat [[note]]If you haven't spent a lot of time fighting, and don't know how the [=PCs=] telegraph their attacks, you're in for a [[CurbstompBattle walloping]] [[/note]]. (except the Wall Run Kick, which allows you to take them out with one of Faith's disarming grabs), making it nigh-suicidal to attack them head-on. [[EscapeSequence Merc will advise you to flee whenever you encounter one]].

* EliteMook: The Pursuit Cops can do a lot of the same parkour moves Faith can, so outrunning them can be challenging. In addition, they're immune to all melee attacks [[note]] It is in fact possible to defeat Pursuit Cops with hand-to-hand combat, it just takes several well-timed hits. If you haven't spent a lot of time fighting, and don't know how the [=PCs=] telegraph their attacks, you're in for a [[CurbstompBattle walloping]] [[/note]]. (except the Wall Run Kick, which allows you to take them out with one of Faith's disarming grabs), making it nigh-suicidal to attack them head-on. [[EscapeSequence Merc will advise you to flee whenever you encounter one]].

* GenderBender: The original mentions Callaghan as a male exactly once in the entire game. The iOS version mentions her as a female several times.

* WindowPain: You want to hide behind glass in that building? Well, the enemies will shoot at you, and the glass will break.

While the game is a [[FirstPersonShooter first person shooter]], guns are completely optional[[note]]There's even an achievement for not using one in the entire game[[/note]]. Instead, Faith uses [[LeParkour parkour]] to traverse rooftops and evade enemies. The rooftops turned into large puzzle pieces as players found their way to point B. The game also had an interesting art direction: the city was almost entirely sterile white save some sparse colors here and there. Items and places would turn red to point players in the right direction.

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: [[spoiler: {{Face Heel Turn}}s training SuperpoweredMooks pays better than an illegal courier service and the cops don't shoot at you.]]

* {{Roofhopping}}: Whoosh! That's how Faith gets around.

* ActionGirl: Faith, but most of the main girls are as well, are capable of fighting security guards and roofhopinh.

* BigBrotherIsWatching: Although he's kind of a slacker, given the overall efficiency (or apparent lack thereof) of his police state, it's that he's watching but may or may care what he sees.

* BrickJoke: A rather sad one. An office worker from PK decides that their project to eliminate runners, the horrible working conditions, among other controversial things [[spoiler:such as "interrogating co-workers"]], isn't worth it and sends a mail that he's quitting. This is detailed in his personal diary and rant can be read on his computer. [[OhCrap The file containing said rant is found open on his computer when you get to the PK facility]]. [[spoiler:When you go through the depths of the facility, you find a corridor filled with windows leading to interrogation rooms. An office worker is in one of them. Beaten and bloody.]]

* ChekhovsSkill: [[spoiler: The disarm from behind move you learn in the tutorial from Celeste is what you use to defeat her in the fight with her later on]].

* CutsceneBoss: Faith's "fight" with the minor villain Ropeburn consists of a cutscene and one quick time event before [[spoiler:he's shot by one of your [[EvilCounterpart Evil Counterparts]]]].

* DarknessEqualsDeath: A black screen is netter than seeing the messy results.

* %% GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: In the iPhone/iPad version, where Callaghan is female.

* SamusIsAGirl: [[spoiler: The boss of Chapter 7 is Celeste, whose alter ego was presumed male. Hilariously, your first clue is when [[spoiler:she doesn't really react to your [[GroinAttack crotch-kicks]]]]. Another giveaway - [[spoiler: when you hit her she grunts girlishly, and how many girls have you [[ChekhovsGunman met so far]] in the game? Faith, Celeste, and Kate.]] Two of those are fairly unlikely. A third giveaway -- and a pretty clever one at that -- [[spoiler: when you're escaping the mall and the Parkour Killer waits for Faith to catch up, she does Celeste's idle animation: that restless hop you first see in the tutorial.]]

''Mirror's Edge'' is a first-person action video game by [[Creator/{{DICE}} DICE]] (Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment), set in a [[{{Utopia}} big, shiny city]] in a conformist [[PoliceState police-state]]. You are cast as Faith, an illegal courier or "runner", whose job it is to hand-deliver messages and data [[LeParkour across rooftops and skyways]] to avoid ubiquitous government monitoring of movement and communications.

''Mirror's Edge'' is a first-person action video game by DICE (Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment), set in a [[{{Utopia}} big, shiny city]] in a conformist [[PoliceState police-state]]. You are cast as Faith, an illegal courier or "runner", whose job it is to hand-deliver messages and data [[LeParkour across rooftops and skyways]] to avoid ubiquitous government monitoring of movement and communications.