Mirror's Edge Catalyst: 5 Years Later
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2021
- Become drip itself at www.whitelight.store/. It helps! Mirror's Edge Catalyst is the sequel no one talks about for anything but the sake of argument. Does it deserve it's disappointing reputation? Should it really be shunned? Or has it been overlooked, unfairly judged in the light of it's predecessor? 5 years later, it's time to find out.
Thanks to editor and thumbnail artist David Blom
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Игры
Become drippier than a monsoon at www.whitelight.store/. Back again. Sorry about the wait. Been working on a lot of videos since June, this is the first of them. I really hope you enjoy it, Catalyst is a interesting beast.
It's fine, especially since you were working on more stuff for us. Take your time when you need it
i like that you're looking at all my favourite games. i give a like
I’m looking forward to your eventual watchdogs legion review I loved it but I got a feeling you may not have
you're my favorite essay writing longoid cuck on RUclips. Please never stop being you. Also the shirts are epic
I hope shadow Mordor is one of those videos, I'll pretty much watch anything you make, keep up the amazing work
Feels like Dad finally came back, and he actually had the damn cigarettes.
Got the milk too if you want cornflakes tomorrow morning
@@Whitelight I prefer Frosties😐
@@Whitelight C-can we play catch afterward?
@@Whitelight Can we play Halo and pass the controller back and forth after each death? I miss that.
@@Whitelight I want it
Whitelight videos have that feeling like a man who has made peace with god talking to you on a bus ride through North Hampton in the middle of the night.
Damn you should be a writer
North Hampton? Man you talkin about gta?
You are SO absolutely spot on with that description, nice one :D
he could be talking about bananas and it would still be interesting
Alright pal, that’s plenty
This was a franchise that they threw to the wind. It deserved better.
Even Chef PK cannot resist the allure of Whitelight's sexy voice.
@@RAMAR713 I want to bathe in it.
Well at least EA didn't milk it for everything it's worth.
So I played Catalyst, what did people not like about it? I loved it.
@@mrplayfulshade1038 Ill take any mirrors edge I can get, I love all of it
In my experience Catalyst becomes instantly more enjoyable when you switch Runners Vision to "Classic" mode. It still gives you enough guidance to navigate with the red objects, but it removes the line that tells you EXACTLY which route to take, so you feel more free to experiment.
While I somewhat agree, unfortunately you can't compensate for lack of interesting level design (reason for which imo is due to the game's open world commitment) with a slight hud change :/
Today I finally took this advice I’ve heard over and over from the community. It has made all the difference in my playthrough this time around.
I played through it with Runners Vision completely turned off. Made for a neat experience
The Night Aesthetic of the city is what makes me sometimes comeback to Catalyst. It's just so beautiful to look at.
When I played it and saw the night time for the first time i thought: "I could really switch the real world for this one".
Which is such a shame since it’s trying so hard to sell this as a dystopia, when it *really* doesn’t look like it. Maybe they could have shitty areas for the Lowcaste so you could actually, you know, *see what the hell they’re complaining about the whole time?
The "Gaming Ambience" youtube channel has plenty of nice environments shot and ME OST going along with it.
Bro, Watch "Gaming Ambience" he has a lot of ambients with looks on city :)
i personally prefer the daytime. you see plenty of cyberpunky neon-lit nighttime cities in other media but rarely do you see a city so bright, sunbleached, and colorful yet sleek as in mirrors edge
What I love about Catalyst is the lore. I know a lot of people may have skipped over it, but I collected all the documents found throughout the game which details the rise of Glass City, the history, the politics, the class system, the technology, etc. there’s also a map of Cascadia and you find out it’s located in the region of Australia. The history with Omni Stat and Cascadia was pretty interesting. This game takes place centuries in the future to the point where remnants of the old world were all but forgotten. Anything outside of Cascadia and Omni-Stat is heavily irradiated. Which implies the whole planet suffered a nuclear fallout in the past and the only region not to get hit was Australia..
you shouldn’t compliment a game for forgetting to add the worldbuilding then throwing in tedious collectibles that you need to watch walkthroughs to find
@@vaudeville-villain what?
@@vaudeville-villain What. I had no problems finding all collectibles without googling them. You literally find them if you just look around when playing the game, they're everywhere.
yeah me too. i remember back in 2016 discussing them with an online friend and them pointing out that it was somewhere near australia.
Catalysts's ambiance, music, and immersing story and environment completely enveloped me in a weird calm that feels inescapable in an expanse of serenity even I can't begin to comprehend or explain.
Ehhh I wouldn't call the story immersive, the script's like word salad, with the foodDome and the loCaste and the gridNode and the metaLeak and the blahBlah. Everything else definitely is though
Well said, I feel largely the same.
I often find myself wanting to replay it. And I hate it. I’ve done everything in that game. Everything. And yet I want more. Such a shame we won’t see anything from Mirrors Edge again
Agree. It's more the ambience and fluid running feel that keeps me playing Catalyst, the only thing I hate is Runner's vision but once you turn it off it's so freeing being able to find your own routes. And the soundtrack is something else
you actually took the words out my brain
"As if Linus Sebastian was the architect"... one of the best criticisms of a game's artstyle I have ever heard.
The only thing is I'm pretty sure Linus doesn't care about RGB. I mean, I thought it was funny. But from my understanding, he doesn't like the RGB trend. Me, I have an RGB monitor, speakers, PC, keyboard, mouse. Even a damn mousepad. I don't think Linus cares. But I also don't have a problem with a joke, nor do I think WhiteLight senpai dislikes Linus. I'm just a literalist that has to ruin any fun.
@@robred123s I don't think whitelight dislikes linus, I think whitelight was just making joke
Linus once mentioned I think in WAN Show that he was in for the meme about the RGB Stuff.
@@robred123s Yeah. You ARE cringe.
i though it was a joke the fact that he drop expensive hardware
This game is the epitemy of: "Being good, but you forget about it quite alot" i really enjoyed the game during all the time i played it, yet, somehow forget about quite a bit.
Looks like it's a problem for a lot of AAA video games these days
This. You stole my thoughts. I was about to say something along these lines. I like it more than the first one, but I also don't feel any particularly strong emotion toward it nor I remember it that often. Just one difference, which I imagine is subjective. I remember Faith, and I remember her as she looks in this game.
@@hesiolite If only. I don't even manage to enjoy a lot of today's output. If only they managed the bare minimum of being fun but forgettable.
Thats litearally most AAA games nowadays, all flash and no substance.
Yeah seems that since 2008 most of them are just forgettable.
12:00 "Two-tone billboards are replaced by vast, fully-rendered William-boards"
is probably the dumbest joke that made me laugh out loud this much
same lmao
Mine was "I'm a big fan" at 23:08 lmao
@@bakatsugu Commented about that as well at the same time :D ruclips.net/video/P7yb1Dv6jtE/видео.html&lc=Ugx_ydCNGlhxGr7m5VB4AaABAg
Can we all just admit that love or hate the OG Mirror's Edge, Still Alive is one of the best game theme's ever.
Didn't Mt Eden remix it or something?
I can't find it on Spotify anymore :(
The whole soundtrack is good too
I actually think Catalyst is better
@@albiesnyder412 I think it has all of the tools to be a better game, but it fails to put them together as well.
I don't think it quite justifes itself as an "open world", and I think it actually would have benefitted from a more linear structure like the first game.
The reason being that it's not really open it's just a couple of linear lanes that collapse and intersect to funnel you a single direction.
There's typically only one single way to reach any one specific area. Sure that way might have two different lanes for Part of it, but they travel parallel to one another and one lane will always collapse into the other making a single lane. So what's the point?
I think if you could legitimately go anywhere and the parkpur system wasn't as bare-bones as it is (its basically the same thing as the first game with a Grappling hook that you can only use at a few contextual points) it could have been better.
And while many of Catalyst's elements are superior *in make* to the first game, the execution wasn't done well.
Which is why the first game is MORE than the sum of its parts, and the second game is significantly less than the sum of its.
The first Mirror's Edge was the first game I'd ever seen that crashed to bargain bin status in the launch window. I bought it 3 weeks after release from a HMV clearance bin for £4.99. Mirrors Edge made up like 3/4 of the bin. From anecdotal evidence this happened worldwide. The game was fine but I never got over how blatantly quickly the title was given up on by the publisher. The fact that they gave the series another go at all is incredible.
So you're telling me there is still hope for Deus ex after mankind divided
Publishers have nothing to do with the price of games in brick and mortar stores beyond setting the MSRP.
@@aolson1111 I never said they did, but they provably pulled or otherwise cut down on marketing after a week and sales plummeted further leaving stores with an influx of stock that no one wanted. They gave up on it and stores followed.
@@807D14M0ND5 Maybe not. Square Enix did cancel Deus Ex in favour of Avengers after all.
Well it got another chance because it became a cult classic.
I always found "Still Alive" a rather odd choice of words to promote a game, more so as gamers associated the phrase far more with Portal.
I played the crap out of that game and Idk why they’d use it
I always saw it as them trying to create the feeling that the runners are continually attacked, yet they just can't be stomped out. Kinda living in a beautiful way. But it didn't really do that
I assume they mean it in the feeling of being alive. You can very much be "alive" in a room, locked in, not allowed out to live and feel free.
Funnily enough i always considered the original mirror's edge as a parallel successor to portal (without even realizing the similar song titles lol). Making catalyst more like mass effect meets assassin's creed kindof erased the magic and simplicity that the original had tho
@@BonzerMrT TBF Mirror's Edge and Portal 1 are extremely similar. Like fucking almost twins. Both are very short games focused on showcasing a well thought out mechanic to the gaming industry but in what is really a lack of a sandbox instead of the expansion of one. Both with very subtle stories but with a lot of implications. Both with a minimalistic presentation.
Whitelight is the only RUclipsr I love while simultaneously having no idea what he’s actually saying.
Someone doesn't watch Jacob Geller
@@Dionysius8421 whitelight, raycevick and jacob geller are all over there in the same corner of youtube
The moment I started hearing his mouse clicks between each take, it became more distracting to the point where I was hearing more of that than the words themselves :/
It's like an hour-long Zero Punctuation. I just finished watching and I feel like I just put in the effort needed to graduate college.
British man sound good.
Can you do one on Dying Light? it has a parkour system that's heavily inspired by Mirror's Edge. definitely one of my favorite games of all time
Great game. hope the sequel is even better.
@@splinterborn hell yeah, I'm hyped af. one of the few games I'm considering paying full price for at release
@@Ezekiel_Burton Dying Light ran bad because they let you turn the settings up too high, and the cancerous "ultra or bust" mindset made people say it was unoptimized. They "fixed it" by drastically cutting down the max view distance a player could set.
Yes yes yes!!! I havent played it but would love a video like that about it, loved dead island
I know it probably had nothing to do with the people actually working on the game and was purely a corporate decision, but I'm still pissed that Techland fired one of the best writers in the fucking industry over some baseless accusations. They aren't getting my money at full price.
I have actually worked in places that looked much like the glass towers of this game's cities, complete with those stairways that sort of look like they are floating, and even glass hallways between buildings that made those of us afraid of heights feel very queasy. So, even in our own real world, this style obviously exists. But, there were, of course, no sheer drops of doom in common areas meant to be used by humans, and these things called railings existed in the spaces as well.
ohhhh what areas did you work since that sounds really interesting?
@@loosescrew472 I worked in a downtown area at a large firm that had recently changed from its original home to a new building that was designed to be a typical example of an ultra-modern design, which evidently has this glass-everything look to it these days. Other newer buildings in the same area had a similar look, as if the entire structure were made of glass, or at least creating that illusion.
When you were talking about how the city in Catalyst looked, it made me remember Cruelty Squad and how, despite the color vomit on screen, you still understand what everything is supposed to be. A mall is a mall, a house is a house. In Catalyst, a rooftop on an office building looks like the fuckin Titanfall 2 gauntlet.
in their defense if I had the money I'd absolutely model my rooftop after the Titanfall gauntlet
I remember buying this game back in mid-2020, all because I just want to admire the city's aesthetic, especially the Ocean Glass View district.
mid 2010?
2010's*
@@zephiino3713 I meant somewhere around August 2020
"Bimbofication of Mirrors Edge" was not a sentence I was expecting. I'll have to look this up on R34
Hot
Something about a monotonous voice raging at the "Don't let them spot you" speech and saying "Ah Dice you sussy baka" just tickles my soul.
I played through the origional Mirror's Edge 21 times. at least 11 on the hardest difficulty and I truly enjoyed it through and through. What Mirror's Edge Catalyst lacked in place of the original falls under two categories.
First, Catalyst never felt like a map that belonged to the Mirror's edge world. The first game was a delicate balance of allowing player choice and keeping a firm guiding hand on where you're travercing too. I felt lost in the second game when I had to move to another section of the map. It was a shame to have to backtrack when the game wasn't clear enough on where I was supposed to go, or when I chose an incorrect "path." It felt clunky and inorganic, whereas the first game allowed for smooth and easy traversal.
The second point I'd like to make is the combat. Combat in the first game was impactful and each interaction with enemy's was unique. Sometimes you could run through enemies, or sneak by. It never felt like the purpose of each level or mission was to engage the enemy. I wanted to feel like a freerunner and Catalyst made me feel like an arcade button masher.
Third point: The level design feels like a tech demo. Whitelite said it best.
If they ever make another game for Mirrors edge, please make it with intent for fluidity of movement first, and cool futuristic sifi second.
This has been my TED Talk.
Agreed up to the point where you talk about the combat, did you even play the first one ? You say you did but if you did you would know how bad the combat was. It was really wonky and trash. Hits didn’t land right. It was not good at all.
@@MikeOcksmallClips im also pretty sure it literally forced you into combat in some levels. And if you wanted to be fast you had to use guns.
Also, i loved/feared how dropping from a high place felt in Mirrors edge. it actually was terrifying, the sense of falling.
what you said about the combat in the ME1 makes me believe you didnt even play
past the first 3 levels lmao
@@JJ-smhcombat is way more fun than in catalyst, which doesnt say much cause both were ass. At least it didnt force as much of it in the first one
There are tons of things I'd like to touch on that you mentioned but one that stood out at me during the story segment at 1:00:12, you mention how much non verbal and natural feeling communication is made in the cutscenes. This is something I noticed during my first playthrough, are the tons of small twitches, movements, and the way everyone talks. The uncontrollable breakdown Faith has when it finally clicks that Noah is dead felt so real. The way Noah struggles to turn the damn TV on. The INCREDIBLE direction and acting during the Dogen moments. I wish more budget could've went into telling a better story, rather than making a huge, yet empty feeling open world. Clearly the actors, writers and directors were up to the task.
Catalyst was good. It's one of my favorite games that I regularly return to. But I'm biased, and that doesn't mean it could've been so, so much more.
If you haven't yet, some of the devs have done a full Director's commentary-style playthrough of both games. Go look for "SlicedLime"'s playthrough, they talk a lot about game design, systems and deadlines.
The body and facial animations were very good too. Rebecca and Noah looked obscenely realistic
This game's world is something so unique and I can't stop thinking about how amazing I would feel being there.
Yeah until you get beat down by the cops. 😁
bro it's a dystopia lmfao
Thats the problem. It's supposed to be a dystopia but the place really doesn't appear to be that terrible. We don't really see it if it is. Just take the games word for it. Even cyberpunk 2077 did the dystopian late stage capitalism feel better. (honestly i thought that part of cyberpunk was done very well)
Wouldn't be very amazing if u can't jump and don't have good cardio
@@MitchJohnson0110 That's more to do with the game being about the freedom of being a runner, rather than a theme of the dystopian life the citizens must endure. Life as a runner is dangerous as hell but beautiful, wonderful, and uplifting for faith who looks down on the city that's literally and figuratively bellow her. She lives outside the system, not in it and because of that as well as the thrill, danger of sudden death, and Most importantly the Flow of her work, she views life in a very positive perspective that people ground down addicted to trash on the streets in a city like night city wouldn't appreciate. (Look up flow theory for better understanding into faith's Psychology if you're unaware of the concept)
"I joined Tier 3 to hear Whitelight say this out loud" is probably the best username I've ever heard. Staying for the Patreon section at the end gave me a good laugh.
What's so sad to me about this game is that it has the systems and the foundation to be great. The game feel and the foundation laid down by mirror's edge 1, combined with a little more self-awareness about its story and maybe some brain cells in its level design could've swept us off our feet. And it made so many bad decisions, and now no one will ever try something like this again.
It's my favorite game.
What if people mod the poop out of it and their ps4s down the line like people do with older games now?
IMO there's a lot more great decisions than bad. The fact is it plays so much better than 1 that it makes up for the dumb levelling up system the game didn't need.
@@smolsnek3835 I can only hope.
I felt pretty similar about this game. There's so much here that's half-finished or poorly thought-out but I really like it anyway.
Amazing video, just finished watching. Thank you once again for your awesome contributions to games coverage and thoughtful, reflective (heh) content.
nice seeing a legend on another legends video :D
also just 100%'d AC unity mostly due to you and whitelight inspiring me to!!
@@gremmer8 Congrats! It's quite a mountain to climb, 100%ing that game.
:D
Lol glad to see you here as well, I'm not on my main account but you've featured one of my races (doctorzincs time trial) on your channel a while back and I think we talked about the game for a lil bit. Honored to be on a now legendary channel.
I absolutely love the game. One of the most beautiful and fluid games ever. Amazing music. Combat is smooth af, no tedious gunplay. But because no one bought it, we will never get a sequel.
"We don't just deal in drip we in the tropical storm business" I'm taking that
The first Mirrors Edge feels like a "Brutal reality" but Catalyst feels like what a runner in that OG reality would dream about. Nonsensical environments that does not make sense when you pay attention to it (like in a dream). However, when you only have a focus of running from point A to point B it doesn't matter too much that the world around you is nonsensical. When I first played Catalyst I didn't enjoy it because of it many flaws, but I recently replayed it and I enjoyed it much more than I did originally.
One of the most underrated games I've ever played. Still love it and would love to play this in VR.
Tech Demo*: The Game**
*Not actually a demo. For sale at full price.
**Only a demo. Not really a game. For sale at full price.
Good one, xD
MGSV:GZ in a nutshell
@@thebadwolf3088 Oh, wow. You're totally right. Good observation!
@@100Servings at least that had a soul
@@ketrub Oh yes, you can definitely tell it wasn't made by a committee of soulless corporate executives. They saved that for Metal Gear Survive.
You can avoid every open world chase by zapping the camera with the EMP thing... but only once you get the upgrade. This game locks almost half the necessary mechanics to have fun behind the upgrade tree. It makes Unity's progression look liberating by comparison
which is more perplexing when they give you half the skill tree as soon as the game launches
@@BluePieNinjaTV Hahahaha. I literally just booted it up for the first time and went "Who unlocked 15 of my skills... oh wait "jump" is on the skill tree? WTF?" Seems a half implemented everything in this game (missing rails is an example in the above video, don't think anywhere in ME1 was like that, perhaps 1 place with no doors/ladder?).
The sci-fi city of our dekstop wallpapers indeed. That was beautifully put. Apt, especially because like the wallpaper, it was only occasionally pretty to look at, but unlike the wallpaper, you were stuck with it and had nowhere to go. Solar Fields did an amazing job with the game's ambiance and soundtrack.
I have used my own screenshots from Catalyst as my wallpaper lol
Usually you can imagine what a person looks like through just hearing their voice, it's generally completely wrong but you still craft a mental image, but I have no idea about whitelight.
I thought Mittensquad would’ve looked like a pristinely hairless fat man, like a bald baby.. I was wrong.
I’ll never make a guess at what a RUclipsr looks like again.
one thing i noticed in the shard, is that there are black shoe marks on the walls and ledges in the shard... supposedly a place no runner has been before...
This game is just something else. I still find myself losing myself in Glass. The ambiance and world is just so breathtaking. Really love it.
I still adore Catalyst, one of my first introductions to gaming. I’m just pissed off I couldn’t find out more about the world and it’s lore, I was really interested
A shame
Have you collected all the tapes and documents?
Catalyst is the game I try to come back to at least once every year, only to realize I'd have to wipe all my progress in order to play it again. It's unfortunate that it doesn't have multiple saves :(
Why would you want to play this title beyond the First playthrough?
@@Exel3nce Because I enjoyed it the first time.
@@Rocksteady72a weird
@@Exel3nce Weird to think people think playing a game is weird
@@Rocksteady72a if its mediocre or bad, it kinda is^^
Where's the Ghost Recon Wildlands video you mentioned two years ago? This is like when i was 7 my dad promised me he'd take me to the cricket one day, but never did..
I don't care what anyone says, I loved this game, the parkour was fun, Map design was brilliant, and yes the combat was a bit too easy and the story was lacking but I had an absolute blast playing
same, probably one of my fav games of all time
I think most of the dislike this game gets is because it's radically different from the original in a lot of ways. I appreciate both a lot, but i like Catalyst's dystopic feel more than Mirror's Edge's grounded feel and I actually feel like the movement system is better too. I own it on like 3 different platforms, and sometimes I just boot it up to run through the city, appreciate the graphics/art direction and vibe to Solar Field's soundtrack. The two games feel so different to experience it's hard to judge them as "1 and 2", it's more like two takes on the same concept, and Catalyst fell short on the actual game systems rather than on the gameplay which is what allows it to be actually engaging.
This the ultimate chill game for me from the visuals to the strong focus on freerunning through stunning vistas. Man I appreciate this game helping me through the mundanity of lockdown last year.
I agree with almost all of it, but the map design was absolutely not brilliant. The visuals themselves were stunning, but the actual design of the routes and areas were all over the place. Playing for the first few hours, I distinctly remember running along rooftops believing I’d begun an epic parkour adventure only to end up at a dead end and plummeting down to the street. Some areas lacked any sort of flow, in a game where flow is one of the only things that matters. That being said, I still adored the game. I’m a firm believer in enjoying and admiring things, while also being able to criticize and acknowledge the flaws.
i frankly loved the combat too, it is a bit easy but its predominantly animated with counter attacks, making Faith seem very capable a fighter.
"this is mirros edge renderded in unreal engine 5, did you even notice?" OH MY GOD YES, YES I DID.
The game is so ridiculously underrated. Makes me sad that people didn't even give it a chance because there's so much to love about it. Super fun gameplay with a very high skill ceiling, really fun story missions with epic set pieces, one of the absolute most enjoyable open worlds to traverse and explore, and an awesome art style
The story could've been better but it satisfied my base requirement to be enjoyed, it's interesting even if not well executed.
This game will never stop being fun and once I upgrade my PC I'll start playing it on that cuz currently, the 900p console versions are a little rough.
There is just something therapeutic parkouring around the city I love the feeling it gives you
I’m in the same boat! Literally have used the game for stress relief.
@@SSaNNEE100 me and you are 1
In the same brother 👌
Just stumbled across this - just wanted to say I really appreciate the level of effort you put into this video, there's a kind of poetry to your script. These kinds of essays remind me why I love games as an artform so much.
Whoa, literally was playing through it this week. It's definitely a mixed experience but overall it scratches a similar itch that the first game does. I'm glad that games like Ghostrunner are moving the genre forward.
I never really had a problem with the city aesthetic/design like all the random props because it was like what if companies had full control over cities and could build whatever they wanted wherever they're pleased with and then everything devolved into chaos
Why does this guy sound like he's reading poetry? And why am I so invested?!
Also, that May have been the best self sponsored merch pitch I've ever heard. I feel like I can't not buy a shirt now
It’s still my favorite game of all time. I would just run around in that city for dozens of hours finding bad guys to beat up. If there was a third game made, I would want combat challenge maps.
Man the channel isn't doing as great but daddy still uploads. Love you
not gonna lie, I liked your "oh god, make it stop!!" delivery more than your "regular" delivery! It sounds natural and emotive
I was 13 when this came out, felt like it came out yesterday... We are all getting older... We will all wither away...
Sad Gilgamesh noises
I was 21, married with my first child.
Will never forget my hype, or the day I finally got a beta code.
I was 13 back then too. I’m honestly kind of mad at myself because I feel like I haven’t accomplished very much with my life. Here’s hoping that 13 years from now I’ll actually have some accomplishments to my name.
i really feel like some of you are confused which game this video is about
@@ketrub Mirror's Edge: Catalyst
I think Mirror's Edge is my favorite video game example of something with extreme untapped potential. The gameplay in both games is fantastic and both games create their own unique vibes. The story in both also have potential but fall flat. As far as the runners vision in Catalyst, I immediately turned it off because I liked playing with it off in the original. My playthrough felt immensely more interesting with it off.
I love and am frustrated by this game so much and could never quite put my finger on why and you absolutely nailed it. It's broad but shallow and thinks it's focused and deep, but it doesn't actually, it just wants to pretend it does so that we think it thinks it does.
It's all artifice and is kind of self aware about it but does not let on or lean into its self awareness. Like the devs thought they were making a statement and some gremlins came in at night and hollowed it out.
And somehow i still enjoy running around the city.
I believe the reason why you and everyone else still enjoyed the running despite all these flaws is because the game has probably the best parkour mechanics in the industry. Not gonna lie, it kinda makes me sad that everyone focuses on its flaws but rarely anyone talks about how good the mechanics and the camera are.
You’re looking for the word “pretentious” lol.
There is something viscerally nostalgic about Still Alive. I haven't played Mirror's Edge since it first came out and the only reason I'm not still pining after those split toe shoes is because I found Vibram five fingers (largely because of this game). I had an almost physical reaction to hearing the opening strains at the the start of your video and there aren't many songs that can do that to me.
I still wonder if I should bother playing Catalyst and I wish Mirror's Edge got a proper sequel.
This game is the epitome of "fine". The graphics are good, and if you just turn your brain off the parkour is fun and the environments are pretty to look at. But that's it. If you long for any kind of depth the game won't give it to you and upon looking at the world for anymore than the 2 seconds they expect you too while running by, it's fake. The whole game feels fake, you can even tell when your not directly looking at it and just running by, but then it's more of a lingering feeling. The game tells you that you're in a dystopian nightmare, but it's setting is so painfully implausible. If you want to just turn your brain off and run around looking at the pretty lights this game is perfect and that's fine. It's just that that's not how it presents itself. Like how a balloon animal isn't particularly remarkable, there's nothing wrong with a child playing with it and having fun. The real problem starts to arise when you desperately try to convince the child that it's not a balloon animal but a real dog. It only accentuates the fact that it's an empty representation, and will only make the child wish that they were playing with a real dog.
Games are obsessed with being closest to the real since last decade, maybe thats what we need nowadays. To remind the games are just games, not reality
There's plenty of depth in its gameplay mechanics. That's what pisses me off about the way this game gets criticized. Literally everyone is disappointed that it's not cinematic and immersive like it was meant to be uncharted or tomb raider. Can we please focus on the fact that Mirror's Edge is meant to be a hardcore mechanical GAMEPLAY focused game and not another "cinematic experience"? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it couldn't be better but it's definitely not a metacritic 68, especially when literal garbage games like AC Rogue have a much higher metascore
@@giannis_tar Okay well...good to know you're just not taking part in the discussion and instead having your own.
"Hardcore gameplay" as this thing basically plays itself lmao
@@rudolfambrozenvtuber I can tell you didn't play the time trials, which is one of the most important aspects of this franchise. They even released DLC for the original game just with time trials
@@giannis_tar No, we don't generally judge the difficulty of entire games by the top 5 percent of the challenge they offer
Took a while but at last it's here.
I can't even count the amount of times I have run off the building to my death because there are no railings and I think it will go to a lower platform.
This game deserved more recognition...i dont care how old it is. I grew up with it..this was my escape, amazing game..love it til the end
Right? Such a good free roam game I still love coming back to it for that
the blade runner 2049 soundtrack fits so well with mirrors edge catalyst
you are probably one of the first channels i’ve ever seen with merch thats worth buying i love the design.
Yep! Sexy!
This is your best writing yet. Really cool to see how much you've improved at nuanced and meaningful critique.
Always been fascinated by this game, from the parkour to the setting and comic book like cutscenes. I am amazed it dropped off so quickly because of how unique it looked.
I'm so happy that you posted , I've been missing your videos ❤️
Damn I was checking your channel just yesterday after goin "huh been a minute since I saw a new whitelight video on my feed"
Glad to see you again bud, hope you're doin well!
This has to be one of, if not THE best video I've seen all year! I recently played through Catalyst for the first time. Was a huge fan of the original game and had not touched Catalyst because of the bad reputation. Watched many videos on the game and a few were really good, but none of them analysed and explained the issues it has as in depth as your's. Amazing work man, I love that you take your time, unlike most other youtubers and put quality before quantity! All the best from Germany!
Daaaamn, I missed watching your videos, when you started talking I got literal goosebumps. Thanks for your amazing work, will wait for the next video
Just played this game again recently after playing it super hard near release for several months. Very memorable experience.
Discussing a video game or tv show or even a good book after finishing them is sometimes more enjoyable than playing the game or watching the show itself
Man, I just discovered your channel, been binging on your videos for a week and now you come back.
It's a sign.
Love the change in editing style, it's a nice mix of comedic taking the mick while supplying strong, valid, and excellently explained points
I really, really enjoyed this video because I - like you - enjoyed Catalyst despite its many flaws, and you're able to articulate both its success and its failures in such an elegant and engaging way that really resonates with me. You're able to talk about Catalyst without limiting the discussion to comparisons to the first game, being able to dig deep into every aspect of what makes it what it is, while also being able to bring in those comparisons where relevant - all the while being pretty darn fun to listen to! Extremely impressive stuff.
One of the parts of the video that really stood out to me was the part at around 34:10, where you start talking about the original Mirror's Edge's depth in its combat. I've always felt that the combat in the game is generally seen as a "checkbox feature" that was added to please the "action" audience - and, in many ways, it is, but it's also more than that. While it's certainly not the best combat system ever made, there is a bit of depth to it, and it is designed in a way that makes it engaging, and I think I can give a bit more insight into that point.
For a little bit of background knowledge, I was REALLY into Mirror's Edge (probably due to it giving me a sense of movement and freedom that I hadn't experienced from a video game before); I spent an absurd amount of time playing the demo on the xbox, which only includes the prologue up until you jump and grab onto the helicopter. I played through the demo SO many times, trying different things with each run. There's a SWAT team at the end of the mission that're supposed to be basically unbeatable (because, if I remember correctly, the game takes away any gun you may have during the cutscene with Celeste, they're extremely unfair in melee, and their guns don't have any ammo in them even if you manage to disarm them), which is supposed to force you into running to the helicopter. After a while, I made it my mission to beat all of them. I developed ways to sneak guns past the cutscene, and managed to take them all out using melee (heavily abusing the slide kick in the process). Eventually, I made it my mission to beat ALL the enemies in the whole level (of which there were many, and most of which you weren't really supposed to) without using guns at all. After I bought the game, I tried to do full runs where I took down every enemy possible with only melee combat.
With this perspective of mine, I can say that while the Mirror's Edge combat isn't anything revolutionary or groundbreaking (especially on enemies it doesn't "intend" for you to beat), it's absolutely perfect for the game that it exists in. There's numerous different options that you can choose from in most encounters, with some moves being more relevant in certain situations as opposed to others. Disarming enemies, for example, is extremely efficient in taking down single enemies, but can leave you exposed afterwards in you're in the middle of large group of them, and can especially punish you if you miss the timing. Slide kicks let you avoid being hit by attacks, are good for leaving enemies stunned for a little while, and can combo with a follow-up move that allows you to do a great deal of damage (usually just outright KO-ing many normal enemies), at the cost of requiring enough space to pull it off and a really long wind-up for the follow-up. Wallrun kicks let you take out extremely tough enemies very easily, as they give you a basically free disarm, while also letting you use it as a temporary stun in a get-in-and-get-out kind of way, but you need a wall nearby, and you need to start far away enough to gather up momentum before you reach the enemy. There's more moves and more nuance to each move than what I put here, but you get the idea.
That's why I really resonate with your analysis of the combat in Catalyst. I was so excited when it was revealed, because it looked really pretty and fluid and quick. However, it eventually turned out that there was always an optimal way to get through a fight - usually by abusing some sort of mechanic in a pretty un-fun sort of way. They felt less like obstacles meant to be engaged with and more like personified health bars that I had to force myself to slog through. The enemies aren't there to be a meaningful experience - they're there to check off a box (MUCH more so than in the original) and to look pretty, and not much more - in ways very similar to other aspects of the game.
I've been wondering when you would upload unu, your scripts are absolutely amazing and even though your videos are 30min+ they've never become boring or stale at any point. Keep it up ❤️
I love the Mirror's Edge theme so much. Those first few notes are so iconic.
Glass is like someone played the Pure Time Trials map pack from 2008 and thought “yeah make this a city”. Visually gorgeous, but mechanically it is a complete mess. Nothing makes sense. I refuse to believe this is the same city we ran through in 2008, one that made perfect sense and felt like it could be a real place somewhere in the world.
You know what?I like your merch. There's something about them
It’s an unpopular opinion but I love this game ❤️
The world is my favourite feature. They nailed the futuristic setting with a kick-ass soundtrack, beautiful skyscrapers and the minimalist interiors.
The races keep me coming back. I love finding courses I’ve been beaten on and studying the map, searching for shortcuts, shaving milliseconds off my times to stay competitive and rise through the online ranks.
Combat is a common complaint, but I feel an unjustified one. Yes if you stand and button mash it’s rubbish, but if you fight like Faith, it’s brilliant. Use mobility to your advantage; surround your opponents and catch them with movement-based attacks. Chip away at them - it’s an entirely new way of doing combat.
I never played the original Mirrors Edge so I’m not as informed as most; I simply ask people to keep an open mind. Not everyone dislikes this game 👍 🙏
~~ps if you read that text wall I appreciate you hearing my opinion 😅 ❤️
It feels so good to see people talking about this again, This game was my childhood and it meant alot to me.
I was gonna watch the introduction of the video and intended to continue the rest later, but your poetic narration enthralled me enough to sit fully through it. This was beautiful.
Your manner of speech is very similar to John Silver's from the non-hit, underrated tv show Black Sails, a prequel to the hit book Treasure Island. Watch it, it's great.
I always love a black sails reference
Design of the original is just mindblowing. It is not the game for the masses, rather a deeper psychological experience. At least for me. Mesmerizing design unmatched to this day.
It’s like a cyberpunk reality but painted with vibrant colors and stark white. Mirrors edge captivated me as a child and from its release I’ve always wanted to play it…And I still remember the time I got to some years back. And I gotta say I was far from disappointed and now mirrors edge is one of my top 3 favorite games. And to TL;DR this comment (almost) everything that white light said is exactly how I feel about the game and I love it.
your videos are like a mix between poetry, essay, and comedy. in short a fucking art piece
I love this game/series. It has its flaws, but I love them. Running around and getting into that flow just feels amazing. Hope they make a third game someday.
love this game so much
Me too :D
Missed you Mr. Light, glad you’re back
imagine we got in this game online co-op courier missions, the games layout usually providing at least 2 ways to travel from a to b, (via a fence and jumping a gap or doing a wall bounce into a conveniently empty office, etc), instead of the mindless "avoid the k-sec" scramble, the k-sec only target the runner holding the package, and you both can toggle between runner vision leading you to your destination or to your partner. One player could with the package take a roundabout route to lose some k-sec, then meet up with their partner who is closer to the delivery point. Player A hands package to player B, and the roles reverse.
A tad convoluted, but you would feel like you were in a CABAL, instead of just house sharing with Noah Icarus and those guys around the jukebox. Deciding where to hand over packages could lead to so many cinematic moments right out of the cutscenes at the beginning of the first game. A little more consideration put into the world, online co-op, and any meaningful or motivational side content like doing runs for black november, this game could have been elevated with so little.
Still love it though, for me the soul of this game is sunlight or citylights and wind rush sounds and the soundtrack. Nothing as firm or substantial as the 1st game, but solar fields made catalyst a cathartic experience i enjoy coming back to.
Christmas has come early
And so have I
Thank you for the content whitelight.
Welcome back, king!
White light adds are some of my favorite parts of the videos. Fucking 10/10
Every couple years I load this up, find a ledge with an excellent view, and then take a screenshot and use it as my Xbox wallpaper until I do it again in another year or two.
This game is so special
this game is so unique
why this game stay in your head ? because it's one of the kind
56:34 If I understood the story correctly, which I might not have because it sucks, this whole game is a Catalyst. It's the event that leads up to the sequel. That's what they say at least in the ending scene, we haven't saved everyone but something has changed, we've started something.
I think it's horrible storytelling, not an inability to read the dictionary, that is at fault here.
From my distant memory of the game I remember there was a lot of useless mechanics in the game as a placeholder for content
I mean, i liked how plastic gets away from you at the start and hugs you at the end, its quite insignificant but i liked it
I've been a parkour traceur for more than 10 years.
There are only 2 games which imho capture well the traceur fantasy: the original ME and original Vector (mobile game).
Interestingly both games' sequels suffer exactly the same way.
Ask me anything!
How do you start with learning Parkour?
@@saisameer8771 There is a number of ways.
1. Find experienced traceurs and ask them to teach you. Maybe even offer money if you have it.
2. If you can't find any remember these 4 things:
A. Watch as much parkour as you can online.
B. Every move you take (e.g. landing) make it as quiet as possible. It's to avert any joint damage in the long run.
C. Always check your surfaces in advance. Does the wall have glass on top? Will the roof collapsa under your weight? Will the branch snap if you put your whole weight on it? Will the rail move? Will a tile move? Etc.
D. If you're scared to do something, don't do it. If you want to impress someone, don't do it. Do parkour ONLY for yourself and never under adrenaline.
I agree that the first one is the better game overall, but I love the freerunning and movement in Catalyst. There are times when I've had a bad day where I will just turn it on and run. No direction in mind, not trying to complete challenges. I may pick up a collectible if I see it, but otherwise I just run. Something relaxing about it.
Wow, that was definitely the most stylish of all of these. I definitely bounce between present day coverage, video essays of all kinds, video game retrospectives, uhhh tim rogers, and Whitelight. Your style comes through on this one the most, and I think i'm going to...hop over to Patreon because, this is always good, short, unobtru- no, good work man, unique stuff.
Is it just me, or do the arms and legs look way too thin in Catalyst?