Mirror's Edge Catalyst: 10 Reasons It's A Huge Disappointment

After years and years of waiting, the long-gestating reboot of 2008's Mirror's Edge is finally here, and... it's not so good. Critics have given the game heavily mixed notices so far, and having played the game to completion myself, it's easy to see why.

There was so much hope and optimism that this update could deliver on the promise of the decent-if-flawed original game, but instead we've ended up with an arguably inferior title that repeats a lot of the original's mistakes.

Naturally Catalyst will still have its devoted fans who will love the game, and good for them, but considering the franchise's potential and the studio behind it, the end result really shouldn't feel quite so lacklustre. Given the minimal marketing campaign (to the point that many didn't even realise it was out already), it's also possible that sales won't be so hot, and this could kill the franchise stone dead. 

As ever, though, time will tell.

Here are 10 reasons Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a huge disappointment...

Though gunplay has been removed entirely from Catalyst after appearing in the original game, there's still a fair amount of combat as players must face off against the K-Sec guards populating the city of Glass.

While the majority of the game's enemies can indeed be out-run or quickly eliminated with traversal attacks, there are occasional moments where Faith ends up sealed inside a room with a fleet of enemies and must dismantle them all before proceeding.

These are some of the game's worst moments and underline just how terrible and pointless the combat in this game is. Fighting doesn't amount to much more than frantically dodging frustrating enemy attacks and landing a hit whenever you get an opening. It's not finessed or fun to play and ultimately just slows the game down when it should be celebrating the frantic beauty of free-running.

While it would be absurd for the entire game to feature no enemies to fend off, a greater emphasis should have been placed on simply outrunning them, especially considering some of the more powerful foes you encounter later in the game.

As far as combat in a AAA title goes, this is easily some of the clunkiest of the last few years. Pro-tip: max out your stamina upgrades early to make the fighting a lot easier.