Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Design Director Erik Odeldahl recently held a developer session, at the UK based gaming event EGX Rezzed. Odeldahl spoke about the pillars of the game which tie the content together, as well as answering questions about individual elements of the upcoming free running title.
In an initial speech Odeldahl explained Mirror’s Edge Catalyst was “about Faith, how and why Faith becomes a heroine, and the City of Glass”. This time around players will find out more about the runners who are depicted more as “cat burglars” nevertheless Faith still becomes a “symbol of hope, despite not starting out as a heroine”.
From the get go the team was keen to point out that Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is a reboot of the series and “not a direct sequel or prequel”. While loving the original, the team took what they had learnt from the first game but took the opportunity to “take some things off the table”. The believe was that this would improve the overall theme whilst making the world “not consistent” enough for either a sequel or prequel.
For a start, to increase the believability of the City of Glass, the theme is “a bit more sci-fi. Still recognisably ‘real’ but is shifted towards science fiction”. The game is still far from futuristic, yet with armed enemies wielding energy based weapons it is a clear step to give the city, which Faith ventures through, a new vibe. Speaking of these weapons, thankfully, Faith won’t be getting a huge sci-fi arsenal. According to Odeldahl “Faith cannot even pick up guns in this game. The combat is built into the movement”.
Focusing on the City of Glass and its design, an encouraging picture of the city was painted. When questions were fielded about the design Odeldahl commented that there are “lots of puzzles in the world” adding “there are no randomly placed items. Every object has been hand placed by the team. [Allowing for] more freedom, more moves and more space”.
When asked about the potential of a virtual reality Mirror’s Edge Catalyst experience Odeldahl revealed, “VR is something we have looked at. DICE as a studio is looking at VR but a game needs to be developed for VR not just have it strapped on after”. So it seems that we won’t be free-running in VR anytime soon but potentially a DICE game in the near future will utilize the virtual reality medium.
