Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is in the final stretch before leaping onto the shelves of consumers worldwide. Stark contrasts and utopian dystopias are right around the corner in DICE’s sequel to the original 2008 parkour-inspired action game Mirror’s Edge. Electronic Arts (EA) is counting the days left until the game’s release and has decided to spice things up in the marketing department by letting players explore the city map before they set foot in it.
In an interactive map of Glass, the game’s city, players can take a look at the layout and explore some of the lore and characters that will be part of the full game. So far, the map is limited to the Anchor district, but both rooftops and underground areas are laid out for us to see, meaning there are more ways to die than just falling from the top of tomorrow’s skyscrapers. As the interactive map hasn’t been completely marked out, we can expect more areas to be made available as the launch inches closer.
Last month, EA started its closed beta and it’s been able to keep a pretty tight lid on player feedback. We still don’t know everything about the game, but it will feature two major multiplayer components. Players can tag the world around them and send different prompts to friends and the like, which sounds like inspiration taken from the Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls franchise. The second component is a checkpoint based challenge system, where players can set up hot spots across the map to create customized parkour courses and race in time trials.
The original game was met with praise from media outlets worldwide, but despite this, it didn’t sell as well as expected. However, hopes for a sequel remained over a long period of time, and DICE eventually took a leap of faith as Catalyst was revealed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2013. Three years later, there is a lot more info to go on, and a lot more footage of the game to enjoy. In the original game, many gave their nods of approval for its elegant and simple design, strong female lead character, and its focus on escaping rather than fighting.
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst will launch on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on June 7, 2016.
