My Game of the Year is Mirror’s Edge

Hurtling full-tilt over and under obstacles, dodging enemy gunfire and leaping off rooftops in Mirror’s Edge was my most exhilarating game experience this year. Once skeptical of its first-person approach to running and jumping, I was surprised by its vantage point. I felt viscerally a part of the game world. Each blind leap cued real fear. Pride surged with each soft landing. I was present in a way few games have managed. I felt the weight of Faith’s virtual body as she staggered away from an ill-timed fall, the rush of locomotion as she sprinted through the world and the game’s gentle coaxing that convinced me to play by its rules. Never before have I so gleefully abandoned weapons — which hamper Faith’s sprightliness — in favor of environmental problem solving.

Would my experience have improved with a deeper storyline and better acting? Yes. Could a few bouts of frustration be avoided with cleaner level design ? Certainly. Do I wish there was more to the experience? Of course. But despite Mirror’s Edge’s weaknesses, no other game this year evoked such a sense of accomplishment upon completion—or such a desire to dive straight back into its world.

In other news: It was great to be included in Kombo’s Game of the Year round table. It brought me back to the year 2002. I was in school and was spending all my free time working for a little site called GameCube Advanced. It is awesome to see the site evolve from those dark days.