Mirror's Edge (Xbox 360)

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Now we've played it we want it even more

It's been a long time coming, but finally, thrillingly, I have a PS3 pad sitting in my sweaty palms and Faith, the ultra cool cyberpunk heroin of DICE's Parkour first-person action game Mirror's Edge, is under my control.

Up to this point I've only had the jaw dropping in-game trailer and a stunning hands-off demo at an EA event in London to feed my appetite. But now, at E3 2008, in what is by far EA's busiest behind closed doors booth, I'm sitting on a stool in front of a big screen LCD with Lars Gustavsson, the game's creative director, who's guiding me through my first, tantalising steps as information runner Faith.

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"We wanted to make someone who's human, not a bikini babe, not superhuman, god knows what with extra everything," explains Lars. "She's an athlete. That's it. She lives in a society some would call a utopia. It's for someone who wants a perfect life, a comfortable life. It's perfect. But the downside is communication is highly monitored. You don't know who's watching what you're doing. The media, the news you get, is monitored and you only get to know what they think you should know.

"People who don't like this, like Faith, live on the outskirts of society, on the edge of society. For them to get messages across they need to use traditional runners, couriers. That's what she does. She's really good at what she does. The whole game has been built around that. She finds the city somewhat hostile. That's why we have this art style. It's clean, for her it's sterile, it's hostile, it's dead."

And with the premise spiel complete, I'm off. There is a brief second, perhaps only a millisecond, where Mirror's Edge feels odd. It feels strange to be playing a first-person game and not have a gun sticking out the bottom right hand corner of the screen. It feels strange to have to think about how you're going to use the environment to get where you need to go instead of simply blasting your way through hordes of mutants. But then, as you inch the Dual Shock 3's left thumb stick forward, and Faith begins to sprint, all those preconceptions, all that weirdness melts away.

The size of the city is incredibly impressive

I begin my hands on early in the game, directly after the tutorial level. I'm on the rooftops of the city, experiencing for myself what I've seen in the in-game trailer. Above is a clear blue sky. Under my feet gleaming white rooftops. I peer over a ledge - the draw distance is incredible. The city is vast, going on for miles. I get a real sense that I can go anywhere and if I fall will certainly die. And the art style, this unique, sanitised, clean, Demolition Man-esque landscape, is beautifully and superbly realised. It's fresh, unique and utterly compelling.

I'm faced with a fence - all I need to do is sprint and jump with L1 - Faith uses her arms to vault over the fence automatically, then, as I land, a press of L2 to roll and keep the momentum going. Low lying pipes appear from nowhere - I press L2 to slide underneath, and Faith seamless gets up and continues. And that's it. That's all I need to know. This is Mirror's Edge's simple, context sensitive control toolbox and the world is my oyster.

L1 is reserved for 'up' commands and L2 is reserved for 'down' commands. Sprint towards a wall and press L1 to wall run. At the end of the run, press L1 again to jump off. Jump onto a zip line and Faith will automatically grab on, sliding down to a rooftop below. Press L2 to let go, L2 to roll as you land and the left thumb stick pushed forward to keep going. Try to jump over something a little too high and you can press L2 at the peak to bring Faith's legs up, as if running the 100 metre hurdles. Mirror's Edge is about stringing combinations of L1 and L2 together in one long, seamless race to her goal.

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