Mirror's Edge Interview with EA DICE

We sit down for a chat with Sweden-based DICE's producer of Mirror's Edge, Manuel Llines.

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Kikizo: And is her name intended to be a pun - you know, "leap of faith"?

Llanes: I'm not sure if we'd confirm that. It's a good name. I love puns, and while I didn't choose the name, when I heard it I thought I can make a pun out of it, so I love it!

Kikizo: Going back to the level design, I noticed that frequently if you miss a jump, there's a pipe beneath or something you can fall onto. Have you built a lot of second chances like that into the game?

Llanes: There are some. The levels [we've shown off] are all from the beginning, but there are some decisions like that. For example, there are these two swings, and there is a - what's it called - like a barrier or ledge just under. And it's there so that if you miss the first leap, you'll be saved but you'll have a hard landing - there will be a different animation. And again it's toying a bit with the emotions of the player. You feel like you missed it - boom! You panic.

But in the beginning it's designed so... it's just a way to pace it, and it's good to not frustrate you too much there.

Kikizo: How have you made the combat - especially the gunplay - as unique as the rest of the game?

Llanes: One of the key things here is that guns are a power-up in your way. You're limited to the ammo in the clip - once you're done, you drop that gun. Because she's a runner, not a soldier, she doesn't have armour... She's strong, definitely, she's agile, but she's somewhat fragile. So many times you'll decide you don't want to take the risk... It's flight not fight. If you're going to have to disarm one guy, take his gun... they do all the stuff that [similar] characters in other games do - they take cover, they do a mass of things.

But the advantage you have is that you can shoot a couple of people, drop the gun and use your agility to get another angle. Their behaviour too changes regarding whether you do have a gun or you don't have a gun. So in a way you can almost manipulate them into believing you do have a gun. They will take cover and everything, then you can drop the gun, run past and take them from the back, snap their neck.

Kikizo: When you come to a big gap in the game, you have to drop the gun before you can leap over it. Were you not tempted to, say, let the player throw a gun across the gap or something like that?

Llanes: Not really. The key thing in the game is that... We're maybe taking another sort of leap there, and saying "you know what, she's a runner, she really has no reason to do that." Because she doesn't know what's going to happen there, and the odds are that, as she's a runner, she's going to have to do that. And it would just be gimmicky for people who shoot better... Just kick the guy in the nuts and take his gun next time there's a guy with a gun. Because at the end of the day, if you need a gun, there's always another guy with a gun. You can just snatch it.

Kikizo: Can you give us an example of some of the variety we'll see much later on in the game, just so we aren't entirely basing this conversation on the opening gambit?

Llanes: I can't go into specifics but a hint would be that, in terms of the difficulty ceiling, a good selection of the environments you have to play - maybe like this [holds out his hand at stomach height] which might be a hard thing to play - are there [holds out his hand at neck height]. So don't worry about difficulty! I think Storm Drain is a good example - it's really slick, it's contemporary, it's from Tokyo, but it also becomes difficult again.

Kikizo: Thanks for your time.

Mirror's Edge is out for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 11 in North America and November 14 in Europe. A PC version will follow this winter.

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