Mirror's Edge for iPhone - App Review

Mirror's Edge for iPhone by EA recently debuted in the app store. [iTunes Link]  This is one game I was pretty excited to get my hands on.  If you own an iPhone 4, odds are, you won't be disappointed as all graphics are beautifully optimized for the retina display.  There's also a version available for the iPad which clocks in at a bit higher of a price.  We'll look at that version in a later review as well.  For now, click on through to read a full review and see tons of screenshots for the iPhone version!

The concept of Mirror's Edge is quite simple. You play as Faith, a runner. Faith lives in a time period where the government controls almost everything and almost everything society does is under surveillance and scrutiny. You get missions, you complete them, without getting caught or hurt. If you're a fan of V for Vendetta type concepts, you'll probably thoroughly enjoy this game. A lot of you are probably already familiar with it from its console days.

The controls are surprisingly easy to use. To me, it feels like this game was always meant to be played on a touch screen. The swipes and gestures are almost fluid and they do exactly what your instincts tell you they should do. Swipe up to jump, down to slide (or roll when coming out of a long fall). Wall jumping is a simple matter of flipping up. Attacking is simply an additional swipe up, down, or to the sides. It's extremely intuitive. The only bug I seemed to notice is sometimes when falling, when you swipe down to roll instead of hit the ground hard (which damages your health), it doesn't always seem to work. I'd like to see that fixed in a future update. And one other thing, don't know if it's just me and something I'm not seeing, but I can't figure out how to pause a level. If anyone else knows something I don't, post it in the comments. The only way I know how to pause is to simply exit out of the game.

There's no visible lag and the game loads incredibly quickly for the graphics being so intense. If you've picked this one up on iPhone or iPad, let us know what you think. I'll be back with the iPad version soon!

Pros

  • Stunning graphics on the iPhone 4
  • Extremely intuitive controls
  • Good sound effects and music
  • Great story line
  • Levels increase in difficulty at good increments

Cons

  • Rolling out of a jump doesn't always seem to work
  • No native pause controls ?

TiPb iPhone 4.5-star rated

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Allyson Kazmucha

iMore senior editor from 2011 to 2015.