EA / DICE

The return of Mirror's Edge is so close you can almost feel the grip of its oppressive future society closing around your throat. After seven years away from the spotlight, next February sees follow-up Catalyst bring back free-running hero Faith and the series' signature first-person parkour gameplay -- and our initial hands on impression of the game indicates a promising return.

Here, WIRED.co.uk speaks with Erik Oledahl, design director on Mirror's Edge: Catalyst at developer DICE, on bringing the series back, the march of technology, and the politics of corporate dictatorships.


WIRED.co.uk: Fans of the last Mirror's Edge never stopped asking for a sequel. Why the delay when there was clear demand?

Erik Oledahl: There was, and we've been wanting to bring it back for a long time. There were things we wanted to do -- like the free-roaming aspect -- that took a lot of work to accomplish. We've also moved to the Frostbite engine. Mainly though, the time was right for it. We had a really strong concept that we wanted to do and everyone at EA liked it -- so here we are.

Catalyst seems to have been pitched as both prequel and reboot. Where does it actually sit?

It's a full blown reboot. It's still about Faith, it's still about this futuristic dystopian society but we felt we needed more room to manoeuvre. We've created a lot of lore and rich history for this world and we wanted this to be something like an origin story for Faith, a story that tells us about she became a central figure in this alternate world.

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Two problems with the first game were collision detection and combat breaking the flow of play. How have you improved on those?

In combat, Faith isn't using guns now and she doesn't have to stop at all. The game is about first person parkour and we've moved the combat into the parkour. You do your slides and attack while moving, a force that ploughs through your enemies. As for collision detection, we've done a massive overhaul of all the game engine elements such as animation and collision detection. We've rounded off all the edges that might be frustrating. We think it's a much smoother experience now and hopefully less frustrating!

Another criticism of the first game was its linearity. Catalyst is venturing into open world territory, but how will that work in practise?

The story missions are how we guide you through the world and show you new areas. You can't get to the whole city to begin with but it unlocks as you go through the game. Each area has side missions like races that open up as you play. Not so much hub worlds, but an expanding open one. [Also,] we will be showing her traversal gadgets off in coming months. The core is still the parkour and the gadgets just add on to that, so nothing is going to be obsolete.

Narratively, you have the new Black November faction -- terrorists as defined by the ruling class. That's a lot more politically charged than the first game. Where do they stand?

We have the Runners like Faith, who are off-the-grid, high tech thieves and burglars. They're a grey faction, doing work for both the corporations and the resistance movement, Black November. The corporations are the rulers of the world -- there's no government. And then you have Black November, a resistance movement that has its roots in the November Riot, a background event that sets off the events of the story. So there is an ideology in that it's a story about freedom and not sticking to an ideology but finding the right thing do.


There's an abundance of wearable or embedded tech people in the game use -- along with the corporate fascism, are you exploring how technology is taking over our lives?

Absolutely. The technology is here already and we're giving away our personal integrity every day. It's important stuff. The augmented reality stuff the Runners use is just a different version of that.

Rhianna Pratchett penned the first game, but isn't involved in Catalyst. Why the shift in writers while still keeping the setting?

We wanted to have a writer involved full time, 100 percent. We hired a guy called Christofer Emgard and he's been working with the team, fully integrated with the level designers and me. We wanted a writer and director present on the team and Christofer is awesome. I'm very happy to be working with him.

Aesthetically, you still have the iconic red-on-white the series is known for, but the palette's also expanded. Why did you take that direction?

We wanted to build on the visuals of the first game -- white, red, blue -- but also show the players more about what's behind the façade. You scratch the surface and you're going to find ugly stuff. That's what a dystopia is. It's the rot under the veneer of the city. We wanted to show what it's like to live in the world, not just for Faith. The best way to do that is let the players just go there.