I’ve been stuck on the annoying end to level five of Mirror’s Edge (the New Eden mall) for… well, since I got the game really. It’s been the basis for several angry posts here. Looking at my achievement list, it’s exactly nine months since I earned the last achievement for finishing a level.
Anyway, I finally made it past that section this afternoon – after another hour or so of frustration and annoyance.
What prompted me to get this waste-of-money game out again was some musing at The Escapist this morning on the merits of the trial-and-error gameplay model. Mirror’s Edge as a kind of action version of Groundhog Day, a film I loved.
Thinking about how much I’ve been enjoying ‘Splosion Man even in spite of its reliance on the same thing, I thought I’d give Mirror’s Edge another go.
But it’s no more enjoyable. Trying to account for why I’m enjoying one but just enraged by the other, I came up with the following differences: ‘Splosion Man is less fiddly, the repeated sections are shorter, the atmosphere is more cheerful and enjoyable, and, most importantly, it feels more like the game is having fun with you than torturing you.
I’ll give Mirror’s Edge a bit more of a go, now – I’d really like to get my money’s worth and finish the damn thing one day – but I’m not optimistic that I’ll ever really enjoy it.
Interesting that you have gritted your teeth and decided to press on with Mirror’s Edge, even though you’re not enjoying it.
It reminds my experience of the last 1/3 of Assassin’s Creed — the game had ceased to be fun but I had a bloody-minded determination to finish the sucka, albeit with some weeks-long breaks in between sessions.
This in turn made me think about why I play games. If it was just fun and giggles, then I would have given up on Assassin’s Creed, and probably GTA IV at some point. However, sometimes a game gets under my skin to the point where I have a bloody minded determination to beat it. I guess its a desire to best a challenge.
However, some other games (Mercenaries 2, Dark Sector) I simply gave up when I got frustrated … perhaps it is cos Creed and GTA had a “wow” factor at the start of them where they seeemed awesome before they got repetitive, whereas games that didn’t have the “wow” didn’t inspire me to finish them when they got dull.
That’s an interesting point – I think in Mirror’s Edge the style sold me on it first, and I hate having it sit there, unfinished. But it’s very, very frustrating.
I think if there’s a promise of something spectacular as a reward at the end, that’s a motivation to persevere.
Whereas when they’re just dull, as you say…
Most games do get dull at some point as the grind kicks in.
I think as a rule of thumb if I get over about 50% completion of a game, I will go on to finish it, even if it is giving me the screaming shites. If I haven’t got that far, I feel less guilty about not completing it, like when I was experimenting with JRPGs. I now know I hate JRPGs.