Brown… brown everywhere… MGS4, Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, I am Alive, Resident Evil 5… the list goes on. Fortunately there are a few games going against this sickening trend! May I call your attention to Mirror’s Edge.
A lot is being said about how sterile the environment looks and the desertedness of the city where Faith does her First Person Parkour (FPP) stunts. The gameplay video, surely enhances some of these worries. Nevertheless, I am truly excited about this game and for a very superficial (or maybe not) reason: Its bright and sharp art style. The setting is a futuristic city with buildings painted in white and bright, near-fluorescent colours brought to life by a crisp clear sky, with a brightness that can only be seen in cool, early summer, Sunday mornings. Those mornings when the four wheeled smog generators are parked either because their owners are vacating in some island far away or because they are too hungover even to roll out of their beds. Yes, that crisp.
Worry not, you will not be stuck in this squeaky clean morning time since the days cycle as usual. But it is the first time that I have seen light captured in such an accurate way in a video game. Even the in-door scenes have this immaculate looking light that diffuses from every surface, as if it were ray-traced, giving consistency to the entire game from an aesthetic point of view. It is very good to see that game artists are beginning to come to grips with the possibilities provided by this generation of consoles.
As you can tell, I am really looking forward to experiencing that environment. Lets just hope that the developers don’t screw up the game play.
It would be a damn shame to waste such an amazing (to me) art style.
Tags: Mirror's edge, not brown
