After seemingly everyone else in the office got to play Mirror's Edge at various gaming conventions during the year, I finally got my chance when the demo went live on the PlayStation Network last night. There was a ton of hype behind this game. Mirror's Edge has won numerous "Best of" awards based on this demo alone. All the footage I'd seen up to this point was gorgeous, and as the game took over an hour to download (thanks to everyone else in the universe taking up all my bandwith), I began to wonder if this demo could live up to the hype.

The demo opens with a brief training mode, where you follow fellow runner Celeste through some of the basic moves needed to stay one step ahead of the law. Once the controls were explained, the game felt natural, and I never questioned why a button was mapped a certain way. As soon as you get moving, you'll notice Faith moves incredibly fast. There's a surprising sense of her quickness present. I didn't expect the game to get that feeling across so well, and I'm glad it does. After finishing the tutorial, there's an actual mission to play. This is the part of the game you've no doubt heard about countless times before, and I can tell you every impression I've read is just about spot on. The game is fun, fast, and gorgeous to look at when you're at a stand-still.

There's a slight difference between this demo and the one that was shown at E3 and PAX: Time Trials. Yes, you need an unlock code (which you get from pre-ordering at Gamestop), but after a runthrough of the story part of the demo, this mode more than gives the demo a decent amount of replayability. Trying to beat your own times through the tutorial board and the mission level without the visual clues present in story-mode is quite a challenge. What most impressed me is how the current leaders on both levels have sub-50 second times. I was happy to finish at just over a minute, and I can't believe there's a faster way to complete those boards. Guess I'll just have to keep practicing.

Even if Mirror's Edge isn't within your budget during this crowded holiday season, make sure to at least give the demo a try. You'll be surprised how intuitive and fun it is playing a game where all you do is run. It may convince you to add it to your must buy list, and if not, at least push it to the front of the list of your January games.

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