Summary
- One of the main things Mirror’s Edge is known for is its distinct art-style.
- During development, it originally was going for a more realistic look, something a dataminer has found evidence of.
- In a video detailing cut content from Mirror’s Edge, the data from cut levels lets us see this original, much worse, vision.
A Mirror’s Edge dataminer has found cut content and cutscenes from the console retail build of the game that allows us to see the game’s original, grittier visuals.
Ever since the first game launched all the way back in 2008, Mirror’s Edge has been known for two major things. The first is, of course, its first-person parkour mechanics, which proved more than a decade ago that satisfying movement was possible when viewing the world through the eyes of a protagonist.
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The second core tenet of Mirror’s Edge is its wonderfully minimalistic art style which has stood the test of time and still looks excellent today thanks to how distinct it is. That wasn’t always the case, though, as it’s previously been discovered that Faith’s first adventure was originally going to have a more gritty and realistic look. Thanks to a dataminer, we now have a better idea of what that would have looked like.
Mirror’s Edge Just Looks Wrong Without Its Iconic Style
Over on YouTube, softsoundd shared a video that details some removed cutscenes and unused levels that can be found in the console retail builds of Mirror’s Edge. While the early version of Faith’s encounter with Miller is interesting, the highlight of the video comes when softsoundd uses the data from the removed levels to give us a glimpse at Mirror’s Edge’s original style.
By stitching together one of the cut levels’ cubemap reflections together, softsoundd managed to give us a good look at the original grittier visuals of Mirror’s Edge that ended up being replaced with the distinct style we have now. The video only shows a small area with that style, but it’s enough to notice how muted the colours are and how uninteresting the world looks compared to the final game.
Outside of that, the video also reveals that one of the final game’s beautifully animated FMV cutscenes was originally going to be done in-engine and in first-person. An early version of Faith’s encounter with Miller in a car park is shown, but this time completely from Faith’s perspective instead of in an animated cutscene.
It’s not clear why this scene was changed so much for the final game, especially considering the fact that Mirror’s Edge already has plenty of in-engine first-person cutscenes. Once again, though, it’s a clear win for style, as the 2D cutscenes are a much more interesting look for the game.
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