Mirror's Edge Catalyst: "it's so much more fluid than the first"

DICE's Erik Odeldahl runs us through the changes coming in Catalyst as Mirror's Edge goes open world. One thing that we discussed during our E3 interview was the studio's approach when shifting from the linear design of the first game to the new open-world setting.

"That's been a great challenge, the first game was just a strictly linear story," Odeldahl said. "The level design challenges here have been immense, I think we're doing a fairly good job at it though. If you've played the game you feel that it's so much more fluid than the first one. Changing the level design to allow for multi-directional traversal, we also had to really, really work on the animation and the control system to make it feel as smooth, so you don't just - like you said - stop. We want the player in flow all the time."

The man from DICE also explained some of the things we'll be doing in the world, including a new mode called Dash, "where runners measure their skills against each other. We also have something, we have delivery missions where you can encounter the Kruger-Sec and do combat. We have lots of environmental puzzles, lots of collectibles, hidden secrets; I mean the city's theirs to explore."

The team are also keen to avoid some open-world elements that we've been accustomed to seeing in games of this type.

"Faith is at her best when she's at full momentum," Odeldahl said before adding that "we don't want her to stop, we don't want her to barge through massive crowds of people, and we don't want her to steal a car. We want her to do what she's best at; to run, to leap, to slide. The rooftops, and other hidden parts of the city, that's where she's at her strongest."

Mirror's Edge Catalyst is heading to Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC in February of next year.