Mirror's Edge is a new action/adventure property from Dice. Set in a totalitarian world in a (sadly) not too distant future where secure communications have been reduced to hand-to-hand deliveries by trusted couriers, this is an FPS game with a relatively unique twist on the genre.

The heroine of the game and the character you'll be driving is called Faith - a hyper-fit she-warrior that can, at least from the footage demonstrated, leap tall buildings in a single bound. Well, not that much, but suffice to say she can move.

The demo focused on the gameplay and how it would be different from other games. Character movement is a really big deal - as a lot of Faith's work appears to involve running away from people trying to shoot her, being able to run, jump, duck, slide, and escape is a significant part of her daily workload.

One of the big features of the game is trying to get away from the (stupid) standard FPS limitations on obstacles - no more will a one meter high fence present an obstacle! Faith can jump up and climb over fences, pull herself up over railings, jump off walls - all sorts of neat tricks.

As constant motion is an important part of escaping and evading pursuers, there are a lot of combos you can do to keep moving - one of the demonstrated moves involved jumping a gap over the rooftops, using your momentum to vault a fence, then going into a controlled slide under a pipe - all chained together seamlessly.

So, that's one of the big features. What else is there? Well, you don't have a gun. Yep, that's right - it's a first person shooter with no, uh, shooting. You're on foot-and-fist power when fighting the bad guys.

Another interesting change is that you can see your own body. I have personally been waiting for this "innovation" for years in FPS games - I can't think of another relatively simple change that would add as much immersion as this does. You can see your legs when you're sliding under barriers, you can see your legs pumping as you jump through the air - it looks great.

To help you find your way around, some objects in the game world turn a bright red so you know they're important - usually they're objects you can jump on or off, or climb on, or perform some other completely death-defying physical feat to get to your next destination. While this is no doubt helpful I felt it sort of broke you away from the immersion a little bit - there might be some concern that the game might feel like you're just running around between red things - but hopefully this won't be the case.

Overall, it is certainly a unique twist on the first person genre. Visually it is looking pretty lush and there seemed to be enough variation in the gameplay to keep you going for a while, even without the ability to shoot people in the face. Not much about the story was revealed but no doubt we'll hear more about it in the coming months.