Just prior to grilling Mirror's Edge Senior Producer, Owen O'Brian, in our video interview, I grabbed one of the free ME pods to finally give the game a run through (no pun intended) for myself. Initially it feels pretty fluid. The first-person camera actually gives a greater sense of movement than most other FP games I've played, but opposite to this is the placement of one of the main buttons you'll be using - jump. It's been mapped to the RB, which just felt less intuitive than say the A, B, X or Y buttons. Moreover, there's no run or sprint button. Faith actually moves quickly by default, but I couldn't help but feel a button for an extra burst of speed might have helped in relaying the sense of urgency the team have tried to craft with Mirror's Edge.

Moving through the game-world once you're used to the controls, however, is pretty neat. Though (and as pointed out during my interview) you're not completely free to climb absolutely anything and you're very much guided in a certain way. You'll often find yourself (in the early stages), dying or just screwing up the intended line. It's pretty clear DICE want you to play the game in a certain way, and by default (if you're good enough), you will end up adhering to their wishes ala so much trial and error advancement, but I can't stress enough how satisfying it actually is when you nail a perfect line and manage to keep a serious amount of momentum up moving forward.

The demo I played is essentially the same one the guys have been peddling to the press since the game was first shown at the GDC, which either bodes well in that they have a lot of neat stuff in-store, or means they don't want us to see how repetitive things can get.

However, O'Brian assured me that the narrow, linear paths of the first levels (including the supplied demo), are there more so you get a feel for how the game is meant to be played and that, the further into the game you progress, the more alternate paths will become available to you so that you're linking together great combinations of skill and foresight.

An element I thought was kind of off was the idea you can shoot enemies. When the game was initially announced it was expected you'd only be able to disarm the bad-guys, now, however, you can pick up weapons, point and shoot. It's definitely not a focus in-game, but it's something I felt you could do without, or at least do in another way (like maybe being encouraged to shoot the enemy in the legs, or even near them so they startle to give you a chance to escape).

It's not overly bad, but I think it's to the detriment of the overall concept of fighting the opressive regime the way Faith and her companions do.

Unfortunately the demo is just too short to make any real judgement calls on. Visually the game is spectacular, and Faith's animations and the first-person camera system are spot-on. The idea you need to look down when jumping a massive gap to spot your landing adds a sense of realism that is only heightened by the fact that when you are looking down, you're seeing your legs and feet move and react realistically. Her moves are all pretty cool and include free-running greats like 180 degree turns off a wall jump. Stuff like this will be used in the final game to solve a number of advancement puzzles, and I actually found myself stumped in the demo - so hopefully there's some real outside-the-box thinking involved with the puzzle portion.

As the title is not too far away from being in our hands for review, we'll obviously save final judgement, but so far I think Mirror's Edge could go either way. Still, it's good to know EA and DICE are investing the time into creating a powerful IP with a fully fleshed out world and backstory. And if you haven't checked out our video interview with the game's Senior Producer, Irishman, Owen O'Brian, be sure that you do as he reveals a lot and gives great insight into DICE's overall goals for the game.

You can also find out more about Mirror's Edge by hitting up our AusGamers game page which features all related information and media.