I just recently played through Catalyst and I know it was divisive, but I’m firmly in the “I wish it had another 6 months to cook and it would have been a banger” crowd. The only major issues I had were with unreliable parkour, which I bet they could have resolved. It was so close to being a winner if it weren’t for that.
The reason I quit Catalyst early was the insane loading times. The game just doesn’t play right when you’re too afraid of making mistakes.
Story-wise the original is perfectly adequate, I’d say even good. You can’t put too much story in that kind of game, it’s much more about the vibes and unlike say Doom you can’t hide lore in the environment either, investigating that would destroy the overall gameplay flow. It’s a well-paced game, but the quiet parts aren’t still the quiet parts is when the running is easy and straight-forward. Ideally, you never stop, and the points where you have to stop (elevators) are orchestrated to make you feel restless.
It was a seriously underrated game, my main complaints were too much clunky combat and not nearly enough indoor areas. It felt like I had to run the same outdoor loops dozens of times for what should be serious missions.
Edit: I really think the combat could’ve been awesome with some Ratchet & Clank style gadgets. Not the guns, but the things like the bundle of mini-robots that chase and attack enemies, or the sentry device you throw that slows down/freezes enemies. Feels like a good way to keep the asymmetric fighting where they have actual weapons but you need to be strategic.
As flawed as the original is, it’s one of my all time favourites. To me there’s a perfect harmony between gameplay, graphics (art direction), music and atmosphere. The soundtrack is easily one of the best game OSTs of all time. The story isn’t deep but the characters are interesting and the world has so much potential. On the other hand I love its “cult” status, on the other there was a lot of lost potential for a truly exceptional game franchise.
Catalyst is… not terrible. For me it’s just average and it never reaches that real Mirror’s Edge atmosphere of the original. It’s even worse today because it never got an update for PS4 Pro or PS5, so it looks kinda awful tbh, and I’m usually not too picky with graphics and fps stuff. Finished it once back then and tried replaying it a couple of years ago but dropped after a few hours.
Great recommendations. I’d add Planet Boelex, also ambient electronic artist. Most of his albums are available for free in bandcamp (Suunta and Misplaced Ep are excellent).
I just recently played through Catalyst and I know it was divisive, but I’m firmly in the “I wish it had another 6 months to cook and it would have been a banger” crowd. The only major issues I had were with unreliable parkour, which I bet they could have resolved. It was so close to being a winner if it weren’t for that.
The reason I quit Catalyst early was the insane loading times. The game just doesn’t play right when you’re too afraid of making mistakes.
Story-wise the original is perfectly adequate, I’d say even good. You can’t put too much story in that kind of game, it’s much more about the vibes and unlike say Doom you can’t hide lore in the environment either, investigating that would destroy the overall gameplay flow. It’s a well-paced game, but the quiet parts aren’t still the quiet parts is when the running is easy and straight-forward. Ideally, you never stop, and the points where you have to stop (elevators) are orchestrated to make you feel restless.
It was a seriously underrated game, my main complaints were too much clunky combat and not nearly enough indoor areas. It felt like I had to run the same outdoor loops dozens of times for what should be serious missions.
Edit: I really think the combat could’ve been awesome with some Ratchet & Clank style gadgets. Not the guns, but the things like the bundle of mini-robots that chase and attack enemies, or the sentry device you throw that slows down/freezes enemies. Feels like a good way to keep the asymmetric fighting where they have actual weapons but you need to be strategic.
As flawed as the original is, it’s one of my all time favourites. To me there’s a perfect harmony between gameplay, graphics (art direction), music and atmosphere. The soundtrack is easily one of the best game OSTs of all time. The story isn’t deep but the characters are interesting and the world has so much potential. On the other hand I love its “cult” status, on the other there was a lot of lost potential for a truly exceptional game franchise.
Catalyst is… not terrible. For me it’s just average and it never reaches that real Mirror’s Edge atmosphere of the original. It’s even worse today because it never got an update for PS4 Pro or PS5, so it looks kinda awful tbh, and I’m usually not too picky with graphics and fps stuff. Finished it once back then and tried replaying it a couple of years ago but dropped after a few hours.
The soundtrack is by Solar Fields. Amazing ambient electronic artist, great for chilling or even sleeping.
Along that genre I also recommend Carbon Based Life forms, Joey Fehrenbach, Trentemoller, Hol Bauman, and Marconi Union
Great recommendations. I’d add Planet Boelex, also ambient electronic artist. Most of his albums are available for free in bandcamp (Suunta and Misplaced Ep are excellent).