Today, the sequel to Mirror’s Edge finally hits store shelves. The reviews, all found here at VG24/7, have their fair share of ups and downs, though nothing too terrible has been mentioned. Yet things are not faring well on the Metacritic user scores, which currently have a large majority of negative reviews over the positive ones. Given how the game was released just today, it seems unlikely that everyone finished the game. Rhianna Prattchet, the writer of the prequel comics to Mirror’s Edge and having previously worked on the rebooted 2013 version of Tomb Raider and its sequel, went on Twitter to point this out.
Catalyst seems to be getting unfairly hammered on user reviews. Is this still do to with anger that FF was working on it (when she wasn’t)?
— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) June 7, 2016
For those unaware, it was rumored that Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency was working with DICE to develop the game. Using Kickstarter, she funded a show identifying and analyzing women in video games, which can be found on YouTube. There was a massive disagreement with the idea of her working on Mirror’s Edge, which eventually led to a petition to remove Sarkeesian from the development team. However, EA eventually stepped in when the petition became more well-known and admitted that Sarkeesian had no involvement whatsoever. Though there isn’t too much proof that Sarkeesian is the direct cause of these negative user scores, as one can simply leave a score on Metacritic without commenting so long as they can log in.
There was an extremely similar case with DMC: Devil May Cry when it first released, as many fans did not like the direction the reboot was taking the franchise. There was more than low scores, as there were death threats and even a petition to President Obama to remove the game from store shelves.
Mirror’s Edge Catalyst hits store shelves today on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, developed by DICE and EA.
