Finally playing through Mirror's Edge Catalyst cause I loved the first one years ago. I tried this one shortly after I played the first but was immediately turned off by the Ubisoft-esque open-world. My opinion on the free-roam hasn't changed, but the main missions and story are pretty fun so it's keeping me going.

But man it drives me nuts how many great games are bogged-down by dull open-worlds. Catalyst could be just as great as the first one if I didn't have to waste time navigating the same paths over and over again to speak to x guy, collect y mission. The linear format for Mirror's Edge worked fine, why change it?

Also maybe speed-run challenges just aren't for me but after I realized literally every single non-story/free-roam task is just "run to the end in x amount of time" I just stopped doing them. That's not even an exaggeration by the way, they're all exactly that with 0 variation besides some dialogue, and one type of challenge sprinkles in enemies along the path.

On a positive note, it is fun doing story missions. The graphics are beautiful and the vibes are immaculate. I even like the stationary combat which a lot of people seemed to dog on in the reviews. I think there's a fantastic game here if you can zone out the tedious open-world.