It’s been a while since I completed a game that’s not an indie. Catalyst is one of the few games that is easy to get into even though it’s considered a huge one. Catalyst is a re-imagining (or a sequel if you prefer) to a beloved game with an own twist. The original was a linear and short parkour game where it was all about getting to areas with impressive moves and jumps. Catalyst is more of an open world game that doesn’t have a huge world but enough to give you different playgrounds and a sense of freedom to do other things aside from the 15+ story missions. There are delivery, diversion, dash and side missions with minor stories. There are also plenty of collectibles such as secret bags, documents, recordings, mechanical parts and gridleaks (golden collectibles). Some of the collectibles are easy to find but others can really challenge you even if you can see them. You’ll have to think how to get to them. It’s a satisfying feeling when you figure it out. In terms of progression, you earn XP with most actions and collectibles. XP can be used to make yourself stronger and unlock new moves related to moving faster or getting around areas even better.
So what are the positives? The game looks gorgeous for one. Even if it’s a 2016 game, some of the areas make me want to live there for real. Some of the places are well realised in terms of design. The gameplay is addictive and hard to put down thanks to the excellent controls. I totally got into the collectibles and optional missions. But you don’t have to do any of them, you can focus on the story missions. You’re not disadvantaged in any way. The story is quite good even if it’s not original or the best you’ve seen. It’s entertaining with good cutscenes and different characters involved. The whole open world gameplay works really well with the Mirror’s Edge gameplay. You can freely move around in bigger areas compared to the first one with high speed and it feels great. The achievements are mostly doable even if there are a few frustrating ones. You’ll get there with practice or looking things up online. I tried to do most of it blindly but I still searched a few up. The game took me around 58 hours to 100%
So on to the bad stuff. The biggest problem is EA being the publisher. I’m not saying this because I want to hate on the big guys but it’s causing actual problems due to the EA launcher and the way this game was designed with servers in mind. EA closed the game’s servers in December last year. It was the reason I started playing the game in November with the understanding that I had to get the 2 online achievements to be safe. Then I would get the rest of the achievements at my own pace. However, with the servers closed, you can’t even get most of the offline achievements either. There is a trick that is very frustrating to pull off and doesn’t work with all the achievements. So it’s impossible to get all the achievements without outside help at the moment. I installed a program that unlocks achievements for this game specifically, something that I never had to do before. Luckily, the game drops runner kits every time you’re supposed to get an achievement. So that’s when I unlocked them because I knew I earned them. The game also gives you many stuff to customise your character but you can’t use any of it because you’re supposed to do this through the game’s official website or an app. Both options don’t seem to be available or don’t work anymore. I tried using the website so many times with no luck. The game should have never been designed that way with the achievements and needing to use tools outside the game. As for launchers, I’m not a big fan of them but I try to deal with them. The EA launcher became horrible when I wasn’t able to access Steam overlay anymore. It worked for a while and then it stopped working. As for problems with the game itself, I wish the game made it clearer that some of the delivery missions where infinite even after completing them. I wasted a lot of time doing some of them again without noticing for a while. Some of the lore is a bit confusing because they are dropped randomly with the collectibles that you find. And lastly, the game crashed a few times with the last story mission but the rest was butter smooth at 165fps and 1440p.
I actually didn’t like the original Mirror’s Edge on the PS3 much. The camera movement made me sick at the time and I just wasn’t good at it. I was weary before playing Catalyst but now I can confidently say that I loved playing it. I easily prefer it over the original Mirror’s Edge. I enjoyed it so much that I’m thinking of giving the original Mirror’s Edge another try on PC even though I already completed it on the PS3 (not 100% though). There aren’t many games like Mirror’s Edge and it looks like we won’t be getting a third one. I recommend getting Catalyst despite the problems it has thanks to EA, especially when it’s on sale for around €3 often. But you’ll have to accept that you won’t be able to get all the achievements or you’ll need to do something about it.
So what are the positives? The game looks gorgeous for one. Even if it’s a 2016 game, some of the areas make me want to live there for real. Some of the places are well realised in terms of design. The gameplay is addictive and hard to put down thanks to the excellent controls. I totally got into the collectibles and optional missions. But you don’t have to do any of them, you can focus on the story missions. You’re not disadvantaged in any way. The story is quite good even if it’s not original or the best you’ve seen. It’s entertaining with good cutscenes and different characters involved. The whole open world gameplay works really well with the Mirror’s Edge gameplay. You can freely move around in bigger areas compared to the first one with high speed and it feels great. The achievements are mostly doable even if there are a few frustrating ones. You’ll get there with practice or looking things up online. I tried to do most of it blindly but I still searched a few up. The game took me around 58 hours to 100%
So on to the bad stuff. The biggest problem is EA being the publisher. I’m not saying this because I want to hate on the big guys but it’s causing actual problems due to the EA launcher and the way this game was designed with servers in mind. EA closed the game’s servers in December last year. It was the reason I started playing the game in November with the understanding that I had to get the 2 online achievements to be safe. Then I would get the rest of the achievements at my own pace. However, with the servers closed, you can’t even get most of the offline achievements either. There is a trick that is very frustrating to pull off and doesn’t work with all the achievements. So it’s impossible to get all the achievements without outside help at the moment. I installed a program that unlocks achievements for this game specifically, something that I never had to do before. Luckily, the game drops runner kits every time you’re supposed to get an achievement. So that’s when I unlocked them because I knew I earned them. The game also gives you many stuff to customise your character but you can’t use any of it because you’re supposed to do this through the game’s official website or an app. Both options don’t seem to be available or don’t work anymore. I tried using the website so many times with no luck. The game should have never been designed that way with the achievements and needing to use tools outside the game. As for launchers, I’m not a big fan of them but I try to deal with them. The EA launcher became horrible when I wasn’t able to access Steam overlay anymore. It worked for a while and then it stopped working. As for problems with the game itself, I wish the game made it clearer that some of the delivery missions where infinite even after completing them. I wasted a lot of time doing some of them again without noticing for a while. Some of the lore is a bit confusing because they are dropped randomly with the collectibles that you find. And lastly, the game crashed a few times with the last story mission but the rest was butter smooth at 165fps and 1440p.
I actually didn’t like the original Mirror’s Edge on the PS3 much. The camera movement made me sick at the time and I just wasn’t good at it. I was weary before playing Catalyst but now I can confidently say that I loved playing it. I easily prefer it over the original Mirror’s Edge. I enjoyed it so much that I’m thinking of giving the original Mirror’s Edge another try on PC even though I already completed it on the PS3 (not 100% though). There aren’t many games like Mirror’s Edge and it looks like we won’t be getting a third one. I recommend getting Catalyst despite the problems it has thanks to EA, especially when it’s on sale for around €3 often. But you’ll have to accept that you won’t be able to get all the achievements or you’ll need to do something about it.