May 2008: "The following is all in-game footage." These words preceeded the first trailer for EA's Mirror's Edge. What followed was a glimpse of something unusual: a first-person platforming game. Sure, Jumping Flash did it in 1995, but Mirror's Edge looked sleek, fluid, and had that catchy Swedish electronicapop song playing in the background. This was going to be awesome.

May 2009: EA more or less confirmed that a Mirror's Edge sequel is in development. My first thought: hopefully this won't be another disappointment.

Let's fill in the gap a little.

I was looking forward to Mirror's Edge. After having played the demo dozens of times, I was already sold on the idea that first-person platforming could be as successful as it appeared in the game's promotional videos. Upon playing the game's story mode, however, I soon found myself just wanting to get it over with. Several of my complaints were (and still are) echoed 'round the internet. The story? Predictable and uninspired. The combat? Clunky and frustrating. The platforming? Interesting, but unfriendly.

My enjoyment of the game hit an all-time low when, during a particular jumping sequence set in a claustrophobic subway, I suddenly felt extremely ill. I was dizzy and sick to my stomach and quickly realized I needed to lie down. Mirror's Edge had given me an experience I had never had with any other first person video game: motion sickness.

Fast-forward to just after the sequel confirmation. A friend of mine asked whether she should pick up BioShock or Mirror's Edge. BioShock easily being one of my favorite video games, I eagerly recommended it while simultaneously trying to ward her away from Mirror's Edge. I started to wonder, though -- was Mirror's Edge really as awful as I had thought it was? Or were my expectations simply set too high? I decided to find out. And in doing so, I ended up playing through the game several times.

Let's be absolutely clear on one thing: the single worst aspect of Mirror's Edge is its combat. It's awkward and annoying on all three of the game's difficulty settings. Disarms are spotty and melee attacks are rarely very effective when facing several enemies. The guide character reiterates several times that the key to successful combat is to isolate your enemies and pick them off one at a time. The guide character is full of shit.

The key to successful combat, I found, is to simply avoid it at every instance possible. Nine times out of ten, when your walkie-talkie handler gruffly tells you that "it looks like you're gonna have to fight," you can just run straight on through without much of a hassle. With the playable character, Faith, being as realistically underpowered as she is (she can only take a few bullets or blunt hits to the head before going down), it's only logical that the smart approach to combat would be to avoid it. Granted, during the couple of instances where you're dropped into a room with twelve armed guys, running straight on through requires risking being riddled with machine gun rounds. In these cases, it's usually safer to pick up a gun and clear the area. But that's a problem that should be remedied for the sequel.

Playing through the story mode for the second and third time, the platforming felt considerably smoother. Being comfortable with all of the actions at your disposal and knowing when and where to use them makes speeding through a level a thrill. And because it's entirely possible to beat the game from beginning to end in less than five hours (less than two if you're good enough) it's not so unreasonable to jump into the game for the second or third time. Some actions are a consistently a little tricky to pull off. Specifically, the wallrun could use some sort of visual prompt to indicate that the "up command" shoulder button will indeed activate a wallrun instead of simply causing you to bunny hop into oblivion. Otherwise, once you understand the controls, they're always responsive and you always feel as if you can climb, roll, leap, and run your way out of any situation.

Some people are clearly better at this than others. Peeking at online rankings for the game's time trial levels, I soon realized that my newfound comfort with Faith's parkour skills was well beneath the superhuman reasoning and performance of thousands of other players. Watching player ghosts of speed runs, it struck me that the clever use of alternate routes and advanced techniques, while possible, is not always apparent. I had gotten so used to the path of red-highlighted objects that I had assumed I was on a linear race track and my only goal was to finish the race without spinning out. It's hard to remember that midway through any Mirror's Edge race track, you can drive your car up and over a series of walls and barriers that would otherwise appear to be impenetrable.

The narrative elements still leave something to be desired. The much maligned "Esurance" 2D cutscenes are, to put it simply, fucking ugly. They don't animate well and they don't look nearly as striking as either the actual in-game models or the game's well-drawn concept art pieces. One cutscene is nothing more than a looped animation of Faith running through a cityscape. I can't think of any reason why it exists besides to mask loading times.

And while the sinister totalitarian plot you uncover doesn't carry any of the weight it's surely intended to, the world isn't totally devoid of character. There are a few great, hidden touches to be found in the environment a la Portal or BioShock. Some of the game's collectible messenger bags are accompanied by weird little drawings presumably left by other runners (one of which apparently prompted another runner to leave a note reading "whoever leaves these stupid things PLZ STOP"). In another out-of-the-way area is a message asking for "November", which is a reference to a series of riots and the cancellation of a proposed memorial to them. It's a subplot that's wisely kept out of the game's cutscenes and dialogue, instead left to be discovered in the scenery by more curious players. If more of the story were told in a similarly engaging way, the banality of the plot could at least be excused for not being shoved in your face.

Mirror's Edge is far from a perfect game -- hell, I'd even be hesitant to call it an excellent game. After giving it another chance, however, I know there's really no reason for me to warn anyone against playing it. It does something very few games do, even if it doesn't do it flawlessly. That alone should be worth checking out, even if only in the hopes that the sequel will do it better.