Mirror's Edge is known primarily for two things these days: being extremely cool and not getting any new games. It has that in common with plenty of aging series under the EA banner, but indie developer Viridian Matters has said enough is enough and announced a full-on Mirror's Edge-like of their own.
Called Panline, the game has a Steam store page which shows off brief snippets and screenshots and, yeah, it sure looks the part. Granted, the streaks of color splashed over each environment lack Mirror's Edge's iconic red, instead opting for hues of bright blue, orange, algae green, and more. It still takes place in a gleaming dystopia full of spotless white skyscrapers, so it's hard to mistake for a spiritual successor to anything else.
It wears its love for the late aughts on its sleeve. The first screenshot on that Steam page features an in-game gadget that looks an awful lot like one of Sony's gaming handhelds from the era, and the parkour shown off in brief gifs of gameplay footage oozes enthusiasm for DICE's platformer. You can wall-run, build up speed, crash through doors, and so on, but there seems to be more to it than course-clear platforming.
For one, the game's "non-linear, open city" is navigated through jobs that show up "dynamically." As you unlock new movement abilities and upgrade your not-a-PSP, you can access new areas. The catch is, lethal falls wipe your progress for that job; "what you carry is what you risk, and progress only counts once you make it back to base," the store page reads.
It's slated to release sometime this year, and although there's precious little footage, it's a tantalizing prospect. The developer's only other game on Steam is another parkour game with a "Very Positive" review rating, so hopefully its commitment to the bit will pay off.
