The reason EA DICE went with the first-person perspective in Mirror’s Edge wasn’t to torture players who occasionally experience motion sickness. It was a conscious decision designed to make players feel more connected with the game’s protagonist, Faith, and her movements. It was also because DICE is pretty familiar with the perspective.
The producer for the game, Nick Channon recently explained the design decision in an interview with Gamasutra. Channon said that DICE has “done a lot of first person work” and were “inspired” to do Mirror’s Edge. He then went on to explain how one connects to Faith:
I think the other thing was, as well, that we really wanted to create a connection with you and the character, and the fact that you’re playing the game through the eyes of Faith; as soon as you get to third person, you would be watching Faith, whereas we want you to be connected to her.
After watching Nick Chester’s video of the first level, I’m not exactly sold on the “connection” thus far. If anything, it seems like the perspective makes the game’s obstacles seem more varied and larger than what they actually are. What do you guys think? Does first person provide a special sort of immersion?
