Combat mechanics of the game received an overhaul and a new combat system was developed as traversal is greatly emphasized in the game. Also, though only used sparingly in the previous game, Mirror's Edge Catalyst has removed the use of guns by the player altogether, focusing on Faith's running and parkour movements and quick melee-style attacks to take down or evade her enemies. Faith enters focus mode while she is running. With sufficient focus Faith can evade bullets from enemies. According to Sara Jansson, the senior producer of the game, the combat and fighting featured is an extension to the game's movement instead of a separated set. When Faith is performing a finishing move, the game switches to a third-person perspective.
Mirror's Edge Catalyst contains several multiplayer features, which DICE calls Social Play. While there are no live co-operative multiplayer or side-by-side competitive modes, the game features asynchronous multiplayer in which a player's actions in the game can affect the world for other players' games. Among these are Time Trials which, unlike in the 2008 game, are not pre-defined by DICE. Instead, these checkpoint-to-checkpoint paths are set by any player whereby others can race against them at their leisure for faster times. Players are also able to place Beat __cpLocation Emitters for other players to track down, an exploration activity similar to geocaching.
Synopsis
Setting
The game takes place in the dystopian, futuristic city of Glass, the showcase city of the nation of Cascadia, governed by a totalitarian corporatocracy. Cascadian society is highly stratified, and the majority of citizens work for the corporations and are connected to the Grid, a massive social monitoring network digitally connecting everything and everyone in cities like Glass. The corporations are secretly preparing to launch a project, called Reflection, to control the populace through the Grid.
So-called Runners, freelance messengers skilled at free running, refuse to be connected to the Grid and live on rooftops, making their living from covert delivery jobs while evading corporate security. The game centers around a Runner named Faith, and her efforts to help other Runners overthrow the corporate government and stop Reflection.
Plot
Faith Connors is released from prison and meets up with fellow runner Icarus, as well as Runner cabal leader Noah, who raised Faith after the death of her parents. During a data grab inside the headquarters of Elysium, Faith diverges from her orders and retrieves a valuable hard drive, but is seen by Gabriel Kruger, CEO of Kruger Security. She manages to escape, intending to use the drive's contents to pay off her debt to Dogen, a black market boss. Noah is angry at Faith for involving herself with Kruger, but tells her that she needs to know what is inside the drive in order to bargain with it. Faith takes the drive to Plastic, a talented hacker, who tells her the drive contains blueprints for a top-secret project known as Reflection.
Meanwhile, K-Sec cracks down hard on the Runners because of Faith's actions at Elysium. While Icarus and Faith are away, they lead a raid on the Runners' lair and capture or kill everyone present. Faith and Icarus, having nowhere to go, turn to Rebecca Thane, leader of Black November, a militant resistance movement bent on destroying the Conglomerate by force. The rebels set up an ambush to capture a high-ranking K-Sec commander, whom they intend to trade for their own captured soldiers. The mission is a success and it turns out that the captured officer is Isabel Kruger, daughter and personal bodyguard of Gabriel Kruger.
Faith asks Plastic to infiltrate K-Sec servers and gather information about Isabel, who turns out to be Caitlyn "Cat" Connors, Faith's own sister, who was assumed dead. Gabriel Kruger took her in as his adoptive daughter, telling her that Faith was killed along with the rest of her family. Faith races back to the subterranean Black November HQ where Thane is preparing to execute Isabel in order to send her father a message. Even though Isabel doesn't seem to remember who Faith is, Faith convinces Thane to save her.
Isabel lets on to Faith that Noah might still be alive, held in a compound called Kingdom. Upon reaching it, Faith rescues a group of Reflection scientists who were detained by K-Sec for "asking too many questions." The lead scientist, Aline Maera, explains that Reflection involves injecting the population with nanites that can be remote-controlled to regulate thoughts and emotions. Aline also mentions that Faith's own mother Erika invented the algorithm that would later allow Reflection to be realized. Faith finds Noah who is being experimented on with prototype Reflection nanites, but is too late to prevent his death. Meanwhile, back at Black November HQ, the rebels are ambushed by K-Sec while moving Isabel above ground. Icarus and the rebels are injected with Reflection nanites.
Faith continues to have flashbacks of Gabriel Kruger killing her parents who wanted out of the Reflection project. As Faith and Cat were escaping, a gas grenade was tossed, causing Cat to choke and lose consciousness. Faith was forced to abandon her.
Plastic and Aline work together to engineer a virus to disable Reflection once and for all. In order to do this they need Gabriel Kruger's ID, which Faith secures by breaking into his private apartment. From there she witnesses a massive explosion at The Shard, the tallest building in all of Glass. Faith still needs to go on top of The Shard, which contains the broadcast antenna but is now unstable, to activate the virus. At the top she is confronted by Gabriel who defends his decision to launch Reflection, saying the nanites are a cure designed to keep Isabel's chronic lung condition at bay, and that the project is about survival rather than control.
They are joined by Isabel who attempts to stop the virus but is too late. They fight on the helipad, and Isabel accuses Faith of leaving her behind to die, while Faith attempts to remind Isabel of who she really is. Gabriel Kruger appears on a helicopter and begs a hesitating Isabel to come with him. The Shard starts to crumble and Gabriel flies out of the tumbling helicopter. Faith slides to the edge of the helipad but is caught by Isabel. Gabriel is heard calling out for his daughter to save him, and Isabel explains to Faith that she "has to" and runs off in his direction. However, as the helicopter rises again and flies away, only Isabel is standing in it, with Gabriel nowhere to be seen.
In the aftermath, it is reported on the news that Isabel will now supersede her missing father as Kruger Security CEO. While there was no uprising in the population, Faith did successfully disable the Reflection launch, thus keeping people safe from Conglomerate control.
