What we need is a game that mixes the parkour of Mirror's Edge with the fluid fighting dynamics of Batman: Arkham Asylum with the urban mayhem of District B13 and Hong Kong gangster movies.
Instead of the stealth / combat split in Arkham Asylum the game would be split between evasive parkour when you're trying to traverse or escape an area and then combat when you're confronted or cornered--or simply when you just feel like dishing some out.
It would take place in first person like Mirror's Edge, for that added oomph. All or most of the fighting is hand-to-hand, because weapons only slow you down. You can dodge and fight your way through a legion of goons while escaping an apartment building. There can be a restaurant shoot-out where you dive behind the bar as a team of gunmen open fire. While they're reloading you dive out to knockout as many as you can before they complete their reload (as signalled by some kind of "DANGER!" icon, arcade style, or simply by tense music) and you dive back again for safety. You should obviously have to run and slide underneath a Big Rig at some point (how did Mirror's Edge miss this?). The spirit of it all would be similar to ONG-BAK , which combined martial arts with athletic escape/chase sequences.
Another fight between you and a small mob can take place on train tracks or a freeway while dodge the oncoming traffic.
I want the immediacy and parkour of Mirror's Edge, but with more enemies and a more developed hand-to-hand fighting system. Later on you can use jiujutsu, which was developed to attack the joints and other vulnerable targets of guys wearing ancient combat armor, against armored SWAT officers. The instant 180 degree spin move of Mirror's Edge should be coupled with attack functions, like punches or kicks, for that good old fashion roundhouse.
The Missed Opportunities of Mirror's Edge
Furthermore the parkour engine could be more developed than Mirror's Edge. That game never required you to use any hanging maneuvers on ledges to descend dangerously great heights. It never required you to press yourself up against the inside of an elevator to avoid gunfire while the doors closed. It never required you to precariously shuffle across the window sills of skyscrapers. Though the game focused on eluding the police by using rooftops and so forth, none of it ever had the brilliance or urgency of Jason Bourne's escape from the hotel while the SWAT team moved through the building in The Bourne Supremacy. The game never includes any actual use of the "kung-fu pop-up with your legs while laying on your back" or "Backwards-roll to standing position after being knocked on your butt" moves. They were included as executable maneuvers, but never had any purpose. Mirror's Edge also never incorporated the "Foot-first Submariner" as I call it, which you can see in Das Boot. A character dives foward feet-first through a small hole with the aid of some kind of hand-hold above the entrance to the hole, somewhat like jumping feet-first into an enclosed tube slide. Jackie Chan did a similar move to get through a small opening above a doorway, but I forget the movie. All of these movies would have meshed easily with the simple control system of up/down movements.
Games like Dynamite Cop, Mirror's Edge, and Final Fight are the main influences I have in mind.
Obviously there should be lots of broken tables, chairs, glass, and railings, as you lay the smackdown and run for your life. That goes without saying. You can even be cornered inside a small plant shop. The mobster goons come inside and put themselves between you and the door. "The only way out of here is through us," they say. So then you dash toward them, side-step, and jump straight through the shop's plate glass display window.
I have no idea what the reason is for having to escape. "Reasons" are pretty overblown anyway these days. Game developers talk about narrative, but because they are game developers and programmers rather than talented directors or authors, their storylines and dialog are usually inept. I would love it if the story was kafkaesque. You simply wake up one day and everybody in the city wants to pummel you. Then as you make your violent and haphazard escape, you only anger more and more parties still, including organized crime.
That's what I want.
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