Mirror’s Edge meets Metal Gear Rising in 2020’s most exhilarating action game

Developer One More Level, Slipgate Ironworks, 3D Realms

Publisher All In Games

Format PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One

Origin Poland

Release 2020

As the steel doors slam shut, a voice calmly tells us what to do. “Each guard has a built-in lockdown chip,” it says. “Disabling them will open the doors.” Luckily for us (although not for those poor guards) we have a particularly efficient way to deal with the problem. We set off, sliding down a long ramp and diving headlong towards the first guard, cutting him down with our sword. Turning sharply, we juke to the right to dodge incoming fire from another, before sending his remains tumbling over a gap, which we wall-run across as a third trains his gun on us. Instinctively, we tap the right trigger, somehow parrying the bolt from point-blank range. He doesn’t stand a chance when we flash our blade once more. Doubling back, we skid under a set of pipes and surgically slice the next unwitting sap in half at the midriff. A makeshift ramp takes us up to a huge curved screen, which we scamper across before leaping right and then left between two more walls, delivering the finishing blow to our fifth and final opponent with a slo-mo flourish. Lockdown lifted. The voice gives us one more instruction: “Go.” In a game where staying still is usually fatal, we obey the command.