The world of 3D computer graphics started with wireframes so it's perhaps fitting that straight edges are the fundamental form that underpins Mirrors Edge's function; a game with the ambition to take the first person perspective beyond its current deep rut of shooterdom. What's also striking about the experience - at least, as experienced in the PlayStation 3 demo available at the Leipzig Games Convention - is the way extreme texture and color play into the delineation of environment.

Starting on top a generic office building, looking over a generic urban landscape, Mirrors Edge isn't a game that immediately impresses with an overt scene of place. The flyby of the Jerusalem of Assassin's Creed - crumbling souks and battered bazaars - this ain't.

Yet looking past its over-saturated hyper-realism of blocky air-con units, ducts and angled solar panels to the lines and angles that edge the view, and you're suddenly aware of a world of possibilities. Add some tutorial-friendly red highlights to strategic ramps and jump-off points and after a hop, skip and vault - suddenly, you as black-bobbed heroine ninja Faith are flying (sometimes falling) through the air making your way to a target building, its light blue flags gently flapping in the breeze.

The trip can be disconcerting though. Without a gun to point at people, it's initially hard to feel grounded while your view provides more peripheral vision than usually required for the standard FPS corridor run-and-gun. There's also the issue suffered by all games that attempt to couple the real and virtual worlds - how does the game designer mix the attitude that the player can do whatever they want with restrictions of pacing and the fact that game artists are only, actually, building a small subset of the visible universe. (Yes, the reason you can't open that door is there's nothing behind it.)
 
But, despite it all, the Mirror’s Edge demo manages to pull off the trick of providing an engaging taster for a larger experience by mixing up the main mechanics of: effortless urban parkour; sneaking around buildings stealing things (in this case some hi-tech briefcase); the adrenaline-boost of being chased by overwhelming odds; and finally escaping thanks to the deus ex machina appearance of a helicopter (in this case, very deus ex machina as the chopper pops in and out of view thanks to a graphical bug.)

And, sure, one of the most regular experiences was Faith's hands frantically waving into thin air after another failed attempt to jump a seemingly-manageable rooftop gap, but watching the crowds of players, everyone seemed to make it in the end.

So while the lack of guns, corridors and obvious routes may be off-putting for some, the aesthetic and conceptual ambition of Mirror’s Edge will enthuse others.