The cynical among you might call the Xbox the First-Person Shooter console, as opposed to the Playstation 2 being the Role Playing Game console, or the Wii being the Shovelware console. There's little doubt that much of the Xbox console's success can be attributed to the FPS, and even on the Xbox 360 a gamer's bread & butter still resides in the shooter genre. Of course some games try to mix it up with the odd stealth section or some light platforming elements, but for the most, it's still all about blasting away at legions of enemies.

This is what makes Mirror's Edge such an appealing concept: a first-person perspective action game that eschews gunplay in favour of evasion, that lauds mobility and agility in a setting better suited to a third-person viewpoint. In Mirror's Edge you play a runner named Faith, who is an incredibly limber and dextrous courier who clients use to avoid the prying eyes of a draconian big-brother government. Faith carries no weapons, instead choosing to avoid fights where possible and where not, using herself and her environment instead of firearms.

Given the highly sensitive and often illegal nature of her parcels, Faith can't exactly ride the bus to her destinations, and as such she is forced to take to rooftops and sewers to get from A to B if she wants to avoid the constabulary. It is immediately apparent once you first assume control of Faith that Mirror's Edge is going to be unlike any other first-person perspective game you've ever played. The controls are fluid but precise, and laid out in a completely foreign manner that allows you an unprecedented amount of direction and flexibility.

The LB is used to jump while the LT is used for downwards motions like crouching or sliding. RB can quickly change your direction, while RT is reserved for acts of physical violence like melee attacks or kicking down a door. While this may sound simple enough despite the odd layout, the real fun doesn't begin until you start learning to use these commands in different combinations to truly unlock Faith's potential. If you make a running jump and then pull LT in the air, Faith will coil her legs up to give you extra clearance over a high fence – pull LT again as you're nearing the ground and faith will execute a roll that allows you to fall from greater heights without taking damage. Jump near a wall to run along it and then pull RT and Faith will launch a devastating kick at nearby foes, or if you press RB instead she can twist mid-stride and set up a second jump to launch off the wall and onto another.

Those are just a few examples of how flexible Faith's repertoire of moves is, and it's important to remember that all of this is occurring entirely in a first-person perspective. While games like Breakdown or Condemned may have done first-person fisticuffs earlier, no game has truly done what Mirror's Edge does for this viewpoint, and what makes it so impressive is how damn well it does it. Your initial impressions may be a bit jarring (or worse if you suffer from any kind of motion sickness),but after a few levels the whole thing will feel so natural that you'll be left wondering why all FPS games don't have this kind of fluidity of motion. Moreover, it will also make you curse all those third-person platformers and adventures that have such crappy camera controls, when it could have been done so much better through the eyes of the protagonist.

Much of the success Mirror's Edge enjoys is as a result of its breathtaking visual design, which relies heavily on bold primary colours being contrasted against incredibly stark whites or greys. The entire city appears almost uniformly white, with the sterility only offset by splashes of green, orange, yellow or blue. The most interesting feature of this design is what the developer calls "Runner Vision”, an adaptive use of bright red colouring that highlights objects Faith can use as she is running and jumping through the city. This acts as a sort of internal compass that will steer you towards possible salvation, and while there is often more than one route you can take, your runner-vision does a great job of helping you make sense of the topography.

It's also a fairly essential feature, given how overwhelming the city's network of pipes, ducts, fences, rooftops and vents can be. Thankfully you can press the B button and Faith will look at her objective, which can be helpful for placing things in context, but this won't tell you how to get there, just your ultimate destination. In this way, Mirror's Edge is just as much a puzzle game as it is a platformer, and there will be numerous times that you are left scratching your head trying to ascend a particularly perplexing precipice. It can be frustrating, and make no mistake: you will fall to your death a LOT, but it's also very rewarding when you do finally work it out.

Mirror's Edge also boasts fantastic – if understated – audio design, which makes good use of an ambient electronica soundtrack and a minimalist approach to sound effects. You'll hear the hum of the city of course, but it takes a back seat to the sounds of Faith clambering up pipes or leaping across rooftops, the sound of her rhythmic breathing often your only companion as you traverse the city. The voice acting is excellent even if the dialogue isn't, and the small troupe of core players helps highlight their character. And though the music is often quite laid back and almost relaxing, it kicks into high gear when Faith is engaged in combat or attempting to evade pursuit.

While Mirror's Edge discourages Faith from fighting, it is still an (often integral) option in the game. Much of the time the odds you'll face are both overwhelming and at a distance, giving you no other option but flight, but there will also be a lot of occasions where fighting is either logical or necessary. Combat in Mirror's Edge is something you will either love or hate (and often both simultaneously!) – it is visceral and violent and often very fun, but on the flipside it is also frustrating and heavily skewed against you. Faith can usually handle one assailant easily, but anything more than that is problematic, and since you're seeing the fracas through her eyes, you'll often be blindsided or shot from behind, bring the battle to an annoyingly abrupt end. You can disarm enemies and use their guns though which can help even the odds, but you can't reload or carry more than one, making them very limited in their usefulness.

Combat in Mirror's Edge really highlights the main flaw the game has: Faith may be fit and tough, but she is still very fragile and mortal. There is a huge amount of trial and error involved in this game – to put it in perspective, achieving a "speed run” through the game in par time would take you 75 minutes, but finishing the game on your first play through will take most people 6-8 hours. Admittedly a lot of that will come from exploring and trying to find hidden packages or just enjoying the game at a normal pace, but it is also indicative of just how much time you'll spend dying and restarting from mistimed jumps or overwhelming odds in later enemy encounters. This is particularly true of the later levels once the game starts throwing snipers and heavy machinegunners at you – arguably a disproportionate response to a lone female runner if ever there has been one!

Still, Mirror's Edge is an absolutely unique and engaging experience, and for the most part the frustration is balanced out by the fun and sense of satisfaction when you succeed. In motion, it's a stunning looking game that will make you feel like a parkour-professional-ninja-master, and that alone should be worth the price of admission. If it isn't, there's also a series of time trials you can unlock in addition to the speed run through the story – and once you strip away the storyline and SWAT guys shooting at you, Mirror's Edge becomes an almost purer version of itself. Indeed, some people will get more out of these modes than they will out of the game's simplistic and short campaign, and if that's you, there's Downloadable Content with your name on it, as well as a bunch of Leaderboard rankings and the ability to download ghosts of other players to race against.