I hate to be that ******* (that's a total lie I love it), but, it's a game about running. That is the ONLY merit it should be judged on.
The section at the end is not the only one where you have to fight. I sincerely doubt you made it through the subway entrance (chapter 4, I believe) without engaging in combat, as the enemy placement/spawning simply doesn't allow it.
The campaign is short, because you're covering distance. It's not meant to be a novel.
Even with a multitude of splatter deaths because the game didn't want to register the fact that I made a jump perfectly, I beat the game the first time through in less than 5 hours. There are dozens of games that prove story, gameplay and time spent therein are not mutually exclusive. Had Mirror's Edge focused more on the world rather than trying to do some kind of character story, it would have made for a more engaging experience. The spinoff iOS game and comic books are much better in these regards.
Platforming from a first-person perspective worked very well in that game, largely because they knew what they were doing, and made a very memorizable set of commands.
Then you are very much in the minority.
