PHP Parse error in Wordpress project from WPEngine backup

I inherited a Wordpress project and I am trying to customize it. I have zero experience with Wordpress and I can say that I have zero experience with PHP. So far I have managed to set up an environment on my local machine, but I am stuck on a PHP parsing error that I cannot find a googling solution. I would like to at least run an existing project on my machine.

When I open my site locally I am redirected to $ ROOT / wp-admin / install.php and I get this error in apache error_log:

[Wed Oct 22 22:32:42 2014] [error] [client ::1] PHP Parse error:  parse error in /path/to/project/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpengine-common/plugin.php on line 788

      

        
        
        
      

    

Line 788

    public function disable_indiv_plugin_update_notices( $value ) {

      

        
        
        
      

    

and the surrounding code

function wpengine_credits() {

        if ( get_option( 'stylesheet' ) != 'twentyeleven' && get_option( 'template' ) != 'twentyeleven' )
        return false;

    if ( !defined('WPE_FOOTER_HTML') OR !WPE_FOOTER_HTML OR $this->already_emitted_powered_by == true )
        return false;

    //to prevent repeating
    $this->already_emitted_powered_by = true; ?>
        <div id="site-host">
                WP Engine <a href="http://wpengine.com" title="<?php esc_attr_e( 'Managed WordPress Hosting', 'wpengine' ); ?>"><?php printf( __( '%s.', 'wpengine' ), 'WordPress Hosting' ); ?></a>
    </div>
        <?php
    }

public function disable_indiv_plugin_update_notices( $value ) {
        $plugins_to_disable_notices_for = array();
        $basename = '';
        foreach ( $plugins_to_disable_notices_for as $plugin )
                $basename = plugin_basename( $plugin );
        if ( isset( $value->response[@$basename] ) )
                unset( $value->response[$basename] );
        return $value;
    }

public function get_powered_by_html( $affiliate_code = null ) {
    if ( ( ! defined('WPE_FOOTER_HTML') OR !WPE_FOOTER_HTML ) AND !$this->is_widget ) return "";

    $this->already_emitted_powered_by = true;

    if(WPE_FOOTER_HTML !== "") {
        $html = WPE_FOOTER_HTML;
    } else {
        $html = $this->view('general/powered-by',array('affiliate_code'=>$affiliate_code),false);
    }


    return "<span class=\"wpengine-promo\">$html</span>";
}

      

        
        
        
      

    

I have a feeling it has something to do with my PHP version. I am running PHP 5.4.30. Other solutions to similar problems suggested using

Any suggestions would be appreciated.