After several of Assassin’s Creed straying further and further away its science fiction/historical/conspiracy roots and moving towards a fantasy RPG aesthetic, Assassin’s Creed Mirage promises a return to form in some way, abandoning massive open worlds, brutal combat, level-gated progression and a warrior-led story and heading back into a more authentic Assassin-focused and stealth-driven play style
Did it succeed? Is it an authentic return or a mere aesthetic? Are we any step close to the core pillars of Assassin’s Creed? Let’s go into the different aspects of the game!
WORLD
Mirage takes us back to the middle east and the aesthetic of the original game from 2007, and it isn’t a fantasy take on the setting. There are no mythical monsters to fight or any fantastical dream segments to play through
The setting involves Baghdad, a big city designed for seamless rooftop traversal, tall minarets to climb, narrow alleyways and crowded markets and streets that are full of life, color, beauty and opportunity to live as an Assassin.
Baghdad has four main districts and there are four Assassin/Hidden Ones bureaus, from which Basim will begin and end most main quests and take optional contracts and develop his tools, and there are various outdoor and indoor spaces to explore, from the breathtaking House of Wisdom to the crowded and colourful bazar to the massive Green Dome Palace, the prison and the nostalgic bureaus reminiscent of the first game.
Aside from the main city of Baghdad, there’s the Anbar, a province situated north of Baghdad, which is another dense area to explore, separated from Baghdad by a vast desert and dunes where the famous remanants of Dur-Kurigazlu ziggurat of Aqarquf is located, with a nearby Oasis, as well as a monastery right by the river
South of Baghdad lies the beautiful, vast and lush lands with marches, palm groves and agricultural areas that are vastly different from the open sands in the north and the dense big city.
In addition to Iraq, we get to explore Alamut, the region where the famous Assassin fortress is located. The area is beautiful and vastly different from Baghdad and its surroundings, and it’s essentially what Masyaf and Monteriggioni were to Assassin’s Creed I and II, a place where Basim meets fellow Hidden Ones and trains to transform from a street thief into an Assassin.
The overall world is one of the best Assassin’s Creed worlds yet. There’s so much beauty, visual variety and color and the hot climate of the area merged with the vast Tigris river and its canals that Basim can traverse on small noughts throughout the city creates a stunning contrast in one of the most beautiful settings yet, and it isn’t just a mere aesthetic, but rather everything is crafted for gameplay opportunity in stealth traversal.
GAMEPLAY
Assassin’s Creed Mirage abandons its reliance onto level-gated progression that we’ve come to know in Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla. There is no levelling up for the character, and players can assassinate pretty much any character stealthily, with one hidden blade strike. It’s overall game design is a hybrid between classic and newer one.
Missions are designed more like the classic games, with the ability to accept more than one case at the same time and tackle them together like the newer games, and each case is built around investigations, and those involve searching for clues, eavesdropping, tailing and assassinating smaller targets to reach the reach the main one.
Upon reaching the main target, Basim is presented with multiple options to infiltrate, similar to Assassin’s Creed Unity, where Basim can either hire rebels to create noise and an opportunity to enter a guarded area or find a broken crack to go through, and even upon entry, Basim can speak with civilians on the inside to help in various ways, whether it’s leading to the target’s location, luring them out, opening doors or distracting guards.
This creates a good sense of progression in each mission, that is thankfully not the usual “ride halfway across the world for 10-20 minutes to a certain spot only to be sent the other way” type of quest design from the last 3 games, and there’s a good pacing that is characterized by the classic Assassin method of investigation > infiltration > assassination.
Dialogue options are present, but they do not impact the main story or the ending, and are more about optionally learning more about a certain topic, rather than changing the outcome of anything, or giving Basim a choice to either pay to hire someone or choosing to do something else, which is more or less inconsequential.
The game encourages players to learn, utilize their tools and surroundings and adopt an Assassin style of being swift, stealthy and effective, because while the game isn’t brutal, it’s also not going to be easy even on the easiest difficulty. So don’t expect to go in with a one-man army approach and survive, unless you have an abundance of smoke bombs and traps. This is quite a welcome aspect, because recent games had stealth as an option, but so much of the game, its mechanics and weapons encourage players to be brutal rather than stealthy.
Mirage however is more punishing towards non-stealthy play style and notoriety plays a prominent role in your experience within the world, as you will be identified, called out, detected, chased and attacks a lot easily when you’re more notorious, which will encourage players to be more careful and stealthy, tear down posters and seek the help of “Al Munadi” to influence your reputation for a safer tour around the world.
STORY
Mirage is a very Basim-centered story and that’s one of its strongest points, because Basim is a complex and unique character and had quite a pivotal role in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s storyline. The last two games had the main character be more or less an avatar for the player into the setting, and the overall narrative and scope was too big that main and most interesting elements felt rather diluted within the bulk of rather uninteresting side narratives.
This game is far more focused in terms of scale and scope, and seeing that Basim’s storyline is deeply entangled within the Hidden Ones, which makes the story way more Assassin-fcoused than its recent predecessors which were more or less a fantasy RPG story of a warrior with few Hidden Ones symbols thrown here and there like easter eggs.
In Mirage, we watch Basim learn and grow. He’s well-written, well-voiced both in Arabic and English and well-designed and it’s beautiful to watch him slowly uncover the mysteries of his life along with those of the world and its factions.
There is no modern day storyline or gameplay of any kind. Only a cutscene, at a the beginning that doesn’t show any characters or new scenes, but rather a voice over by William Miles referencing the story to an unknown listener, similar to the Assassin’s Creed III introduction video. This part was a bit of a disappointment as the present day story was always the connective tissue of the games, and this would’ve been a great opporitnity to further elaborate on Valhalla’s ending. Though it’s understandable, knowing that the game was more or less conceptualized as a Valhalla DLC, but then again that’s another issue with Valhalla’s overall DLC, which is their failure to add anything to the abundance of mysteries left by the ending of the main (and the most interesting) storyline.
But in Mirage, the main historical story is rich in its own right and it develops Basim to one of the most interesting and unique characters in the whole franchise, and it does add a little bit more to the First Civilization meta narrative.
MUSIC
Brendan Angelides created one of the best soundtracks in the entire franchise, that varies between authentic historical sounds and contemporary action tracks. The music is sometimes prominent and powerful and sometimes subtle and effective and not constantly playing in a way that feels rather too filmic, but rather seeps in slowly and effectively.
FINAL WORD
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is strong move towards the franchise’s origins. It isn’t quite there yet, but it isn’t just a mere aesthetic, but rather a great step towards a more Assassin-focused narrative, gameplay atmosphere. At its core, it’s very much an homage to the first game and a celebration of 15 years of Assassin’s Creed, but that doesn’t stop it from being an experience that stands on its own as a mainline Assassin’s Creed, rather than an expansion like Freedom Cry or Jack The Ripper.
It took 20 hours to finish the main story, and can take much longer for those who will take their time with side elements and more exploration and experimenting. It is a full-fledged release that can be enjoyed by longtime fans and newcomers, without making newcomers feel lost or longtime fans feel like there’s something missing and given that it’s a prequel to Valhalla, it doesn’t need a recap from its events either.
The middle eastern aesthetics, the more stealth-driven play style, the focused narrative and shorter play time makes for a much richer, denser and more well-paced experience than the recent games.
The game has many great elements that make me wish it was developed on the new Ubisoft engine and given a larger budget for a post-launch roadmap, because the setting has so much room for more, be it the Alamut Fortress which we don’t get to explore or the Malwiya minaret of Samarra, an iconic landmark in the area, or a chance at more present day storytelling, because it would be quite a missed opportunity since we finally have the first game or perhaps the first AAA work of art/entertainment to explore Iraq.
Mirage has the potential for more games in Mesopotamia/Iraq in its various historical eras from Sumerian to Babylonian to even more games during the Caliphate times or WWI..etc. because the setting itself is the strongest point of the game.
I don’t think I’ve enjoyed any of the recent Assassin’s Creed games as a whole experience as much as I enjoyed Mirage since Revelations. Valhalla had the best main/core narrative since Revelations and Mirage has the best overall experience since Revelations and if this is any indicator of what’s to come, I’d say Assassin’s Creed might just not be too far gone to find its way back to the pillars of its own identity, but that needs to be accomplished by further honoring these roots with more improved true parkour and to acknowledge its science fiction roots with the present day and First Civilization storylines/aesthetics.
9.5/10
