If there's one thing to say about Ubisoft’s newest entry into the Assassin’s Creed series, it's that Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a return to the delightful stealth-based gameplay and storytelling of Etzio’s trilogy while keeping some of the newer features of recent games. Ubisoft has a long history of hit-or-miss, especially in regard to the Assassin’s Creed series, but when it comes to Mirage I have to say that the newest entry of the Assassin’s Creed series while not a masterpiece, is an excellent game that brings back a lot of the stuff that made Assassin’s Creed great!
GAMEPLAY AND STORY
Before we get into gameplay, let's talk about the story in Mirage. Story in an Assassin’s Creed game can be anywhere from absurd, to terrible, mindbending, entertaining, or boring; in the case of Mirage, I would like to say the premise and inciting events are a little rote, but the character development, world-building, and overall storyline are beautifully executed.
By this point, the overarching storyline of an Assassin’s Creed storyline should be familiar to anyone acquainted with the franchise. Play as one of the Assassins aka the ‘Hidden Ones’ at this point in the world’s timeline, and fight the templars for being bad and doing tyrant stuff, yada, yada, yada. In Mirage you play as Basim, who will be recognized from his appearance in the previous AC game by anyone who played it. Mirage is a prequel and covers his origin story and adventures in Baghdad and the Abysid caliphate.
Basim starts as a stereotypical street rat thief with dreams of better things who quickly gets in over his head to then see the results of his recklessness rebound on not only himself but also his friends, neighbors, and loved ones. This leads to him joining the Assassins to fight against the Templars and the ruling class oppressing the people of the empire.
From here Basim adventures around Baghdad and neighboring cities to uncover whatever plot the Templars are cooking up this time, all the while slowly climbing the ranks of the Assassins before becoming a master himself. There are plenty of twists and turns to find later in the story, but I won't spoil them here, I’ll only say they are definitely classic Assassin’s Creed twists and turns for returning players to enjoy.
So after all that story let's get to the gameplay. Mirage is a return to the stealth gameplay style that players originally enjoyed about the franchise. Combat encounters are more environmental puzzles to solve on how to kill all the guards, and there's plenty of sneaking around not being seen stealth fun, from infiltrating buildings, to eavesdropping on guards, and more. Combat fanatics who enjoyed the previous 3 RPG style entries don’t have to fret, Mirage still has that ‘number go up’ combat and weapon progression, it just drastically toned down and modified for stealth gameplay, dodging and parrying are also much more important now if you get into outright combat. Sometimes it’s better to just run away and try again than to try and win a fight.
Unfortunately, the map reveal towers are still a plague on the genre, I realize the eagle view of the city once you reach the top of a tower is iconic, but it was way cooler back when you spent 10 to 20 minutes climbing a tower puzzle all the way to the top of the Florence Cathedral, than with a tower that takes one minute of pressing up to climb that's about as tall as any other building in the city. Oh well.
For stealth, players have a wide array of tools to kill, distract, maim, or otherwise get rid of enemies. Throwing daggers that can kill distant enemies or cut ropes, firebombs, smoke bombs, torches, and more will help players navigate stealth encounters and fights with enemies. Players can also pickpocket random NPC’s in the world to earn coins, trinkets, and of course tokens.
Faction tokens are the big new thing in Mirage. There are different factions in the game like mercenaries, merchants, rebels, and so on. By collecting different tokens you can turn them into factions for benefits, like cheaper shop prices, distracting guards, letting you blend in with a group, or lowering your notoriety level. Tokens can be earned by completing quests, pickpocketing, or looting chests.
Assassin’s Creed Mirgae brings back the notoriety level and wanted posters from earlier games as well but streamlines it. There are 3 levels each with escalating consequences for how easy it is to remain unnoticed by both civilians and guards within the city. Dropping a dude in front of a civilian will have them call out to alert the guards now if you have a wanted-level. Overall when you combine the old, recent, and new mechanics that have gone into Mirage, the gameplay actually turns out to be an entertaining mix of stealth, action, and RPG elements.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
I was also to play Mirage on PC with pretty much max graphics settings, and while I can say some of the environments and tableaus were simply stunning, the character models look like something out of the previous generation, especially the faces. Also while there are some frankly stunning visuals of buildings and historical sites, a lot of the stuff in the environment like pots, beams, furniture, and so on look like reused or repurposed assets from previous games. In general, the graphics are acceptable for what the game is, it’s just nothing to write home about… the sound design on the other hand is!
Mirage has some of the most inspired and culturally relevant sound design I’ve ever heard in an Assassin’s Creed game since the sea shanties in Black Flag. The music and sound of Mirage really make you feel like an epic assassin prowling the sunbaked streets of Baghdad. It's hard to put into words, but the sound design for Mirage is on point.
FEEDBACK
There’s not much different I would recommend about Mirage, it's not a perfect game or a masterpiece but it's not a bad game either. Nothing about Mirage touches upon the groundbreaking. Overall it's just a solid game that has done an excellent job merging mechanics from all the previous Assassin’s Creed games into a revival of the series' original stealth gameplay. The only thing I could really say is that I wish the artists at Ubisoft spent more time with the character models and did more with the environments and buildings, but that’s about it in terms of specific improvements I’d like to see.
CONCLUSION
So when it comes down to it, is Assassin’s Creed Mirage something you as a gamer should be interested in? Well, the short answer is yes, especially if you’re a long-time fan of the series who drifted away as the games lost the plot and core gameplay that started the series, Mirage is a great game to jump into if you enjoy the classic stealth gameplay of the series. Fans of the 3 recent RPG-style entries don’t have to freak out either as smashing faces and upgrading weapons is still possible, just limited and designed with stealth as a preferable option. In the end, I can say that Mirage is no slouch when it comes to the Assassin’s Creed roster, and hopefully a symbol of things to come for the franchise.
