Rating it 5 starts for its:

-characters
-graphics
-gameplay
-setting
-story

truly a breath of fresh air and the best ac has been in years, if not ever

A Breath of Fresh Air for Assassin's Creed Fans

The Assassin's Creed franchise has been a cornerstone of my gaming journey since childhood, but recent installments left me disheartened with their departure from the series' roots. However, amidst the disappointment, there shines a beacon of hope: Assassin's Creed Mirage.

As a devoted fan since my youth, I watched with a heavy heart as the series drifted away from its core essence, drowning in bloated gameplay and disconnected narratives. But Mirage is a refreshing deviation from this trend, a testament to what the franchise once stood for.

Set in the vibrant city of Baghdad in 861 CE, Mirage beckons players with its intricate architecture and bustling streets, reminiscent of the series' golden era. The return to a compact urban landscape, rich with verticality and hidden paths, rekindles the thrill of parkour and stealth that defined the early Assassin's Creed experiences.

In Mirage, you step into the shoes of Bassim, a young thief turned Assassin, navigating a web of intrigue and betrayal within the Order of the Ancients. While Bassim may lack the depth of some past protagonists, his journey through the streets of Baghdad is nonetheless compelling, albeit with a few narrative hiccups in the middle act.

What truly sets Mirage apart is its gameplay. Unlike its recent predecessors, Mirage embraces stealth with open arms, making it the preferred approach in every scenario. The combat mechanics are deliberately clunky, encouraging players to evade confrontation and strategize their next move. The reintroduction of tools adds layers of tactical depth, empowering players to approach missions with creativity and finesse.

While some may criticize the parkour mechanics for feeling a tad cumbersome, it's a minor flaw overshadowed by the game's overall commitment to revitalizing the Assassin's Creed experience. Considering Mirage started as a DLC expansion for Valhalla, developed by a modest team with a limited budget, its achievements are commendable.

Assassin's Creed Mirage is not just a game; it's a love letter to longtime fans yearning for the franchise's return to glory. Its success serves as a beacon of hope for the future of the series, inspiring confidence that Assassin's Creed can once again reclaim its former brilliance.

In a gaming landscape cluttered with uninspired sequels and cash-grab expansions, Mirage stands tall as a testament to the power of passion and dedication. Whether you're a seasoned Assassin's Creed veteran or a newcomer seeking an authentic experience, Mirage is a journey worth embarking on.

Ubisoft releasing a somewhat enjoyable and concise Assassin's Creed game? for once? jesus christ are they okay over there?

Not once did it overstay its welcome and actually became enjoyable because of it. Sure, there's still a lot "wrong" with it - they said a 'return' to the old Assassin's Creed gameplay but, it's quite literally just Valhalla's combat and exploration with two things thrown in to make you feel nostalgic (and honestly, I don't want them to return to the old games - I replayed them the other year and they did not hold up well).

Now, do I want Odyssey and Valhalla levels of grandeur and sizeable empty and lifeless worlds to explore? no, not at all. Do I want a little more scope than Mirage offered? Yes, absolutely. Sure, Mirage does indeed have - outside of its city - a barren world with not all that much to offer, but this could easily be resolved by having just an ounce of like.. yknow.. side content out there, make the world alive outside of two side quests per region.

That's the main issue here, they have scaled it all back but they haven't balanced the content to match the world scale.

But hey, it's a step in the right direction - and I enjoyed playing an Assassin's Creed game to platinum status after just 25 hours instead of 100+ for once.

Excited by the chance to go back to the stealthy roots of the franchise after Ubisoft had multiple years to iron out the kinks of the old style, I instead found that not only has zero progress been made on the fluidity of movement in AC, but several aspects have gotten worse. Civilians panic at the slightest mouse fart, making the majority of your tools good for a single kill before bedlam erupts. And the number of times I've had to spin in a circle because I snagged on a 3-foot wall was far higher than I ever remember in previous titles. Bit of a heartbreaking disappointment, this one.

Hey gamers


I don't have much to say about this one. While I appreciate its greatly reduced length after the slog that was Valhalla, the gorgeous city of Baghdad, and the return to the focus on parkour, stealth, and the Creed, Mirage still feels half baked in its story, characters, structure, combat, and progression. The best thing I can say about Mirage is the historical sites. I imagine, due to its initial development as a DLC to Valhalla, they weren't planning to do a Discovery Tour for Mirage like they did for the prior three AC games, so they put their historical research notes into the game itself. This was a great move, allowing me to absorb myself into the setting even more as I played instead of appreciating the the world after I had already played the game. For real though, If you own Origins, Odyssey, and/or Valhalla and haven't checked out their respective Discovery Tours, I implore you to; well, at least the first two (Valhalla's DT structure is really strange and has some awful text-to-speech dialogue).

I had stopped to believe myself that I would ever reach this goal; after starting this journey - mentally - in 2017, and finally beginning the quest in 2020, it took me four years to get through every Assasin's Creed mainline title, and finally catch up with the series. So here we are. The - for now - final and newest addition to the Assassin's Creed line-up, the last to be made in the periode two of Assassin's Creed (as the next titles will again follow a "new design philosophy" that will apparently combine the best elements of the previous two periodes and combine them with their new idea of an interconnected hub). Also a Game that wasn't conceived of one, but rather as yet another DLC for Valhalla.

Thank God it got blown up into its own title. Mirage is the prequel to Valhalla; we get to play Basim, who is an NPC in Valhalla that turns out to be quite an important character for the story and the finale. Knowing what his role is, we already have a pretty good idea about things that we learn about him in Mirage: his weird dreams and visions of a monstrous Jinni that haunts him can only mean one thing...

But he is still young and doesn't understand it. Basim is a young street thieve that lives in a kind of thieving community run by a merchant who deals in stolen goods and sells his thieving services to people who need it - like those Hidden Ones that often want strange things stolen. With his best friend - Nehal - he gets on such a mission, but this time it gets terribly wrong, something strange happens, people die and he and Nehal need to flee the city. The thieving community gets killed and Basim looses Nehal in the trouble and gets taken in by the Hidden Ones, after they see what has happened and what he has brought them. Now Basim learns to become an Assassin - the training is hard, but he finally becomes an Initiate, and gets send back to his home town of Baghdad - in the time of the Islamic Golden Age under the Abbasid Caliphate - to find out things about a conspiracy that is taking place in Baghdad.

Mirage is in its entirety a homage to the entire series. The setting reminds us of Assassins Creed, with all the Bureaus, the gathering of information, the impossibility to take on multiple guards which forces us to be sneaky. It's also an homage to the Assassins Creed II series with the parkour, the notoriety level the wanted posters and announcers we can use to change this. It's further on an homage to Assassins Creed Unity - there is not one way to get in, not one way to assassinate - find opportunities and possibilities to achieve your goals. And it's an homage to Revelations; build your own tools, and change them to your liking. All combined in a periode two game play and setting, with an updated beautiful artwork and hit box fighting system, but with a much reduced availability of weapons as was the case in periode one games (basically you just have a sword and dagger but will collect about 6 different ones with different abilities to complement your play style). And a direct link to Valhalla. But also to all Assassin's Creeds that used ability trees (starting from Unity).

The map itself is dense and the game rather short, but coming from three massive titles that where real time sinks I was actually pretty happy about having a small game. Its less "ungided" even though you have choices of where you want to go and proceed next, and it is a vibrant and living world, with a lot of side activities and fun to play.

I was already intrigued by the Basim character when he first appeared in Valhalla, and after finally knowing what and who he is, and what special ability he has that will probably make him important for further games to come (at least form a modern-day perspective - if modern day will still exist in period three games?), he is defiantly a character worth to have a backside story to. And even though you might think you know where this is leading to, you actually don't and in the end get really surprised by some twists and turns the story will still take.

What can I say - I had a lot of fun with this game, both gameplay wise, as well as story wise - it is the best of Assassin's Creed accumulated in one game that has a beautiful map, an interesting time period I knew nothing about but learned a lot through playing this game; and I just loved that after having played 300 hours of Odyssey and Valhalla, that Mirage just asked me to invest 60 hours for a 100% complete game experience. I totally loved this one and hope that this is the game Ubisoft will take as a blueprint when designing the next titles.