mi·rage/məˈräZH/noun
an optical illusion caused by atmospheric conditions; something that appears real or possible but is not in fact so.
Y'know, I hate doing the whole "Webster's defines..." as an intro but it works very well for Assassin's Creed Mirage. A case study in why Ubisoft cannot help itself but crank out more middling, regurgitated slop with nuggets of gold in it. Those nuggets of gold are only building to my definition of insanity: continuing to play these games when they continually disappoint, waste my time, and fill up my backloggd with more mediocrity.
To start with as much good as I can try to mine - if it has been a few years since you have played an Assassin's Creed game, this is a decent entry point gameplay-wise. They have wholeheartedly toned down the open world combat and stomping people's heads in like in Valhalla, to a much more somber, city-adventuring affair similar to those found in games like Assassin's Creed II or Brotherhood. It's a pleasure to feel like most encounters that are entered have to be stealthed out, have numerous routes to make it to the goal, and put stealth back into a franchise that arguably hasn't been that since 2016. Along with this, you get access to tools that put even the peaks of the series to shame. Throwing knives, smoke bombs, and noise-traps are all satisfying gimmicks to throw and manipulate Ubisoft's brain-dead NPCs to their fatal ends.
The only other positive I can elaborate on is the sometimes-okay mission ideas and routing. Most importantly, the assassination missions. These come with an asterisk, as they're light-years away from something even close to Hitman when it comes to variety of assassination and choice of method, but it is a good mechanic to allow players to choose their way into invading a palace or festival. Ubisoft should work on the different kinds of assassination because all of the different paths you use to get in all pretty much narrow down to the same sort of assassination. It's just the method of entry they're using as the illusion of choice.
Now for the negatives, which there is quite a lot. Starting with the story: burn it all down to the fucking ground. I cannot think of anything redeemable and I'm writing this review today so I even just remember what happened in it. I won't cover spoilers but all I can say is...wow, it's bad. The side characters are atrocious, Roshan sounds like a woman out of those old "former smoker" ads and it's grating to hear the whole game. No one else has a name or does a great job at reappearing. Basim is about as interesting as wall paste as Ubisoft only elevates him in the final act to actually being someone important.
Maybe a side-tangent too, but is anyone else really fucking sick of the whole "Order of the Ancients" crap? It's continually thrust in your face, ooh, these "evil characters who are so evil they have to die". Ubisoft was so kind as to even give each of them a 30-60 second FMV before the mission proceeded. However, we're not introduced to any of them before we assassinate them, and all their evils and horrible things are done off-screen or recanted in horrible notes. Can someone at Ubisoft just go to a different company who's decent at writing villains, dear God, I struggle to think of a great Ubisoft villain since Vaas. Part of building up these assassination missions and treating them like a climax is actually finding a way to make me care about what I'm doing, and yet Ubisoft continues to not just miss the mark, but miss the whole target by creating these generic-ass power broker characters who I spend time killing.
This just builds to the dark sides of the game when it comes to gameplay or enjoyment. In favor of Valhalla's gratifying stories to complete in each region, each region of this game has one 3-5 minute side-story, none of which is memorable. Everything else is that annoying collectable gathering you may remember from Valhalla, like Ubisoft thinks they're so smart for creating these houses that are locked in and you have to go to the other side to burst the door open. Wow, so much better than any puzzle game ever. I feel so challenged by something even a 9-year-old could figure out.
Gameplay also, while I did thumb it up earlier, has sore spots. Ubisoft still struggles to program your character to move the right way sometimes. There was at least ten times in the game where Basim jumped opposite of how I pointed, got me spotted, and thrust me into the annoying, pre-2010 action combat they have in this game of parries insta-killing most enemies. The NPCs still sometimes have god-tier acknowledgment of where you are at all times and when you are spotted, will call everyone in the building to meet you. There were plenty of times when I caught myself having fun, only to be caught by some guard through a wall and next thing you know, ten enemies are in a 6-by-6 foot room with me.
On top of all this, the game still leverages some of the biggest complaints of the open-world games. The forced-in crafting system. I will not stop the crusade against that until it is leveraged properly in most AAA games. The generic repeatable side-content missions take all of 5 missions so the game is "replayable".
Going back to the definition, there's a reason I highlighted certain parts. This game was marketed to older AC fans as some sort of return to form, a return to the good ol ACII era of the game, when in fact, it's a mirage. A illusion. This is just Ubisoft's marketing hard at work to make you want to revisit an old friend from high school, when in reality, they're still living with Mom and smell like they soiled themselves. Yeah, there are nuggets you may share and enjoy like chatting about anime and new video games, but you should stay away.
an optical illusion caused by atmospheric conditions; something that appears real or possible but is not in fact so.
Y'know, I hate doing the whole "Webster's defines..." as an intro but it works very well for Assassin's Creed Mirage. A case study in why Ubisoft cannot help itself but crank out more middling, regurgitated slop with nuggets of gold in it. Those nuggets of gold are only building to my definition of insanity: continuing to play these games when they continually disappoint, waste my time, and fill up my backloggd with more mediocrity.
To start with as much good as I can try to mine - if it has been a few years since you have played an Assassin's Creed game, this is a decent entry point gameplay-wise. They have wholeheartedly toned down the open world combat and stomping people's heads in like in Valhalla, to a much more somber, city-adventuring affair similar to those found in games like Assassin's Creed II or Brotherhood. It's a pleasure to feel like most encounters that are entered have to be stealthed out, have numerous routes to make it to the goal, and put stealth back into a franchise that arguably hasn't been that since 2016. Along with this, you get access to tools that put even the peaks of the series to shame. Throwing knives, smoke bombs, and noise-traps are all satisfying gimmicks to throw and manipulate Ubisoft's brain-dead NPCs to their fatal ends.
The only other positive I can elaborate on is the sometimes-okay mission ideas and routing. Most importantly, the assassination missions. These come with an asterisk, as they're light-years away from something even close to Hitman when it comes to variety of assassination and choice of method, but it is a good mechanic to allow players to choose their way into invading a palace or festival. Ubisoft should work on the different kinds of assassination because all of the different paths you use to get in all pretty much narrow down to the same sort of assassination. It's just the method of entry they're using as the illusion of choice.
Now for the negatives, which there is quite a lot. Starting with the story: burn it all down to the fucking ground. I cannot think of anything redeemable and I'm writing this review today so I even just remember what happened in it. I won't cover spoilers but all I can say is...wow, it's bad. The side characters are atrocious, Roshan sounds like a woman out of those old "former smoker" ads and it's grating to hear the whole game. No one else has a name or does a great job at reappearing. Basim is about as interesting as wall paste as Ubisoft only elevates him in the final act to actually being someone important.
Maybe a side-tangent too, but is anyone else really fucking sick of the whole "Order of the Ancients" crap? It's continually thrust in your face, ooh, these "evil characters who are so evil they have to die". Ubisoft was so kind as to even give each of them a 30-60 second FMV before the mission proceeded. However, we're not introduced to any of them before we assassinate them, and all their evils and horrible things are done off-screen or recanted in horrible notes. Can someone at Ubisoft just go to a different company who's decent at writing villains, dear God, I struggle to think of a great Ubisoft villain since Vaas. Part of building up these assassination missions and treating them like a climax is actually finding a way to make me care about what I'm doing, and yet Ubisoft continues to not just miss the mark, but miss the whole target by creating these generic-ass power broker characters who I spend time killing.
This just builds to the dark sides of the game when it comes to gameplay or enjoyment. In favor of Valhalla's gratifying stories to complete in each region, each region of this game has one 3-5 minute side-story, none of which is memorable. Everything else is that annoying collectable gathering you may remember from Valhalla, like Ubisoft thinks they're so smart for creating these houses that are locked in and you have to go to the other side to burst the door open. Wow, so much better than any puzzle game ever. I feel so challenged by something even a 9-year-old could figure out.
Gameplay also, while I did thumb it up earlier, has sore spots. Ubisoft still struggles to program your character to move the right way sometimes. There was at least ten times in the game where Basim jumped opposite of how I pointed, got me spotted, and thrust me into the annoying, pre-2010 action combat they have in this game of parries insta-killing most enemies. The NPCs still sometimes have god-tier acknowledgment of where you are at all times and when you are spotted, will call everyone in the building to meet you. There were plenty of times when I caught myself having fun, only to be caught by some guard through a wall and next thing you know, ten enemies are in a 6-by-6 foot room with me.
On top of all this, the game still leverages some of the biggest complaints of the open-world games. The forced-in crafting system. I will not stop the crusade against that until it is leveraged properly in most AAA games. The generic repeatable side-content missions take all of 5 missions so the game is "replayable".
Going back to the definition, there's a reason I highlighted certain parts. This game was marketed to older AC fans as some sort of return to form, a return to the good ol ACII era of the game, when in fact, it's a mirage. A illusion. This is just Ubisoft's marketing hard at work to make you want to revisit an old friend from high school, when in reality, they're still living with Mom and smell like they soiled themselves. Yeah, there are nuggets you may share and enjoy like chatting about anime and new video games, but you should stay away.