Assassin’s Creed Mirage is an Homage to the Assassin’s Creeds of Yesteryear - Preview

Way back in 2017, Ubisoft and its flagship Montreal studio, went about changing the future of Assassin’s Creed forever. After the disaster that was Assassin’s Creed Unity’s launch, Ubisoft needed a solution to reboot the franchise and make it relevant again. The result was an excellent trilogy of games: Assassin’s Creed Origins, the brilliant Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla; three games with a brand new look and feel. This new approach was to go bigger and change the franchise from a more action-adventure-focused title, into more of an action-RPG. For those that miss that pure, leaner Assassin’s Creed formula, however, Assassin’s Creed Mirage looks to be right up your avenue.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage sees you jump into the shoes of Basim from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, before the events of Eivor Varinsdottir’s journey west. You’ll find yourself in Baghdad, in the Middle East, which is said to be comparable in size to Paris in Assassin’s Creed Unity, or Constantinople in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. 

Benjamin Potts, Animation Director on Assassin's Creed Mirage, noted that Baghdad is “dense, vibrant and immersive” and “is perfect for our Assassin’s experience.” Potts also goes on to note that Mirage will contain a “memorable and self-contained narrative” which is “set at a key moment of history for the region and the assassins,” as the city is on the verge of a revolution.

While Valhalla and the like are all about freedom, exploration, and character growth on a much more open scale, Assassin’s Creed Mirage is all about parkour, stealth, and assassinations in a tight and claustrophobic, sprawling city, just as it was back in the Assassin’s Creed 2 era and beyond. We’re talking stealthily stalking from the rooftops, following targets through the dense city streets, traversing strongholds, and then taking down your target and slipping into the crowds before the dust has settled. “Investigating, hunting, striking and evading,” according to Potts, is the core loop of Assassin’s Creed Mirage.

Basim, like Altair and Ezio, is armed with trusty assassination tools to assist him on his mission, from the hidden blade (with dual aerial takedown and the like) and his sword, to the more traditional smoke bombs, blow darts, traps, distraction bombs and throwing knives. There are five tools to utilise in all. Of course, if the shit does hit the fan, you can go toe-to-toe with your foes, too, fresh with recognisable finishing moves and parries that were once a staple of the combat.

Mirage isn’t just a homage to the previous Assassin’s Creed games entirely, it does include some of the new mechanics that fans have become so accustomed to in recent years. Firstly, you’ll have a trusty feathered friend, Enkidu, that you can call in to carry out reconnaissance work for you; and on top of that, the combat seems to be more one-button than it was back in the day - although it was hard to tell if that was the case with our hands-off first-look.

You’ll also have access to the trademark Eagle Vision too, this time showing you where the guards are looking, giving you less chance of stumbling accidentally into the eyeline of one of the city’s guards.

It’s not a complete homage with no innovation, however, as Assassin's Creed Mirage introduces a mechanic not at all dissimilar to Splinter Cell: Conviction’s ‘mark and execute’ mechanic. In the gameplay demo, we saw Basim mark three targets, and then bounce from one to the next, to the next with incredible ease and efficiency. It was a sight to behold.

While it’s still early days, it was easy to get a feel for the direction that Assassin’s Creed Mirage is taking. One that does truly take the game back to its roots, while also bringing that formula into the new era of stealth-related video games. Assassin’s Creed Mirage may have started out, originally, as a piece of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla DLC, but what it’s seemingly turned into is perhaps something none of us expected. Especially me. 

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a homage to the Assassin’s Creed of yesteryear. While it does have sprinklings of the new games, like more in-depth combat and the use of a trusty winged friend to do your recon work, as well as a new mark and execute-style mechanic, if you took them away, this is pretty much Assassin’s Creed as it was before it took its large step into a brave new RPG realm. Whether that’s for you, is entirely your call, of course. But with it coming in at $50/€50, you can’t really grumble.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is scheduled for release on 12th October on last-gen and current-gen consoles.