Assassin’s Creed takes a step back in time, both in gameplay and graphics.

Was everything better in Assassin’s Creed before? Hard to answer, but definitely a lot of things used to be different. In the old adventures of Altair and Ezio, the focus was on sneaking, stealthy assassinations and wild parkou romps above the rooftops of historic metropolises.

With Origins, the gameplay changed, suddenly there were huge open worlds, role-playing elements and dozens of side quests. Instead, the once iconic acrobatics slipped more and more into the background – a development that gave the series new momentum and huge sales figures, but did not appeal to many fans of the first hours. Now Assassin’s Creed Mirage is set to unite the fronts – a mammoth task for a mid-sized spin-off.

We have already seen gameplay in the run-up to Ubisoft Forward and talked to Associate Animation Director Benjamin Pots. He told us about Mirage’s intention to use smaller scales and why Basim will be a fascinating protagonist.

Will Mirage’s return to old habits really excite the fans? We’re not quite convinced yet. But first things first.

We now know what Mirage really looks like

Previously there was only heavily edited gameplay snippets of AC Mirage, now there were several minutes in a row – let’s talk directly about the elephant in the room. Compared to AC Valhalla, Mirage is a graphical step backwards, especially the stiff facial animations and some movements of NPCs stand out to us.

Whether and how much this bothers someone is, of course, up to the individual – surely there will also be fans who don’t care about dusty graphics as long as the gameplay comes across as cool. And so far, that looks like what many have wanted for so long: Old school AC with a few modern twists.

How Mirage wants to reawaken old feelings

We play as Basim, whom we have already met in Valhalla. However, we take a small journey back in time, when he is still fighting his way through 9th century Baghdad as a cunning thief and comes into contact with the Assassin Order there. The city will be the only major setting of the game, apart from short excursions (on horseback, camel or boat) into the surrounding countryside, the developers deliberately concentrate on one location. If you wish, you ll even be able to experience Baghdad with the classic blue filter of the first Assassin’s Creed. Potts explains the vision behind the setting like this:

I can’t go into detail at this point about exactly how big the map will be with Baghdad, but if you think of Constantinople or Paris, you already have a good idea (…). We wanted to bring back that classic Assassin’s Creed feel with our city.

The sneaking and parkour should also be classic In the gameplay shown, Basim can be seen stalking his victims and striking with lightning speed, be it with a deadly jump attack from above or sneakily from the shadows. Although he can also fight offensively, according to the developers this is only ever his last resort. Quite a difference to the latest parts, Eivor was really anything but subtle.

(The increased focus on stealth is one of the big differences to AC Valhalla.)

To make sneaking feel rewarding instead of frustrating, the guards’ reactions and cones of vision have been reworked – we probably won’t know exactly what that means until we can dive into Mirage ourselves.

Parkour!

Okay cool, but what will the new parkour system be like? This question keeps die-hard old-school fans up at night. And unfortunately we can’t answer it conclusively, even though we have now gained a somewhat clearer impression. The quality of the animations shown varies (the gameplay is explicitly still a “work in progress”), but basically it looks much more like AC Revelations than the new parts. 

The following manoeuvres have already been seen, some of which will be familiar to you from the beginning of the series.

Basim slides out of the race over boxes or under obstacles.

He swings around corners of houses

He takes a cue from high bar gymnasts and uses bars to pull himself up or jump over obstacles

He uses a long bar to gracefully lift himself over streets and urban canyons

(Basim, in typical series fashion, uses every means to get from A to B quickly and elegantly.)

Baghdad is designed with parkour in mind, the developers keep emphasising that. The rooftops, the narrow streets, convenient stacks of crates and strategically placed ropes – it looks like a really exciting assassin’s playground. However, we haven’t been able to try it out ourselves yet, so we’ll wait to pass judgement until we control Basim and get a feel for his movements.

What’s new?

Mirage doesn’t just rehash features from before, however, but combines them with elements from the newer parts. For example, Basim also has an eagle at his side that spies out enemies for him and literally gives him a bird’s eye view. However, the feathered ally can only take off if there are no alert archers nearby – if necessary, Basim has to clear up lookout towers first.

Enemies become aware of the eagle when they are suspicious. Mirage works with a new three-stage alarm system here, the more suspicious Basim behaves, the more sharply guards keep an eye out for him. Since we’ve already spied Wanted posters, we assume that they can be torn down like before to calm down a zone.

(We are not immediately discovered by guards. But if that happens, open combat ensues.)

Is this the future of Assassin’s Creed?

We also asked Potts if Mirage is an experiment or if Ubisoft wants to fundamentally reorient Assassin’s Creed and have future installments be more like the old games. We didn’t get a clear answer, but nevertheless his statement was revealing:

Of course I can’t reveal yet what will happen in our future games. But Mirage stands on its own for now and doesn’t mean that it will basically continue in this way now.

Already announced are AC Jade (a mobile spin-off), AC Nexus (a VR version), AC Witch (which is supposed to go in an unspecified “entirely new direction”) and AC Red (Japan-setting, probably with a large open world again). So Ubisoft is putting out feelers in all possible directions right now – in the best case scenario, there’s something for all kinds of fans.

Iguaranteed Ubisoft will first take a close look at how Mirage is doing and whether the old-school fans actually make up a large enough group willing to buy. And we, in turn, are eagerly awaiting the release on 12 October 2023 – by then at the latest, we’ll be swinging as Basim over the walls and houses of Baghdad and finding out whether everything will be as beautiful as it used to be.

Editor’s Verdict

I think whether Mirage excites you or not depends mostly on the strength of your nostalgia glasses. In my case, I’m approaching the game without any particular love for the old parts (no throwing stones, please) and accordingly, the cheers from me are missing for now – but I really hope for all fans of the past that Mirage fulfils everything you’ve been wanting for ages: buttery parkour, a compact city as an assassin’s playground, cool sneak missions and cinematic take-downs.

What I can assure you of in any case: The development team is incredibly passionate about it. Behind Mirage is an idea full of passion; there are real AC cracks at work here who have taken a very close look at the fan feedback. May it also be implemented in a worthy manner!

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