Assassin’s Creed is a franchise from Ubisoft that has seen no shortage of iterations. At this year’s Summer Game Fest via the Ubisoft Forward, they announced not one but THREE new titles in the Assassin’s Creed universe across three separate mediums. Assassin’s Creed Nexus is a brand new VR title, and Assassin’s Creed Codename Jade is the new mobile title. Our latest AAA title is Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Lucky for us, we got a closer—but hands-off—look at it.
Ubisoft Bordeaux is working on Assassin’s Creed Mirage, with about 200 devs total. Additionally, Ubisoft is borrowing from 11 other Ubisoft studios. This brings the number of developers working on the game to nearly 500. With these numbers and the sheer amount of content the Assassin’s Creed team keeps churning out, it’s easy to worry about the quality of content we might see.
I have to say I am a little concerned that Mirage might not meet the graphical expectations for some. An elephant was in the room with our team at Summer Game Fest. Assassin’s Creed Mirage doesn’t appear to be graphically leaps and bounds ahead of its past iterations. Assassin’s Creed has always been a stunning title. This includes the original game on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2007. Now, here we are in June 2023, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage is being built for our latest-gen consoles (not looking at you, Xbox Series S 1TB). I just don’t think the style has made enough progress to really impress.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage Tries To Bring The Series Back To Its Roots
To be clear, Assassin’s Creed Mirage still looks beautiful, but if you’re going to saturate the market with a franchise, I need to be blown away. Ubisoft Bordeaux sounds so enthusiastic about Mirage, and it looks as though the team has faith that it will be up to the task.
Though I didn’t get hands-on with the game directly, we did watch a love playthrough at Ubisoft Forward—not to mention some lurking with the assassins themselves. Taking place in Baghdad, the area we saw was made with incredible detail and color, there is plenty of parkour to be had, and the characters are just as beautiful as ever.
That being said, it’s not ideal just yet. This early in the build, I definitely saw some graphical issues, with assassination animations not quite lining up with the surroundings once or twice. These are issues that are very common with the release nearly four months away on October 12, 2023, but with preorders already available, I couldn’t let it go unmentioned.
Graphics aside, Assassin’s Creed Mirage brings plenty of new things to the franchise. I did not see any of the main story, only some side quests and a whole lot of parkour. But as I mentioned, the story takes place in Baghdad. You find yourself in the role of Basim, a street thief. The map will be comparable in size to Paris in Assassin’s Creed Unity. The game remains a narrative action-adventure, but the team really put focus on the world narrative throughout the presentation. At the bare minimum, if you ever felt the need to ride a camel, it’s doable in Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
Ubisoft Is Looking to Spice Some Things Up In Assassin’s Creed Mirage
The game will see a range of tools on top of your blade and daggers; smoke bombs, blow darts, throwing knives, and more. The smoke bomb appeared as a cloud of red smoke, but in the demo, it didn’t feel like it assisted in the gameplay as much as I’d liked. I’ll have to wait to be hands-on with the title to tell for sure. Theoretically, the smoke bomb should be able to assist you with the new wanted system. Three tiers are shown in the bottom right of the map, letting you know just how much trouble you’re in. Luckily, for those of you who have played past titles, you can still practice blending in. They’ve also added a few other options to lower your wanted level.
Like any good criminal, you can bribe guards to lower your wanted level in Assassin’s Creed Mirage. If you’re truly evil, you can have Basim assassinate them instead—your call. The team has also added something called Bureaus to the game. These gave me vibes much like the Thieves Guild in Elder Scrolls. Basim darts through town to avoid getting caught and dives into the Bureau to kill time until the heat dies down.
The Bureau will be your home base, essentially. What we saw here was what looked like a merchant. Instead, this was where you would purchase and upgrade those new tools I mentioned above. Unfortunately, I didn’t see how you do this, be it an experience threshold, spending gold, points of some sort, or another option. You will also chat with NPCs and pick up missions here anytime, not just when hiding from the fuzz.
On the combat side of things, Assassin’s Creed Mirage will feature new fight animations, finishers, combos, and parries. You’ll also see new examples of enemies. For example, when using your eagle Enkidu to scan, a marksman can disable it, forcing you to hunt down and assassinate the archer before you can use the skill again. A new ability will also slow down time, allowing for several assassinations in quick succession.
Is This Enough For Assassin’s Creed Mirage To Impress?
With new animations, skills, and tools, Ubisoft is very confident that Assassin’s Creed Mirage will please fans of the series and new players as well. An Assassin’s Creed title is almost always impressive. However, it remains to be seen whether Mirage will feel fresh again ahead of its October release. If not, it will just be another title in an oversaturated franchise.
