{"id":36363,"date":"2023-10-04T15:00:05","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T14:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xtremeservers.com\/blog\/assassins-creed-mirage-review\/"},"modified":"2023-10-04T15:00:05","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T14:00:05","slug":"assassins-creed-mirage-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xtremeservers.com\/blog\/assassins-creed-mirage-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Assassin’s Creed Mirage Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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During the same year the first iPhone was released and Prince played Purple Rain at a halftime show where it literally rained, another bit of culture was changed forever: the first Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/a> was released to mixed reviews. Not everyone loved Ubisoft\u2019s approach to stealth and action, but it was widely agreed that this game was on to something. In the 15-plus years since, its many sequels traded stealth for something far bigger and flashier, but lost sight of the very spirit of how it began. Assassin\u2019s Creed Mirage takes a lot of important, imperfect steps to get back to its roots, and though that means as it does no particular thing that hasn\u2019t been done before, the focus and commitment to briskly paced missions and stealth-heavy exploration scratches an itch that the RPG-based entries couldn\u2019t reach. It might not be the most ambitious of games, but it does restore hope that there\u2019s still room for a version of Assassin\u2019s Creed that we haven’t seen in almost a decade.<\/p>\n

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Stealth is king again in Assassin’s Creed. Mirage does away with the XP and leveling your character completely, meaning every enemy is just a hidden blade away from doom if you play your cards right. Most areas have lots of ways to stay hidden, and the returning eagle scouting option helps you check all angles before deciding your next move. It was refreshing to approach a scenario and have to weigh my options based on its many moving parts rather than simply considering if the loot is worth the mindless slaughter that will follow. Strongholds like high-security prisons and coastal fortresses regularly feature many guards with staggered patrols and overlapping sightlines. Early on especially, the threat of fighting multiple enemies at once is so daunting that using the shadows, sharp timing, and the environment is a necessity to make progress towards well defended objectives. Even more than in the pre-Origins games, I have had to make vigorous use of precariously hanging dock supplies or conveniently placed spice bags to cause enough chaos to see to my ends.<\/p>\n

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That said, it\u2019s not one of the Having played all of the DLC expansions for Assassin\u2019s Creed Valhalla, I admit I never once thought \u201cI would like to know about the origin story for Basim,\u201d the mysterious frenemy of Evior and Layla Hassan. I\u2019ve now put almost 20 hours into learning his history as he takes the lead role in Mirage, and the story hasn\u2019t really changed my mind on that front. Basim\u2019s origins as a plucky cutpurse with a heart of gold turned vengeful assassin feels like the most fast-forwarded Hidden One\u2019s story in the series. Before the blood from his slain friends dries, he\u2019s trust-falling into hay stacks and chopping his own finger off. He\u2019s a pretty milquetoast, golden retriever of a man, largely agreeable and affable when it comes to his interpersonal relationships, and chooses what\u2019s right every time without much conflict. He\u2019s fine, if not all that interesting most of the time, and by the end I was still left wondering how this<\/em> guy became the scheming triple-crosser we met years ago.<\/p>\n

That said, Basim\u2019s story is far shorter and more linear than those of the recent Witcher 3-inspired games, and for my dirham (that\u2019s money) the adventure is better for it. Your main tasks start on the investigation board, a web of leads and clues that all point toward the main targets. Solving smaller issues, like identifying a local rebel leader or stopping a spree of abductions, often lead you to bigger reveals, which in turn take you further and further up the chain until you get to take another stab at the big conspiracy that’s causing all this chaos. Admittedly, the board makes things feel more open ended than they truly are because you can tackle tasks in any order you like, even though they are almost all mandatory. But breaking the stories into little chunks that keep expectations clear and concise does wonders for the pacing of a game like this.<\/p>\n

Basim\u2019s story is far shorter, and the adventure is better for it.<\/section>\n

Though it is more focused, Basim\u2019s quest is pretty lackluster in relation to the other games in the series. The contrivance that gets him into the assassination game \u2013 revenge plus a calling to a higher purpose \u2013 has been done before and in more captivating ways in previous games. Save for maybe the final four or so hours, his hunt to track down members of the villainous Order of the Ancients is rather basic and predictable. Each of them and their flunkies are staunchly, almost cartoonishly evil without any nuance, and though it\u2019s inoffensive to make the subject of your ruthless yet justifiable murders so simple, it’s still a little disappointing that we haven\u2019t had another big bad as complex as Haytham Kenway or as cackling mad as Rodrigo Borgia.<\/p>\n

The same goes for Basim\u2019s allies, who are all various shades of \u201cconspirators but for good\u201d types you\u2019ve seen all over the Assassin\u2019s Creed series. With the exception of Basim\u2019s own master Roshan, brought to life expertly by Shohreh Aghdashloo\u2019s distinctively smoky voice, the supporting cast of Mirage is no more than adequate both as characters and in their performances. <\/p>\n

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Among my favorite \u201ccharacters,’ though,’ is the city of Baghdad and its surrounding areas. The different districts, from the dense bustling heart in the Round City to the dusty slums in Karkh, feel busy and lived-in in a way that hasn\u2019t been present in the series since Unity or perhaps Syndicate. It\u2019s full of busy streets full of people to blend in with and city blocks with open homes you can sprint through while eluding pursuers \u2013 things you\u2019ll be doing a lot thanks to Mirage\u2019s notoriety system. It\u2019s in many ways a throwback to the Ezio days, and it scales up the efforts to take you down based on how many beehives you’re kicking around town. Thanks to the iron grip that the ruling caliph has on the city, guards are on every corner and it gets very tough to escape their lines of sight simply by running. If you can\u2019t hide, removing wanted posters and paying off town criers can help to clear your name. It asks a lot of you when it comes to evading capture, so it’s nice that it also gives you lots of ways to meet its expectations.<\/p>\n

Not being a scholar I can\u2019t speak to whether Mirage\u2019s many real-world locations are more historically accurate than past games (as the focus on finding historical sites seems more pronounced than in the recent past), but there\u2019s no singular monuments or landscapes that really took my breath away like The Great Pyramids in Origins<\/a> or Athena\u2019s Statue in Odyssey<\/a>. On the whole, though, the golden rolling dunes and tropical oases are beautiful and the city and its suburbs have plenty of alleys and nooks to explore if collectible hunting is your thing. Ubisoft\u2019s renewed focus on a smaller region has allowed it to flesh out more of the details, and that\u2019s a win.<\/p>\n