Assassin’s Creed Mirage Review

The Assassin’s Creed franchise has been at a crossroads as of late. The last three installments have leaned heavily into RPG elements that have veered the franchise away from its roots. The clamor of the fans for a more classic approach has been growing throughout the years, and Ubisoft has heard the call.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is the answer, and the teams working on it have made it so that stealth, assassinations, and parkour are at the forefront. It is an homage to the classic titles, but did Ubisoft succeed at their goal?

We’re glad to say that they have, and for the most part, have put out an installment that is a condensed yet triumphant return to form that fans and newcomers to the series will be thoroughly satisfied with, capturing the soul of previous installments.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage starts in 9th-century Baghdad where Basim Ibn Ishaq starts from being a fledgling thief to a master assassin under the tutelage of Roshan of the Hidden Ones. It’s an interesting premise, especially if you’ve played and gone through the events of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, where Basim plays an important role that we won’t spoil any further. That said, knowledge about Valhalla’s story is highly encouraged but not required to enjoy Assassin’s Creed Mirage.

At its core, Assassin’s Creed Mirage features many things that you would expect from an Assassin’s Creed game throughout the years, but it also does some things very differently, leading it to become a tighter and much more contained experience despite an average story that simply treads over the basic trimmings required.

One of the biggest changes compared to the Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla trilogy is the fact that Assassin’s Creed Mirage changes up the combat experience, toning it down a significant amount in favor of a more stealth-centered approach. You won’t be hacking and slashing your way through enemies this time around, and while it is still possible to melee everyone in the face, it certainly isn’t the most efficient and certainly not the easiest thing to get out of, even though Basim has an auto-kill follow-up after a successful parry.

Combat ditches levels and damage numbers altogether, and enemies will now have HP bars that Basim will need to whittle down. Some heavier enemies will be tougher, requiring players to attack from the sides or from behind to deal damage. While not as easy as the original games, combat in Assassin’s Creed Mirage can prove to be a bit of a challenge, albeit almost being a one-button affair, if you don’t learn how to parry, punish openings, and take on foes one at a time.

That’s not to say that Basim isn’t proficient in melee combat. When push comes to shove, he can attack and sidestep with ease, but players will notice that Assassin’s Creed Mirage and its many elements are designed in such a way that stealth and assassinations are highly encouraged because getting swarmed is never a good place to be in. Enemy types are sorely lacking, so while stealth is recommended, the combat loop and variety don’t really change up at all throughout the experience.

Complimenting this shift is Basim’s skill set, which favors a stealthy approach as players can upgrade skills such as chain assassinations, being able to recover thrown knives, and much more. These skill upgrades, though nothing too innovative, simply further Basim’s repertoire and expand his stealth-killing capabilities making him worthy of a Hidden One, an they don’t really shake up Basim’s playstyle so players might find these skills almost unnecessary at a certain point.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage also equips Basim with many tools that will be crucial to his success. Smoke bombs are a popular choice to set multiple enemies up for assassinations even when already spotted, but there are other tools at your disposal such as noisemakers and blow darts. At some point, it can be argued that the tools can be too powerful, and there could be an overreliance on such items. It somehow feels like difficulty balancing was the least of Ubisoft’s worries and they are just allowing players to enjoy the game and fulfill the stealth fantasy, so if you value this over a proper difficulty level, you’re good.

Basim also has Enkidu at his disposal, an eagle that can spot threats and targets from a safe distance, allowing players to plot out their course of action. Should players fail to deal with things quietly, Assassin’s Creed Mirage has employed a notoriety meter that will make it hard for Basim to carry out his assassinations with ease.

When doing “illegal” acts in public, the meter will rise a level, bringing special troops to be on the lookout for Basim. To counter this, Basim can tear down wanted posters scattered across the city to reset his notoriety to zero and have him go about his merry ways without being bothered by persistent troops. This whole poster-tearing act can get a bit tedious towards the end, but I can also understand the logic behind it, leading players to use tools and skills they have at their disposal when approaching a situation.

Despite going back to the series’ roots, Assassin’s Creed Mirage employs a fairly recent feature and places it front and center – the Investigation Board. Otherwise known as The Order of the Ancients in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the Investigation Board serves as a list of targets that Basim will have to take down to get to the bottom of it all. It isn’t as easy as it sounds, and information gathering is an Assassin tool that will be put to very good use.

In the game, players will run through a series of missions that will uncover many clues along the way, slowly peeling off the many layers of information needed to unmask the target. Basim will be able to pickpocket and eavesdrop his way to find enough clues to fill him in on his next target before swooping in for the kill. The way the Investigation Board ties into the story of Assassin’s Creed Mirage is fantastic and a good way to make this otherwise optional feature a must-see and must-play until the end.

In one mission, I had to bribe my way into getting an audience with my target, but before finding that out, I had to talk to a merchant to give me information about it. Assassin’s Creed Mirage makes it so that players can take multiple paths and are given limited freedom to meet the objective, with the game offering a critical path that you can stray from ever so slightly. In this instance, I could either pay the merchant a fee for the information or present a Khidmah Token, which can be used in various situations such as hiring a mercenary group to fight for you or getting information out from merchants. There was also an instance where I could get a disguise to approach the target, but I simply took to the roof and did an air assassination.

As players can probably figure out, this gameplay loop of gathering information and uncovering clues could get a wee bit repetitive as the game progresses and does slow down the action quite a bit. It is a gripe in the grand scheme of things, but to take on the role of a master assassin, one must approach situations with superior information and strike from the shadows, which the game does well with all features conspiring to create a cohesive but rather repetitive experience.

Ubisoft does know how to create a pretty game, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage looks as well as it plays. With stunning views of Baghdad seen from towering synchronization points, there are many places to go to and even more things to uncover, but nothing that really stood out in terms of diversity. The setting of the game is vast and made as historically accurate as possible with the help of cultural experts, and it is quite the experience to weave around Baghdad with the many sights and sounds to take in. Assassin’s Creed Mirage also sounds as good as it looks, with good voice performances and immersive audio tracks that make Baghdad a great but mostly one-tone setting for the game.

As mentioned, Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a significantly shorter experience compared to previous entries that were bloated with too much padding. It took me around 15-20 hours to finish the game, but I know of other reviewers who achieved the Platinum Trophy in around the same time (20 hours), making this a rather short but fulfilling adventure. Mileage may vary, of course.

What we liked:

• Story-based progression rather than experience-based
• Various ways to go around approaching the target
• Flawless performance with hardly any frame drops
• General audio and voice performances are good

What we didn’t like:

• Some missions may feel too long with repetitive steps to finding out the target
• NPC models could look a little bit better
• Difficulty can be a bit too easy for experienced fans
• Little to no evolution of the formula

Verdict: Buy it!

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a triumphant return to form for the franchise, shedding its action RPG-heavy influences from previous installments and creating a smaller and tighter adventure that is centered on the key pillars of stealth, assassinations, and parkour. While there’s little to no evolution to speak of, the gameplay loop of assassinations and stealth is still rather fun and will please fans of the franchise.

The Investigation Board takes center stage and is the main cog where all of the features of the game conspire to give players a slower affair compared to the almost hack-and-slash feel of recent entries. Despite feeling a bit tedious towards the end, the gameplay loop of uncovering the target is made interesting with great stealth-based mechanics.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a great fusion of new and old, and simply goes to show that when Ubisoft listens to what fans want, they can go on to build something that many will enjoy and appreciate, especially an entry from a beloved franchise such as Assassin’s Creed.

*Assassin’s Creed Mirage was reviewed on a PS5 with a review code provided by the publisher.