Assassin's Creed Mirage Review

"Return to Form"

Campaign

October 12, 2023 at 8:44pm
By Jason Stettner

The Creed franchise has gone partially back to its origins with Mirage as the series aims to offer something more bite size. This was actually a rather refreshing change-up as it was much more manageable to work through and didn’t feel as though it would never end.

With that, there are some elements that could have been expanded upon. Whatever the case, it sets the stage for hopefully more similar offerings down the road and I hope that concept of a smaller game is pursued further. Within Mirage we follow the journey of Basim, a common thief on the streets that eventually becomes a beginner member of the brotherhood.

He has certain standards, a very close friend and he’s constantly haunted by visions of darkness. This is what drives him forward as completes tasks including assassinations or whatever else is asked along the way.

The story is split across a number of key situations but largely you are playing the role of a detective. Who is managing this shadowy organization within Baghdad? The city itself is a lively place with defined circular aspirations and within many to deal with.

It’s fairly straight however as the detective work is linear and you can’t really fiddle around with how progress is handled which is disappointing. You do get to have more freedom in tacking scenarios but I would have liked a little bit more of figuring things out on my own. That’s one aspect, another is that I do wish some elements would have been fleshed out more.

The story seemed to meander slightly with the more exciting aspects not getting enough development. I want the tighter story, but the narrative does need to match that as well. There are side stories and activities to take part in as one might expect. These aren’t typically full of depth but do offer some fun adventures have on your journey, and the rewards are worth it.

Gameplay

While we once again venture forth into an open world, we return to the design of a dense city. It’s much more lively than sprawling country sides we’ve seen within the recent releases. There are many NPCs living their lives doing stuff alongside the guards and what not that are problems for us. I do hope we someday see Unity’s crowds fully realized, and we’re getting there.

There’s a refreshed sense of verticality to it for more freedom in how you go about parkour as you escape or get to places. The city itself features a neat circular vision so you’ll need to be creative to reach some areas and if adventurous you may find yourself out I the open spaces beyond the city walls where some other activities are present.

I will note that while this is fresh, it does seem to take elements or well assets from Origins such as the palm trees. Still, it’s a beautiful world to explore that feels as though it’s filled to the brim with life and activities. That’s right, aside from quests there are many things to gather interact with here. Some of these will even teach you about the history of the region which is an awesome addition for these games to provide.

Moving onwards to combat and general controls. This is a mix of the modern look of Creed with stripped down elements of the older Creeds gone past. You have a specific set of weapons and tools with limited upgrades to improve your arsenal. It’s straight forward, basic and I loved this part of the experience. I also highly recommend upgrading your throwing knives, they’re awesome. Seriously, you can like dissolve enemies and continuously recollect them for usage, it’s superb!

Your eagle also returns for spotting things, but like with our special vision I did find it strangely harder to pinpoint stuff to the point I was wondering if the game had a bug or something whereas I just wasn’t looking in the right spot. I did at times find the notoriety system slightly annoying as they troops seemed to just know where I was, but it got better to handled as I gained more abilities.

When it comes to the general performance on Xbox Series X we had two choices. The first is performance mode with a dynamic 4k resolution at 60fps with the second being quality which was a full 4k resolution at 30fps. There’s HDR support as well for whichever you go for but I recommend the performance level for the fluidity level. There was however an issue with frequent screen tearing but that’s supposed to be patched up.

The Conclusion

Assassin's Creed Mirage is a great return to form offering a fun adventure within a dense, lively city that does hit that feeling of classic Creed. It certainly does hold onto many more modern elements, but at the same time I really did appreciate having something bite sized to take in.

Those expecting the game to go on forever like with recent releases may be disappointed, but those wanting something tighter like from the original games you’ll be right at home here. I hope that they do pursue more tighter scale offerings like this as it’s fun to play around in these spaces and then move on without it being a forever adventure.

I loved exploring the city, learning about the ancient culture and of course taking in the path of Basim. It’s a neat deeper dive into the origins of the franchise and it’ll be interesting to see if this experience goes further down the road.

Read our Assassin's Creed Syndicate Review
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Assassin's Creed Mirage Review on Xbox Series X
Review Code Provided by Ubisoft

Rating Overall: 8.0