I’ve had a tenuous relationship with the recent Assassin’s Creed games. Origins was a decent entry, I really disliked Odyssey, but Valhalla hooked me, and I sank hours into it. When they announced a spin-off that was smaller in scale and a return to more Unity/Syndicate era gameplay, I was interested. This game puts you in the shoes of Basim, he was an old master assassin in Valhalla who, without getting heavy into spoilers, was a major player in that game’s overarching story. Given his importance in the game and the aura of mystery that surrounded him, he’s a good candidate for a solo game.

The game is set in the city of Baghdad around 861AD during the height of the Abbasid Caliphate. The map isn’t as sprawling as the maps in other recent entries, but that’s not a bad thing. There’s still plenty to explore with most of the map being the city of Baghdad with the rest being the surrounding deserts and small towns. The city of Baghdad is fun to explore as you travel through the various districts and come across historic landmarks. There were a few times where I’d stop just to gawk at the architecture. The city bustles with the appropriate amount of people. The market district is filled with well-dressed merchants, while the working district has impoverished people in run down clothes. Map navigation is handled similarly to Valhalla. The map’s broken into districts that each have a list of collectibles to find. The mysteries and side quests from Valhalla return, but in a much more limited scope. There’s maybe 5 total vs the 50 or so in Valhalla. While I would’ve preferred a few more Baghdad stories, the much smaller list of collectibles makes them feel manageable. Ubisoft has a habit of making vast worlds with 100s of collectibles that it becomes a chore to collect them. Here in Baghdad, collectibles are fun to search for because you can knock out a collection or two in one sitting.

One of my favorite parts of Assassin’s Creed games is exploring the history. There are collectibles that give you a deep dive of information about life in 9th century Baghdad, going over topics like religion, table manners, rug making, currency, etc. I made it my goal to collect all these bits of information and read each entry. The actual game stumbles on actual history though. You come across a lot of named characters, but when I’d look them up online to learn more about them, I couldn’t find anything about them. Either they weren’t real people or Ubisoft was using a vastly different version of their name. There were a few of the side characters who were historical characters, but other games set during a ‘golden age’ like Black Flag or Brotherhood usually see every character being someone real. Obviously, this is one of the older games, set in the 800s AD, but even the game set in Ancient Greek had real people. The ruler Basim kills a the beginning doesn’t appear to be a real person. Those names are recorded, it could’ve been a real person. This game feels the most like a “history theme park” vs an actual historical era. I do admit the writers have their hands tied because they can’t pick any time during Middle Eastern history. The game has to be set within 40 or so years before Valhalla takes place.

I played a little Valhalla after finishing Mirage, and it helped to accentuate the difference in gameplay between the two. Mirage goes for a mix of the modern RPG gameplay and the Unity/Syndicate era gameplay. Combat is still very much in the modern RPG camp when it comes to controls. There is a lesser focus on combat though. Where in Valhalla, walking into a camp to start a donnybrook would be a viable option in most occasions, Mirage pushes you towards stealth. Basim doesn’t have all the special power attacks Eivor had and the combat feels clunky. That may be on purpose to, again, encourage stealth gameplay. Basim doesn’t get a ranged weapon, outside of throwing knives, which I did missing having a bow. There’s also a focus on closed-in urban environments. There is a desert to explore, but 90% of the game takes place within the city limits. One thing I loved about Valhalla was the ability to turn on “one hit assassinations”. I hated in Origins & Odyssey that assassinations weren’t a guaranteed kill because it meant every mission ended in a fight. In Mirage, assassinations are one hit kills by default on all, but one particular “super enemy”, and I’m fine with that. Assassination targets return to the Hitman style missions Unity & Syndicate had where the mission was more than just, sneak into building & ice a dude. You can look around for opportunities like distracting guards by freeing caged animals, ala Far Cry, or bribing a servant to let you in the back door or fulfilling certain conditions for a custom assassination. This style of assassination mission has always been my favorite.

Much like a few of the older AC games, Mirage doesn’t last very long. I was able to knock it out in a week or so vs the months the RPG era games can take. The story moves at a quick pace as you follow Basim’s early years in the assassin order. It’s a much more traditional AC story, it’s the first game focused on an established assassin order since probably Unity. As the fancy graphic at startup reminds you, this game also marks the 15th anniversary of the Assassin’s Creed series. So, along with being a spin-off of Valhalla, Mirage also feels like it’s meant to be a spiritual reboot of the first game. With the more traditional gameplay, the return to the Middle East, and the basic “climbing the ranks” story, this game feels like it was meant to be an entry point game for those new to the franchise, like when comics reboot their storylines to bring in new readers.

Basim starts out as a young thief on the streets of Anabarr, a “suburb” of Baghdad. He works with a friend who are both members of a gang of young street urchins, but Basim yearns to be an Assassin. After a burglary in the ruler’s palace goes sideways, all of Basim’s adorable youths are killed and he escapes Anabarr with a local Assassin. He joins the order and trains up at their secret base. After their secret base is discovered by mercenaries, they send Basim to Baghdad to assassinate the leaders of the proto-Templars, the Order of Ancients. Now comes some spoilers for both Mirage and Valhalla, so skip to ‘all in all’ to avoid them. Along with the standard coming of age story, Mirage also sets up Basim’s arc for Valhalla. I think the story does falter in this aspect. Basim is haunted by nightmares of a Djinn and drawn to learn more about an ancient artifact he found in the palace. But it’s not till the end of the story that we start getting the storyline about Basim being a reincarnation of a being from an advanced pre-history race. That was his big plot point in Valhalla, but it’s an afterthought in Mirage.

I think the lackluster writing is what makes that plot fall flat. Basim’s new VA does a fine job, but the dialogue is very utilitarian. Most conversations between our assassins don’t go beyond, “Here’s some objectives to follow” “I will complete these masterfully.” Basim never seems like he’s interested in trying to learn about what he really is or chafe with the tenants of the Order. He does want to learn why the Djinn haunts his dreams, but that plot point just spins wheels for most the game. If they sprinkled in some more scenes of Basim disregarding his mentor’s orders or feeling he has a greater purpose, it would’ve enhanced the overall story. There is this twist that Basim’s childhood friend is actually a manifestation of his personality that wants to learn about his past life. Given she shows up so sparsely in the game, it didn’t leave me with much of an impact.

All in all, AC Mirage was a fun game. It’s a nice callback to older Assassin’s Creed gameplay. I don’t expect them to fully return to this style of gameplay in AC Shadows for fears of being labeled stale, but I do think the baby was thrown out with the bathwater in the change from Syndicate to Origins. The city of Baghdad is impressive and worth exploring, but the story is very boiler plate and didn’t lean into the plot points set up in Valhalla as much as I expected it to. If you are either a new Assassin's Creed fan or a diehard one, I'd recommend Mirage.

Mirage is a breath of fresh air that was supposed to be a DLC but became something separated and I'm very glad for that.

Gameplay: If you have played Valhalla then there's no difference, the UI and the controls are basically the same and although there are some improvements and new features the controls seemed buggier in this game, sometimes i wanted to do a certain thing and the game assumed other... A little bit annoying but not impactful for the enjoyment

The Story: This time the story follows a known character from the previous game and we get in dept about them, although it is great to see a focus on the hidden ones and going back to a more traditional storyline it still has the same problem with every single game of this franchise: They don't know how to make a closure, you end the game with more questions than answers...

World-Building: The Story focus in Baghdad which is well represented, and honestly this might be the best game for detailed environment cause the map is very small compared to valhalla or odyssey but damm, it feels so much more alive, it is the best quality from this game.

SFX: The sound and music makes the game immersive which is no surprising, they always nail it in that department

Although the game is good i would not recommend as an entry point, because this is basically a "spin-off" game for Valhalla but if played, this game is a very good distraction until the next entry of the series

They took a chance and they nailed it. I never thought i would play an Ubisoft game, and be touched by its story culminating into an emotional response.

First thing i noticed was the sound design , voice acting and music score. From there, i started to notice the soul behind the art. Baghdad is vibrant and elegant. The game talks with you through a simple and efficient interface, elegant in its design and sound. Voice acting is very good. Dialogs are short, to the point, stoic. Story progression and its secondary branches, map exploration, content, collectibles have great pacing. It gives you room to breathe. Some new additions in terms of mission structure and some new form of paying for different services. You could fight every step of the way, but you will have a hard time. The tools at your disposal are enough to make every mission, contract, assassination a worthy challenge of your wits. Playing on normal and making the best out of every tool was fun. This is how i like an open world game and exploring it never bored me once in my 25 hours playthrough.

They took their best features on combat, mission progression, collectibles etc, improved them and mixed them in a sweet roll. It deserves a chance and an honest play from Assassin's Creed fans. Take your time with it because it feels a whole new Assassin's Creed game.

Gameplay: 6.5/10

Presentation: 7/10

Story: 8/10

Overall Score: 7.1/10

Gameplay= Mechanics, gameplay options (freedom), repetition, goals, difficulty

Story= plot, engagement, characters, world-building

Presentation= graphics, animation, environment/character design, Art direction, Script, music

Overall as far as AC games go it was a very condensed experience that did ok overall, but were it a longer campaign it would have become very repetitive and boring. There could have been a bit more filling the world with things to do as there were only a handful of unique sidequests. The majority of assassination contracts kept you going to the same types of areas in the city. The combat system was the games biggest weak point, but for once I feel like stealth gameplay was done right for a game with the word Assassin in its title. Many different ways to address an encounter with a lot of variety in regards to the tools and special upgrades added on to them. That being said having the right tool set up can make them a bit overpowered with how bad the combat system works, but it makes it so that gets balanced out a bit I guess. My favorite part about the stealth gameplay was that if you were detected unless that enemy went to ring the alarm it actually felt like you were detected by those closest to you. Most games it feels like if one person sees you every enemy is on you in seconds.

A game worth playing if you are already a AC fan. If you arent though and you enjoy big expansive open worlds with lots of unique experiences I would give this game a pass. On the other hand people who want a shorter experience and like stealth games I would say give this one a try.

SPOILER AHEAD.

i wont talk about the each pointers because just typical and similar to other creed games, just want to focus on the story and the execution.

I liked the game coz its did not overstay, i finish around 15 hours which just enough before i get bored of exhausted . But there remains the problem, through ot the games you are to hunt the head of the orders and suddenly and the end you are fighting with with your mentor and find ancient relics?

Bruh.

Nothing against the story and what they were trying to do with it - but this is just poor writing and poor storytelling.

ending felt quiet rushed. Should have better hints, explanations throughout the game, other than just some bad dreams... and how its tied to loki, odin, nehal etc. how roshan now, whats is djinn bla bla..

I try to read explanation and there are many interprations , so wonder which factually correct is useless.

Nevertheless i enjoyed the game ,Basim personality , the atmosphere, the settings, the VA etc pretty much on point.

Some bugs here and there require me to restart like stuck in places, marker didnt appear.

surprised to find it connected to valhalla ( still not properly explained), and i find out its suppose to be dlc of some sort to valhalla, but become standalone instead. hence the short duration compared to toher games.