Assassin’s Creed Mirage ($59.99, available on console, mobile, and PC) sees the franchise forgo massive open worlds in favor of stealthy gameplay. With that renewed focus comes a greater emphasis on story and characters, and the spotlight on Arabic and Muslim mythology sells Ubisoft's unique take on Baghdad. Even better, Mirage has fun returning features, such as eavesdropping and pickpocketing, that were sorely missing from Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Origins, and Valhalla. That said, Mirage plays it too safe by modern gameplay standards, so there’s not much innovation here that we haven’t seen in Marvel’s Spider-Man or Uncharted.
Fight the Power
Assassin’s Creed Mirage follows the story of Basim, a young man who grew up poor in the streets of Anbar and became an assassin in Baghdad. Basim’s character arc involves him fighting his inner demons while uncovering Baghdad's corruption. A sinister organization, The Order, controls the city's politics and economics, which causes Basim to feel conflict when confronted with the influential figures.
(Credit: Ubisoft)Staying on the main path will take roughly 20 hours to complete, but the side quests and open-world action lengthen the playtime. Mirage moves at a good pace and the story doesn’t overstay its welcome; it's a refreshing change after the recent, bloated Assassin's Creed titles.
Still, Mirage feels like it cuts corners in other areas compared with Assassin's Creed Valhalla, particularly in Basim’s flaccid and unresponsive swordplay. Many times, striking enemies doesn't cause the foes to flinch despite them losing a third of their health. Likewise, Basim tends to grab the wrong ledge when climbing structures, and the controls feel cumbersome when you’re spotted by enemies and thrust into escape mode. As a result, it's wise to play stealthily to avoid confrontations.
Sneaking up on enemies from behind feels infinitely better than facing them in direct combat. There’s a visceral satisfaction in taking them out one by one with your blade. Stealth kills are particularly satisfying because they come with the added accomplishment of not alerting anyone to your presence—you feel like an assassin.
Classic Assassin’s Creed Gameplay
Mirage's open-world gameplay involves traveling from town to town, with many of its biggest story beats occurring there. Due to this, the game has a more intimate feel. As you track a target, you hear the hustle and bustle of everyday citizens simply going about their business, which increases the immersion.
There are many ways to approach enemies, including just walking up to them in broad daylight and stabbing them in the back. The trade-off? You alert everyone to your presence, and they label you a murderer. Or, you can stay hidden and nail targets from a distance with throwing knives. If you really want to go wild, you can open cages to let wild animals attack enemies. These options keep the core gameplay engaging without becoming too repetitive.
(Credit: Ubisoft)I was overjoyed at the return of classic Assassin's Creed gameplay elements, including eavesdropping and pickpocketing. They were missing in recent entries, which was puzzling because they seemed like activities an assassin would undertake. Nonetheless, I had a great time pickpocketing random strangers for money and items (objects you can sell for additional money), as the timing-focused mini-games are entertaining and non-intrusive. Pickpocketing is beneficial, as well—you use the boosted money to purchase more weapons and tools, such as disposal throwing knives. The eavesdropping segments offer clues to infiltrate buildings in new ways, such as learning that there’s a hole in a wall's north side.
Climbing certain buildings and structures gives you a breathtaking view of a portion of a city. The camera pans out and circles Basim, adding a cinematic feel to his achievement and unlocking a new fast travel point. Speaking of travel, Basim can ride a camel and command it to auto-travel a fixed path to a destination. This is especially welcome as it makes traversal and exploration much less of a chore.
Can Your PC Run Assassin’s Creed Mirage?
To run Mirage, your PC needs at least an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 or Intel Core i7-4790K CPU; an AMD Radeon RX 570, Intel Arc A380, or Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU; 8GB of RAM; 40GB of available storage; and the Windows 10 operating system.
Our testbed—a gaming laptop featuring an Intel Core i7-8550U CPU, Intel UHD Graphics 62 GPU, and 16GB of RAM—ran Assassin's Creed Mirage at 60 frames per second in Performance mode and 30 frames per second in the graphics-focused Fidelity mode. It was a smooth gaming experience that lacked crashes or general hiccups. In a nice touch, Ubisoft Connect’s cloud save system let me continue playing on an Xbox Series S.
Why You Should Game on a PCBack to Basics
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a return to classic form for a series hampered by open-world bloat in recent years. That said, it doesn’t take many risks with its story or gameplay mechanics so it might have some trouble standing out in a jam-packed action-adventure lineup. Still, Mirage is a fun, streamlined action game that will please series fans who loved early Assassin's Creed releases.
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