With the franchise being more than 15 years old at this point, is Assassins Creed Mirage the return to form fans have been asking for? Kinda. Ubisoft took huge steps in the right direction as far as gameplay, but the plot falls short.
Just to get it out of the way, I played the game on the Xbox Series X, and performance was great. No bugs, glitches, or anything else game breaking to note.
The highlight of ACM is the gameplay and the best part is the stealth. ACM is a stealth game through and through, so much so that non-stealth combat feels like a chore. There is even an unforgiving stamina bar that makes large fights almost impossible to win alone. However, the stealth takes some time to get used to but once you start hitting a stride the game feels amazing. The game also adds a skill called assassins focus that allows the player to auto execute some assaination. The assassins focus worked really well, there are times, especially when it is upgraded that change the outcome of missions. There is also a selection of tools Basim can use like smoke bombs, throwing knives, and blow darts which add another layer to an already amazing stealth experience.
Of course these stealth mechanics would be nothing without cool missions to use them in, and ACM delivers.The missions are also great, they are big and there are different ways to complete them. The missions are varied too, Basim isn’t always just trying to assassinate someone, but I won’t spoil that here. Some missions Basim will be dropped into a large area like a market or prison and will have multiple ways to complete the objective.
Another one of the biggest gameplay mechanics in the AC franchise is freerunning, and it’s really good this time around. Basim feels like he has weight and gone are the days of being able to climb anything. Freerunning feels like a puzzle at points, and it is a return to basics for the game. Though it is a lot of fun it still has the same quirks that have been in the franchise from the beginning. Sometimes Basim will jump the wrong way, or won’t go into a window. Nothing too game breaking, but there are times when it will get you caught by enemies which is a pain especially in the longer stealth sequences.
There are some other gameplay mechanics that add a lot to the game. The game features a notoriety system reminiscent of old AC games. Ripping down wanted posters is just one way to drop Basim’s notoriety. The game also includes a non-intrusive skill tree. The skills consist of allowing extra storage skills, upgrading assassins focus, and your view. The skill tree can be fully completed, and the points are given out for completing missions so there is nothing to stress about when upgrading Basim.
ACM even brings back trailing and eavesdropping missions. Though they used to feel like a chore, they are usually short and very easy this time around, feeling more like plot points than something to pad game time.
After the gameplay, the world Ubisoft built for this game is another highpoint. It’s small, especially compared to other entries in the franchise, but the world is dense. Baghdad and the surrounding area are dense and filled with things to see, though not too much to do.There is collectibles, side missions, and the rest of what you would expect, but it often feels a bit empty. There are even historical location collectibles that give players a bit of history on the world that they are in. Though the actual world here is much smaller than others in the AC franchise, the world has a great sense of scale. It feels bigger than previous entries just because of the scale. Basim feels small and the buildings feel large.
The graphics and the attention continue. The world and environment are nearly photorealistic, and I wouldn’t have expected any less from the franchise. There are times you will be riding through the desert and see huge flocks of animals, but there is also some pop-in here and there.
Pop-in is not the only down side to such a photorealistic world. The character faces do not look great. In the early game characters’ eyes look especially strange. Things do get a bit better when Basim is wearing his assassin’s hood, but the issue still remains. Although the character models could use some work, the rest of the game left me in awe for the most part.
Though the game does a lot right it still could use some improvement. The sound design is an area that feels a bit lacking. Frequently when two characters are talking, their voices are amplified and the rest of the world goes into an echo chamber. It is not necessarily bad, but it just sounds like they could have done so much more.
The voice acting throughout the game could also use some work. It is spotty at best, there are moments where it is really good, and others where it is really bad. It also doesn’t help that some of the voice acting is done really well in scenes with a character that is really bad. It is not the worst but it will break the immersion of the more impactful scenes in the game.
The weakest point of the game is the plot, it is bad. The Assassins Creed games have always been inconsistent with the stories they tell, but ACM is a low point. More than anything else the plot feels recycled from other AC games. It can be summed up as a protagonist is thrust into becoming an assassin and hunts down members of a secret order.
Basim is our assassin this time around, and his story arch is the best part of the plot, and even that falls flat. The plot and characters feel underdeveloped. It feels like the developers wanted to make something with great gameplay, and added a plot after.
There are so many reasons the plot falls flat, but a lot would lead into spoilers. A reason that won’t spoil anything is the game lets the player choose which targets they want to pursue first. Player choice is usually a good thing, but in this case it is detrimental to the pacing of the story. There are some cool moments in the story, but because of the player choice they can come at extremely different times. Players can experience character developing sense late into the game because of the path they choose. Basim’s friend Nehal is central to the plot, but because of the route I choose I did not find out more about her character until much later in the game, which really hurt my experience.
The plot seems like an afterthought to the gameplay, which thankfully is amazing. The pacing is bad, the villains are not memorable, and I spent most of the game confused on why Basim was even invested. After about 17 hours I was left disappointed by an ending that fell flat. Though the plot is very weak there are some things to like. There are easter eggs for fans of the franchise and the game feels pretty linear and doesn’t take 200 hours to complete.
Overall Assassins Creed Mirage is a step in the right direction for a franchise that has been trying to find a direction. The return to a linear stealth game is great, and though things like the game’s plot fall extremely short, it is promising for the future of AC.
Chase Hil 
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