Review: Assassin’s Creed Mirage Returns to Its Roots

Assassin’s Creed Mirage takes a massive risk by returning to the series roots in more ways than one. For instance, it returns to the stunning Middle East setting that started it all years ago with Altair’s story. In addition, it forsakes the RPG mechanics and leveling systems of the last three titles in favor of a more streamlined experience. Unfortunately, it loses itself in this major shift back to the roots. I imagine some players will really appreciate the grounded and less fussy approach in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, but it doesn’t work for me after three excellent titles back-to-back. Outside of the gorgeous and surprisingly varied setting of Baghdad and the surrounding areas, the return to the series’ start feels fairly unnecessary.

It begins with the story itself, which centers on Basim, one of the more unlikeable characters in recent memory. Though I get he is going to be important for the series after the events of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, I can’t say he’s a character I cared to know more about. To make matters worse, the plot in this game does little to change my mind on that. It tells the origin story of Basim, rising from a street urchin to one of the most important members of the Hidden Ones. It follows a pretty safe structure of dealing with a ring of five Order of the Ancients (aka Templars) who rule Baghdad with corruption in mind. What’s intriguing is outside of the prologue and first target, you pretty much get to find and assassinate the middle three targets in whatever order you like.

This freeform nature is fine, but it also highlights how inconsequential the plot feels. Outside of Basim and maybe his master Roshan, I legitimately could not tell you a single character’s name in this game even though I beat it less than 48 hours ago at the time of writing. Characters come and go so swiftly, and they show up for minor scenes without impacting the overall plot much.

It’s a breezy game too, clocking in at just over 15 hours for me to finish it, though I will admit most players will probably be more in the 18-20-hour ballpark range. Regardless, this swifter nature means its pacing is honestly pretty good, but it also lacks substance. The few twists and character deaths meant nothing to me, especially when I was trying to remember who the person was in the first place.

The mostly unnecessary story would have been fine if the gameplay made up for that, but this is something Assassin’s Creed Mirage struggles with as well. I am honestly okay with the lack of a leveling system and deep customization, but the game even hit some bumps with the most basic elements like climbing.

Climbing doesn’t feel nearly as seamless or interesting as it has been in the last few titles. You can only climb certain parts of a building to go up, which led to frustration and annoyances more often than not. While I get the shift to the roots, this is a bit too backwards for my liking.

There were also parts where some mechanics simply didn’t work well. That could be a symptom of the pre-release build, but I’m not certain. There were times I would hide in a field of grass and whisper for an enemy to come close to me for me to assassinate them, and it would work like you would think most of the time. But then there were two crucial mission moments where the assassination option didn’t appear like it should, even though I was hidden, and I ended up attacking the person instead and turning the entire fortress against me.

The same goes for chain assassinations where you take one person out, then a second one. I would honestly say that about 10% of the time or so, I never had the option to take out the second person even though they were next to my first target. Everyone would suddenly be alerted because of it.

That said, I did appreciate the Focus mechanic, which is amazing. It lets you occasionally slow down time and pick your targets off to assassinate in a chain. It worked incredibly well and came in clutch many times when other stealth mechanics failed.

To Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s credit, though, the game stays true to its roots. I appreciated the quick pacing and the overall lack of fluff in the game. While I could use more significant side content, I appreciated a game where it was all about the main story and its targets. The cases system taking the place of traditional missions and the like felt interesting.

There were a lot of moments of just investigating the targets in between breaking into prisons, hospitals, estates, libraries, and the like. Some of the larger cases involving the core Order of the Ancients targets even have some brilliant quest designs and options, such as disguising as another character or trying to learn a password.

It helps too that Baghdad is a gorgeous city. While there is very little to do on the map outside of it, the round city itself is stunning enough and feels alive. I enjoyed running around it and seeing the various districts it has like the port, palace area, markets, and so on. They each have their own vibes and I felt excited to explore them.

While I adore the mood, vibes, and look of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, it is also one of my least favorite games in the series in recent memory. It is a step backwards in pretty much every sense of the word, for better and for worse. I admire the idea of going back to the roots with inspiration from games I enjoyed more than a decade ago, but it creates mixed results because of this.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage will come to the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on October 5, 2023.