Assassin’s Creed Mirage Review | Attack of the Fanboy

The Murderer’s Creed collection has undergone a radical shift over the previous few years, buying and selling linear tales set in dense city environments for sprawling RPGs with branching storylines that turned additional faraway from the Murderer Brotherhood with every entry. Murderer’s Creed Mirage, a small-scale prequel showcasing the rise of Valhalla’s Grasp Murderer Basim, goals to deliver the collection again to its roots whereas nonetheless incorporating every little thing that the franchise has discovered from its latest trilogy of large open-world RPGs. Mirage has some nice moments that hearken again to the golden age of the collection, however every little thing else in between is an train in boredom.

Nothing in Mirage feels earned. Whereas the shorter 15-hour runtime gave the impression of a breath of recent air when contrasted with the hundred-hour epics of Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla, Basim’s story suffers enormously from an excessively rushed pacing. There’s no higher instance of this than the sport’s prologue. It so desperately makes an attempt to recreate the enduring Ezio’s Household scene from Murderer’s Creed 2, solely there’s no room for character improvement or emotional buildup. There’s roughly half an hour from the primary menu to the opening tragedy.

It’s an apparent try at nostalgia bait that units the tone for what’s to return. Murderer’s Creed Mirage is stuffed with shameless “keep in mind when” moments, a lot in order that there’s even an choice to allow the “iconic” coloration filter from the unique Murderer’s Creed recreation within the settings menu. Because it’s been so lengthy since a standard Murderer’s Creed entry, Mirage tries exhausting to be a paint-by-numbers basic Murderer’s Creed recreation to the purpose the place it’s a detriment to Basim’s story.

Mirage is structured as a collection of “investigations,” which function massive story arcs culminating in main assassinations. After reaching the town of Baghdad, most of those investigations may be tackled in any order. After finishing an arc, Basim will ascend to a brand new rank throughout the Hidden Ones.

This can be a journey from Hidden Ones Provoke to Grasp Murderer at its core. Echoes of Valhalla’s regional arcs may be felt inside every of Mirage’s investigations. Outdoors of the opening and finale, each arc seems like a filler arc. Baghdad’s Hidden Ones Bureaus are stuffed with forgettable faces, and the targets themselves are cartoonishly evil nobodies. The story seems like an obligation, dashing you thru what little dialogue there may be so you may shut up and begin stabbing. The assassinations really feel like they exist purely to verify a field, an excessive overcorrection to strike again at followers who complained concerning the lack of them in earlier video games.

The shining jewel of the story is Basim, however the recreation offers him only a few alternatives to specific himself. He questions the creed and wrestles along with his sense of identification all through his journey, however nothing actually comes of it. There is no such thing as a arc. Basim ends the sport largely unchanged, the one actual distinction being that he’s so much higher at stabbing and sneaking than he was at the beginning of his journey.

Basim’s persona is given an opportunity at life within the Tales of Baghdad and different non-obligatory actions all through the town. These transient character moments present Basim as he actually is: a sort, charismatic avenue child who simply desires to assist folks, even when he’s in over his head. Nonetheless, these moments are few and much between, and Mirage will in a short time remind you of its core tenants of shutting up and stabbing as quickly as you get a style of what may’ve been. Mirage smothers one of many franchise’s most charming faces in an try to make him match the generic mould of “Murderer’s Creed Man.” It forgets that it’s not the hood, however the man beneath it that made folks fall in love with earlier protagonists.

Gameplay is the core pillar of Mirage. It’s a recreation for gamers who need back-to-back assassinations with out all that “filler” like character improvement and mission selection in between. There are undoubtedly loads of assassinations in Mirage, a lot in order that the act of infiltrating a compound and taking out a goal begins to get stale just a few hours in. Basim has such a restricted set of instruments at his disposal that there’s little or no technique concerned outdoors of the scripted moments within the recreation’s large “black field” assassination missions, which normally boil all the way down to pickpocketing a key from a guard or bribing mercenaries to create a distraction.

There’s an enormous emphasis on stealth this time round. Basim is fragile and direct fight is discouraged, each instantly by the sport itself and not directly as a result of combating feels terrible. There’s zero affect to sword swings and the parry — the guts of Mirage’s fight system — feels unacceptably mushy. Sneaking round doesn’t really feel significantly better. The dearth of a devoted cowl system makes nook takedowns really feel finicky, and the inflexible parkour system turns what can be thrilling last-second escapes into irritating detections. Older Murderer’s Creed video games had higher stealth than this, they usually had extra satisfying fight on prime of that.

When you’re parkouring between enemy compounds, there are a handful of aspect actions that will catch your eye all through the sprawling metropolis of Baghdad. Whereas Mirage’s aspect content material is understandably restricted in comparison with its predecessors, there’s nonetheless a disappointing lack of selection. Outdoors of a really small collection of aspect quests and non-obligatory contracts, you’ll spend most of your time pickpocketing collectibles from NPCs or trying to find gear chests all through the town.

Regardless that there aren’t many chests and collectibles to seek out total (Baghdad solely has 4 districts plus the encircling wilderness), they nonetheless really feel ridiculously repetitive. Every gear chest, for instance, options the very same puzzle of determining learn how to unblock a barred door. You’ll get so used to circling round buildings and tossing a knife by way of an open window that it’ll begin to really feel like second nature. The gear itself can also be lackluster, with solely a handful of swords, daggers, and outfits accessible that present very minor fight perks.

The gear system seems like a holdover from Valhalla, which is disappointing. Basim’s instruments like throwing knives and smoke bombs are upgraded with regular crafting parts discovered from chests and rewarded from quests, however weapons and outfits must be collected from particular gear chests and can’t be upgraded except you discover their improve schematics from different chests throughout the similar district. All of it feels shoehorned in, an pointless system that provides principally nothing to the fight expertise.

Nonetheless, Baghdad isn’t all unhealthy. It’s one of many best-looking settings the collection has ever had. Mirage is a large graphical step up from Valhalla, and the spectacular lighting and structure are simply begging to be captured in picture mode. Ubisoft’s knack for city degree design and gorgeously realized worlds is on full show right here, and every little thing seems so good that Baghdad is only a enjoyable place to run round in, even when the rewards will not be that value it.

The Verdict

Outdoors of its beautiful setting, Murderer’s Creed Mirage doesn’t have something thrilling or new to supply. It’s a combination of the worst elements of basic and fashionable Murderer’s Creed, sacrificing each storytelling and exploration in an try to appease followers from each eras. The story takes a backseat to gameplay, which is disappointing since Basim’s persona will get only a few alternatives to shine all through the sport’s 15-hour runtime, and the core gameplay loop is repetitive and unsatisfying. There’s nonetheless some enjoyable available in Mirage’s richly realized world, however because it stands, it’s my least favourite Murderer’s Creed in fairly a while.

About The Creator

At present serving as an Affiliate Editor at Assault of the Fanboy, Diego Perez has been writing about video video games since 2018, specializing in reside service video games like Future and Ultimate Fantasy XIV. His work is featured at publications like Recreation Rant and The Outerhaven, however Assault of the Fanboy is dwelling to his finest work. When he is not modifying or writing guides, he is yelling about Ape Escape or grinding Misplaced Sectors in Future. Plus, he has a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunication Media Research for Texas A&M College.