A return to its origins

Unlike its predecessors (AC Origins, AC Odyssey, and AC Valhalla), which were games with a more role-playing game (RPG) theme and mechanics, Assassin's Creed Mirage looks back to what made the franchise so well known and loved: a more stealth-oriented gameplay, full of assassination missions, and a story with a more linear progression. I'm not talking about which format of Assassin's Creed is better, nor am I comparing them; after all, they have different focuses. The point is that Mirage returns to what made the franchise successful and, in my opinion, does it well.

At the start of the game, we go through an introduction, which I won't call a tutorial, as it's a little over an hour long and literally introduces the context, narrative, and mechanics of the game, which gives us signs that the game will be more focused on stealth. In the lines of dialog and cutscenes, Basim, the character we played in Mirage, is always talking about his stealth work, which doesn't attract the attention of opponents and is more effective. Although you can go out in combat with everyone, and I know that many prefer it, I feel as if it's presented as a resource to be used in emergencies or situational situations.



Other factors that indicate an Assassin's Creed that is more traditional and less RPG-oriented are: the length of the campaign, which is expected to be around 30 hours; the reduced number of weapons and accessories (we'll talk about this a little later); and the reduced map. As for the map, I think it's great that it's been reduced, as it's still large, has content throughout, is very beautiful, and ends up being a little lighter for the machines to process. As for the number of weapons and items, it's a tricky subject to debate because it's totally linked to what focus the game wants to have and what the player's tastes are.

A game with more RPG elements allows you to decide which way you want to play and how you want to use your skills, making a wide variety of both available. However, in my opinion, I feel that it ends up running away a little from the focus of the Brotherhood of Assassins and the teachings they preach, which is something cultivated within the lore and that permeates all the games in the franchise. In this context, I believe that greater linearity makes more sense, both in the gameplay and in the story of Assassin's Creed, turning the focus a little more towards stealth and assassination.



Do you know Baghdad?

Well, I don't know about you, but I don't... Without too much gossip, I ask you this because in Assassin's Creed Mirage, you have the opportunity to get to know what Baghdad might have been like during the 9th century. I'll give you a spoiler: it's beautiful, okay?

Although practically the entire game takes place in and around Baghdad, I'm sure you won't tire of the visuals that easily. Assassin's Creed has always been known for providing us with beautiful maps and scenery, and this time, Mirage is no different. The game's graphics are beautiful, and the city is impeccable: flowery palaces with hanging gardens, a beautiful river running behind, and a background full of sandy mountains. This kind of look awaits you...

Overall, the game's visual art is incredible; the details and animations are also of the highest quality; and, best of all, the game is well optimized! - Assassin's Creed Mirage is one of the few games of the current generation that my computer has been able to run smoothly at maximum, and that says little about the graphics quality, which is extremely high.



Mechanics, gameplay and a few problems

I'd like to start with Mirage's notoriety system. This system, already present in previous games in the franchise, has been revamped and brings with it a number of positive points. Now, any illegal action you take that is seen by a guard increases your notoriety points, and this makes your life more difficult, as the guards' AI is much better, and getting past them unnoticed is no longer so simple or easy. What's more, if your "bad reputation" is high, civilians may recognize you, make a fuss, and finger you to the guards. So it's necessary to keep your parkour skills up to date and stay off the ground in order to get out of trouble. To reduce your notoriety, you can tear up and vandalize wanted posters or bribe the guards.

Next, I'd like to talk about the game's combat, which is very similar to the Assassin's Creed games of old, where the focus is on getting the parry time right and being able to carry out an easy execution. However, in Mirage, combat seemed to me to be a little more difficult and punishing—I highly doubt you'll want to fight an army of opponents in this game. Your enemies can unleash two different types of attacks, one that requires you to dodge and another that allows you to defend and perform a counterattack. The inclusion of this simple mechanic has made combat more reactive and requires you to be aware of the enemy—even more so if there is more than one—around you. If you end up surrounded by three or more opponents, you'll realize that fighting them all at the same time isn't as simple as it used to be, as you could end up taking sequential attacks that could cost you your life.



Overall, I think the combat is more challenging, and adding this to the notoriety system and the fact that you're constantly on the run ends up making stealth and parkour more essential elements to be present in the gameplay, which I think goes perfectly with an Assassin's Creed game.

Although all the changes made - which I believe are improvements - point to a game more focused on movement and stealth, I had some problems in my playthrough precisely in terms of the fluidity and dynamism of movement (which directly influences movement). I haven't yet figured out whether it was a matter of the game's geometry/physics or another problem, but I constantly felt that my dummy, Basim, when performing parkour movements, didn't fully understand where the next steps of his movement were. Or the places shown in the video/image differed from the physical structure of the game. So, constantly, my character wouldn't go up and climb in certain places because it was as if he were in a location that was millimeters different from what he appeared to be in the image. As a result, the fluidity of the parkour was somewhat compromised in my gameplay, as I kept getting stuck in certain places and kept walking back and forth on a wall because the dummy didn't recognize that it was possible to jump onto another nearby object.



As an example, in this image above, I tried to climb out of the window about four times because, in the first three, Basim wasn't recognizing the window as an interactive obstacle, so he kept climbing up the wall. It was as if the image wasn't 100% calibrated to the real physics and volume of the world.

In the end, I think this should be fixed in one of the updates.

Level progression and sound

I wanted to leave these factors to the end so that I could deal with them briefly. Obviously, they're no less important than the other points, but I have less to talk about.

As previously mentioned, the game has reduced the number of weapons and the size of the talent tree. Despite this, it has also reduced the number of playable hours, so the game's progression continues to flow well. Level progression is another point that returns in much the same way as classic Assassin's Creed, where you have one or a few standard weapons and can upgrade them as the game progresses. In my opinion, it fits in perfectly with the stealth-focused gameplay.



As for the sound, I have similar praise for the visual quality as I did earlier. It's incredible to be walking through the flowered palaces of Baghdad with a soundtrack made up of various oriental instruments that automatically take you back to the landscape you're seeing. There's a blend of visual and audio arts. The sound effects are also spot-on and match the animations perfectly. What's more, there's dubbing in Brazilian Portuguese, and it's top quality. I think it's extremely important to praise companies that bring content with Brazilian dubbing.

Finally, Assassin's Creed: Mirage seems to bring the series back to its origins with quality and solidity. In its gameplay, it focuses on stealth, assassinations, and parkour, so that the elements work very well together in the game. While many were satisfied with the RPG elements within the series, what is most classic about AC won me over and got me excited for the new release, Mirage.

Special thanks to Ubisoft Brasil for make the review code available for us, the game was tested at PC via steam.