3.5/5 ★ – DeluxeSamuel's review of Assassin's Creed: Mirage.

'Assassin's Creed Mirage' is a fun game and a great return to its roots that birthed the series, even if it felt lacking. The biggest strength I believe the game has lies in its stealth and combat changes. The game's immediate predecessors, particularly 'Odyssey' and 'Valhalla', felt like they leaned more into their open combat gameplay than their stealth. Whilst it fit the nature of the setting for those 2 games, the more stealth-heavy gameplay that the original games were known for is definitely here in full force. The equipment and skills 'Basim' has in the game allow, admittedly, for stealth to be easier than before but also more fun. Clearing bases out with complete stealth felt more fun than it has been in a while, and I hope that this is the direction that they take the franchise back to with its next mainline game over the open-combat focused nature of the previous 2. However, I believe that therein lies the only real major improvement of the series since the last game. The story and content are where my main critiques of the game arise. The story, whilst interesting in its characterisation of 'Basim' and his 'Djinn' mystery, is largely lacking elsewhere. The 'Hidden Ones' vs. 'Order of Ancients' stuff is fine, but the 'Order Members' are largely forgettable. They still can't match the more philosophic, sympathetic members of the early games, but at least are more important than those lesser members in 'Odyssey' and 'Valhalla'. It's also unfortunate that despite not having the varied dialogue of the previous 2 games, the lip-synching and character models have not reached the level of quality that they were in 'Origins'. It makes the game look dated in cutscenes, and without the overflow of dialogue options, I just don't know why it should be that way. My only other real complaint came in it's wealth of content. My final playtime for completing everything in the game and getting all the achievements only clocked in at about 27 hours, and so was only a fraction of the other games in the series. I'd rather not get to the bloated heights of 'Odyssey' and 'Valhalla', but more content would make the game feel less like an expansion than the full game it's supposed to be. Overall, I'd still say I had fun with the game and if they can just take the strength of the stealth from this game, the quality of story and cutscenes from 'Origins' and make it about 60-ish hours long, I'd say that would be my perfect combination for an 'AC' game but I'm looking forward to whatever is in store when it comes out.