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

Assassin's Creed: Mirage is ultimately a fun game that I can wholeheartedly recommend to series fans who miss the older games and the focus on stealth and the assassin fantasy that those games prioritized. However, beyond that: this game offers little else other than setting a precedent for how the infamous series will operate moving forward. Mirage ,as Leo K so eloquently put in his review on YouTube, is an extremely honest game. Ubisoft consistently marketed the game as a return to form for the series while also acknowledging the fact that it's built off of Valhalla's engine. This game was never going to be a game that evolves the AC formula the way that 3 had from Revelations, Unity had from Black Flag or that Origins had from Syndicate. It's a beefy expansion like standalone game, that while focusing on the Hidden Ones and Order of the Ancients will still be beholden to the code and gameplay of its father game. And while I expected the game to maybe feel like an evolved DLC, I guess I just wasn't expecting how much this game really feels like a Valhalla expansion. The story structure takes its cues directly from Valhalla's non-linear approach, it's combat shares a lot of DNA with Valhalla, and the movement feels almost identical. All that being said, you'd think I'd hate this game as I was most certainly not a fan of Valhalla (at the time of writing this, it is the only mainline AC game I have not beaten), but in truth: I really enjoyed my time with Mirage. The ways this game separates itself from Valhalla is what makes this game truly enjoyable to me. The series hasn't been as focused on the brotherhood in years, probably since Syndicate all the way back in 2015, and selling the assassin fantasy is this game's chief objective. The stealth in this entry is the best the series has ever been, and for the first time in the whole franchise I've actively reloaded a checkpoint just to try to be more stealthy instead of going into combat, something I usually reserve for more hardcore stealth titles like Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell. It's fun to stealth around in Mirage just as much as it's fun to wear the iconic white robes and leap from high places. Baghdad is also wonderfully designed, it's a maze like city that's densely packed and full of culture. The game goes out of it's way to truly immerse you in this setting, and while it never reaches the series heights of Unity's amazingly realized Paris: it the most immersive this series has felt since Origins' Egypt. The main problem with this game is the fact it feels so limited by it's dev cycle. One could easily see how this game would be an amazing AC experience that stands toe to toe with other entries in the series if it was just given more time. The story is...not the best. I admire what they were going for but I ended up feeling nothing about the main story and even less about its characters. I appreciated the effort to be more serious than Odyssey and Valhalla, but other than liking that aspect there was nothing really memorable here. I'll probably end up forgetting a lot of this story in the months to come. The main issue it has is that nonlinearity and the fact they didn't have the time or resources to extend the game's length past 10-15 hours. The opening and ending feel rushed, and the story in the middle is almost nonexistent. There's a lack of cutscenes and memorable story beats in the middle of this game, meaning you will probably go hours in this game without seeing a single worthwhile story moment. Most of the time it will just be Basim going to a location looking around saying some filler dialogue and then coming to a conclusion, you'll then rush off to another part of the map to talk to another person and then repeat until you kill your target. It's ultimately unsatisfying. There's also the issue of the world itself and the gameplay just not feeling as fleshed out as they should be. While Baghdad is wonderfully designed and the stealth gameplay is fun, there's not much to do in Baghdad besides some basic side missions and assassination contracts. The gameplay itself is also very limited in terms of what you can do, so it leads to a lot of the game feeling very samey. I do think this game sets a precedent for where Ubisoft wants to take this series next. Especially with how Jade is looking to be turning out (focusing much more on the Assassin iconography) and how Codename Red is seemingly going to also include Assassins and have a major focus on stealth. It's not all doom and gloom for AC fans going forward. As for Mirage, it's fun. At a discounted price I can recommend it even if it is a little bare bones.