2/5 ★ – Sputnik200065's review of Assassin's Creed: Mirage.

I love Assassin's Creed. I mean actual Assassin's Creed (AC), and to me that means the first 5 games, Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed Revelations & Assassin's Creed III, some might call them; The Desmond Saga. When I saw the promotional material for Mirage I was intrigued, it looked like AC of old, stealthy, an intricate city, guy in white hood, assassinating targets, this is what I miss from the new games! I hoped it would be a return to form for the franchise and hey maybe it will also re-fire the super interesting story! Only time would tell. One of the biggest disappointments in my gaming journey is when Ubisoft decided to drop the through narrative in this franchise, I will never understand it. And so to me the series died with Desmond. But that wasn't the only reason I loved the first few games, I adore the characters; Ezio, Mario, DaVinci, Cesere, Lucrezia, Rodrigo, Claudia, Al Maulim, Altair, Yusuf, Sofia, Lucy, Rebecca, Shaun & Desmond. I haven't played these games in years but I can still remember the characters and their personalities, their motivations, likes, dislikes, I can quote them. I finished Mirage Yesterday and I cant remember anyone's name other than Basim and the gravely voiced lady. Why does nobody have a personality in this game? Why do they all talk in these robotic, waffly sentences that sound like they're ripped straight from the Jedi Council. Why does a street rat, thief talk less like Aladdin and more like Qui-Gon Jinn?? Ezio was peppy, spunky, had attitude, loved women, made jokes and had the over confident naivety of a 20 something year old who was given swords and wrist knives, Basim has nothing. AC2 you see Ezio's father and brothers hung and Ezio's reaction is brutal, in Mirage a very similar thing happens, all of Basim's family and friends, including young children get brutally murdered and strung up on poles and Basim doesn't seem to care, so I, as the player, don't either. Moments like this are what makes up the entire story. As for the gameplay, i'm conflicted but more happy than I am with the story. The stealth is where the game shines, the tools remind me of the gadgets you get in the PS Spider-Man games, they are fun and versatile and some of the larger areas filled with enemies are really fun and satisfying to try and eradicate without being spotted, its the actual combat where the let downs start piling in. I played this on PS5 so I was using a controller and the default button mapping for the game is so alien and weird, I spent hours trying to get it to work before I gave up and remapped them to buttons that a human might use. The regular goons are simple enough but lack any need for skill, and once you get the timing down the combat becomes kinda dull, you're just waiting for the red or gold and then pressing the right button, its just a timing minigame. It's the larger enemies that cant be hit from the front that suck, not because they're hard but just frustrating. the game keeps telling you that you have to get behind them or attack their feet, there is no way to attack their feet, and getting behind them just results in you rolling around in an annoying goose chase. The combat just feels very very thin. And Thin is a word that can be applied to almost every aspect of the game. I'm not a reviewer so I'm gonna stop here, Ubisoft, do better. This Franchise deserves better...