4/5 ★ – kubachowicki_'s review of Assassin's Creed: Mirage.

'Assassin’s Creed Mirage' is a solid entry into the 'Assassin's Creed' franchise. With all the slack that it received on launch, it made me want to wait until buying it. Now that I did and I've played it, I've been left with the opinion that it's the most underrated Assassin’s Creed game. I really loved it, despite it being on the shorter side. It served as the middle ground between old and new AC. It maintained the traditional pre-RPG AC style and format, and also incorporated some elements of the RPG AC games. Mirage takes us back to the roots of the series, with a lot of parallels to the first few games in the series. This is arguably the most stealth orientated game in the series since perhaps Unity, maybe even earlier. Stealth is so rewarding, but because Basim isn't seasoned with a sword and dagger, combat can sometimes be very unforgiving, which I liked. Playing on the hardest difficulty somewhat forces you to play stealthy, reflecting the way Basim would play to his strengths, and because of that, the game is very thoughtful and strategic. However, when you do end up in open conflict, the combat does feel very stale. The majority of combat variation really comes from the tools rather than the weapons, and the tools are a lot of fun and are very reliable. Mirage also brings in some gameplay elements from the RPG AC games, and implements them into the traditional sandbox format of old. Some of it is nice, others not to much. Firstly, the elephant in the room for me is the parkour which can feel a little bit slow and clunky at times. The way the character model moves is taken straight from 'Assassin’s Creed Valhalla', which did NOT use parkour as a major thing, instead it used regular climbing on pretty much any surface. Using the same movement that was designed for a non-parkour game, and the putting it into a parkour game, felt off at times. The compass makes a return in exchange for the mini map, which I'm still not sure how I feel about in a traditional style game. Finally, the menu and HUD designs were again copy and pasted straight from Valhalla which I don't really have an issue with, except for there being no real quest log or synchronisation progress. The story hooks you in from the get go, and contains some really thrilling moments, as well as some sad ones and also some crazy twists and revelations towards the end. The character work is handled brilliantly by the writers, and the development of Basim makes him so interesting paired with what we already know about him from Valhalla. The setting of 9th century Baghdad, and the Wilderness and deserts that surrounds it was beautiful to dive into and explore. The attention to detail when it comes to the music, costume design, etc. all contributed to transport the player back in time. The graphics are just sublime, and I was already blown away when I just started the story. Paired with that, the cinematics feel so grand and rich with colour, and the score for the whole game rocks. The new features such as the tokens system are also really cool. The amount of side content is also sufficient for a smaller sized game like Mirage is, and I had a very fun time getting the platinum trophy for it. Overall, 'Assassin's Creed Mirage', while flawed in certain parts of its gameplay and also length, is still a really amazing game.