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When I played Assassin's Creed Mirage for the first time, it felt very familiar in more than one way. While the setting and mission design is a clear homage to the origin of the series, it also retains several aspects from the latest iterations. The narrative tells Basim's origin story. We are already familiar with him from Valhalla. If the implications from that game’s ending are to be believed, he may end up being a major character for the future of the franchise.
Sitting down to review Assassin’s Creed Mirage, I had one question gnawing at the back of my mind: Where does Mirage stand in the decade-and-a-half-long franchise legacy? It doesn’t revolutionize the franchise like Unity or Origins, neither does it try so.
Since its announcement, one of the major highlights for Ubisoft has been "back to its roots," which had everyone, including me, quite excited. But can Mirage carve out its own identity amongst the franchise, or does it end up being a mirage of an oasis amongst dessert dunes seen through nostalgia-tinted glasses?
Exploring the gameplay of Assassin's Creed Mirage
My first introduction to the Assassin’s Creed series was with Black Flag, an entry as fondly remembered for its genre-defining pirate gameplay as for its heart-touching story. Since then, I have played through all of the entries in the franchise, from the original 2007 title to 2020’s Valhalla and their expansions, witnessing the series’s shift from an open-world action stealth franchise to a more massive scale RPG series.
While I wasn’t a vocal opposition to the gameplay shift in the recent title, I certainly had a soft spot for playing the titles stealthily, taking down unaware enemies. As such, I was more than excited to once again play an AC, purpose-designed for stealth.
The fun yet not challenging stealth
Assassin’s Creed, as a series, pioneered open-world stealth gameplay, and Mirage is no exception. After the lack of stealth options in Odyssey and Valhalla, a reignited focus is much appreciated. Yet, at the same time, I cannot help but feel a tad bit disappointed while playing the game stealthily.
I could be on the rope right above the guard with my shadow clearly in front of him or take down a fellow beside him in his peripheral vision, he would remain unfazed and waiting for me to assassinate him.
Moreover, the guards continue to fail to notice missing companions or forget Basim quickly and go back to the patrol route if he disappears for a hot minute. The guards also preferred to go by themselves and check out anything suspicious, like a convenient whistle out of a haystack.
Crowd blending makes a return in Mirge after its absence in the previous entries (Valhalla’s had some crowd blending in limited areas). It also helps that Bagdad is a bustling, crowded city with a significant number of NPCs crowding the street (although not as massive as Unity). Basim can easily blend in and become a blade in the crowd or a slippery finger.
Pickpocketing has always been part of the series, but in Mirage, it has become an essential part of the gameplay. From collecting Darvis’ Artifacts to quickly gaining Dirhams, pickpocketing was something I often used. The quick-time event from Valhalla makes a return in Mirage as a pickpocketing mini-game, and failing it can increase the notoriety.
Mirage also brings back the two familiar flavors of Eagle Vision from previous games, highlighting enemies and their vision cones, as well as providing Enkidu as a way to survey an area from the top. The new addition of marksmen who target Enkidu and don’t let you scan an area until you dispose of them is certainly an improvement I enjoyed.
The stealth in Mirage is a familiar blend of mechanics that is quite fun to play around with. However, playing so needs a challenging AI for you to fool, and that is something I felt missing. While Valhalla’s unpredictable guards sometimes spotted me even if I was out of the line of sight, Mirage’s guards acted in the complete opposite manner. The guards have a vision cone, and they fail to notice me right outside of it, no matter how obvious I try to be.
Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoyed playing Mirage stealthy, but it felt familiar without any new flavor and a bit too conveniently easy at the hardest difficulty. I wish the AI could be a bit more challenging like it was in Syndicate.
The combat returns to the counter-kill era
Mirage takes a step back from the previous entries when it comes to combat and weapon choices. While Kassandra and Eivor had an entire arsenal at their disposal, Basim has a sword and a dagger, which complements his more agile movements and a parry heavy combat.
While in Valhalla, it was a two-button combat (RB/R1 for light attack and RT/R2 for heavy), in Mirage, it has been boiled down to a one-button attack (press RB/R1 for light attack and hold RT/R2 for charged heavy attack). Due to this, I found myself preferring a light attack combo over a mix of light and heavy attacks, leaning more into an agile style of fighting.
As for enemy variety, it was toned down to only 3-4, which isn’t really bad, but became repetitive quite fast. The enemies used two kinds of attacks: a light attack that can be parried and a heavy one that cannot be. Both Basim and the enemies have reduced health compared to previous counterparts, and that, paired with the agile style of fighting, really sped up combat, which I really appreciated.
One aspect of Mirage’s combat I found a tad bit disappointing is the return of counter-kill. Of course, it is quite fun to take out an enemy with a right-timed parry. But the majority of the enemies were stunned after one attack, leaving it open for me to press a button and end the combat and failing to provide a good challenge at the higher difficulties.
The ambitious yet frustrating parkour
Parkour has been synonymous with the franchise since the first game. While attention certainly shifted from it over the past few entries, it makes a comeback here. As I mentioned before, Basim is a lot more agile than Eivor or Kassandra, and that is reflected in his movement.
Bagdad is a beautifully planned city with lots of opportunities for parkouring. New additions include pole vaults to cross larger gaps (no 19th-century London grappling hook here) and collapsible structure to stop enemies from following.
Unfortunately, it also brings back some frustrating aspects of parkour in Assassin’s Creed, like Basim jumping off the wall when I try to go upwards or free falling from a high place instead of a controlled descent. All in all, it is a welcoming change from previous entries, yet it leaves room to aspire for a fluid system like in Unity and Syndicate.
The notoriety adds character to a living breathing world
Notoriety has been inconsistent throughout the franchise, and here is Mirage, it is a mixed bag of elements from Assassin’s Creed II and Odyssey. Basim has a three-staged notoriety bar that increases if he is spotted during assassination, pickpocketing, trespassing, or something illegal.
In the first stage, NPCs will actively call out guards to your position, while in the second stage, guards will look for you and attack on sight. Things become more interesting when it reaches the third stage, where a powerful enemy, Shakiriyya will hunt down and attack Basim, harkening to the mercenaries from Odyssey. To reduce notoriety, you can tear up posters, bribe the Munadi, or be daring and push the bar to the maximum and hunt down the Shakiriyya yourself.
All in all, I quite enjoyed this interpretation of the notoriety, balancing between a strong world-building where everything isn’t forgiven as soon as Basim disappears for a hot minute and not making the bounty system unnecessarily irritating where you get interrupted every moment.
The surprisingly in-depth customization of the tools
While Basim may not have too many weapons at his disposal, he has an impressive set of tools perfect for sneaking as well as distracting and taking down enemies.
While the throwing knives and the torch are unlocked by default, players need to unlock other skills by leveling up the Trickster skill tree and then visiting the Banu Musa at one of the hideouts.
Each of the tools also features three tiers of abilities, ranging from simply increasing the carrying capacity to completely changing the nature of how the tool acts. The tools can also be upgraded at the Banu Musa, with players only being able to equip one ability from each tier at a time.
Looking at the individual tools, other than the Throwing Knives and the Torch, there are Smoke Bombs, Blowpipe, Traps, and Noisemakers.
At the most base level, the Throwing Knives and the Blowpipe are individual lethal and non-lethal attacks, whereas the Smoke Bomb, Trap, and Noisemaker are area-of-effect tools used for knocking out groups of enemies, distracting enemies, or simply vanishing in smoke. Upgrading and unlocking abilities are, of course, a whole another story, completely changing their effects.
As for my personal experience, while I did unlock all of the tools daily early, I found myself leaning heavily into Throwing knives, taking down enemies swiftly from the shadow. Once I unlocked the tier 3 ability of Corrode Body, it took care of disposing of the bodies automatically.
While I wished Basim could carry more than 6 knives, limiting the number forced me to look for creative ways to circumvent enemies rather than take down the entire barrack while hiding in the bushes.
Earning meaningful skill progression
One aspect of Mirage that got me excited right out of the gate is the new skill system. In Odyssey and especially in Valhalla, like many others, I quickly got sucked into an XP grind, trying to constantly level up by doing a lot of side activities, not because I wanted to, but cause I need to.
After that, investing the skills to increase my damage or stealth by minuscule levels became frustrating quite quickly.
Mirage’s answer to that is to completely remove XP progression and instead tie skill points as rewards for completing quests and contracts. Moreover, the skill trees this time around are much more toned down and streamlined, which means each skill on it is actually effective.
Mirage brought back the sense of excitement regarding progression that I was missing in previous entries. Without worrying about what activity to do next in order to level up, I could focus entirely on the core story and gameplay. Moreover, the refined skill tree meant I could invest the points in skills I actually wanted and not worry about which would increase my attack or defense.
The refined focus on customization
Customization is one aspect where Mirage takes a step back from Valhalla and Odyssey, for better or for worse, depending on the players. Basim has a few variants for his sword and dagger, including the much coveted Dagger of Time, which, unfortunately, is part of the Deluxe Edition.
Interestingly, Mirage has taken a new approach to transmoging (changing appearance without affecting the stats of the main outfit) with two different options in Outfits and Costumes.
While Outfits can be upgraded and have gameplay-affecting stats, Costumes are worn above the outfit and do not affect the base outfit’s stats. Another distinguishing factor is that Outfits have dyes that change their colors, while the Costumes don’t.
While I very much enjoyed the selection of outfits and costumes in the game with the dye options, I just wish there were a few more, especially contrasting with the number of outfits and costumes already available for purchase in the store.
Moreover, for legacy outfits, there are only three (besides the Prince of Persia Sands of Time one), which are Altair’s original outfit, Ezio’s revelation outfit, and Basim’s Valhalla outfit, which are all part of Ubisoft Connect rewards rather than be some sort of hidden treasure in-game.
While Mirage doesn't really have any plans for post-launch expansions, I hope Ubisoft Bordeaux adds in more legacy outfits like Bayak’s Hidden One or Edward Kenway’s Black Flag.
Exploring the Narrative of Assassin's Creed Mirage
(May contain spoilers for Valhalla and Mirage)
As a single-player title, narrative, and storytelling have been key pillars of the franchise. From the First Civilization and Ancient Greece to the 19th Century Industrial Revolution or the modern day, the lore of the franchise has managed to tie it across all of the different eras.
Mirage is set in 861 AD, roughly 12 years before the event of Valhalla and three centuries before Altair. The game explores the origin story of Basim in 9th-century Bagdad, which was considered the heart of the Islamic Golden Age.
Basim was first introduced as a key antagonistic character in Valhalla, who later turns out to embody the reincarnated consciousness of Loki, a Jötnar Isu, much like Eivor, who embodies the consciousness of Odin/Havi the Æsir Isu of Ásgarðr. The events of the game eventually lead to Basim making his way to the modern day.
Basim is quite a unique protagonist across the franchise, as he was first introduced in a previous game as an antagonist. However, Basim isn’t a straight-up villain, rather, he is more of an anti-hero, where he isn’t afraid of doing the seemingly wrong deed for the sake of a greater good. Mirage’s story is an exploration of not only Basim’s character but also what led him down this path.
One thing that’s worth mentioning is that Mirage’s story, while brilliantly crafted, may lose newcomers to the franchise. It does not adequately explore the Isu connection of Basim, which ends up being a major focus of the ending.
The story of Basim exploring the origin of Loki
The story of Mirage starts off with a naive street thief, Basim, eager to prove himself to be capable of doing something big. He is an idealistic person, always looking for the good of his community.
That’s why when his action led to the massacre of the people he cared for, it shook him to his core, and he blamed Nehal for it. The Jinni that haunts Basim in his dream represents the internal conflict between his idealistic mindset and the sadistic world he is part of.
The Order of the Ancient story isn’t anything new; rather, the stereotypical story of hunting down each member of the secret organization pulling the strings of the society, one by one, which I always enjoy.
However, one aspect I quite liked in this iteration is how the mission is laid out, giving you the idea of how each Order member's hunt is progressing. An organization tree for Order of the Ancient, Cult of Cosmos, or Templar Order isn’t something new in Assassin’s Creed, but Mirage’s presentation closely knits it with the game’s progression.
The colorful characters complement Basim
Mirage is Basim’s origin story, exploring the character growth from a street thief to what he is in Valhalla, and in the game, he is accompanied by a colorful cast of characters. While the Hidden Ones or Assassin Brotherhood as an organization has taken a backseat in the story since Unity or Origin’s Hidden Ones expansion, here they are presented in ample amount.
From Basim’s mentor, the cool and confident Roshan, training him and helping him become an assassin to Fulhad, the eagle master, and the Banu Musa brothers, Mirage finally brought back the Hidden Ones order in a big way, which I was hoping for. From going back to the different bureau after each mission to Basim’s initiation scene in the cave to the cliffs of Alamut. It truly harkened back to the older titles.
However, the Hidden Ones are not the only companions of Basim, as he comes across several other interesting characters like Beshi, Ali, Dervish, and, of course, Nehal. I won’t spoil the final reveal of Nehal’s character, but what they did with her was really interesting.
All in all, while Mirage may not have a massive cast like Valhalla, the smaller cast list helped me relate more to each character and express truly three-dimensional ones.
However, at times, the voice acting and the animation felt a bit too archaic and lacked the fluency of modern-day video games. Hopefully, shifting to a new engine and building a game ground up for the 9th generation may address this in future Assassin’s Creed titles.
The balance between linear and branching mission structure
When it comes to mission structure, Mirage once again formed a bridge between the action stealth era of linear storytelling and the open-world RPG era of branching narrative. After the prologue and the first bureau, three other bureaus open up, each with its own story, giving players the option to go for any.
Furthermore, each of the bureaus starts off two different mission lines leading to the main Order member for that area. Completing each will give clues for the Order member, after which you will be able to do a black box mission and hunt the member. Once you have completed all four bureaus and received the clues, you will be able to go for the head or the Order.
The entire mission is laid in an investigation structure, where clues slowly uncover the real Order member behind it all. I quite liked this style of storytelling, which presents the option to progress the story as you want yet retains the linear aspects and does not overwhelm players with too much to do at once.
The black box missions were a fun addition, although I personally felt they could have been expanded more, but I get why they weren’t, given the scope of the game.
Exploring the Worldbuilding of Assassin's Creed Mirage
As a video game series, perhaps no one else can build an authentic historical world like Assassin’s Creed. From renascence Italy, the golden age of piracy in the Carrabian, to the ancient marvels of Egyptian and Greek civilization, the series has crafted worlds that even historians have used to teach classes.
In Mirage, Ubisoft Bourdeux depicts 9th century Bagdad, a beating heart of the Islamic Golden Age, and the team once again crafts a beautiful world.
From the conversations consisting of Arabic dialects to exploring the early days of the Zanj Rebellion against the Abbasid Caliphate to the early morning Azan prayer as the sun peeks from the horizon, the world of Mirage is truly an authentic beautiful representation.
The thriving city of Bagdad, the heart of the Islamic Golden Age
The setting of the game has once again returned to focus on a city instead of a massive country since Syndicate. The city is divided into five main sections.
The round city is surrounded by Harbiyah in the north, Karkh in the south, and Abbasiyah in the west, with extended wild areas and desserts in the northern and southern parts of the map. Each district has a unique feel, representative of its look and structure.
The world is also dotted with different activities, ranging from collecting gear to pickpocketing for Dervis to Tales of Bagdad that fleshes out the world. During one certain Tales of Bagdad, I came across a young boy trying to do the leap of faith, who turned out to be Haythm, Basim’s protege from Valhalla.
Unlike Valhalla or Odyssey, where the majority of my time was spent traveling between objectives on horse or ship, the compact focused map design meant I barely used my horse, instead just simply running between objectives.
On a larger scale, this also expresses how Bagdad was the focus of the world during the 9th century and what a bustling city it was.
The token economy exploring the underbelly of Bagdad
A new addition to the franchise is the Khidma token economy. Three types of tokens let Basim get favors from different groups of people - the Scholar Favor Token, the Power Favor Token, and the Merchant Favor Token.
The Scholar Token and the Power Token can be used to hire musicians or mercenaries to distract or attack guards, whereas the Merchant Token can be used to open specific chests or get permanent discounts.
Basim can also use the tokens to bribe during and outside the game to get new information or reduce notoriety. The tokens can be earned by completing contracts found on the bureau notice board.
While earning the token was easy, as I preferred doing all the contracts early to understand the world, I soon found myself pondering ways to spend them. Outside of getting the permanent discount, opening chests, and bribing for extra information, I had an abundance of tokens.
However, this is partially due to my playstyle, as I preferred to sneak in instead of using musicians or mercenaries. What I really appreciated was how this added another layer of world-building, exposing a black market economy that common people used with each other.
In Conclusion
When I started penning this review, I had a question in mind: where does Mirage stand in the decade-and-a-half-long franchise legacy? From an objective standpoint, it is quite easy to dismiss this game, especially in a year filled to the brim with genre-defining titles.
The game does have a few shortcomings, be it AI failing to provide a strong challenge in stealth or combat lacking depth. It can also be criticized for relying a bit too heavily on nostalgia and not really innovating with anything new.
However, like Basim, Mirage is a game of many layers, which is truly experienced when playing it. It does not simply bring back older nostalgia-filled elements for the sake of cashing in on the series’ legacy. It defines and expands on the mechanics to give a true Assassin’s Creed experience.
From the mission structure balancing the linear and the branching storyline perfectly to the tools letting you play as you want to with different tiered abilities to the skill tree, letting you unlock truly meaningful skills, it provides an unbelievably balanced experience.
Basim has been one of the most interesting characters in the recent era of Assassin’s Creed since his debut in Valhalla, and Mirage expands his development in such a brilliant way, being the polar opposite of Eivor. With the fate at the end of Valhalla, I honestly hope Ubisoft continues Basim as a recurring character in Assassin’s Creed Infinity and beyond.
Mirage, in many ways, feels like a response to Valhalla, cut from the same cloth, forming two sides of a coin, complimenting each other. If Valhalla was the pinnacle of the massive-scale open-world RPG aspect of the series, Mirage is the culmination of the franchise’s focused action-stealth roots.
If Origin was the beginning of a new age for Assassin’s Creed, Mirage is the culmination of the era. The future of the franchise seems uncertain, but after playing Mirage, my excitement for the series has been reignited.
Assassin's Creed Mirage review
Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Amazon Luna, Windows PC (Ubisoft Connect and Epic Games Store)
Reviewed On: Windows PC (review copy provided by Ubisoft)
Release Date: October 5, 2023.
Developer: Ubisoft Bordeaux
Publisher: Ubisoft
