What do we want from Assassin’s Creed Mirage? | Team Talk

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Speculation is mounting this week, following the official confirmation of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, the next game in the long-running stab-em-up franchise, following a leak reported by Eurogamer.

Ubisoft announced the game with a reassuringly assassin-y and stylish piece of artwork, and promised more details at a special Ubisoft Forward event on Saturday 10 September.

The question is, what will the game be about? What elements from previous games will continue and what will have been changed up to keep things fresh? What do we hope to find in Assassin’s Creed Mirage? Leave your own ponderings in our Discord.

by Team PTC

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​@pass_controller

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More variety | James Parry

I’m not an Assassin’s Creed expert by any means, but having spent a good amount of time with a number of games in the franchise, I feel like I’ve got a good idea of what works and what feels like busywork.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla felt fresh because of its sprawling map, and even multiple countries to explore, but many of the sidequests and activities felt like throwaway minigames and basic fetch quests rather than really inspired AC moments.

I’m hoping for more variety in quests and, most importantly, kills. The most recent Hitman games have raised the bar on the sort of elaborate and unique assassinations you can pull off, and I’d like to see some more of this in this series.

While not well-loved by fans in general, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate had a few memorable moments in this regard, with one in particular seeing you burst through a skylight and into a train carriage.

The setting for Mirage seems to be The Far East, and so hopefully we’ll find plenty of new opportunities for unusual interactions and engaging new ways to whip out the hidden blade.

Rumours strongly suggest the protagonist could be Basim, who turned up in Valhalla to give Sigurd a hidden blade, which was then passed on to protagonist Eivor, so it might be fun to see how it all connects together too.

Fewer distractions | Liam Andrews

I’ve only played a handful of AC titles, the latest of which was Odyssey, though I didn’t finish it. It wasn’t because it was a bad game, I enjoyed the hours I put in, but there was simply too much of it and my interest fizzled out long before I got anywhere near the ending.

I don’t usually have a problem with Ubisoft’s icon-littered open worlds, but Odyssey just felt too big, too cluttered, which I don’t think helped its cause.

With Odyssey, it was quite easy for the main missions to get buried by all the distractions, so I’m hoping Mirage cuts back a bit by reducing the number of collectables, events and side quests in favour of a clear main quest. Perhaps even the in-game map itself could also be scaled down, though given the success and size of Valhalla, I’m not totally convinced this’ll be the case.

The concept art used for the reveal could suggest a return to the series’ roots, however. The protagonist pictured is wearing an outfit like those seen in the original AC titles, and the crowded streets and buildings are also reminiscent of the early settings.​

More modern-day gameplay | Chris Brand

When I played the very first Assassin's Creed, I thought the real world would be quite a significant part of the game and fully expected to utilise our new skills in the modern day. However, as the series evolved, it seemed to be less and less of a focus.

Even though the present day has been featured more, it felt like it was merely there to hold all the various story threads together (and then it went a little weird with Assassin's Creed 3). With this outing, I'm wanting to spend more time putting those assassin skills to good use outside of the animus.

With so many rumours and leaks it's impossible to know which ones are accurate, but from what I can tell, Mirage sounds like a return to Assassin's Creed's roots, with fewer of the RPG-style elements from the more recent titles. I did enjoy the mini-revival with Origins, though not enough to play either of the games that have followed since. The world was bigger and busier, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but after playing other Ubisoft titles it just felt like more of the same. 

The setting itself is of little importance to me; there's tall buildings to scale, foliage to hide in and all the other sneaky/stabby things we've come to expect. The combat has always been adequate, though far from perfect, and I'm sure that whichever direction Ubisoft take, it will be passable. These gameplay aspects are important, sure, but AC tells a story. A strange story, that oftentimes makes no sense, but one that I still find captivating, and a lot of that comes from the modern day setting and wondering how (if?) it will all come together.