I've had something of a rough relationship with the Assassin's Creed franchise of late. I always thought the games were verging on 'Soulless' as they slowly circled the drain but it wasn't until we reached the RPG age were we really saw the bubble begin to burst and the limits of creativity start to cease. From Origin's beautiful but lazy world which lost the personality of previous world spaces, to Odyssey's outrageous padding to extortionate lengths to Valhalla's everything. I'm not kidding either- Valhalla's length, pathetically miniscule narrative, eye brow raising acting from core members of the supporting cast, lack of focus- all Valhalla has going for it is half decent combat- which still doesn't feel as satisfying as the Ezio days in their prime. I really thought that Ubisoft had truly lost the plot and was absolutely not willing to offer them the benefit of any doubt when the kowtowing began begging people to give them another chance for Mirage.
Valhalla was their most successful entry ever, afterall- and given that monetary gains is literally the only north star for a studio as creatively bankrupt as Ubisoft, there was little reason to believe the disgusted reaction of those who care for quality touched literally anyone at the studio. But... I should have taken into account the fact that Ubisoft would love to make similar profits for less effort- those introducing smaller side games as mainline entries that are quicker to make does fit into that profit margin. But would making the game smaller be enough to rekindle what was once genuinely unique about the Assassin's Creed franchise like the developers insisted? Or are we just circling the drain yet again fooling ourselves that this is a high value franchise?
Mirage does indeed strip away a lot of the superfluous fluff that has come to dog this franchise, from the hopelessly lost modern day narrative that nowadays meanders with pointlessness- (it isn't gone exactly, but all the set-up was done at the end of Valhalla for those who actually stuck out that 130hr snooze fest. All thirty of us.) all open world side objectives are tired directly towards reinforcing the gameplay loop in some significant fashion, and the 'Investigation' style story telling method they inherited from the RPG saga of games is centralised around a single target with only five branches- meaning you can actually keep abreast of clues. The actual character introductions are still prototypically weak for a Ubisoft game so you can't actually figure it out like you could with Odyssey- (which is what made the investigation tab so good in that game) but I could follow the thread of the plot. I appreciate that.
Speaking of little things I appreciate- goodness I forgot how much I missed the codex entries! Part of the charm of these games was visiting some far off culture and reading small write-ups about how significant this particular building was or how that aspect of life functioned. All that had been relegated to the optional 'educational mode' since Origins- but I'm so glad it's been brought back for Mirage. I genuinely love these tiny bite-sized lessons into aspects of the world I'm actively invested in and find the aspect of these being real-world info pockets all the more interesting. There's none of the flavour of the Ezio saga data entries- but I get they're trying to find their feet again- I'll give them space to figure it out.
Mirage's mantra seems to be 'bringing stealth back to Assassin's Creed' after that style of play had become whittled down in Odyssey and straight up discouraged in Valhalla- and to this end the team actually did a respectable job. Nerfing healing avenues and gutting combat are supremely inelegant ways to force stealth as the viable playstyle, but actually developing patrol routes for areas, multiple entry angles and giving us tools that aid a ghost-like approach actually work pretty well. I think the team might be a little rusty with how they handle such tools, however, because the smoke bomb is insanely overpowered and probably should have been reconsidered on the design floor. When you can easily wipe out an entire room of already aggroed enemies by dropping a single smoke bomb- maybe there's a balance concern or two.
Actually the biggest problem this game's stealth really has is the fact that this entire title has been built on the bones of Valhalla- a game clearly not made to facilitate stealth. You'll enter full blown fights with a couple of guards and brutally murder them in vibrant slashes a single corner away from another guard who simply didn't hear any of it. You can alert a pick-pocket victim, jump into a haybale right in front of them and just wait the two minutes of guard searching before doing the exact same action again with everyone haven forgotten you. They've even regressed in the way they handle the all important 'escape' pillar of gameplay- back in the Ezio days you'd have guards rush out ahead of you and preparing chest swipes to catch you running past- in Mirage I literally jogged away from full-notoriety chases whilst fiddling about on my computer playing Dying Light as the same time- there's clearly some wanting developments in the stealth department.
Where the experience is most focused, however, are the returning 'Black box' missions as they were once coined for Unity. Essentially pitched as playgrounds with a major target you are free to hunt down anyway you like- like a typical Immersive Sim would do it- Mirage realises this in perhaps the least impressive fashion this series could manage. Essentially you have the freedom to approach some targets with two or three options, but a single cinematic tailor-made assassination opportunity the game wants you to use. Otherwise you can just jog up and clumsy slap them until they fall over- those are your options. I like the idea- but unless you have level designers with the kind of fire in them that the Hitman developers at IO boast- it can end up as a bit of a wet fart in execution.
Overall I am actually shocked to say that I enjoyed my time with Assassin's Creed Mirage far more than nearly every other title in the Assassin's Creed franchise over the past 10 years- and that is because this game didn't linger long enough to get on my bad side. Other than several horrific crashes I suffered through this game gets exactly to the point, executes it's mission and sods off on a decently high note. I miss the days of lean Assassin's Creed and recall how the best paced game in the franchise was actually the slick Brotherhood- for which this title is a pale comparison- but I can see the rough inspirations. I would actually go so far as to give this a C+ Grade, against all belief. I shock even myself. Still- nothing truly interesting from a narrative standpoint- particularly given that the twist is well known by anyone who endured Valhalla- it was only ever a question of how they were going to pull it. I guess the only thing I really learned is that apparently Basim knew the entire time, which clarifies a bit of Valhalla's two hours of actual narrative I suppose. Here's hoping someone on the team really notices the power of not overstaying your welcome.
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