THE CLASSIC ERA
I feel that the first couple games were new and original at the time of their release, setting a standard template that later games followed and (to an extent) refined:
- Climb a tall thing, filling in part of the map as you look around at nearby objectives.
- Complete a few formulaically interchangeable side quests to unlock a major assassination.
- Assassinate the head villain of that region, unlocking the next area and driving the story forward.
- Move on to the next region of the map to do it all again.
THE RPG ERA
Assassin's Creed Origins (set in ancient Egypt), Odyssey (during the Peloponnesian War), and Valhalla (set in 9th Century Europe) belong in the newer generation of games. The core loop mentioned above is still there, but with a thick slurry of RPG elements added in that mixed them up and made them feel fresh. They also dipped heavier into fantasy than previous games, really leaning into the idea that ancient alien technology is responsible for much of modern legend and myth.
Maps were suddenly enormous. Your character now leveled up, allowing access to higher level areas with more powerful enemies. Vehicles (boats, mostly) played a bigger part in these games. Weapons and skills could be combined in new ways, so you could build a character (itself a new concept to the franchise) around something like fire damage, or attack speed. There were now actual (varied, unpredictable) quests, leading to surprising and interesting places. There were now a set of infinite, procedurally generated contract quests. Raid bosses. Mercenary rankings to climb. Customizable equipment. Rune stones. Crafting. It's a lot.
I like those 3 games a lot, but they also bloated up the pacing of what used to be 20-hour games to easily take more like 100 hours to complete. I haven't fully completed any of them, frankly, generally moving on after hitting about 80% of the non-story content.
ENTER MIRAGE
Mirage marks the 15th Anniversary of the Assassin's Creed franchise. Unlike previous entries in the series, the game features no “modern day” analog character. There's no Animus device involved at all, really - the story is entirely told within 9th century Baghdad. Your protagonist is even a familiar face, which makes sense as the game was originally planned as an expansion to AC Valhalla.
I can see why they spun it off as its own game though - in contrast with the 'RPG Era' games before it though, it very much feels like a love letter to the first game, which itself was set in the (geo-temporally similar) Holy Lands. Having played the first game extensively, it felt great to return to the region with new mechanics and a (much prettier) layer of modern polish. I have never really been that into remastered games, and very much prefer to see a new game pay homage to an old (as they did here) rather than see an old game return from the dead with new paint. I'll take originality over rehashing every damn time.
In keeping with that idea of honoring an earlier release, Mirage takes a step away from the RPG format entirely - you have a skill tree, but they all feel in theme with "be an assassin" and do more to improve the core gameplay loop than to replace it with different play strategies.
The game also stays within the bounds of a single city, leaving it only for a few short narrative divergences. That sounds limiting, but I actually found it freeing - it meant I actually got to grow accustomed to certain parts of the map by revisiting them. I also felt that the roof-running pathing was the most polished I have seen in the franchise to date, something I credit to their reduced scope. Anyone who has played an AC game will recall various (generally brief) moments when they became stuck halfway up into a corner during a climb, unable to *quite* get the game to recognize they wanted to go *around* that corner. That awkwardness happens a lot less here. The city is incredibly dense, with potential paths that criss-cross around streets and rooftops very satisfyingly.
That said, Mirage is certainly a shorter game than the three (RPG Era) games before it. I personally liked that, but I also found those previous titles to be overly full of 'filler' spaces. As a player, I felt like I spent a lot of time wandering around large open maps in those titles, and less time "being an assassin." Game reviewer Yahtzee Croshaw (to my mind anyway) coined the term "Faffing About Creed" in reference to some of the earlier games - you can see that in original context (a 5 minute review of AC Brotherhood, which released between the 2nd and 3rd AC games) here. I can relate to his frustration with the franchises' tendency to pile errands and additional features into their games - and my point in mentioning it is that Mirage doesn't really do that. For once. Happily.
Mirage focuses the player on being an Assassin, and while there are side quests in the form of "Contracts," they feel less like filler content and more like a second chance to revisit a cool part of the map after the main story has moved on from it. The Contracts also each have a sort of challenge objective requested by the client - an optional caveat like "don't get detected" or "don't kill anyone" that gives you a profit vs convenience choice to either change your play style accordingly, or forego the bonus payout the challenge might have gotten you.
On a related note, Mirage also added (I don't recall them from earlier games, anyway) marksmen who will take (harmless) pot shots at your eagle buddy Enkidu when he flies too close, missing him unavailable while the threat remains. You can fix the problem by incapacitating those marksmen - I think it's a great mechanic. This redditor does not. However neat the mechanic might be, I still felt unexpectedly protective of my little birdo buddy, and would (to my wife's consternation) call out "Fuck you, asshole!" at the TV whenever an arrow arced out toward my bird. Fuck those guys.
Mirage has fewer tools and tricks to learn than some previous titles, for example there's no bow, grapple, or flying devices in the game. Instead you get a handful of useful, customizable standby tools that fit into the world and feel very in-character as an Assassin. You've got throwing knives, you've got sleep darts, you've got smoke bombs, and you've got some other neat tools - but really those three have always been my favorites anyway. You've also got a neat tag-and-murder system you can upgrade in the game, which allows you to instantly assassinate up to 5 nearby enemies, provided you're anonymous (nobody suspects you of anything) when you trigger it.
It took me about 60 hours (according to my PS5) to complete the last few trophies of the game. My cat helped, at one point. If you aren't going for 100% completion, you could probably complete the main story and most side of the side content in less than half of that time. I kind of dragged my feet toward the end, enjoying the references the game made (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Lovecraft's Necronomicon, etc) and soaking in the historical details about ancient Baghdad. If you take the time to read through that sort of thing, you too can learn in what ways camels were instrumental in the city planning of Baghdad! In the end, I was ready to move on about the same time the game was ready to stop telling stories, which worked out well.
My only real gripe about Mirage is also spoilery, so I'll avoid the bulk of that spoiler and simply say that I wish the NG+ mode of the game (unlocked after completing the story) allowed you to select a specific alternate protagonist character. That would have been rad; you'll figure out who I mean if you beat the game.
I would recommend Assassin's Creed: Mirage to anyone looking for a fresh AC game who has been intimidated by the scope of the recent RPG Era games above - this is it, and worth checking out. I give it eight bird-hating rooftop marksmen out of ten. Seriously, fuck those marksmen; they're the worst.