- A True ‘Return to Form’ For The Series
- (SPOILERS) A Deeper Look at Basim’s (nee, Loki’s) True Intentions
- Excellent City Parkour Mechanics
- A Clearer Vision for Modern Day
Assassin’s Creed Mirage Photo : Assassin’s Creed Twitter
Assassin’s Creed Mirage has finally been confirmed by Ubisoft as the next game in their stabby franchise, and safe to say, a lot of fans seem to be excited about it. There’s no full-length reveal for the game yet, but the rumors that were floating around were mostly true – and it looks to be an actual “return to the basics” for Assassin’s Creed as a whole.
That said, here are the most important things we want to see in Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
A True ‘Return to Form’ For The Series
So many people weren’t too fond of Ubisoft’s direction for the last three mainline AC games. They feel like the RPG mechanics have gone overboard, causing the franchise to “lose its identity” and people to miss the old games from before.
If the first-ever teaser for Mirage is any clear indication, then it must bring back all of the things that made the older Assassin’s Creed games (more so the first one from 2007) great. Bring back true social stealth (which has been missing since 2015’s Syndicate), the excellent parkour mechanics of Unity (or at least something like it), and bring back the fact that you could insta-kill someone with a Hidden Blade regardless of whether you have the stats or not.
assassin’s creed director’s cut
Since the game is starring Valhalla antagonist/antihero Basim, who is himself an Assassin (or a Hidden One, if you’re a purist), then it must have those old-school gameplay elements on lock. Basim should be a stealthy operator through and through – a real “blade in the crowd” in Mirage. As per a report by PC Gamer, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier (who was among the first to leak out Mirage when it was still called Rift) says the game will not feature any RPG-style leveling or dialogue choices and will focus on stealth. So that’s already a great start.
(SPOILERS) A Deeper Look at Basim’s (nee, Loki’s) True Intentions
Basim will be headlining Assassin’s Creed Mirage after (SPOILER) his resuscitation at the end of Valhalla. He obviously is the one going into the Animus now, which is why we see his personal memories explored in the upcoming game. However, he still has way more stuff than he lets on, and that’s what Ubisoft has to clear out – he is canonically the trickster Norse “god” Loki, after all.
The last time we saw Basim, he asked to meet the current head of the modern-day Assassin order: Desmond Miles’ father, William. What he intends to discuss with William Miles is anyone’s guess at this point. But Mirage should explore and clarify what Basim’s/Loki’s grand plans are.
Maybe he would want to know what exactly happened to his lover (fellow Isu Aletheia) and his son, Fenrir (aka the Wolf that Odin bound in Norse myth). Fenrir won’t be an actual wolf, of course, but also an Isu that Odin (aka Eivor) had a “particular interest” in back in the day. If you know Norse myth, you know.
Excellent City Parkour Mechanics
We said earlier that we’d also like to have the parkour system from Unity back because that was awesome. And since Assassin’s Creed Mirage will look to be a city-heavy game, perhaps at least a good city-based parkour system should be in place.
It’s been a long while since an AC game focused on city-based gameplay. The last time was Syndicate back in 2015, which was set in Victorian London. Baghdad will be the main setting for Mirage, and it will be during the Islamic Golden Age, writes DotESports. This time period spans 622-1258, and Iraq’s capital during the age was a center of culture and political power under the control of the powerful Abbasid Caliphate. But according to a source which feeds information to Schreier, there will still be multiple cities to explore. All of them will be separated by “desert and rivers,” just like the “Kingdom” areas of AC1:
A person familiar tells me parts of this new Assassin's Creed leak are true (such as the name and the other stuff Bloomberg has already reported: spring 23, Baghdad, back to AC basics) and other parts are not (“multiple cities to explore”) https://t.co/qmM6UZtKnG
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) August 30, 2022
It is said that Mirage takes heavy inspiration from the first-ever Assassin’s Creed game. So this should be evident in how Baghdad and all the other cities are designed in terms of parkour. We expect that the buildings will be closer together, making it easy to run across rooftops and escape pursuers without ever having to touch the ground. As much as possible, we don’t want the “auto-parkour” system that’s been in place since Origins.
A Clearer Vision for Modern Day
Look, not a lot of fans (not even long-time Assassin’s Creed fans) like the modern-day elements. We get it. Folks love Ubisoft’s stabby franchise for the appeal of visiting different periods in history and experiencing them in the most accurate way possible. But if Ubi wants to save this franchise from dying within the next few years, they need to establish a clear goal for the overarching modern-day narrative, stat.
As we said earlier, Basim is now the modern-day protagonist. He is up for a meeting with William Miles, the current Mentor of the brotherhood, for still-unknown reasons. You might remember that he looks to be intent on helping the current Assassins in their losing fight against the Templars, so maybe that could be a starting point. Since the “global aurora borealis” that Desmond triggered in 2012 is now done with threatening life on Earth again, perhaps the Assassins can, at last, go back to focusing on their war against the Templars. This would be once again a return to the old ways, and we’re fine with that.