Assassin’s Creed Mirage Honest Review: It is bad and there is no hiding it

Assassin’s creed mirage review well where do I start with. I am honestly disappointed. If you are going into the game for nostalgic brownie points of having a stealth based character, but even in this aspect it is weak.

I did not get any review copy as such but reviewed the game after I purchased it myself. It feels more like a DLC to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla rather than an actual game. Also unbiased game journalism is dead. IGN gave it an 8/10 in its review. How ? I based my purchase based on these reviews and I am serious disappointed.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage Review the positives

Even though in Assassin’s Creed Mirage Review is mostly negative here are a few positives I found in this game.

Wanted System

They replaced the game with a new wanted system in which even the NPCs reactive to it. In case you have a high wanted level, you need to reduce it by tearing down posters of you in the city. Failing to do so, makes you easily detectable to the guards as well as the NPCs would be able to recognize you and call in nearby guards to capture you. Assassin’s Creed Mirage have implemented this system correctly in that regards. It does add a certain degree of difficulty aspect as guards are scattered throughout the city.

Combat Tools

This is one of the aspects which I found strong when I was reviewing Assassin’s Creed Mirage. The tools consists of:

1. Throwing knives
2. Torch
3. Noisemaker
4. Trap
5. Smoke Bomb
6. Blow Dart

Basim

One of the big positives in Assassin’s Creed Mirage is choosing the protagonist Basim. A no nonsense assassin trying to go up the ranks in the order. However they didn’t do justice to his story. Nonetheless he is a great character to play as.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage Review the negatives

The mirage negative review where do I start with. Let me be very honest I did not play the entire series but enough to know its a lazy marketing gimmick rather than an actual game with substance inside it. I was introduced to the series from Assassin’s Creed 3 when I was in college and I am one of those people who is mocked for playing the games in this series multiple times.

Black Flag, Syndicate, Origins, Rogue, Unity these games when I played I know the stories and the characters in and out the Voice acting the mission the locations the crazy ship battles in the open sea to exploration upgrading my vessel etc. These are fun mechanics and unique storylines to follow. What is unique about Mirage ? Let me try to find out point by point. They said they going back to their roots. I will uncover these roots in a few lines.

Combat System

Lets talk a bit about the combat system, they moved away from its predecessors like Valhalla, Origins and Odyssey. They went with so called their “roots” kind of approach right where direct confrontation would be costly. Of course it is. If you are on open grounds surrounded by more than one enemy you will be ganked to death.

Great but in terms of direct combat how does it play out ? Extremely basic parry and attack system. There are two enemy one is the brute and the other is the regular enemy type and they deal two types of attacks one block able and the other non block able. For the regular enemies you parry or dodge the attacks and chip at their health for the brutes you dodge as they mostly do non block able swings that is it. Lets have a look at the combat system from Assassin Creed’s “roots”

Or ok if I am being too harsh about it lets have a look at some other combat system they made in the past for an average assassin’s creed game.

Does going back to the roots mean that you limit the options and restrict play styles ? Does it mean strip down Valhalla and call it a new game ?

Regarding the stealth combat in this game well, the AI is more dumb that we can find in the hitman series. Hop out of a stack of hay and attack an enemy in front of its buddies (plural) they won’t be able to see half of Basim’s body coming outside to prick his friend and drag inside the hay stack. I can understand this is a stealth game, but please. Metal gear solid V phantom pain is a stealth game as well. Their AI ain’t dumb nor was it any other Assassin’s creed game.

Parkour

This is a back to the roots game right ? which means smooth parkour wall climbing, seamlessly integrated with its back to the roots stealth right ? The parkour ain’t smooth at all nor is it comparable to even origins. Even origins had a smoother parkour as compared to Assassin’s creed mirage. I had picked it up from its trailer it was not looking good and it doesn’t play well now as well.

I went with less expectations on this aspect and was less disappointed due to the same.

Story and Missions

The story pretty much revolves around Basim who was a street thief joining the hidden ones post a traumatic event after a mission gone wrong. The missions revolves around finding the members of the order and killing them one by one.

The characters are not memorable nor do they have any significant role other than providing you with the details of where you wanna go next to find some details about a target then it builds up to you going to certain place in the map in order to find and assassinate the target. The side missions well… its just filler content nothing memorable about it.

Assassin’s creed mirage got an actual assassin who could have a great story line yet chose a lack luster script to depict the events in his life. It didn’t feel rewarding at all.

Conclusion

Assassin’s creed mirage is not an 8/10 or a 9/10 as mentioned by these paid critics. It maybe one of the weakest assassin’s creed game I have seen in a while. With a lifeless city full of NPCs the experience of this short story or the side missions doesn’t feel rewards. It feels more as a chore. They of course did a great job at marketing and getting paid reviews out which I am sure there is. At max if you really wanna know its score it would be more like a 5 or 6 out of 10. Its average at best.