15 years of playing as assassins. We’re at the point where Ubisoft’s ASSASSIN’S CREED franchise is old enough that folks who grew up with the series are now the ones designing the series. Perhaps that’s why ASSASSIN’S CREED: MIRAGE (MIRAGE going forth) is such a throwback to the first game.
MIRAGE is more concerned with recreating the past, of hiding in shadows, of killing silently instead of taking on hordes of enemies to the tune of bonus points and combos. In other words: it’s cribbing from ASSASSIN’S CREED 1.
MIRAGE has no interest in the convoluted absurdity of modern technology/game developer company Abstergo. There’s no mention of this being a virtual reality recreation, throwing someone in current times to relive the past. The Abstergo Animus tech never quite appears — except in one clever moment near the end — and you’re simply roaming around Baghdad around the time of the Islamic Golden Age. Yes, The Order — the nefarious group of corrupt individuals whose terrible deeds have persisted throughout the entire series — still exists, as obviously the Hidden Ones (basically: the Assassins), however this is a far more grounded work.
The story is mostly boilerplate, at least until it isn’t: Basim and his bestie Nehal are destitute thieves until Basim finds a higher calling in the Hidden Ones. Basim is haunted in his dreams by a daunting and dark djinni, and hopes that by joining the Hidden Ones he’ll be rid of it. Matters escalate, wildly by the end, tying into some very mythic and outlandish events in the prior game, ASSASSIN’S CREED: VALHALLA.
All of that said, the story is rather banal, especially the yawn-worthy high-concept swings at the end. The gameplay and scenery is paramount here, all sand and stone and beams and air. It’s rather gorgeous, even if it’s not quite what one would call a technical marvel.
However, my favorite part here is the history the game imparts. For a number of years, the ASSASSIN’S CREED franchise has included historic details into their games, even adding educational free modes for schools. Previously, most of them felt facile, even insultingly irreverent. (One game featured a far-too-jovial character who would dictate the history of the era to you, and it felt like a 12-year-old telling you about a book they read that they didn’t quite comprehend.)
That’s not the case with MIRAGE. MIRAGE doesn’t quite put learning as a top priority but they do foreground it. It feels as if you’re reading a history book instead of text in a murder simulation. It quickly became my favorite facet of the game because I’m a big nerd. I do not know much about Baghdad or Middle Eastern history, much less the Islamic Golden Age but I found all of it fascinating and I quickly sought out every historical point I could. That’s what the ASSASSIN’S CREED games excel at: showcasing history, the lands, the environments and, especially, the architecture.
MIRAGE doesn’t come close to the emotionally evocative storied characters of my favorite ASSASSIN’S CREED game, ASSASSIN’S CREED: ORIGINS, but it does feel substantial even if it’s far smaller-scale and less boisterous and less action-oriented than the recent games.