Developed by Ubisoft Bordeaux, Assassin’s Creed: Mirage is set two decades before the events of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and takes place in 9th-century Baghdad. It follows Basim Ibn Ishaq (Lee Majdoub), a street thief who will, under the tutelage of his mentor Roshan bint-La’Ahad (Shohreh Aghdashloo), learn to fight for a cause larger than himself by becoming a Hidden One. As he learns their mysterious rituals and powerful tenets, he will hone his unique abilities, discover his true nature that haunts him, and come to understand a New Creed – one that will change his fate in ways he never could have imagined.
Once again I have leapt back into Ubisoft’s long-running franchise after having played and reviewed the previous installment Valhalla two years ago (yes I did play the DLC that came with it over the years). And while I very much liked Valhalla and liked how ambitious of a game it was for the series at the time, I will say that looking back on it two years later it wasn’t much of an Assassin’s Creed game as it was more of a Viking game. The character of Eivor, as great as she was, never felt like a true member of the Assassins and the story regarding the war between the Hidden Ones and Order of Ancients never felt like it was the central theme of the story compared to other games.
So when I heard a prequel was being made following the character of Basim, who was first introduced as a major character in Valhalla, that was going back to the core roots of Assassins Creed both in story and gameplay, it had my interest immediately. After fully completing the game I can happily say that I loved this game and I feel it is a true return to form for the series.
Gone are the tedious and overwhelming RPG elements of the previous installments as Mirage goes back to basics by returning to the more traditional, simplified gameplay and storytelling of the older games, but with several new spins and more modern mechanics. It felt like a true Assassin’s Creed in comparison to Valhalla and I was incredibly invested in it from start to finish.
I want to start off by discussing the gameplay as well as the visuals before getting into the characters and story. This game looks and sounds beautiful in every way, capturing all the elements of 9th-century Baghdad in such excellent detail, from the beautiful but crowded city to the unique and rich Arabic culture to the vibrant and untamed wilderness surrounding it. The very moment I got to climb the tallest building in the game and gaze on the magnificent views I was immediately in love with it.
While this game may have a much smaller world in comparison to the massive one that was in Valhalla, that doesn’t stop it from looking magnificent and feeling very engaging to explore, especially when looking for collectibles that offer grand rewards that will help you through the game. In fact, this game heavily encourages you from the get-go to explore your surroundings in order to discover secrets and vital information to help you progress both in the main story and side objectives, making it feel much more interactive and allowing you to make various approaches of your choosing, which in turn adds to potential replay value.
However, there is one major factor this game enforces, both in the story and the general gameplay, which is a renewed focus on stealth. The Assassin’s Creed series has always been largely known for being a franchise of stealth-mechanic-based games but in recent installments, especially Valhalla, I felt that there wasn’t as much focus on stealth and more focus on RPG combat, which I know many fans have had an issue with as it makes players feel less like an actual Assassin. This game changes that drastically in a number of ways.
Firstly they removed the RPG combat, returning to the more simple combat system of the original games but with increased difficulty to the combat, so that it encourages players to lean more into being a stealthy assassin than a reckless warrior. Like the Hidden One mentors in the story say, being one with the shadows, is more effective than facing your enemies head-on, and the game offers a variety of tools you can unlock as you progress, allowing you to become a masterful and undetectable assassin, able to complete missions more easily than going in guns blazing.
The story and general exploration encourage you to avoid unnecessary conflict and it has ways of punishing you for being reckless. For instance, the notoriety system of the older Assassin’s Creed games makes a major return here after years of being absent since Assassin’s Creed 3, making social stealth a major priority again. Mirage combines several elements of the old notoriety systems, including bringing back one element from the very first Assassin’s Creed that they have updated for this game: civilian awareness. Each time you commit a crime anywhere in Baghdad, whether it be killing a guard, entering a forbidden zone, or pickpocketing, your notoriety increases, and not only will guards be more vigilant for you but civilians will be too, going as far as calling you out and alerting your presence to guards no matter where you go, taking a similar approach to Red Dead Redemption 2’s notoriety system.
This makes moving around Baghdad much more challenging and makes the game more challenging as a whole if you continue to be reckless. You can of course have your notoriety removed by removing wanted posters or bribing a public speaker but it can be extremely taxing and can impact your progress in the game whether you are trying to complete a story mission or generally trying to explore. I personally love this updated system as it really makes you want to be more like an Assassin and makes the world feel more alive, as well as makes the game itself feel like a true challenge that has consequences for any of your actions.
The stealth mechanics that are provided, both new and old, are really fun as you have so much at your disposal to use, letting you play the game in your own way. The controls I found to be excellent for the most part and the game runs really smoothly, especially for the parkour sections, stealth, and combat. There were a few occasions where I encountered problems in the parkour but it never really felt like the game’s fault but mostly my own for not pressing the right button or not paying attention to where I needed to go.
As for technical bugs or glitches, I didn’t encounter any major ones in my entire playthrough of the game except for one minor one that was solved with a simple restart of a save file. The music of the game is also extremely good from composer Brendan Angelides, matching the tone and world of Mirage and elevating so much of its beauty, richness, and intensity.
Now for the story. Mirage is a very character-driven narrative that is entirely from the perspective of Basim, exploring his past in a coming-of-age story that shows his beginnings as a street thief to a skilled Assassin to the person becomes in Valhalla as a result of his hidden nature. I found Basim’s journey to be the most compelling one across the games since Bayek, Ezio & Edward Kenway.
He is an excellent lead character with great charm, emotional vulnerability, and fascinating layers to him that evolve throughout the story as he combats against the Order of the Ancients and his own personal demons. The writing for Basim I found to be really good but it wouldn’t have been as compelling without the incredible voice performance of Lee Majdoub who really surprised me. Lee Majdoub is best known for his comedic role as Agent Stone in the Sonic the Hedgehog films but in this game he gets to show more of his range as an actor, playing a brilliant character who endures a complex journey that challenges him both physically and mentally. Lee’s performance really makes you feel for this character and all he is going through, making him someone you can feel engaged in from start to end, even when we know what he becomes later on.
The supporting characters are great as well, featuring a number of strong performances from many faces including Shohreh Aghdashloo as Mentor Roshan, who may be my favorite mentor in the entire franchise, especially because of the strong performance Shohreh gives. As for the villains, the Order of the Ancients, I found this particular group of them to be good and serviceable for this game’s story but definitely not as impactful in comparison to past villains of the series. They definitely are individuals you find yourself loving to hate based on their actions that you discover over the course of the game but you don’t have as many interactions with them as you would with other members of the Order in the past.
To me, the Order members of Origins and Valhalla were way more developed and felt more memorable in comparison to the Order Members of Mirage. I will say though that Mirage’s Order Members do affect Basim in a certain way that benefits his story, similar to some Templar villains in the earlier Assassin’s Creed games, but I just wish there was more they could have offered.
The other element of the story I found myself a bit mixed on was the ending. While it is a great conclusion to Basim’s story it does rely heavily on the events of Valhalla to understand. While that wasn’t much of an issue for me personally, since I did play Valhalla and remember its story well, I can see this being an issue for casual fans who may have not played Valhalla or didn’t get invested as much in its story. I wish it didn’t rely too much on Valhalla’s story with its ending and instead worked more as its own self-contained story.
Other than that I was massively pleased with this game as a whole as it felt like a true return to the roots of what made the Assassin’s Creed games so special for so many people including me, without overcomplicating things both narratively and technically. I seriously recommend this game to anyone, especially die-hard fans of the franchise who have been eager to see the series return to proper form both in story and gameplay. I’m going to give Assassin’s Creed: Mirage an A = 95.
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