Despite concerns regarding its release, stages of development, and whether it would be ready for release in 2023, Ubisoft has finally given fans an answer with a release date for Assassin's Creed Mirage.
With the promises of the title returning to the franchise's original roots, fans were awaiting any new form of insight into what the title would have to offer, and with the PlayStation Showcase 2023 revealing a variety of third-party titles, fans' requests were answered. Whilst more is set to be showcased at Ubisoft Forward, multiple aspects have already been shown to be changed compared to its predecessor Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
5 Better Combat Animations
As mentioned previously, one of the most prominent issues in previous titles in the franchise particularly the most recent ones, is the unpolished and janky combat. This was a massive factor in terms of immersion being broken in the midst of gameplay, notably in Valhalla, and many fans were hoping to see Mirage either return to its more polished and simple combat or introduce something new.
Based on the gameplay trailer of Mirage, it appears as though developers at Ubisoft have finally addressed concerns with combat and introduced both new and old animations in order to keep Mirage feeling fresh and familiar simultaneously. Given the clear change in the overall direction Mirage will be taking in terms of its length, narrative, and gameplay loop, this is both an expected outcome and a pleasing change to see.
4 Better Parkour
As well as many other entries after the release of Unity, Assassin's Creed Valhalla suffered with the near-complete omission of parkour, which is seen as a prerequisite for all entries among fans. Rather than focus on what took the franchise to the limelight, Valhalla had a huge focus on RPG elements and grinding that are present in other RPG games, which also increased the length of its runtime.
Almost immediately, Mirage's gameplay trailer revealed its parkour mechanics suggesting that they will now be front and central as Ubisoft mentioned previously, and this is very reminiscent of the maneuvers and animations that were present in Unity which is often seen as one of the best Assassin's Creed games for parkour. If improved and important parkour is included throughout Mirage, then it will more than likely lead to heaps of praise from fans and a return to good form for Ubisoft and their beloved franchise.
3 Stealth Focus
Despite stealth being present in Valhalla and previous entries such as Origins and Odyssey, a large majority of its exciting and memorable moments are during the gung-ho along with aggressive approaches in combat and much less focus on stealth. A mixture of both stealth and parkour were the two main contributing factors within the first Assassin's Creed titles, laying emphasis on staying hidden in the shadows and taking down foes while doing so.
With Assassin's Creed Mirage, everything from the classic Altair outfit, character focus, aforementioned combat, and parkour, it is very clear that Ubisoft is attempting to revisit the other important aspect which is stealth, and with the advancement of games in the modern day in comparison to the time of the originals, it will be interesting to see how this plays out in Mirage.
2 Graphical Fidelity
While Mirage will be on both old and new-generation consoles, it appears as though the jump in graphical fidelity and prowess coming off the back of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, is worth mentioning. In light of there being no performance issues specifically on PC given the plethora of the recent poor ports, Mirage will likely be noted for managing to produce great visuals whilst also ensuring that this does not hamper and ruin how smooth the game runs on all platforms.
Regardless of whether the jump from Valhalla to Mirage in terms of graphics is largely significant or not, it is pleasing to realize that Ubisoft is maintaining a focus on graphics to keep up with some of the blockbuster titles of recent. Given the suggested shortened length of Mirage, it would explain why developers could put lay a greater focus on visuals this time around.
1 Small & Concise Map
One of the main factors that led to Valhalla and other titles maintaining such long runtimes in the attempt of completing them, was the massive and sometimes overwhelming maps that were included. Not only was this suggesting that the games would be filled with a lot of side quests and areas of grinding, but it also meant there would have to be a lot of time spent traversing through vast spaces with little activity taking place.
The trailer very much implies that side activities, main missions, and random NPC interactions will be taking place in one huge region rather than a large-scale map that has multiple different sections to travel to. This is synonymous with the supposed 15-hour length for the entire runtime of the game, and will undoubtedly mean that Ubisoft has ensured that Mirage will push the franchise back toward what fans first fell in love with.
Assassin's Creed Mirage releases October 12th on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC.