So Assassin’s Creed is going back to its roots after a trilogy of huge open world RPG style gameplay. This time round, in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, we are going back to the Middle East with a more cloak & dagger approach like we saw in the earlier games of the series. Anyone who knows me will know that I am an Assassin’s Creed fanboy. While the AC community is at odds with one camp enjoying the new RPG style games and the other enjoying the older style, I’m part of the maniacs who enjoy both styles of games, though it did take me a minute to ease into the RPG style. So I’m happy to get any kind of Assassin’s Creed game! Mirage is hitting my in the nostalgia. There is a lot of Assassin’s Creed 1 in it and the setting of Baghdad looks amazing. It is said that this map is smaller in scale but larger in detail. The game looks good, there is no doubt about that. The way Basim moves reminds me of the older games and the combat looks just as brutal as ever. I shrieked when I saw the familiar design of the Assassin’s bureau from the first game as well.
One thing I am worried about is that the reliance on nostalgia is all this game has going for it. I did not see any gear or anything like that in the trailers which, although that is the point, I wish they could have made this more like Assassin’s Creed Unity. I know, I know—one of the (if not the) hated game in the series but that is only due to bugs and glitches. I still maintain that it is the best old school Assassin’s Creed we have. It had light RPG mechanics in the terms of gear that had stats on it that you could grind to get but I think Unity was the best cloak & dagger Assassin’s game, when it worked that is.
It is a shame the game’s issues caused it to fail as I sometimes imagine a future where that style of game became the norm for Assassin’s Creed. While I do love the crazy RPG of Origins and such, I still look back at Unity and say, “Damn, what a good stabby stabby game you are.”
I wish Mirage could have taken a page out of Unity’s book as well but either way, I feel like I am in high-school again awaiting the release of the next Assassin’s Creed game!
