Assassin's Creed Mirage proves that less is more

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is pitched as almost a quasi-remake of the first Assassin’s Creed game: it takes place in a similar region, and will modernise much of its gameplay mechanics.

However, Mirage is a different beast, and by focusing on a single city and taking into account all the refinement and iteration that the series has enjoyed since 2007, it may end up playing more like a much younger and frankly criminally underappreciated entry in the series: 2014’s Unity, as I argue in the video above.

Mirage occurs a couple of decades earlier than the events of Valhalla, and a couple of centuries earlier than the first game, but will essentially bridge the gap between the ancient world trilogy of sprawling RPGs that we’ve been enjoying since Origins, and the action-adventure games of the series’ past: bringing the franchise full circle, and providing a neat stepping stone from the post-Roman world of Eivor, and the Levantine world of Altaïr.

There are rumours abound that Mirage will ultimately lead to a full-blown remake of AC1 that will utilise many of the same assets. Whether true or not, it’s a hugely exciting time for Assassin’s Creed fans.

Saturday’s Ubisoft Forward teased a number of upcoming AssCreed experiences, with fleeting glimpses of upcoming projects suggesting a bright future ahead for the series.

There was so much stuff announced in such a short presentation; by refraining from showing us any actual gameplay and for the most part just doing a string of logo reveals for games that don’t even have official titles yet, Ubisoft managed to announce four entire Assassin’s Creed games alongside a new connective hub and a Netflix series, and all in less time than it takes to say “franchise fatigue”.

It’s odd for us to know so much about upcoming Assassin’s Creed projects at such early stages of development – this could be a sign that Ubisoft have thrown in the towel when it comes to secrecy, and are now just announcing things early to get ahead of leakers. It’s hardly surprising when you look at how often the recent games have been leaked ahead of time: Syndicate, Origins, and Valhalla were all subject to extensive and damaging leaks. Perhaps with its cards now firmly on the table, there’ll be less of an appetite for spoilers.

I mean, almost definitely not, but it’s nice to know where things are headed.

Assassin's Creed Mirage will launch for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC in 2023.