Assassin's Creed Mirage: A return to the series' roots
Was it worth the wait? That’s likely the question on many Assassin’s Creed fans’ minds after the iconic Ubisoft series went several years without a new entry. The developer looked to answer that with Creed Odyssey, but Mirage aims to bring the series back to its roots. From the gameplay trailer seen at GDC, Mirage brings the focus back on the namesake. Check out the gameplay trailer here.
In a closed-door meeting with Ubisoft, more about Mirage and its newest additions was revealed. Fans were blown away by the return to the series’ core values, and the promise of a smaller, more linear narrative has piqued interest and put Mirage high on the most-anticipated list.
In the GDC hands-on session, Ubisoft demonstrated a sequence that was featured in the gameplay trailer with slight differences. The hands-on playthrough session started not long after the opening sequence featured in the announcement trailer. After fleeing al-Amin’s palace on horseback and taking refuge at the Baghdad Brotherhood safehouse, Basim encounters a patrol of palace guards. The gameplay confirms what was seen in the trailer: Basim uses a smoke bomb to distract guards, jumps down the side of a building, begins climbing a wooden platform, and quickly uses a noise maker to stall guards outside the Brotherhood safehouse.
From there in the demo, Basim uses an escape raft to travel down a river and takes a different route to make his way back to the safehouse. He climbs around the back of a compound, spots a boat secured by a trio of guards, and silently takes them out before tossing a smoke bomb towards their burning bodies.
After dispatching two more palace guards, Basim encounters another patrol, this time with a swordsman. As in prior Assassin’s Creed games, he’s armed with a variety of upgradeable tools to get the job done. In this instance, he pulls out a hidden blade. Similarly to prior games, melee combat is available as a backup option if he’s spotted and can’t abandon multiples guards without being seen.
After using smoke bombs and a blow dart to take out a pair of guards, Ubisoft deviates from the trailer as Basim encounters a palace guard on horseback riding through the streets of Baghdad. Basim uses his Assassin’s Focus ability to slow time and drops throwing knives targeting the guard’s horse, the first instance of new abilities cluing us in that Mirage is an evolution for the series.
Exclusive: Assassin's Creed Mirage hands-on – back to basics
We got our hands on Assassin's Creed Mirage, and learned about the new assassin, an immersive sim focused Baghdad, and stealthy combat. Happening live and exclusive from our GDC meeting room, this Assassin’s Creed Mirage hands-on will answer all your burning questions about the Ubisoft open-world game.
After a couple of years off, Ubisoft brought Mirage – an Assassin’s Creed game focused on creating a historical Baghdad – to GDC. Landing Mirage as our GDC exclusive of choice, we got an early, hands-on look at how the newest addition to the Assassin’s Creed series has evolved. In line with Ubisoft’s tradition of releasing smaller, more focused entries in their major series, Mirage looks to create one of the most immersive, methodical experiences yet.
Though a smaller entry in the series, Mirage requires co-development from 12 studios and over 500 developers. Ubisoft says that the series will now enter a cycle of releasing larger, more flagship Assassin’s Creed games, and then smaller entries like Mirage. But the promise of a smaller, more linear narrative has piqued interest, putting Mirage high on the most-anticipated list.
Parkour mechanics under the hood
Assassin’s Creed fans were happy to see parkour return to Mirage as the gameplay trailer featured the new lead assassin, Basim. In our hands-on time, Ubisoft has focused on showing off all the ways the assassins’ signature movement makes Mirage special, from environmental kills to paragliding from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge.
After escaping the palace, Basim is tasked with making his way to the Baghdad Brotherhood safe house. In the closed-door meeting, Ubisoft demonstrated a sequence similar to one in the gameplay trailer, but with some slight deviations.
