Assassin's Creed Mirage's focus on social stealth and detective work makes for a compelling, but flawed, dive into ninth-century Baghdad. #gaming #AssassinsCreedMirage #gamespot
This. People just talk about enemy ai, stealth, parkour and gameplay element but can we just acknowledge how DUMB, uninspired and childish the dialogue is in most ac's. I've always said they need to FIRE all their writers.
I just want my unity 2.0. They were innovating the free-running mechanics and I just wanted them to go further with it but they went a safer route and the movement just suffers imo I don’t enjoy it as is now.
The crowds, the different ways to enter a building, the insides of the cathedrals, the distinct districts, the graphics... Unity was truly one of the peaks of the series.
Not sure how they don't realize that the slick parkour is a huge draw for people. Parkour isn't done in many games, and most of the time when it's in a game it isn't as fleshed out as it should be. Assassins creed should be the outlier, but instead they put all of their resources into advertising and making the game look pretty. The gameplay just isn't there anymore.
@@adaptivegamer9905I'm currently (overly) enjoying Mirage right now. But I'm only 13 hours in, my opinion might still change. Valhalla on the other end. I don't know how to put it into words. For the majority of my time (over 100hours), the game just felt "empty". YMMV but this was my experience with it. It's probably not the popular opinion.
@@ELdASenSei that’s sick I’m glad your liking it bro that has me excited.I’m getting my copy of the deluxe edition today around 11:00am western time so I’m excited for that. But I too spent around 120 hours on Valhalla & no matter how hard i tried to play like an assassin the horrific AI detection by the NPCs made that impossible. I wouldn’t even be in their line of sight at all and BAM I now have to fight the whole castle it was so annoying. The lack of assassin tools, the stiff robes that never moved with you, the 1000 plus skill tree it was a nightmare. It’s an alright game for ppl who want to relive a Viking fantasy I guess but to slap “assassin’s creed” on it is so disingenuous.
@@ELdASenSeifelt exact same way. Long gameplay hours with empty world, felt more like a chore. Didn’t even feel like AC game, played more like The Witcher 3.
I just finished it, here's my two cents for anyone interested; I've played all the AC mainline games - and I have to say I would recommend this for anyone who wants an immersive classic AC experience. This game is not perfect but it got a lot of things right. The city is a 10/10, just walking through it is very immersive and it's extremely detailed and well presented. The scale of the game is also a lot better, coming off Valhalla and Odyssey that suffered from severe bloating this one gets the pacing just right to me, I hope they stick more to this size and scope of the games and continue to improve the content within instead. I hate having 10k map markers and repeating activities, just let me explore the world organically, which this game does. This is also a highly stealth focused game, the fighting really does take a backseat for good and bad. I like the focus on stealth, but the combat, while having cool finishers, lack a bit of flavour, and that's one of the downsides of this game for me, being able to add your own preferences to your Basim. You only ever have your dagger and sword combo, whilst in previous games we had a lot of cool and creative weaponry (such as the musket in Unity, spear in Origins, daggers or big heavy axes etc) - This game really lacks that cool feeling of trying different weapons, finding your favourite and seeing different animations and finishers that come with and mixing up the combat gameplay. It's also missing cool elements such as group finishers which were fantastic in Syndicate for example. The same thing goes for gear. There are some cool outfits and gear, but just let me change different parts of it, or customize it more. I don't want a huge loot table like Odyssey but simple things like visual changes when upgrading your gear like in Origins would be a great addition. It's also missing simple things that should be present, like double assassinations of guards standing together, like come on, that should be a staple. I also would love to have non leathal takedowns as well for the same flavour reason. Guards are also very dumb, their line of sight is extremely easy to exploit which can be a little immersion breaking at times - it doesn't have to be 100% realistic but it's borderline silly in parts. The story to me while not stellar does have good pacing and kept me invested, the investigation system is very good at keeping you engaged, and the story does have it's cool moments but there is definite room for improvement. One of the absolute best parts for me is that it's got fully voiced Arabic with lip sync, so everything sounds and feels 10x more immersive and cool, and the voice acting is excellent. Basim has a darker more contemplative voice and even Roshans VA has that smokey raspy voice, I hope this combo of lip sync and native language of the game setting stays because it improves the experience a lot. Music in the game is also fantastic, immersive and not over bearing with some cool setpieces. Visually the Anvil engines faces and character models look worse than the old games but the environment looks great, so I hope they can polish that up. All in all Mirage succeeds in making you really feel like a badass assassin blending with into the city - skulking around and taking down targets is cool and satisfying. If they can finally bring back some love on the parkour which has been suffering in the newer AC games, and add back more detail and individuality and flavour in combat and appearance, just focus on fluidity, immersion plus spruce up the narrative in parts then I think this can be truly great. This is a step in the right direction from Valhalla for sure.
@@shushinfushin1312So it's exactly like Odyssey lol I only give Valhalla credit for having a sliver of Assassin's in the game. Mirage is way bay better for its more focused and grounded approach.
My only gripe about this game, although it is a big one, is the parkour in this game is god awful… it just feels too slow and clunky and since they recycled it from Valhalla (which didn’t have much parkour involved anyways). I just feel like if there was some quick smooth parkour in the city they built would make the game so much more fun.
Just like the review said, this game requires prior knowledge of AC Valhalla. Who is viewing these memories? From the final chapter of AC Valhalla, These genetic memories were extracted by Basim himself probably uploaded to an animus cloud server run by the assassins The one who's most likely viewing his memories is William Miles, As he is the one who requested for his genetic data for the animus. Basim's final words In the final chapter: "You are in for quite a ride Mr. Miles"
They should have maybe gone with a totally new character with no connection to Valhalla, as this game might have partly a different audience than the new "bloated Creeds". At least some number of fans of the older style ACs might try this one, who might not have played Valhalla. And it might have made the story and the character arc more complete and coherent experience.
This is the same thing I said to my friend. This game could have worked if they had a different character with a whole different story, but still maintaining the things that made the original so great. There was no need to connect it to Valhalla, but if they need it then they could have added Basim as a side character or at the end credits.
@@ericwalker6477 That's a fair point. Hopefully they continue with the legacy AC titles along with the newer style games. And maybe we'll have a completely new storyline/character with older style experience at some point.
Im very happy with their decision to make it smaller. I never finished origins, oddesey or valhalla. They were to big. As someone Who grew up with the classics, this is a breath of fresh air
Lol. I have the exact opposite opinion on valhalla's ending. I thought there was zero sense of finality. I had to search if it was already over. Alfred didnt have much of a presense as thr main villain and the final reveal didnt made me feel anything. As for the modern day's story, It's the exact same ending as every other modern day AC endings - play the next game to see the ending. And I doubt it would be different this time around.
Ive only played a couple of hours, but I'm loving the direction the games are going now. I'm kinda struggling with the combat but I'm sure I'll get there, because when ive been able to get into the flow, combat is really fun, and I'm REALLY glad that assassinations aren't level-gated any more. Having an enemy just shrug off a knife to the throat in previous games when they're way over levelled was pretty deflating. I still love Odyssey and Origins though.
Maybe now it’s time for the Prince of Persia Trilogy Remaster? It would be way more better than AC. Even now the trilogy has I higher score on metacritic than most of AC. Everyone wants those 3 games remastered. I still play them on PC. Old but gold truly.
The Prince of Persia Trilogy was and is superior to the Assassins Creed franchise. It had better platforming, better combat, better protagonist and story. I remember playing the first Assassins Creed and being bored and disappointed. AC2 was much, much better but still not PoP. It boggles my mind that we get ONE new PoP game, which isn’t even 3D ( though I don’t really mind) and dozens of new AC games. Why not take both, take the strengths of each series and make one brilliant game?
Feel like my only criticism is that the combat mechanics are a little too underpowered. I love the focus on stealth but there are situations where being able to take on a few enemies at a time would prove helpful
just smoke bomb & assassinate a few guys to charge up the focus thing. that lets you handle a small group (more depending on how many upgrades you've got I guess) without getting into an actual fight.
It's underpowered by design this is a return to form stealth focused game. And you can use smoke bombs to take out multiple enemies at once if you go loud.
@@captainkirk9691 Yeah thats my point. They could do with a slightly better balance as super stealth isn’t to everyones playstyle. AC2 is still the greatest release of the series and left players open to choose stealth or be combative.
Nope don’t wanna hear it , cause if y’all took the time too learn Valhalla , that’s exactly what you could do …but noooo , y’all cried and complained . So they had to dumb down the mechanics to force you to look at the stealth . THIS IS YALLS FAULT , instead of trashing a game , learn how to play it , before jumping on a bandwagon
@@Justtalkinshii23 Didn’t play Valhalla and i’m not trashing the game in any way shape or form and an playing through without trouble. Think you’re directing anger the wrong way buddy
to be fair assassins creed has NEVER had good AI, even back in the day the AI was worse than most other games - which was kind of the fun as you could smash through 100s of guards with ease
Put AC in the past, time to bury it in the sands and bring back PRINCE OF PERSIA - the same Prince of Persia that was KILLED by AC all those years ago back in 2008 - we've been waiting for a new PRINC OF PERSIA game since 2008 - bring us a brand new POP franchise and trilogy Ubisoft! In the same vein and roots of the originals: stellar platforming, amazing level design, captivating music, fabulous art style, complicated puzzles, intuitive movement, engaging story, interesting characters and phenomenal combat!
The only reason I'd play this is because when he's not wearing a shirt he looks like the Prince in PoP Sands of Time so I can imagine I'm playing as him. I'm pretty sure Ubi lost the rights to PoP and that's why they started AC. The linear adventure was what really made those games stand out. The open-world genre is getting old and I never cared much for AC but loved PoP.
My introduction to AC was Valhalla. It is an awesome game that one never seems to compete fully with all the side things going on plus the vast maps. Some of which is way to difficult to complete even on the easiest setting. With Mirage it is a case of, ‘Is that it?’ I can’t find the last shard to discover what is hidden in the cave despite eons of searching and if I did eventually find it I would probably repeat my words’ is that it?’ Maybe once I find the final shard more things open up on the to do page but all in all very disappointed how brief the game is compared to Valhalla. Would have been nice to have a bow and arrow.
Going back to some of the roots of the series but not giving this gave much recognition before release makes me very worried that this is the last of the original concepts of the game we will ever see. I hope that’s not the case but time will tell. One day maybe we will get lucky and see a modern day reboot of the original game. Which it is well deserving of.
Another reviewer talked about this but they're trying to do an avengers type thing. They'll have all the main characters eventually meet each other at some point just watch.
I wonder what this game would have been if the developers hadn't been painted into a corner. If they weren't constrained by Valhalla's story and gameplay this could have been something special.
The real beauty of this game is how good the Arabic support is in it. Characters' mindsets, Conversations, the games atmosphere and Baghdad's aura, even random NPC lines and jokes are excellently made for that time period if you understand Arabic. For example, at 7:25 there is no personal investment like revenge or wealth because in the Arabic version it is hinted at that Bassem is a street thief due to need, but still has pride and cares about his city and wants to fight the evil that has taken his city over from the shadows. For the 5th most spoken language it is sad to say that no other game has given the Arabic language that much attention before and Arab games are drooling over how good it is represented here tbh
I haven't played an AC since ACIII. What's the current communities opinion on the newer titles? Like, will I feel at home, having stopped playing then, or has the gameplay loop, movement feel, or motives drastically changed since then?
In general, I would say the opinions on the three RPG titles are very mixed and I think it matters in which order you've played the games and if you are into RPG's in the first place. I think Origin seems to be the favourite for most by a decent margin, followed by Odyssey and Valhalla as the worst of the three. Valhalla was actually only the first AC games I seriously played after Syndicate so I am not the typical old guard player in the slightest. I didn't feel any strong nostalgia because I hadn't even played most of the older games at that point. I tried origins before when it came out but couldn't really get into it. I actually really liked Valhalla. Beautiful map, engrossing world, awesome historical setting (though they Ubisoft took their liberty with creativity over historical accuracy with quite a few things). Good story, but it's stupidly long (can take up to like 60 hours all in all I think!). Best loot and equipment system out of the 3 RPG style games imo. I also really liked Odyssey, nice story, nice setting, Kassandra is a great protagonist. Beautiful world etc. The issue with the RPG's is mainly open world fatigue (Google it). Large worlds filled with icons and small things to do, which ultimately just kind of burns you out after three games If you care about story development, the three RPG titles are the first games to again try to build and wrap up a significant modern day arc with a new character (who some people hate very much) but isn't anything to write home about in particular. AC IV is considered by some the best of the series because of the ship combat and exploration. Unity is other people's favorit because of revolutionary Paris and Arno as a (somewhat tragic) protagonist. I haven't seen syndicate mentioned as a favorite very often, I liked it decently enough, definitely worth it to grab during a sale if 19th century London is your thing. So will you feel at home? If you absolutely hate RPG style games, no. If you don't mind potentially getting the modern day unchronologically, I would wait for a sale and grab the one with whichever historical setting appeals to you the most (so ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, or the Viking invasions of Anglo-Saxon England in the 9th century). If you play them by release date you will follow the modern day chronologically, but there's a serious risk of acquiring open world fatigue. So I would prioritise the RPG with the most appealing historical setting to you. Plenty of RU-vid vids to catch up with the story.
@@nickbakker2200 Very detailed response. Thank you! ^^ I very much enjoy RPG's, and am familiar with open world fatigue from mmo's, so those are actually important points for me. Thanks for mentioning them. I'll have a look at Origins, Valhalla and Odyssey. A continuous story seems very interesting. The Ezio series being where I spend 90% of my time.
So I think if your gonna jump into the newer games I'd suggest origins it's really cool plus a new animus exists the hr8 sounds pretty badass if you ask me 😁
Gamespot used to be my go to when IGN sold out for advertising revenue….now GS have followed suit and their journalism has just gotten awful. I keep returning in hope they’d be back to the ‘good ol’ days’ but alas, they’re still bagging on companies that aren’t paying them advertising space on their website or having a genuine opinion on those who do. Sad times
GS has been solid for me and is still one gaming review I revere. I never thought people even compare it to the walking talking joke that is IGN. Stopped going to IGN quickly after the Jessica Chobot days.
Or maybe your just a bad gamer , Some people took the time and actually became skillful at Valhalla & really experienced the greatest of it. Instead of trashing it cause it’s the bandwagon thing to do
Please upload videos in at least 2k resolution so we can see how the graphics actually appear on most modern TVs and monitors. Many other reviewers do this to their advantage. Otherwise your review looks grainy and outdated and makes me not want to buy the game. Hope you take this feedback constructively.
how is this game 6 / 10.? playing it right now. its better than Origin, Odyssey, and Valhalla. so all these old AC games should get 5/10 or less if Mirage gets 6/10.
try it and make conclusion for yourself after all this is just one guy reviewing it you are one guy and this reviewer is one guy so what' makes this one guy is better than you ?
Totally agree with this review, story could have definitely been better. (Since a great story was always a part of every AC game plus detail to the civilization was flawless). Here a lot about islamic civilization and empire could have been said Landed up on this video after watching many reviews.yet to play!
i personally understood the story and i find it better than oddysey and valhalla stories i don't understand why in this review put it as a bad thing that ' you need to play previous ac game so you could understand this '' i mean that's normal that's not a bad thing at all of course you must play it mirage is a prequel to valhalla so it would make sense to play valhalla then mirage besides if you play mirage before valhalla that would ruin the TWIST of ac valhalla so it's obvious to play valhalla then to understand why basim did what he did to further understand his story you play mirage that's LOGIC
do not review stealth game if you dislike them, seems you are the type of gamer who love hack & slash type of game.. anyone who give mirage lower than Valhalla is the one who never understand the meaning of assassin LOL
The city design is incredible as usual but the gameplay has taken a massive step back and story is doesn't contribute to the over the overall story arch of the franchise. I bought it the other day and its not for me. Its a plus for anyone thats into the traditional gameplay of the original assassins creed game but it feels like ubisoft is out of ideas and the game is missing some of the complex navigational and combat development we got in later games that we wished we had after the first.
Lol it's amazing how they get someone who's probably never played the old AC games to review it. So they have no idea why this game was made. This channel is annoying
Wait what!? He has Shadow of War (LoTR) spectral powers now!? That made me do a double take. Why can’t we go back to having an incredibly grounded (though sometimes dramatic) Assassin’s Creed II again with a fun and charismatic lead? That game’s formula was brilliant. Just skin it for ancient history Bagdad with its vibrant middle-eastern lore and it’s new cast of characters.
It's like old school ac except not nearly as good and with some of the worst animations in the series. For a smaller scale entry like this, the quality should've been way higher. Ubisoft farted in our faces hard with this one, please don't purchase this game.
Assassi’s Creed Mirage🔥🙌 An awesome gift to the OG fans of the series and history nerds like myself. Unfortunately due to lack of MiddleEastern and history knowledge among most of the western reviewers, lots of things went over their head. For example, at the start of the game in Basi’s hideout, of you’re heading towards the main door on your right there is a small desk which has a book titled on Arabic “Muhammad Ibn Serene”. This book is for interpretations of dreams. I was blown away when i saw that cuz i do have the book and i’ve used it many times and apparently Basim using it to interpret his nightmares. And meeting the Abbassid Caliph Al-Mutawakkil and the amazing Calligpraphy that i was staring at for sometimes while listeninv some awesome music of the that time and npcs speaking classic Arabic and recognizing Basim when walking by and all that was just at the beginning of the game, let alone recreating Baghdad itself a lost city that was hub of the world. Details like that is what made me fall in love with the game on the first place. If you judging the game based on some graphical fidelity and mechanics then you’re in the wrong place. Game is great and i do recommend it to all OG fans of the series. If you’re into the RPG games then this ain’t for you, i’ve played Valhalla and had to force myself to finish near the end after 200+hrs of gameplay. Gamespot giving this game a 6 is a crime
The previous game valhalla I skipped because the whole viking theme doesn't seem to go with the ac theme coupled with the game being way too long. Its unfortunate mirage related to valhalla and the main character of the game the story doesn't seem to be interesting especially what his role is in valhalla. It's a shame because the location of mirage is beautiful and the towns look dense as well as detailed. I hope they make a better story and a new character with a similar location. Perhaps a new story with the main character having to travel between both Jerusalem and Baghdad.
This is the worst review of any game I've watched for a long time! Why are you trying to spoil the story so hard for us? And the score doesn't even match what you described. Shameful
How ? Why 6 ?.. ive been playing it for about 6 hours now and I've been thouroughly enjoying my time with it. As someone who thought AC, AC2, AC3 and unity were the highlights of the series i think this one is right up there, im actually rating this one quite high as the short amount of time I've played it i think that the characters and story feel waaaaaaaaayyy more interesting then any of the rpg games and i actually dont mind the rpg games, but for anyone who wants to buy it dont let this review put you off, this is a very solid game and the setting is beautiful.
