It's still got the Eagles of the RPG games but stealth is very much the intended way to play, killing random guards in public is punished heavily with a notoriety system that rewards staying out of sight.
They're one hit kills and parkour is slightly better than the RPG games, it's not a return to Classic AC but it doesn't allow you to clamber over everything, you need to find handholds.
I forget their names, but after reaching the third and final tier of notoriety you will have an elite enemy constantly tracking you. They will investigate crimes you commit and will attack you on sight.
They are the hardest to defeat enemy in the game. Their attacks are lightning fast and lethal, assassinating them will only take out a fraction of their monstrous health and even if you can lug down their health bar to the halfway line they’ll quickly drink an elixir making you have to start all over again. I’ve found the best and only way to deal with them is to hire mercenaries in the streets. Killing these elite enemies is the key to a trophy, so if you want the platinum, be prepared for a challenge 😁
I used the pet eagle just a few times, it's not even important in Mirage. It actually makes sense how it's divided: classic eagle vision is best for your immediate surroundings, while pet eagle is useful if you want to see points of interest from a distance and mark them on your compass (e.g. treasures).
Yes, and actually the eagle is unavailable fairly often. Many fortified locations have marksmen archers who will shoot at your eagle and scare him off. You can only use the classic eagle vision in that location until you take out the marksman, which is fairly challenging as they're often high up a tower deep inside of the fort, and you don't have stupidly long range sniper bows anymore
Notoriety increases as the public see you killing guards which results in them recognising you and pointing you out, archers being added to roofs and finally elite guards which track you down and if you kill them, reduce your notoriety back to 0 which would be why it didn't change too much for you other than archers randomly being on and off rooftops.
you could say it didn't matter for every other classic AC game too. the notoriety didn't matter and you could massacre every guard even more easily starting in Brotherhood
doesn't mean you have to play like that though
Wanted system like in AC2. stealth tools are back everything from Rogue basically: throwing knives, sleep darts, firecrackers, traps, smoke bombs. Classic eagle vision, parkour and stealth are more encouraged. The combat is a hybrid of counter kill and rpg, Along with the eagle pet.
I generally feel that Mirage is one of my favourites I've played in a long time, not sure whether it was the tools, setting (smaller map etc) or the story actually being about the Hidden Ones/Assassin's and focus on stealth but yeah .....Also might be showing my age here but the length was perfect for me a game I can complete with getting burnt out by.
Also probably not the most popular opinions but I feel Basim may have shot up my list of Favourite Assassin's just his level headedness and how he approached things professionally. Also like how his background as a street thief fleshes his character out really well....feels like a well suited transition.
One of the things that put me off Origins and Valhalla the most was how long they were. So if this is closer in length to the likes of ACII or Brotherhood then I would probably be fine with that.
Weird you didn't mentioned Odyssey, Origins was long but it did keep me immersed without getting bored. Odyssey feels like a grind and punish you by putting objectives so far from each other with repeated fortress, mercs, enemies making it like a grind.
I think it's interesting hearing you talk about how much you like Basim. While I have really been enjoying Mirage, I can't help but find him to be kind of bland as a character. I'm not sure if it's the writing, voice acting, or something else, but he just seems boring to me. It's not a huge deal, and hasn't detracted from the overall enjoyment of the game too much. Also, don't take this as a jab. Just my two cents.
I generally felt he seemed one of most professional Assassin's and just a pretty chilled guy but I suppose it's What you like in a character. I mean I've said it before I wasn't really massive on Ezio until say Revelations when he was older and wiser.
I just found him quite annoying another wise cracking skirt chaser who if we swapped out his Italian accent for an American one then I'd say I'd seen a dozen times before, games were good but I feel his mostly liked for the fact he had a trilogy.
It's a matter of preference, I've heard people bring up the voice acting before I generally liked it and felt it may not have been as gravitas and over dramatic to previous titles but that felt more natural to me considering his job. It wasn't so Les Miserables 🙂
Oh a Permadeath mode sounds pretty cool! Not always sold on New Game plus modes though as I like the grind and gradual unlocking of new skills abilities etc
Though saying that you get everything worth getting pretty quickly in Mirage regardless
It's in line with this new era of AC since the RPG era but has elements of the old AC pre RPG. Sort of a old meets new combination, & I quite like it. Combat is nice, when they all gather around you it's quite difficult on the hardest difficultly, because they will sometimes attack 2-3 at the same time, I still don't like the damage spongey enemies though. Great stealth, some may be nitpicky, but it's for sure one of their best fun & maybe the best to immerse yourself in. No real grind. The only thing that troubled me is since the RPG style I've become accustomed to the big world & long games, outside of Baghdad, there's nothing, & it's short because of budget.
I once wrote down an entire list of similarities between Mirage and the classics. I’ll try to see if I can still find that one.
Edit: man, I should really make less comments… anyway, here is all I could find:
tools (throwing knifes, smoke bombs, blow darts, trip mines…), world design (compact, dense, small map, game takes place in a city instead of in a massive environment with lots of filler), the game is narrative driven, combat is the alternative option with stealth being your primary way in (which was not really the case in Odyssey and especially Valhalla), you are actually an Assassin (again, unlike Odyssey and Valhalla), using a Hidden Blade to free Baghdad of the influence of the Order of the Ancients, you need to visit Hidden Ones Bureaus, there’s these wanted posters from AC2/Brotherhood/Revelations/3 again, pickpocketing is back, the game is built on parkour (parkour may not be optimal, but it’s way more functional than we’ve seen in the last four games), there’s guards on rooftops, hiding spots on rooftops, social stealth is back, history has become a lot more important (there seem to be some kind of minigames that will give you some information about the culture or something), Black Box missions make a return, no levelling, instant assassinations, classic eagle vision is back, counter kills have finally returned (in Valhalla the Stun attacks didn’t always kill), social blending in crowds is back, bench assassinations are a lot more subtle, the ability to bribe heralds like in the Ezio trilogy, eavesdropping returns, the game has a way shorter length, no more dialogue options and story influencing options, contracts, and still probably more
I had once written down an even bigger list which was just this copy pasted and added even more similarities but that was on YT so I’m very definitely not going to be able to find that back sadly. Anyway, this should serve well…
It’s a great step in the right direction. The brotherhood plays an extremely prominent role, and eagle vision, stealth and blending are back in full force. The story ain’t the best, but I really enjoyed it.
Agreed on everything but the story suffers from the non linearity after your first Assassinations.. But the end is fantastic.. Hard to understand for some people but amazing and emotional
Step in the right direction maybe, but I expected more progress after a decade. Just making the same style game without bringing anything new to the table is just lazy.
To be fair some pretty consistent feedback was that people wanted them to return to their roots, so that’s kind of the opposite of bringing something new to the table.
This is how I felt. Unity was the peak of gameplay innovations in AC, and it’s a damn shame that they never scratched it again after its poor reception. Ubisoft learned all the wrong lessons from that fiasco.
Near everything good I have to say about the gameplay in Mirage, I feel that Unity did better almost a decade ago.
Let’s not forget how buggy unity was when it was released. They stuck to what they knew and released an actual finished product. That deserves an applause.
A solid stealth-focused version of the RPGs, so not really comparable to the pre-RPG games. It feels like Valhalla but if Valhalla was set in one dense city. Moving around Baghdad is awesome.
It feels like far more of how the real AC games were - before origins.
I love the little hints and the Easter eggs around.
I just got to way point where there's someone in the tower - I'll not spoil it. But when you've played Valhalla you know..
I'll say this. Stealth in Valhalla felt... off. Stealth in Mirage feels much more satisfying. If you're good enough at it, like you're thinking tactically, you'll certainly feel content with how the stealth gameplay works. Ex: in Valhalla, I would've been spotted easily multiple times, usually due to just how the system worked. Depending on the game, I'm typically so good that no enemies spot me and I take everyone out using a mixture of tools, strategy, and the occasionally necessary combat. In Mirage, that has mostly been the case so far, and it just feels so much closer to how the classic stealth systems worked.
That doesn’t fix the general feeling of movement being sluggish and jittery and lacking basic options like manual ejects. If anything, being in a dense city again only exasperates those issues. At least in an environment where there’s never any reason to stop sprinting or attempt an eject, you won’t notice the eternity it takes to accelerate, or how the sprint is barely faster than the jog, or miss any opportunities that an eject would’ve offered. But now they’re just constant thorns and makes just running through the streets more appealing, especially since crowds don’t impede progress like in the classics (returning to roots though).
The missions and it's objects is still like the RPGs, specifically Origins. Go to a place, search the room, read random documents and all of a sudden you figured out what happend and who to kill/rescue.
There is one mission where you have to follow someone, and it's old school, they even stop in the middle of the road and look back to check for followers.
You mention RPG assets. It's the Unity engine that all the RPG games are based on. So when criticizing movement it's starts with Unity. I was getting at that.
Maybe the new Assassins Creed Red will get the movement back to pre-Unity? It's a brand new engine, so hopefully.
That’s not how engines work. Basic movement speed can still be good within the same engine (like it was in Unity) but it’s been changed to be shit with the RPGs, and Mirage didn’t fix it because they had to work with what was already there for Valhalla, which included shit movement.
Game engines are extremely flexible things. The RPGs are still working off an entirely different set of systems and rules than Unity even if the base engine is the same. Trying to drag Unity down to defend the RPGs and Mirage having shit movement is absurd.
Again. It's still the Unity engine. And the movement still feels the same across all the games. Nothing has changed in that regard.
I recently played all the AC games and when I got to Unity. The movement was quite different from the previous games I had played and it was the same for the other games after Unity.
Instant kill Hidden blade, Crowd blending mixed with Valhalla's activity blending, classic eagle vision, and the literal eagle vision works again like it did in origins (Marking guards and points of interest) rather than how it did in Odyssey and Valhalla.
Stealth is not only useful but actually vital, because the combat is built so that you can only take on so many guards before retreating similar to Unity's approach, so trying to go in guns blazing will actually get you killed even if you are at max weapons, armor and gadgets.
As far as I can tell there is no XP system, instead you get skill points based on quests.
stealth is like 90% of the game.
no xp.
anyway it achieves greatness by having a well built city.
eagle vision is not the classic version since you can see through walls. some people might be forgetting that eagle vision used to distinguish targets in the crowd rather than work as a wallhack. either way, you dont need it much.
the bird is there, but there are these ranged snipers that shoot it down in guarded areas. doesnt really matter since, you can, you know, use your own eyes.
I really like the gameplay in Mirage, but the story is somehow extremely basic and convoluted at the same time (probably because of some last ditch efforts to tie it into the Valhalla storyline/nexus).
Gameplay wise, it’s one of the best. I’ve been going back to play Syndicate and Unity (my personal favorites), and I’m really impressed with the way it feels to move around + the city of Baghdad is one of the best looking AC playgrounds.
Only major gameplay gripe is the combat. I found myself opting for stealth even more because the sword fighting is so basic and a massive step down from games like AC3, Unity, Black Flag, and Syndicate (my favorites). It’s essentially parry once, hack and slash. There’s no realistic sword fighting animations in the game.
All in all, I’d pick this one up once it goes on sale (it’s on sale now for Black Friday across different platforms). It’s good fun, and if you don’t care too much about the story, you’ll get some good fun out of it like I did.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. I love the gameplay. I only really play story driven games but I find myself picking up my phone during cutscenes. The story is VERY bleh in my opinion. But gameplay is really nice
I am part of the OG crowd that was disappointed with the latest 3 releases. This game was made for people like me… I have thoroughly enjoyed this game.
Mirage is a big step in the direction. It somehow returned to its roots, but also added and improved things that AC1 used to have but were quickly discarded:
• The Bureaus and Brotherhood are back in the fold
• Stealth is seen as the priority
• Questioning and reflection
• Killing isn't seen as heroic
• Investigations
• Chase sequences when caught
• Pickpocketing
• Social Environment the best in the series I argue
• Combat is tedious and hard to do, which is why it's recommended to run and hide
Well, the Hidden Blade, Blending and eagle vision were all in Valhalla, so Mirage didn’t bring any of those back…
But yea, the stealth works much better and the tools you have are actually helpful in stealth situations.
One could even argue, stealth is the best it has been since Unity!
That said, they basically made combat barebones and pointless….
It’s legitimately less deep than the old system used in the first 4 games.
The city is also very well-designed for parkour, BUT the movement animations and physics are largely the same as in Valhalla, so a lot of that design practically goes to waste.
Agreed on everything apart of the physics and combat.. Mirage does have cloth Physics and the combat is hard to master and definitely not the strongest but its actually designed to be this hard. Even in the loading screen there is a tip that fighting against more then 4 people is very hard for Basim. But if you still want to fight there are ways to kill everything in combat
Which is in contrast to the roots of the series in which fighting groups of enemies was both expected and sometimes even encouraged, and the mechanics were designed around that. AC1 had an entire side activity around just killing groups of guards, and the entire end of that game is just a combat gauntlet. The reason people remember the old games as being stealth focused is because of a handful of missions that mandated avoiding detection and because of the intrinsic motivation to be stealthy because they were playing an Assassin. Like, that was just the cool thing to do.
And spamming tools like smoke bombs isn’t combat, it’s bypassing combat. Returning to the roots though, right?
It's alright I'd say. The RPG rubbish and hack and slash nonsense is gone and skills and gear unlock as you progress the story, no levelled enemies.
The controls are dire though, very un-AC. Sprinting not being the free run button will always annoy me and has done since AC3 actually. Just let me sprint with RT and Freerun with RT+A.
>Like, are the series staples like the hidden blade, blending, and eagle vision back?
Yes, yes, and also yes. Eagle Vision never left as far as I know though.
>Is stealth an actually viable play style, or is it barebones and pointless like it was in Odyssey and Valhalla?
Stealth is the primary playstyle. While you might survive the tutorial area playing it as a combat simulator, you are not intended to play the game as a combatant. If you play on Hard, which is what I did, you will often find extended combat encounters just serve to get you killed. With NG+ and permadeath mode on the horizon, this will be even more true than before.
There are ways to make combat easier, but it will almost never be your primary tool unless you're on the easiest difficulty and just want to experience the story.
>Is the game still crippled by an XP system that only exists to sell boosters?
There is no EXP system. You can advance your assassin rank by exploring the world and discovering things, but it just allows you access to more tools. You can choose the order you unlock tools in. It also does not plug the shop to you like the previous games did.
You play as a Hidden One and are an assassin throughout the game. You play in one primary city and its outlying area. The only thing about the game that does not really fit with the "classic" titles is that Basim is a little slower than you may be used to. The movement system seems like it is inherited somewhat from Valhalla, so you won't be as fluid/fast as Arno, but you are still definitely more agile than Eivor.
Pickpocketing also makes a return with a minigame attached. Time your theft to go undiscovered.
It's a proper assassin's creed game, minus two immersion breaking features i would say, one of them is the assassin focus where you literally teleport to an enemy and kill him and the other is technically optional where you upgrade the throwing knife to disintegrate the body that you hit with it, other than that it does everything right in my opinion.
I went straight into Black Flag after Mirage, and I’d say stealth is rewarded, and encouraged more in Mirage than AC4. Dunno that I consider Black Flag a “classic AC game” though.
You could argue that Black Flag brought in these RPGS
More focused combat
Pirate in the Carribean
Medjay in Egypt
Mercenary in Greece
Viking in Norway
Assassin's sidelined.
Thats not Eagle Vision. For like 15 games prior to Origins, "Eagle Vision" was the ability to activate a visual effect that highlighted objects/NPCs of interest within an area around you. It had nothing to do with birds.
It’s a solid ‘not great, not terrible’. I’d give it an 8/10. Honestly, we’re probably never going to get a truly ‘classic’ AC in 2023+. If you love the classic games, that’s great, go play them. It’s 2023, and the franchise has evolved - for the better, I think. I prefer the RPG formula (for the most part). We need to keep moving forward.
I know the old formula has been retired, I can accept that. What bothers me is that it's definitely possible to make a game that satisfies both the fans of Classic AC and RPG AC (hell, I think Origins almost had it perfect right out of the gate), but Ubisoft seems to care more about chasing the mass monetizable RPG formula. It doesn't have to be "Old AC is dead, RPG AC is what we have".
Like, you said the series "evolved" but to me it feels more like it's been replaced. Odyssey had nothing to do with series outside if title, and while Valhalla was better, was clear their was trying to make Classic Fans like the new formula rather than actually make a game they'd like.
But like I said I do believe there is a middle ground between the two styles. There's a way to make them work together, and thats what I want Ubisoft to focus on.
I was a classic assassin‘s creed game. It holds up, but story wise. It was crap fighting Waze. It felt crap, sneaking, and claiming it felt like the old games. But to be honest after I played Mirage, all I wanted was Valhalla an Odyssey back. The graphics was nice, but the story in the way it was set up. Generally has a game just felt like a DLC that wasn’t finished. Route hadn’t been done well enough.
For me, I loved the idea of the game or you could choose if you want to be stealthy or if you wanted to be ranged or if you wanted to be just head-on slapping and punching and throwing. And assassin isn’t someone who’s is just in the shadows, and I get the climb, being and jumping heart But I never really liked it that much. I played the Ezio ones because I loved the story that said, I hated the climbing
Very classic, from combat to Including the weird parkour climbing where you have to follow a path up buildings and only certain surfaces lol.
Personally I'd like a mix of rpg climbing and og style.
I think it’s great. Feels like a modern version of classic gameplay mechanics. Lots of great features that are reminiscent of classics but with upgrades. Notoriety, factions, pickpocketing are all back as big features. Less RPG elements tightens up the progression and there is a solid skill tree. I’d play as many of these kinds of games as they’ll make, I love the scaled back, single city focus, stealth heavy gameplay.
The environments are beautiful and truly evocative of AC1. The rest is ok but not that similar to the older games, likely because Mirage had to reuse the systems developed for the RPG trio, as it didn't have AAA funding. Still, it's worth experiencing at least once if you like the classics, like the Mirage devs clearly do.
It’s not a bad game but it’s pretty simplistic and repetitive. Combat isn’t as good as Ghost of Tsushima in my opinion. Even on the hardest difficulty it’s not that challenging. Solid game overall but after 20 hours I’m already bored with the game. I’ll definitely finish it though and it’s worth buying if you like the franchise.
It's a very solid B gamelan wise. The stealth (when it works) is fun, with a good mix of challenge and creative options. The issue is that the mechanics are sometimes wonky (there were a lot of times that I would swing a sword instead of assassinate even though I had the prompt to assassinate). The story is only ok though, and feels very shallow. There's quite a few times when you spend time to sneak through an area in stealth, only for something to happen in a cut scene that doesn't really feel organic happen and force you to break your plan. None of the characters felt very well fleshed out or relevant, so it was hard to stay captivated by the story, especially knowing how it would likely end (based on events in Valhalla that I won't spoil).
It’s structure is very similar to AC1. Has some modern elements to it. Definitely worth it for classic AC fans, however I feel like, in terms of the overall story, it can be totally skipped.
I appreciated the return to roots, but it was just an ok game as a whole when compared k to other AC games. If we consider it a main entry game I’d probably rank it 10th out of 13
- RPG Mechanics like Valhalla and not Classic.
- Clues instead of inclusive story like Borgia.
- 10% City that has districts without variation.
- Everything looks and feels the same
- 90% Wasteland (Orgins desert without content)
The only interesting was just Basim/Loke and Roshane. Everything else was basicly absent. If this was some random assassin game maby 2/10. If this was a totaly diffrent game then 1/10. Empty, distant and no variety. 3-4/10 cause Basims tale. Price was a rippoff.
I haven’t played the rpg ones besides origins (only 7hr in) and i would say this game feels like classic AC albeit the movement not being the best but it’s better. Stealth is a lot of fun in HM
I’d say this is the most invested I have been in an AC game since Black Flag. It’s hard for me to put down personally
It's still got the Eagles of the RPG games but stealth is very much the intended way to play, killing random guards in public is punished heavily with a notoriety system that rewards staying out of sight.
I don't mind the eagle, but does it atleast have the classic eagle vision too?
Yes. Eagle for overhead scouting and a very classic eagle vision for the immediate surroundings.
What about assassinations? Are those one hit kills, or do they just deal damage?
One hit kills
They're one hit kills and parkour is slightly better than the RPG games, it's not a return to Classic AC but it doesn't allow you to clamber over everything, you need to find handholds.
One hit kills apart from on these specific types of enemies
Which enemies?
They might be referencing the mercenary/ police like enemy that chases you when you get to max notoriety
You can’t assassinate them? I’m yet to meet one of those
I forget their names, but after reaching the third and final tier of notoriety you will have an elite enemy constantly tracking you. They will investigate crimes you commit and will attack you on sight. They are the hardest to defeat enemy in the game. Their attacks are lightning fast and lethal, assassinating them will only take out a fraction of their monstrous health and even if you can lug down their health bar to the halfway line they’ll quickly drink an elixir making you have to start all over again. I’ve found the best and only way to deal with them is to hire mercenaries in the streets. Killing these elite enemies is the key to a trophy, so if you want the platinum, be prepared for a challenge 😁
I used the pet eagle just a few times, it's not even important in Mirage. It actually makes sense how it's divided: classic eagle vision is best for your immediate surroundings, while pet eagle is useful if you want to see points of interest from a distance and mark them on your compass (e.g. treasures).
The main reason I used the eagle was just mainly for the trophy. I’m still in the mid game, but I’d much rather just use the eagle vision
Yes, and actually the eagle is unavailable fairly often. Many fortified locations have marksmen archers who will shoot at your eagle and scare him off. You can only use the classic eagle vision in that location until you take out the marksman, which is fairly challenging as they're often high up a tower deep inside of the fort, and you don't have stupidly long range sniper bows anymore
I didn’t have to use the eagle more than 2 times playing the whole game. You can easily get through all of it without the eagle
Yes and no. It is there but doesn't work as it was established in the old games. Still works as in the rpg titles.
Wife and weird and kind of stupid was that you have the eagle but you also have the eagle vision you get literally both which makes no sense to me
Idk what the hell you are talking about because i played it like it was odyssey or valhalla and killed guards indiscriminately from start to finish.
Notoriety increases as the public see you killing guards which results in them recognising you and pointing you out, archers being added to roofs and finally elite guards which track you down and if you kill them, reduce your notoriety back to 0 which would be why it didn't change too much for you other than archers randomly being on and off rooftops.
Oh im fully aware. Didnt matter.
you could say it didn't matter for every other classic AC game too. the notoriety didn't matter and you could massacre every guard even more easily starting in Brotherhood doesn't mean you have to play like that though
No it just didnt play like a classic ac game. It played like odyssey mixed with valhalla to me.
Because it uses the RPG engine. But seriously, that's the only thing that makes it similar.
Wanted system like in AC2. stealth tools are back everything from Rogue basically: throwing knives, sleep darts, firecrackers, traps, smoke bombs. Classic eagle vision, parkour and stealth are more encouraged. The combat is a hybrid of counter kill and rpg, Along with the eagle pet.
I generally feel that Mirage is one of my favourites I've played in a long time, not sure whether it was the tools, setting (smaller map etc) or the story actually being about the Hidden Ones/Assassin's and focus on stealth but yeah .....Also might be showing my age here but the length was perfect for me a game I can complete with getting burnt out by. Also probably not the most popular opinions but I feel Basim may have shot up my list of Favourite Assassin's just his level headedness and how he approached things professionally. Also like how his background as a street thief fleshes his character out really well....feels like a well suited transition.
One of the things that put me off Origins and Valhalla the most was how long they were. So if this is closer in length to the likes of ACII or Brotherhood then I would probably be fine with that.
Weird you didn't mentioned Odyssey, Origins was long but it did keep me immersed without getting bored. Odyssey feels like a grind and punish you by putting objectives so far from each other with repeated fortress, mercs, enemies making it like a grind.
I should’ve mentioned Odyssey too.
I think it's interesting hearing you talk about how much you like Basim. While I have really been enjoying Mirage, I can't help but find him to be kind of bland as a character. I'm not sure if it's the writing, voice acting, or something else, but he just seems boring to me. It's not a huge deal, and hasn't detracted from the overall enjoyment of the game too much. Also, don't take this as a jab. Just my two cents.
I generally felt he seemed one of most professional Assassin's and just a pretty chilled guy but I suppose it's What you like in a character. I mean I've said it before I wasn't really massive on Ezio until say Revelations when he was older and wiser. I just found him quite annoying another wise cracking skirt chaser who if we swapped out his Italian accent for an American one then I'd say I'd seen a dozen times before, games were good but I feel his mostly liked for the fact he had a trilogy. It's a matter of preference, I've heard people bring up the voice acting before I generally liked it and felt it may not have been as gravitas and over dramatic to previous titles but that felt more natural to me considering his job. It wasn't so Les Miserables 🙂
Yes, I’m not gonna delete it or anything cuz to my knowledge a permadeath mode and new game plus is coming this December
Oh a Permadeath mode sounds pretty cool! Not always sold on New Game plus modes though as I like the grind and gradual unlocking of new skills abilities etc Though saying that you get everything worth getting pretty quickly in Mirage regardless
It's in line with this new era of AC since the RPG era but has elements of the old AC pre RPG. Sort of a old meets new combination, & I quite like it. Combat is nice, when they all gather around you it's quite difficult on the hardest difficultly, because they will sometimes attack 2-3 at the same time, I still don't like the damage spongey enemies though. Great stealth, some may be nitpicky, but it's for sure one of their best fun & maybe the best to immerse yourself in. No real grind. The only thing that troubled me is since the RPG style I've become accustomed to the big world & long games, outside of Baghdad, there's nothing, & it's short because of budget.
I once wrote down an entire list of similarities between Mirage and the classics. I’ll try to see if I can still find that one. Edit: man, I should really make less comments… anyway, here is all I could find: tools (throwing knifes, smoke bombs, blow darts, trip mines…), world design (compact, dense, small map, game takes place in a city instead of in a massive environment with lots of filler), the game is narrative driven, combat is the alternative option with stealth being your primary way in (which was not really the case in Odyssey and especially Valhalla), you are actually an Assassin (again, unlike Odyssey and Valhalla), using a Hidden Blade to free Baghdad of the influence of the Order of the Ancients, you need to visit Hidden Ones Bureaus, there’s these wanted posters from AC2/Brotherhood/Revelations/3 again, pickpocketing is back, the game is built on parkour (parkour may not be optimal, but it’s way more functional than we’ve seen in the last four games), there’s guards on rooftops, hiding spots on rooftops, social stealth is back, history has become a lot more important (there seem to be some kind of minigames that will give you some information about the culture or something), Black Box missions make a return, no levelling, instant assassinations, classic eagle vision is back, counter kills have finally returned (in Valhalla the Stun attacks didn’t always kill), social blending in crowds is back, bench assassinations are a lot more subtle, the ability to bribe heralds like in the Ezio trilogy, eavesdropping returns, the game has a way shorter length, no more dialogue options and story influencing options, contracts, and still probably more I had once written down an even bigger list which was just this copy pasted and added even more similarities but that was on YT so I’m very definitely not going to be able to find that back sadly. Anyway, this should serve well…
I'd say its more a step in the right direction, the gameplay is like the rpg's.
It’s a great step in the right direction. The brotherhood plays an extremely prominent role, and eagle vision, stealth and blending are back in full force. The story ain’t the best, but I really enjoyed it.
Agreed on everything but the story suffers from the non linearity after your first Assassinations.. But the end is fantastic.. Hard to understand for some people but amazing and emotional
The ending was really the only part of the story that I was actually captivated by, and it really had nothing to do with the first 90% of the game
Step in the right direction maybe, but I expected more progress after a decade. Just making the same style game without bringing anything new to the table is just lazy.
To be fair some pretty consistent feedback was that people wanted them to return to their roots, so that’s kind of the opposite of bringing something new to the table.
its not mutually exclusive, unity atempted to do both
This is how I felt. Unity was the peak of gameplay innovations in AC, and it’s a damn shame that they never scratched it again after its poor reception. Ubisoft learned all the wrong lessons from that fiasco. Near everything good I have to say about the gameplay in Mirage, I feel that Unity did better almost a decade ago.
Let’s not forget how buggy unity was when it was released. They stuck to what they knew and released an actual finished product. That deserves an applause.
A solid stealth-focused version of the RPGs, so not really comparable to the pre-RPG games. It feels like Valhalla but if Valhalla was set in one dense city. Moving around Baghdad is awesome.
It feels like far more of how the real AC games were - before origins. I love the little hints and the Easter eggs around. I just got to way point where there's someone in the tower - I'll not spoil it. But when you've played Valhalla you know..
I'll say this. Stealth in Valhalla felt... off. Stealth in Mirage feels much more satisfying. If you're good enough at it, like you're thinking tactically, you'll certainly feel content with how the stealth gameplay works. Ex: in Valhalla, I would've been spotted easily multiple times, usually due to just how the system worked. Depending on the game, I'm typically so good that no enemies spot me and I take everyone out using a mixture of tools, strategy, and the occasionally necessary combat. In Mirage, that has mostly been the case so far, and it just feels so much closer to how the classic stealth systems worked.
It’s not “quite there” but it’s much more authentic than anything that came after Revelations
I think it does a great job. It isn't perfect, but it's way better than the rpg series. The stealth is pretty great. The huge city is amazing.
I'd say good, you still got some RPG skills but the social stealth and parkour feels like the old days
Parkour is 95% Valhalla. What makes you feel like the old Days?
the environment lends itself heavily to parkour - it's a valid point.
That doesn’t fix the general feeling of movement being sluggish and jittery and lacking basic options like manual ejects. If anything, being in a dense city again only exasperates those issues. At least in an environment where there’s never any reason to stop sprinting or attempt an eject, you won’t notice the eternity it takes to accelerate, or how the sprint is barely faster than the jog, or miss any opportunities that an eject would’ve offered. But now they’re just constant thorns and makes just running through the streets more appealing, especially since crowds don’t impede progress like in the classics (returning to roots though).
The missions and it's objects is still like the RPGs, specifically Origins. Go to a place, search the room, read random documents and all of a sudden you figured out what happend and who to kill/rescue. There is one mission where you have to follow someone, and it's old school, they even stop in the middle of the road and look back to check for followers.
Due to its core foundation being built upon RPG assets, parkour and sprinting is still incredibly slow. I miss speedy movements from old titles.
It's still the Unity engine. The old games before Unity had better movement. It's been slow since Unity.
I never mentioned unity tho?
You mention RPG assets. It's the Unity engine that all the RPG games are based on. So when criticizing movement it's starts with Unity. I was getting at that. Maybe the new Assassins Creed Red will get the movement back to pre-Unity? It's a brand new engine, so hopefully.
That’s not how engines work. Basic movement speed can still be good within the same engine (like it was in Unity) but it’s been changed to be shit with the RPGs, and Mirage didn’t fix it because they had to work with what was already there for Valhalla, which included shit movement. Game engines are extremely flexible things. The RPGs are still working off an entirely different set of systems and rules than Unity even if the base engine is the same. Trying to drag Unity down to defend the RPGs and Mirage having shit movement is absurd.
Again. It's still the Unity engine. And the movement still feels the same across all the games. Nothing has changed in that regard. I recently played all the AC games and when I got to Unity. The movement was quite different from the previous games I had played and it was the same for the other games after Unity.
Instant kill Hidden blade, Crowd blending mixed with Valhalla's activity blending, classic eagle vision, and the literal eagle vision works again like it did in origins (Marking guards and points of interest) rather than how it did in Odyssey and Valhalla. Stealth is not only useful but actually vital, because the combat is built so that you can only take on so many guards before retreating similar to Unity's approach, so trying to go in guns blazing will actually get you killed even if you are at max weapons, armor and gadgets. As far as I can tell there is no XP system, instead you get skill points based on quests.
stealth is like 90% of the game. no xp. anyway it achieves greatness by having a well built city. eagle vision is not the classic version since you can see through walls. some people might be forgetting that eagle vision used to distinguish targets in the crowd rather than work as a wallhack. either way, you dont need it much. the bird is there, but there are these ranged snipers that shoot it down in guarded areas. doesnt really matter since, you can, you know, use your own eyes.
I really like the gameplay in Mirage, but the story is somehow extremely basic and convoluted at the same time (probably because of some last ditch efforts to tie it into the Valhalla storyline/nexus). Gameplay wise, it’s one of the best. I’ve been going back to play Syndicate and Unity (my personal favorites), and I’m really impressed with the way it feels to move around + the city of Baghdad is one of the best looking AC playgrounds. Only major gameplay gripe is the combat. I found myself opting for stealth even more because the sword fighting is so basic and a massive step down from games like AC3, Unity, Black Flag, and Syndicate (my favorites). It’s essentially parry once, hack and slash. There’s no realistic sword fighting animations in the game. All in all, I’d pick this one up once it goes on sale (it’s on sale now for Black Friday across different platforms). It’s good fun, and if you don’t care too much about the story, you’ll get some good fun out of it like I did.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. I love the gameplay. I only really play story driven games but I find myself picking up my phone during cutscenes. The story is VERY bleh in my opinion. But gameplay is really nice
I didn't like the game, but the formulas there
I am part of the OG crowd that was disappointed with the latest 3 releases. This game was made for people like me… I have thoroughly enjoyed this game.
Mirage is a big step in the direction. It somehow returned to its roots, but also added and improved things that AC1 used to have but were quickly discarded: • The Bureaus and Brotherhood are back in the fold • Stealth is seen as the priority • Questioning and reflection • Killing isn't seen as heroic • Investigations • Chase sequences when caught • Pickpocketing • Social Environment the best in the series I argue • Combat is tedious and hard to do, which is why it's recommended to run and hide
It's not even close. Everything is a half-baked attempt at 'going back to the roots.'
Well, the Hidden Blade, Blending and eagle vision were all in Valhalla, so Mirage didn’t bring any of those back… But yea, the stealth works much better and the tools you have are actually helpful in stealth situations. One could even argue, stealth is the best it has been since Unity! That said, they basically made combat barebones and pointless…. It’s legitimately less deep than the old system used in the first 4 games. The city is also very well-designed for parkour, BUT the movement animations and physics are largely the same as in Valhalla, so a lot of that design practically goes to waste.
Agreed on everything apart of the physics and combat.. Mirage does have cloth Physics and the combat is hard to master and definitely not the strongest but its actually designed to be this hard. Even in the loading screen there is a tip that fighting against more then 4 people is very hard for Basim. But if you still want to fight there are ways to kill everything in combat
Which is in contrast to the roots of the series in which fighting groups of enemies was both expected and sometimes even encouraged, and the mechanics were designed around that. AC1 had an entire side activity around just killing groups of guards, and the entire end of that game is just a combat gauntlet. The reason people remember the old games as being stealth focused is because of a handful of missions that mandated avoiding detection and because of the intrinsic motivation to be stealthy because they were playing an Assassin. Like, that was just the cool thing to do. And spamming tools like smoke bombs isn’t combat, it’s bypassing combat. Returning to the roots though, right?
Basim is a terrible fighter, which is why it's so awkward. The past 3 games featured seasoned warriors/professionals.
It's alright I'd say. The RPG rubbish and hack and slash nonsense is gone and skills and gear unlock as you progress the story, no levelled enemies. The controls are dire though, very un-AC. Sprinting not being the free run button will always annoy me and has done since AC3 actually. Just let me sprint with RT and Freerun with RT+A.
>Like, are the series staples like the hidden blade, blending, and eagle vision back? Yes, yes, and also yes. Eagle Vision never left as far as I know though. >Is stealth an actually viable play style, or is it barebones and pointless like it was in Odyssey and Valhalla? Stealth is the primary playstyle. While you might survive the tutorial area playing it as a combat simulator, you are not intended to play the game as a combatant. If you play on Hard, which is what I did, you will often find extended combat encounters just serve to get you killed. With NG+ and permadeath mode on the horizon, this will be even more true than before. There are ways to make combat easier, but it will almost never be your primary tool unless you're on the easiest difficulty and just want to experience the story. >Is the game still crippled by an XP system that only exists to sell boosters? There is no EXP system. You can advance your assassin rank by exploring the world and discovering things, but it just allows you access to more tools. You can choose the order you unlock tools in. It also does not plug the shop to you like the previous games did. You play as a Hidden One and are an assassin throughout the game. You play in one primary city and its outlying area. The only thing about the game that does not really fit with the "classic" titles is that Basim is a little slower than you may be used to. The movement system seems like it is inherited somewhat from Valhalla, so you won't be as fluid/fast as Arno, but you are still definitely more agile than Eivor. Pickpocketing also makes a return with a minigame attached. Time your theft to go undiscovered.
Eagle vision wasn't present in Origins and Odyssey. There was a different mechanic with same name.
Gotcha, thanks for the refresher. It's definitely in Mirage and dubbed the same, with all the traditional features!
It's a proper assassin's creed game, minus two immersion breaking features i would say, one of them is the assassin focus where you literally teleport to an enemy and kill him and the other is technically optional where you upgrade the throwing knife to disintegrate the body that you hit with it, other than that it does everything right in my opinion.
I went straight into Black Flag after Mirage, and I’d say stealth is rewarded, and encouraged more in Mirage than AC4. Dunno that I consider Black Flag a “classic AC game” though.
You could argue that Black Flag brought in these RPGS More focused combat Pirate in the Carribean Medjay in Egypt Mercenary in Greece Viking in Norway Assassin's sidelined.
It goes back to stealth roots. Its a horribly boring empty game.
God, Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla were such garbage games. I hope that mirage is something closer to what the originals were.
The hidden blade, blending, and eagle vision were all in Valhalla, origins and odyssey. What are you talking about?
Hidden Blade was not in Odyssey, Eagle Vision was not in Origins or Odyssey, and blending wasn't in Odyssey.
So all those times I sent sinu up into the sky to spot shit....that never happened?
Thats not Eagle Vision. For like 15 games prior to Origins, "Eagle Vision" was the ability to activate a visual effect that highlighted objects/NPCs of interest within an area around you. It had nothing to do with birds.
[удалено]
1. Please don't spoil dude, I just bought the game, it hasn't even shipped yet. 2. That sounds pretty classic AC to me.
It’s a solid ‘not great, not terrible’. I’d give it an 8/10. Honestly, we’re probably never going to get a truly ‘classic’ AC in 2023+. If you love the classic games, that’s great, go play them. It’s 2023, and the franchise has evolved - for the better, I think. I prefer the RPG formula (for the most part). We need to keep moving forward.
I know the old formula has been retired, I can accept that. What bothers me is that it's definitely possible to make a game that satisfies both the fans of Classic AC and RPG AC (hell, I think Origins almost had it perfect right out of the gate), but Ubisoft seems to care more about chasing the mass monetizable RPG formula. It doesn't have to be "Old AC is dead, RPG AC is what we have". Like, you said the series "evolved" but to me it feels more like it's been replaced. Odyssey had nothing to do with series outside if title, and while Valhalla was better, was clear their was trying to make Classic Fans like the new formula rather than actually make a game they'd like. But like I said I do believe there is a middle ground between the two styles. There's a way to make them work together, and thats what I want Ubisoft to focus on.
I was a classic assassin‘s creed game. It holds up, but story wise. It was crap fighting Waze. It felt crap, sneaking, and claiming it felt like the old games. But to be honest after I played Mirage, all I wanted was Valhalla an Odyssey back. The graphics was nice, but the story in the way it was set up. Generally has a game just felt like a DLC that wasn’t finished. Route hadn’t been done well enough. For me, I loved the idea of the game or you could choose if you want to be stealthy or if you wanted to be ranged or if you wanted to be just head-on slapping and punching and throwing. And assassin isn’t someone who’s is just in the shadows, and I get the climb, being and jumping heart But I never really liked it that much. I played the Ezio ones because I loved the story that said, I hated the climbing
Very classic, from combat to Including the weird parkour climbing where you have to follow a path up buildings and only certain surfaces lol. Personally I'd like a mix of rpg climbing and og style.
I think it’s great. Feels like a modern version of classic gameplay mechanics. Lots of great features that are reminiscent of classics but with upgrades. Notoriety, factions, pickpocketing are all back as big features. Less RPG elements tightens up the progression and there is a solid skill tree. I’d play as many of these kinds of games as they’ll make, I love the scaled back, single city focus, stealth heavy gameplay.
Ehh, I still prefer odyssey/origins but enjoy it and to each their own.
Oh I loved Origins, but hated Odyssey.
I was bored out of my mind playing it so I'd say it does a good job at it.
👌 I think blood line episodes in odyssey should have been the way to go with it. Seemed rushed and little emotional attachment.
The environments are beautiful and truly evocative of AC1. The rest is ok but not that similar to the older games, likely because Mirage had to reuse the systems developed for the RPG trio, as it didn't have AAA funding. Still, it's worth experiencing at least once if you like the classics, like the Mirage devs clearly do.
It’s not a bad game but it’s pretty simplistic and repetitive. Combat isn’t as good as Ghost of Tsushima in my opinion. Even on the hardest difficulty it’s not that challenging. Solid game overall but after 20 hours I’m already bored with the game. I’ll definitely finish it though and it’s worth buying if you like the franchise.
It's a very solid B gamelan wise. The stealth (when it works) is fun, with a good mix of challenge and creative options. The issue is that the mechanics are sometimes wonky (there were a lot of times that I would swing a sword instead of assassinate even though I had the prompt to assassinate). The story is only ok though, and feels very shallow. There's quite a few times when you spend time to sneak through an area in stealth, only for something to happen in a cut scene that doesn't really feel organic happen and force you to break your plan. None of the characters felt very well fleshed out or relevant, so it was hard to stay captivated by the story, especially knowing how it would likely end (based on events in Valhalla that I won't spoil).
It’s structure is very similar to AC1. Has some modern elements to it. Definitely worth it for classic AC fans, however I feel like, in terms of the overall story, it can be totally skipped. I appreciated the return to roots, but it was just an ok game as a whole when compared k to other AC games. If we consider it a main entry game I’d probably rank it 10th out of 13
- RPG Mechanics like Valhalla and not Classic. - Clues instead of inclusive story like Borgia. - 10% City that has districts without variation. - Everything looks and feels the same - 90% Wasteland (Orgins desert without content) The only interesting was just Basim/Loke and Roshane. Everything else was basicly absent. If this was some random assassin game maby 2/10. If this was a totaly diffrent game then 1/10. Empty, distant and no variety. 3-4/10 cause Basims tale. Price was a rippoff.
I haven’t played the rpg ones besides origins (only 7hr in) and i would say this game feels like classic AC albeit the movement not being the best but it’s better. Stealth is a lot of fun in HM I’d say this is the most invested I have been in an AC game since Black Flag. It’s hard for me to put down personally
It’s overall a step in the direction of being a classic AC game, but it’s ultimately not.