Main Characters

Lee Majdoub

Shohreh Aghdashloo

Jan Kamar

Aladeen Tawfeek

Review

Within the first few hours of traversing the city of Baghdad, I was naturally enthralled by the new world that Ubisoft had crafted for us. The beautiful and vibrant city of Baghdad is a stunning environment that showcases many of the typical hallmarks that long-term fans of the series, including myself, have missed, like interconnected buildings and beautiful landmarks. Any good game story needs an exciting backdrop so as the narrative unfolds, the players are invested. Likewise, any good story needs an excellent environment that supports the story but more often than not, Basim’s Journey typically doesn’t support Baghdad, even though a lot of care has been given to see that it tries.
While Mirage gives the majority of its long-time players what we’ve been wanting for a very long time, the story doesn’t often take full advantage of the series roots and the rich lore that Baghdad offers. Despite this, it’s easy to see how much care and affection has been etched on the walls of Mirage’s story but it’s held back by thinly written characters, a shallow plot, and the series’ past.

We start the tale with Basim Ibn Is’haq (Lee Majdoub), a street thief on the streets of Baghdad, who is plagued by nightmares of a “Jinni”. Most heroes of the Assassin’s Creed series have had demons in some form or another: Ezio was a slave to the deaths of his father and brothers, Connor was scarred by his mother’s death and Eivor was hounded by Odin. Like other adventures, Basim’s demons are what drive him down his path for knowledge and heroism.

Taking advantage of the game’s Arabian roots, Basim starts as a street thief who dreams of doing and becoming more, refusing to settle for his lot in life. In contrast to his attitude in Valhalla where he was seasoned and reserved, in his youth he is optimistic and also quite naïve. Naturally for an Assassin’s Creed game, there has to be a loss at the beginning to drive us and while it is sad, it pales in comparison to the deaths in other Assassin’s Creed games.

At the center of Basim’s journey are his closest friend Nehal and his eventual Mentor Roshan. Both Nehal and Roshan show themselves as the angel and devil on Basim’s shoulder although it doesn’t always materialize often in a way that makes it relevant. Nehal wants Basim to consider himself more often and ask questions whereas Roshan envisions Basim as a great Hidden One (Assassin’s) if only he can move past his own questions. Both characters hold a motive that deeply affects Basim and it’s their motives that will thrust Basim into the character we meet in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla (2020).
Sadly as interesting as Basim seems, he is reduced to a common yes man who does what anyone asks of him and not engaging in the tasks personally. Because of this, it's difficult to see the stakes and motivation for Basim as even characters like Connor and Bayek had a personal stake that drove them forward.

As Mirage is designed to be a return to form, there is only one true objective, hunting The Order of the Ancients (The group that preceded the Templars). Where the past games in the series like Valhalla only had hunting them as more of an additional plotline instead of the main plot, Mirage fixes this by placing the conflict between the Hidden Ones and The Order of the Ancients dead center.

While Mirage does well to showcase a true Assassin’s Creed story, it is sadly held back by some of the typical highlights that tend to hold back a typical Ubisoft game: Minimal Development cycle, outdated engine, and lack of storytelling innovation.
As Mirage only started as DLC for Valhalla, its development cycle was only 2 years so this doesn’t give the team much time to take risks and try anything new. 10 years ago, Ubisoft’s AnvilNext engine was an excellent design tool that allowed for innovative design techniques but over the years it has aged poorly. While the game allows the team to design and create realistic environments and lighting, the series' turn to RPG design doesn’t facilitate clean facial animations outside of cinematics so it’s naturally off-putting. In the earlier games, the story was cut up into genetic sequences and each mission was a memory. This helped to make the series stand out and stayed true to the series' roots. Mirage doesn’t take this advantage and sticks to its RPG design philosophy of making a single playthrough. Even in Brotherhood, which introduced “Full Sync” constraints which added another layer of storytelling.

The thing that helps an Assassin's Creed game feel lively and dynamic is typically the amount of side activities there are. While Baghdad is an expansive city, there is sadly not a lot to do but it's good to see how Basim can so easily become involved in the affairs of the city, even if they don't have an overarching point. The "Tales of Baghdad" are a good way to show the intricacies of the city and how life goes forward even with the conflict between The Hidden Ones and The Order of the Ancients waging on, even if they don't amount to anything.

Overall there's something about Mirage's storytelling that tells us it's closing the door on the past and is trying to forge ahead to something new. While it doesn't offer much clarity on what the new future might look like, it does keep us intrigued as it feels like the story is going back to what made the series great.

Verdict

Assassin's Creed Mirage is a love letter to fans of the original games while also working to please players of the newer RPG games as it links the 2 separate narratives together almost seamlessly even if the results aren't always spectacular. While it's obvious that Assassin's Creed Mirage works to introduce a serious narrative with its fascinating character, it can't quite stick the landing as it tries to offer a story that's meant to intrigue but doesn't and introduces characters who aren't fleshed out enough for us to care about. The Incredible City of Baghdad is a pleasure to explore and offers a fair few mysteries and tales to whet the player's appetites but it feels there could have been a deeper underlying plot that could have enhanced the overall narrative but otherwise, they are serviceable. To its credit, Mirage embraces the short and sweet philosophy making sure to not overstay its welcome and instead delivering what is promised, an original Assassin’s Creed experience with the promise of a new story as it seems to close the chapter on past adventures and open up something new even if it's a little unclear and even a little underwhelming. Despite that, Mirage feels like it's building up to something, and with the direction of the series, it might take a while before the payoff.

Characters - When Basim appeared to us in Valhalla, he was a mysterious and enigmatic man. Being able to meet him at a time when he was hopeful, brash, and heroic was an interesting thing to see. Basim is likable enough and he’s backed up even more from other supporting characters like Nehal and Roshan who both have layers and secrets beneath their initial exteriors that help build on Basim’s journey. While there is no shortage of characters they are somewhat let down by the story's short structure and a lot of them don’t leave enough of an impact to truly matter, not like characters such as Bartolomeo from Brotherhood and Sam Adams in 3. Focusing on the core trio for Mirage’s story is a good choice but it doesn’t leave much room for other important interactions that matter. While there are moments of levity and friendship between Basim and other characters, they don’t leave much impact - 6.5/10
Main Narrative - Focusing on a much shorter form of storytelling helps to keep Mirage’s narrative focused and condensed. Focusing on Basim’s coming-of-age story while also focusing on the conflict between The Hidden Ones and The Order of the Ancients was a smart move and one that pays off. While in past entries, the conflict of the series had been set off to one side, being able to dive back into the fight we love was a good feeling and one that was pulled off well with a wealth of targets and a fun story for Basim as he learned more about himself as the story unfolded and showed us how he became the man we met in Valhalla - 7/10
World Building - As Mirage takes place before any other Assassin’s Creed adventure told in the games, the devs took the opportunity to hide secrets and plant the seeds that would be known in later Assassin’s Creed games. At the start of our adventure, we are able to get a glance at the modern day and while it doesn’t bear much, we have an idea of what could happen next. Not only are there further implications on the ever-expanding world of Assassin’s Creed but there is also ground for a new Modern-day story that we will find out more about in the future - 5/10
Environment & Collectibles - The beautiful city of Baghdad is in a lot of ways its own character as the city holds so much personality beneath its sunny and ancient exterior and as we explore this world as Basim, we see more and more why it was considered one of the greatest medieval cities to ever exist. Strategically placed around the city are markers that help to tell more history about the city and the age and help to show that Assassin’s Creed is still a great boon to people with an interest in history. The collectibles on the other hand aren’t that great. While there are plenty to find, they don’t offer a massive amount of storytelling save for a few instances but it didn’t make finding them a chore and it was fun searching for them, even if they didn’t amount to much - 7/10