From the moment it was officially announced, Ubisoft made it crystal clear thatAssassin’s Creed Miragewould be a smaller-scale throwback to the series' roots, and it’s exactly that. With every new trailer that dropped, it became increasingly clear just how muchAssassin’s Creed Miragewould be pairing things back from the last few entries in the series, all in an attempt to give long-time fans the nostalgic return to form that they’d been longing for. In many ways,Assassin’s Creed Miragelives up to that premise.
While the last few games intheAssassin’s Creedfranchisehave put combat, gear, and open-world exploration at the forefront,Assassin’s Creed Mirageinstead chooses to refocus itself around the core pillars of the series' original identity. And though parkour, combat, and exploration were all important features of the original set ofAssassin’s Creedgames, they all took a backseat to the games' primary focus, stealth, whichAssassin’s Creed Mirageembraces fully.
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How Assassin’s Creed Mirage Improves on the Original Series' Stealth Gameplay
Inthe very firstAssassin’s Creedgameback in 2007, stealth was the primary gameplay focus. While players could technically fight their way out if they were spotted, the originalAssassin’s Creed’s clunky combat mechanics discouraged this approach greatly, instead wanting players to carefully scout out their environment and use all the game’s stealth mechanics to complete their objective unseen. Though open combat would become a much more prevalent part of the series, it was stealth that originally definedAssassin’s Creed, and it continued to have a large presence throughout the original set of games.
But while stealth was arguablyAssassin’s Creed’s most important feature- right alongside parkour - it definitely wasn’t without its shortcomings. Being a game from 2007, the firstAssassin’s Creedhad quite a bit of clunkiness, and though that mainly affected combat, it did creep its way into the game’s stealth mechanics as well. Although these stealth mechanics were improved upon with each subsequent entry, many of the originalAssassin’s Creedgames don’t have the most intuitive stealth systems, andAssassin’s Creed Miragesought to remedy that. Everything about the game pushes players toward a stealth approach, and it stands out as a result.
Being a modern AAA release,Assassin’s Creed Miragenaturally makes some big improvements to the original series' stealth formula. One of the biggest improvements is a dedicated crouch button, letting players manually shift between stances for better traversal around an environment. While some later games in the series had a crouch button,Mirage’s is the most intuitive, featuring a fun slide animation to seamlessly transition between stances. On a similar note,Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s stealthmovements are also quite a bit faster than in the original series, letting players zip between hiding places much faster.
Talking of hiding spots,Assassin’s Creed Mirageoffers more than ever before. Along with classic hiding spots like hay bales, benches, and crowds,Miragelets players hide in tall grass, which gives them much more freedom of movement in a restricted environment.Miragealso gives players a whole skill tree’s worth of stealth abilities to make use of, including the ability to chain assassinate two guards and use throwing knives in the air. And though it might not seem like a big deal, the ability to manually aim gadgets and tools is a big point of improvement fromthe originalAssassin’s Creedstealth formula. The addition of stealth-focused assassination missions is also a massive boon, allowing players some freedom in how they go about accessing a restricted area, locating their target, and dispatching them.
Assassin’s Creed Mirageis available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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