Well, some of it anyway | An Assassin's Creed Mirage Analysis

~41:49-42:20 [SPOILERS] Correction, Basim doesn't merge with the Jinni, when it turns to dust at his touch that represents him overcoming his fear of the Jinni, which is an embodiment of trauma from his past life as Loki. It reflects him starting to understand the cause of his nightmares, and thus being able to overcome them. Nehal is the embodiment of Loki himself, and she's the one who Basim merges with upon embracing his repressed Loki personality, hence why we see them both turn to dust and swirl together, in contrast to the Jinni blowing away.

"Live service hub" sure is a wierd way to say "Mirage was the last AC game ever made"

I just wish we were more clear with the problems we had with AC Syndicate. They assumed we ALL wanted something entirely different than what they’d been giving us. So they abandoned the idea of playing as a sleek and stealthy assassin, and relied on the button mashing hack and slash rpg model with bold brutes as the protagonists. It worked for Bayek because he was SUPPOSED to be one of the first Assassins (hidden ones), and his skill wouldn’t be nearly as defined as the other Assassins we know and love. Origins had a strong story, and a beautiful setting. That’s why it’s remembered so fondly (despite the RPG elements). Odyssey and Valhalla were just fantastical Spartan/Viking simulators. Charging into battles, with godly superpowers/weapons/mounts… They would have been accepted more if they were completely separate spinoffs about Greek, and Scandinavian culture/mythology. If they want to lose themselves in the mythology of various cultures, they should dedicate a brand new game franchise to that cause. Leave the Assassins and the Templars with Assassins Creed. Where it loosely ties into grounded historical scenario’s with grounded historical figures, and the goal is protecting various artifacts that grant mysterious unfathomable power to the wielder, as both Assassins and Templars philosophically struggle for the future of mankind. I say Mirage was a great step in the right direction, but the franchise won’t ever recover completely (at least to me) if it’s constantly relying on cheap RPG mechanics.

Mirage was such a breath of fresh air. Played it 6 times and still not bored ❤

“It never felt like Assassin’s Creed reached it’s potential. It’s potential in expressive and deep parkour, in social stealth black box assassination missions or ultimately in delivering a believable cohesive assassin fantasy” Man, this. Every thought I had about the franchise was exactly summarized by your conclusion. I don’t remember myself playing AC without having some major complaint about a core aspect of the game, and I actually love these games. It’s like Ubi has the intention of creating an unforgettable experience, but as the project unfolds, it becomes a mess of missed opportunities, loss of soul/innovation, bugs, and in-game purchases. As you pointed out every aspect of the game, it’s pretty frustrating to me that Mirage misses the mark on a lot of stuff. As you said, Mirage seems like a homage to the originals, rather than a return. I’m disappointed that the blackbox missions and investigations were not designed with a more creative approach, and it’s kinda sad that AC1 had more meaningful clues from the investigations so you could use them to your advantage in the templar missions (specific routes, enemies on location etc). They have captured the stealthy approach at least, but I didn’t know that the growth element fails once more, to the point you become op. This game proves once more that stealth in AC is a hit or miss. Sometimes the AI will work and probably be too easy and others, it will spot you from 25 meters. Sometimes it will be included as a viable way to approach, sometimes there will not even be a 1-hit stealth kill (ahem, Odyssey). Also, including a combat system that was clearly made to be avoided and looks really rushed, isn’t the right motivation for one to use stealth, neither is the assassin focus for one to make it more effective. For a 2023 game, cutscenes are objectively bad, and voice acting makes it worse. After the RPG formula, The franchise has really swarmed with cutscenes without soul, compared to the earlier games, even in the Ezio trilogy. It’s really disappointing that they sacrifice the storytelling part of the game for the sake of content, to the point of content losing it’s purpose in the first place. I’m so glad you showed comparisons, because the quality is really deteriorating and probably will stay like this. Man, this godamn parkour. Unity was really a gift and a curse. In an alternate world, if they didn’t rush Unity and actually stick with this system for future titles, we could have had the best parkour system ever created in a game. As you pointed out, the phrase “contextual execution” is the biggest problem in Unity, and I’m disappointed the same occurs in Mirage. Don’t get me wrong, Baghad is dense and looks amazing and for once they actually cared about building a world to free run instead of an RPG-climb-a-smooth-mountain, but come on, there is no way modders can fix your shit by adding ejects. This was done back in 2007. I guess when I say that I need a parkour system with the freedom of the Ezio trilogy, the consistency of the Kenway Saga and the animations of Unity, I’m asking too much. For me, traversal is the most important of the 3 pillars. You literally spend at least 60% of your time running in game. I’m happy we received at least something of a parkour, but I don’t have high hopes for anything better than that and I don’t understand how or why they don’t advance on this mechanic. Again, a hit or miss pillar. Nevertheless, Bordeaux was the only studio that listened to the fanbase and actually implemented some stuff (ejects, permadeath) and despite the above and being a small studio, showed love for the franchise. But, why this game had to be a DLC and then a main title worked by a small studio? Why this type of AC is considered something of a side content and why didn’t they invest more resources into it? The thing is, Ubi doesn’t seem to have plans on releasing a pure authentic AC experience. It’s pretty clear that effective combat, stealth and parkour, combined with interesting world design and compelling characters and storytelling are the key to a perfect AC game, so why do we only experience a percentage of this on every release? And on top of that, why is that percentage constantly being reduced by a live service function and a business model for the sake of profit? The escapist fantasy is there, but come on, there is no way the majority of the fanbase actually wants cosmetics, purchasable dlc’s and battle-pass, instead of a full story driven game. Either the case, whatever they have plans on, it keeps working, whether because it attracts a bigger audience (I suppose?) or because it’s a long-time loved franchise, strongly based on nostalgia. This video really motivated me to express my thoughts as well on this, and I’m so glad people like you are able to form a 1-hour AC review. I kind of repeated some things you mentioned of course, because you are really on point with this review and it totally differs from a couple Mirage videos I have seen. Also, it didn't even feel like 1 hour, your work is very well written. I’m not keeping in touch with the fanbase or what they really like in an AC game, but you definitely know what a good game is and especially an AC game, which they defined in the first place. Such a strong analysis, well done! Sorry for the essay, don’t bother responding the same way, you did more than enough in your video. ;) P.S I can't believe they still managed to add microtransactions and cosmetics in a 20hr game, fuck this, I'm really going to wait for a discount xD

Mirage scaled down on the massive quantity of content ubisoft has been flooding its AC games for the past 5 years, which is good! I still haven't finished Valhallas' main story and content dlc because of the large influx of content. I don't have the time to finish it all. Mirage was sort of a breath of fresh air on focusing on story instead of massive maps or content in which I hope they continue this formula.

I loved this video essay, how has it only got 2.5k views? Keep up the good work + consistency buddy, you're a v. entertaining narrator and script-writer.

This was very well put together, it was nice to sit back and listen to someone sharing a care for this series analyze it mostly unbiased

For me, Mirage is missing one thing , the “real” animated cutscenes of previous games pre Odyssey.

whoah, i was so shocked when i saw the sub count of your channel. i listened to this at work so i can’t comment on the editing, but the audio is great and the script was written really well. I got the platinum trophy for Mirage and it was a good time, but it’s not lost on me that my enjoyment of this game was almost entirely due to nostalgia for my childhood, renting AC1 from blockbuster. There’s good bones, and i have moderately tame expectations for the next title. Keep up the good work, hour long video essays are what get me through 10 hour shifts and i’ll be looking forward to your next uploads!

The claim that ac4 wasn’t an assassins creed game is utter nonsense, it was the last and one of the best ASSASSINS CREED games of all. It tells an assassins creed story so beautifully

I agree about the fantasy aspect. Assassin’s Creed is known for its immersion, the feeling of becoming an assassin, and its world-building. It was never primarily about the gameplay. While I hope the gameplay improves (the peak was with Assassin’s Creed Unity), the feeling of being a badass assassin on complex stealth missions was perfect for me. It felt like playing Hitman during the French Revolution. I appreciate the RPG elements in the newer Assassin’s Creed games, but the core feeling of being an assassin has been lost. Ubisoft should create a spin-off within the Assassin’s Creed universe that captures that essence. Personally, I love Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, although it claims to go back to its roots, it’s still held back by Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s mechanics

For me, Mirage was a passion project that was held back by being more than a DLC, but less than a full game. I still enjoy Mirage - as this is the most assassin fantasy we've had since Unity - but Valhalla's skeleton leaves it feeling like an incomplete vision. Given the financial success of Mirage, Ubisoft will likely give Bordeaux the green light to make more traditional AC games. I think Bordeaux will be able to fully realize that assassin fantasy with more time and resources to build a proper full game from scratch. As for where the series stands, "identity dilution" is definitely the better way to describe it. As of the 15th anniversary, Ubisoft's current strategy is to make each game have a specific target audience, but for the larger series to be for every audience. On one hand, I like this because each game will be focused, in intent and audience. I felt baited by Valhalla when it advertised a return to form, and I would much prefer for a game to make its intentions clear like Odyssey or Mirage. On the other, I dislike this because it'll make the series even more diluted. Overall, I can live with this choice as while I have preferences, I don't hate any style of AC. Still a bit sad to see another IP lose itself to corporate greed, but this is ultimately a business. You can either make the most of it, walk away, or complain into the abyss for all time... Edit: I really enjoyed how deep and impartial this video was. This is the first I've seen of your channel, but it definitely won't be the last. Keep it up!

Great video, one of the best analyses I've seen so far of what this game really represents for the series. It's tragic how few views this channel has, subscribed and looking forward to seeing what videos you create in the future.

lately I have unsubscribed to a lot of channels that were dishonest and falsely talk negative towards games and thats why finding channels like this puts a smile on my face when I find it and I subscribed today. its okay to have criticism if you do it in a positive way like this channel. great job friend keep up the great work.

How do you only have 300+ subs man? Beautiful editing and sound quality. Your video sums up a lot of what old players like you and myself feel. I enjoyed Mirage but still haven’t forgiven AC. It was a step in the right direction but it needs to continue in order for me to care. The more I hear about AC Red and Infinity don’t give me much hope. The series is a long way from where it used to be.

The fact that you’ve only got 400 subs is crazy. What a well made analysis. Good shit

Glad this channel finally got picked up by the YouTube algorithm. Getting the attention you deserve

Mirage was such a breath of fresh air. Was the first AC game since Syndicate that I bought and played. I think Ubisoft Bordeaux is actually working on another AC game so hopefully it’ll be like Mirage but with more development time and a larger budget.

Channel is gonna blow up I tell you