Assassin's Creed

Do we really need one? We have always done fine discussing all the games in here.

Spoiler-free, but next time they'll have an expert on the time period on hand.

"If you perhaps are middle-aged, this could be the perfect game for you".

Wow. So that's where we are at now, huh? Assassin's Creed for the middle aged gamer crowd?

In twenty years, there's going to be an AC game for the elderly. Finally, Yahtzee's joke about Ezio shooting retirement home wardens from his zimmer frame will come to fruition.

Mirage is nothing burger just like middle of odyssey and valhalla game. My personal deal breaker of these three game is "do-whatever-you-want-quest-saga" in the middle of the game. You get disjointed sagas that are bland and confusing because story is not closely intertwined unlike traditional storytelling. At leaast Odyssey and Valhalla had good opening and ending, but Mirage only have good opening, too.

Kinda funny how the game came out to almost no reaction whatsoever. Like it's been over a month you could be forgotten for thinking Mirage never released.

Out of curiosity, if anyone here did play the game — I remember Mirage being sold as something of a back-to-roots, more stealth-focused experience. Did it live up to that?

I did, unrelatedly, get around to beating Unity and its free DLC. I don't really have any particularly insightful things to say about it, although I do think it's a bit funny that a game that introduced explicit non-lethal weapons also made those weapons things like spiked maces◊ and morning stars.

But if anyone wants to try out Unity's co-op missions with me, feel free to shoot me a DM (I'm on PC). I'm curious enough as to how they work in practice. Fair warning that, for all my skill and charms, I'm actually an absolute bungler when it comes to these games.

Edited by Lavaeolus on Nov 14th 2023 at 4:37:22 PM

From what I understand, it does a decent job of that, at least, though it also repeats some of its flaws, like repetitive missions.

Look, if you feel like you want to give Mirage a try, just do it. For all our complaining about the series, that shouldn't really matter as long as you enjoy the game.

Edited by Redmess on Nov 15th 2023 at 11:04:24 AM

It matters because it'll set me back 40 bucks!

That said, I always loved AC 1 for its Middle Eastern setting, and I've read that Baghdad is one of the most beautiful settings of any AC game so far.

I'm desperate to see pre-Mongol Baghdad.

Then it sounds like you've already decided you must have it.

My understanding is that the game has little depth and, for being a "back to roots" installment, doesn't understand AC 1 very well.

AC 1 was linear, but it was giving you new equipment and tools every mission or two. What I've been told about Mirage is that your approach and strategy to the levels from game start to game end changes very very little and mechanics never particularly evolve.

It's linear, but in a bad sense when linear is an otherwise neutral term.

One of the problems is that upgrades simply make the gameplay easier, rather than adding gameplay options. This is a problem with other AC games too, and probably not unique to Ubisoft.

Interview with one of the historians involved with Mirage's Codex.

What's this about AC Mirage pop up ads during gameplay in other AC titles

ROFL wtf is this.

It seems to be a Black Friday thing, rather than promoting Mirage specifically. It also seems like it pops up once you open the start menu, though it is not clear how often this happens.

Ubisoft claiming it's a technical error, even though the same thing happened 4 years ago.

Maybe the error is "we keep putting ads in our games".

I think they're only supposed to appear in the start menu when you load the game, which is where they generally put all their ads for DLC and upcoming games as well, so the bug thing may well be true.

That's still scummy, and also, like, you dont have bugs appearing when you open the map if you didnt prime your game to do this at some point.

Like, you had to design the game to be able to load advertisement during menu changes for this bug to happen.

New Game Plus + Update announcement.

Interview on Mirage's ending with its Narrative Director Sarah Beaulieu:

Text of the same interview

Some interesting points:

• The irony of the Hidden Ones who represent freedom building a fortress over a prison was indeed intentional.
• The Memory Seals in Alamut were basically akin to police interrogation videos while also recording everything going on inside the cells.
• The identity of the guard who abuses Loki is meant to be open to interpretation, and the events of the memory are occurring before Ragnarök/the Toba catastrophe.
• Beaulieu got the idea for the Jinn after getting sleep paralysis following an event a few years ago and learning that some people believe it happens when a jinni sits on you while you're sleeping, which is something someone like Basim's would've probably believed.
• The Jinn's link to violent trauma (ie. Loki getting abused in prison) is why it always appears following the assassination of a target.
• The Order is aware of Sages at this point in time but wasn't looking for Basim in particular.
• The scene with Enkidu in which he scars Basim at the end of the game was the first one Beaulieu wrote.
• Loki name is never directly stated within Mirage because they wanted to keep the game accessible for people who haven't played Valhalla, though everything in it does grant a better understanding of certain events in Valhalla.
• Originally Basim was going to gain a Memory Seal for each target he assassinated, and would live the memories inside like Ezio in Revelations.
• The two Memory Seals seen outside of the Alamut Vault have nothing to do with Loki.
• Rayhan was envisioned by the devs as a shady character with questionable intentions and felt he could find something interesting there for himself by directing Basim towards the Vault below Alamut.
• The book Nahel says she saved from the House of Wisdom is the Great Book of Interpretation of Dreams written during the 7th Century by Mohammed Ibn Sireen, which for obvious reasons is of great interest to Basim and foreshadows the endgame twist.

Edited by rmctagg09 on Apr 19th 2024 at 2:03:57 PM

Video doesn't work, and wrong game.

Fascinating trivia for the 10 people who bothered to play Mirage.

Seriously it's astounding how little impact this game had.

It's on my list!

It's on my maybe-some-day list.

The iPhone’s next AAA game, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, gets a release date: The game launched on consoles and PC months ago.

Playing a game like this on an Iphone sounds like torture to me, but who knows?

God, playing something as simple as Genshin Impact on mobile made me want to rip my hair out, but for something like Assassin's Creed? No thanks.