Summary
WhenAssassin’s Creedfirst leaped onto the scene back in 2007, it immediately stood out from the rest of the AAA market thanks mostly in part to its big focus on stealth-based gameplay. While games likeThiefand evenUbisoft’s ownSplinter Cellhad been knocking it out of the park when it came to big-budget stealth titles,Assassin’s Creedwas on a whole new level, but unfortunately, theAssassin’s Creedfranchise seems to have lost that core part of its identity with its recent RPGs. Fortunately,Assassin’s Creed Mirageis here to bring back stealth in full force.
Practically every element ofAssassin’s Creed Miragehas been seemingly built around its stealth mechanics in one or another. Combat is more skill-based, encouraging players to avoid it where they can and stick to stealth, and the layout of most environments embraces stealth with open arms. But by far the best example of this isAssassin’s Creed Mirage’s assassination missions, which are a true highlight of the entire game and something that should be carried forward in every subsequentAssassin’s Creedentry.
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Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s Assassination Missions Should Set the Blueprint
Assassination missions used to be the biggest highlight of theoriginal set ofAssassin’s Creedgames, essentially being the big set pieces that players work towards. After tailing some informants, pickpocketing some important documents, and doing some scouting, players would be given the climactic assassination mission. Here, they’re tasked with sneaking up to a target, dispatching them, and escaping the scene, preferably doing all while staying completely unnoticed. It may not be the most exciting gameplay loop in retrospect, but at the time these assassination missions felt like big payoffs.
Toward the end ofthe originalAssassin’s Creedseries formula, Ubisoft tried to expand on these assassination missions in some pretty big ways. Starting withAssassin’s Creed Unityand continuing through toSyndicate, players were given several different ways to approach an assassination mission, ranging from multiple optional objectives, different ways to infiltrate a location, and a slew of varying ways to take out their target and unseen. But when the series underwent a refresh in 2017 withAssassin’s Creed Origins, those assassination missions became much less of a focus, with RPG elements instead taking center stage.
Designed to be a throwback to the series' roots,Assassin’s Creed Mirageembraces stealth fully once more, and that also means the triumphant return of large-scale assassination missions. Coming at the end of each chapter,Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s assassination missions feel like big payoffs once again. The basic objective ofMirage’s assassination missions see players sneak into a location, find their target, lure them out, kill them, and escape the scene of the crime, but much likeUnityandSyndicatebefore it, players have a few different ways to go about completing these objectives.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s assassination missions give players quite a bit of freedom in how they take out their targets, with most missions having at least a handful of ways to infiltrate the location, lure out the target, and dispatch them, and players can mix and match a variety of these different options to produce some pretty unique results. For instance, the very first assassination mission in the game sees players try to lure out anOrder of the Ancientsmerchant from a crowded and restricted bazaar.
Players can cause a ruckus by starting a little merchant riot, or they can find a way to break into the Order member’s office, and then once revealed, they’re given free rein in how they take them out. Though the options certainly aren’t limitless, they go a long way in making the player feel like this all-powerful master assassin, and this general structure should act as a blueprint for the series moving forward.
Assassin’s Creed Mirageis available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
