Assassin’s Creed Mirage review: Intoxicated by Ubi’s Djinn Palace

Assassin’s Creed is a helix, and it always has been. The developers at Ubisoft have deftly woven the dual strands of history and science fiction together for the better part of 15 years now, and the results of this experiment have been as varied as they are diverse. Mirage – heralded as a spiritual reset for the franchise – had an impossible task from the moment it was announced: reform the brand, but keep everything that people loved about the behemoth RPGs Creed of recent years.


Mirage not only meets those expectations, it bests them. It manages to find the balance not only of past and present, but also of RPG and action, of narrative urgency and freedom, of expression and intent. Mirage is my favourite Assassin’s Creed game of the past few years, and by some margin. It demonstrates that with focus comes finesse, and that you can achieve in 20 hours what Valhalla struggled to achieve in 200.

The most unexpected victory of Mirage is in its role-playing – and it almost feels accidental. You succeed in imbibing protagonist Basim, not because of any of the scant skill-trees or vague progression systems, but because of how you’re railroaded into acting like he would act, approaching situations like the character would. Gone is the viking power fantasy, the channelling of Greek gods, the gunslinging pirate gravemaker; this is Assassin’s Creed refined, where skulking in the shadows and peeking around corners is required on the dusty streets of Baghdad.

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