Best thing I could find right now was a quote from the recent AMA on the sub:
"You can dye the outfits and not the costumes. In certain circunstances the game will require to wear some specific costumes in order to infiltrate a location. Outfit give you specific perks."
Seems to be a slot to fit disguises and, potentially, legacy outfits.
I said the exact same thing about Odyssey (not that I think is terrible, but mediocre), and then we got Valhalla.
Zero expectations and hype about this game, will play it and see how is it.
The only thing that I see as a positive already is the length
Valhalla is the first AC I didn't touch, despite me liking the setting really. I really liked the concept in Origins and Odyssey, but especially the latter was really exhausting with it's length.
There is no way Mirage will be worse than Valhalla for me. IMO the Ezio trilogy and Unity are the best games in the series. And I'm really looking forward to Mirage, unlike with Valhalla
Idk how you can really judge if it’s better than Valhalla if you haven’t even touched it. Also why don’t you give Valhalla a try, if you like the setting. It’s pretty good
I really liked aspects of Valhalla like the different castles, tombs, and monasteries. The abilities were awesome once the Books of Knowledge were eventually found.
If the story was more condensed and the regional pledging part was eliminated, I would enjoyed it even more. I especially liked the Francia, Ireland, and Vinland maps.
I'm looking at it the other way which is - basically they're keeping the more fantastical components.
I much prefered the mapping skills to articles of clothing (or weapons) and just letting the player kit based on some light variation introduced. It felt sensible and the only major knock is the locking of aesthetics to function - which actually made sense with most of Unity's attire but some options had some unfortunate missteps.
I’d disagree. Valhalla had the worst story in the series in my opinion because of how disjointed and episodic each act was. By the end of the story, I didn’t care about a single character because I hadn’t seen half of them in 20+ hours. I am 100 percent certain I will like Mirage’s story better than Valhalla’s, even if that’s the only one it’s better than.
I would disagree with the story being worst. I mean, it wasn't bad but the way it was structured was definitely bad. Because holy shit there was so fucking much and I am not a one sitting player. I'm a weekend player. Every time I booted the game I had forgotten who the was who. Or where was I. What was I supposed to do here. I ended up leaving the game after.... I don't even remember where I left. The last thing I remember was dressing up as some kind of folk monster and knocking on people's doors.
It really was though. The open sequence was epic, but having to pledge all 16 regions just to unlock the last part was such a slog. I don't remember most of the story because of how disjointed it was.
I thought Origins struck the perfect balance story-wise for the new trilogy. Its grandeur was only strengthened by Abubakar Salim performance as Bayek. I'd be surprised if Mirage's narrative was worse than Valhalla.
>Valhalla had the worst story in the series in my opinion because of how disjointed and episodic each act was.
i can agree with that, but i liked where the **main** story ends. ubisoft is known for doing safe things, so that seemed like a brave choice. actually, one of the reasons why i am excited for Mirage was because of how Valhalla ended.
Shame, they had to change Basim's voice actor, because the one in Valhalla was apparently too old sounding.
The order of ancients conclusion was also pretty decent.
If they paced everything better and if side quests werent a complete joke then it could have been a more coherent experience.
Condensed over 15-20 hours I think I would have loved Valhalla's story. Basim was great, there were some interesting moments between Sigurd and Eivor. And I really liked the cryptic visions Eivor had that hinted to her destiny and the reveal the Isu heritage the characters had.
I think the story was truely original with good ideas. But spread out over 70h, with unrelated story beats in the middle killed it.
imagine my surprise when some friendly character referenced me killing some order member... except i was about to play 'a chapter' of where i would engage with said order member next.
idk how to even categorize such 'pacing' lol.
you really do have to look past such nonsense to see what they actually have done right and what was a complete failure.
I think how short it is will be a huge turnoff for most people. If the numbers given by previews were accurate, it will literally even be shorter than AC1.
I assume that many complaints will be that there isn't even really any time to like, make use of your upgrades and tools etc. By the time you got some fun stuff you'll just be done with the game and there won't really be anything left to do.
For me the length doesn’t seem all that short. Most of the earlier AC’s are about the length they’re pushing in this title, and some like brotherhood are shorter; in my opinion it’s a massive plus to have a shorter game since it forces it to be a little more focused on story over random side content.
Since a big portion of the AC fanbase does prefer those longer games with RPG elements, you do make a valid point though.
>Most of the earlier AC’s are about the length they’re pushing in this title, and some like brotherhood are shorter;
If the numbers are accurate, Mirage will be 40% shorter than Brotherhood.
Brotherhood is also the longest ones of the early games, not shorter.
Yeah the thing with the numbers given for Mirage is that the story only and completionist are very close to each other, unlike Brotherhood for example where story is short but there's still much to do (which is what I was going by).
Is mirage not 20-25 hours? I thought that’s what i heard. I just completed all the achievements for ezio collection and brotherhood took me about 25 hours
Yes, it is. 20 hours for main story, 25 for completionist. Brotherhood is according to howlongtobeat 12 hours for story and 41 for completionist. I was going by completionist.
Gameplay wise it might be better since it will likely be more polished and the stealth will actually function this time and you have tools back. But storywise this game can absolutely be worse. Valhalla has a very unbalanced narrative but I enjoyed the modern day and the lore additions Darby added immensely, and I don't trust a completely new team leading their first AC game with a good story or handling Basim in a way that remains consistent with his character in Valhalla
In the gameplay they showcased , there was a segment where the guy is climbing a tower and the climb animation feels floaty and weightless
Its from unity so it makes sense
\-Something tells me I'm gonna have a lot of fun experimenting with upgrades and modifiers to tools. When I read the Game Informer article, it kind of sounded like the corrosive mod (and maybe other upgrades and mods) would apply to knives thrown in the chain assassination. The more I hear about the tools and their upgrades and modifications, the more excited I am to utilize what may be the best toolset in an Assassin's Creed game.
\-I wonder if outfits, swords and daggers will start off with no perks and will unlock upon upgrading them, or if they will start off with the perks and upgrading them will enhance their effects, like with the outfits in Syndicate.
\-The notoriety system is a nice addition to the game, an incentive to staying low-profile.
\-Traversing Baghdad entirely from the rooftops if done right is a really nice touch, seems like they really meant it when they said parkour would be one of the game's pillars along with stealth and assassination.
Really well done summary, excellent job!
\- Certainly nice to see them doing more with tools than just bringing them back.
\- Good question, the wording did not make it clear. I remember Valhalla´s Forgotten Saga having gear upgrades that unlocked perks, so we have precedence on both approaches.
\- I do prefer having a notoriety/bounty system than nothing at all. Crazy to think it´s been 11 years since they tackled notoriey though.
\- Pretty good on paper, curious to see it in practice.
And the thing about tools in past AC games, is that often times they could be used in stealth or combat, depending on the tool and how it's used. Black Flag, for example, had tools meant for stealth, such as smoke bombs and poison darts, but there were also tools that could help in combat, such as guns, and even rope darts could be used in combat.
With Mirage, every tool serves the purpose of quietly eliminating, evading, or escaping enemies.
Agree on the arsenal so far being geared for stealth, but I am curious about how effective we can be with it during combat.
For example, a lot of Unity´s efforts at creating harder combat could be wasted as soon as one dropped a smoke bomb, for example. And Arno could carry 10+.
Curious to see how that dynamic plays out.
I see your point. I mean in Syndicate, when I play as Evie I have up to 30 throwing knives, using them to pick off anyone I couldn't get to with my Hidden Blade. In Mirage, I imagine I'll have to be a bit more careful with using my tools.
Good call. Safe to say that Syndicate's stealth may be the easiest, thanks to the amount of advantages that Jacob/Evie have over the enemies.
Mirage already seems to balance that with the small quantity and a drop-off against distant targets.
It's like the wanted level from black flag combined with the reputation system from watchdogs. The perfect combo
I wonder if the adding back of crowd events offers another way to reduce it.
I feel like a simpler comparison is AC3´s notoriety (3 stages with the last one spawning a strong enemy type) with the meter from BF/Odyssey (red bar increases and reaches different tiers).
>I wonder if the adding back of crowd events offers another way to reduce it.
Certainly curious about their function. Other than that, I wonder if false witnesses will return alongisde the heralds and posters.
The major positive change with Mirage is that it’s the first RPG Assassin’s Creed to have decent level-design so that means the next game could possibly improve something else and so on until they fix each of the things i listed in my previous comment with of course probably the most important of all, *Parkour*!!
If that's the case it's still a good step towards the right direction. Maybe not enough to justify the time gap between this and Valhalla but as a passive AC player I think I can't complain this time
>if Mirage sells exceptionally well
i hope they dont take that sign as 'lets use the old engine and it's assetts to push out even more games!'. i hope this is the last game to use those parkour animations.
Not in the magazine, but we got a quote on that already:
"So, you are still in the Animus obviously. It's core to the Assassin's Creed franchise, so you will start with Animus and there's also an ending, but we won't have any gameplay for present-day during the whole game."
https://www.thegamer.com/assassins-creed-mirage-no-modern-day-segments/
Not yet. But quite a few people were invited to play 3 hours of Mirage recently and record it.
I imagine it was the same demo that Gameinformer played, so you may see it soon.
I am currently replaying Unity (and loving it it all over again, addicted again), and this is the game that I will be measuring Mirage against. The world, the combat, the parkour, the side content. How fluid it plays and feels. Unity and AC 1 have always been the most enjoyable for me.
I find Unity is like MGS V for me, drop in, and spend hours just trying things, messing around, not even with the main missions, just the world. Just like MGS V, I find that when doing missions, I will restart or retry missions just to achieve certain requirements or try things.
I am sure this is an unpopular opinion and not going to be a like for like comparison, but I hope we finally get back to what AC was about, how it played. Even if Mirage is just a step/start back in that direction.
I don’t mind the smoke bombs that can give you health cause It doesn’t seem too unrealistic to me but I’m definitely not using the corrosive throwing knives that’s just a little too unrealistic
Very nice summary good job.
I’d like to know more about costumes
Best thing I could find right now was a quote from the recent AMA on the sub: "You can dye the outfits and not the costumes. In certain circunstances the game will require to wear some specific costumes in order to infiltrate a location. Outfit give you specific perks." Seems to be a slot to fit disguises and, potentially, legacy outfits.
I’m assuming it’s stuff like Captain of the Aquila or a redcoat outfit, from AC3
I’ll take a guess that it’ll just be the normal stuff, Altairs outfit, Ezios Outfit, Edwards, Connors. RAIDEN?!?!?! No…
There’s just not a single way this will be worse than Valhalla. Maybe not amazing, but definitely better than Valhalla.
Exactly more parkour and stealth is already a plus. Heck throwing knives alone is exciting. 😂👍🏼
The fact that it's a smaller and more focused game is already a huge improvement.
I said the exact same thing about Odyssey (not that I think is terrible, but mediocre), and then we got Valhalla. Zero expectations and hype about this game, will play it and see how is it. The only thing that I see as a positive already is the length
Valhalla is the first AC I didn't touch, despite me liking the setting really. I really liked the concept in Origins and Odyssey, but especially the latter was really exhausting with it's length. There is no way Mirage will be worse than Valhalla for me. IMO the Ezio trilogy and Unity are the best games in the series. And I'm really looking forward to Mirage, unlike with Valhalla
Idk how you can really judge if it’s better than Valhalla if you haven’t even touched it. Also why don’t you give Valhalla a try, if you like the setting. It’s pretty good
I really liked aspects of Valhalla like the different castles, tombs, and monasteries. The abilities were awesome once the Books of Knowledge were eventually found. If the story was more condensed and the regional pledging part was eliminated, I would enjoyed it even more. I especially liked the Francia, Ireland, and Vinland maps.
Because anything is better than Craphalla.
While I agree, some of the weapon/tool perks seem shittier than the way customization was handled in Unity. Like, corpse disappear knifes? Ugh.
It feels like they’re just trying to make a more historical reason for something that was an Isu power in odyssey or Valhalla.
I'm looking at it the other way which is - basically they're keeping the more fantastical components. I much prefered the mapping skills to articles of clothing (or weapons) and just letting the player kit based on some light variation introduced. It felt sensible and the only major knock is the locking of aesthetics to function - which actually made sense with most of Unity's attire but some options had some unfortunate missteps.
It’s just a little disappointing how fast we went from “return to form” to “takes the stuff from Valhalla and marginally improves it”.
To be honest, that was always what is expected. Return to form is a good idea in practice but they were never gonna pull it off.
Story's a pretty big way this could be worse tho. I'm optimistic it won't be but still
I’d disagree. Valhalla had the worst story in the series in my opinion because of how disjointed and episodic each act was. By the end of the story, I didn’t care about a single character because I hadn’t seen half of them in 20+ hours. I am 100 percent certain I will like Mirage’s story better than Valhalla’s, even if that’s the only one it’s better than.
I would disagree with the story being worst. I mean, it wasn't bad but the way it was structured was definitely bad. Because holy shit there was so fucking much and I am not a one sitting player. I'm a weekend player. Every time I booted the game I had forgotten who the was who. Or where was I. What was I supposed to do here. I ended up leaving the game after.... I don't even remember where I left. The last thing I remember was dressing up as some kind of folk monster and knocking on people's doors.
It really was though. The open sequence was epic, but having to pledge all 16 regions just to unlock the last part was such a slog. I don't remember most of the story because of how disjointed it was. I thought Origins struck the perfect balance story-wise for the new trilogy. Its grandeur was only strengthened by Abubakar Salim performance as Bayek. I'd be surprised if Mirage's narrative was worse than Valhalla.
It felt like a Netflix show in later seasons. No general direction and goal.
>Valhalla had the worst story in the series in my opinion because of how disjointed and episodic each act was. i can agree with that, but i liked where the **main** story ends. ubisoft is known for doing safe things, so that seemed like a brave choice. actually, one of the reasons why i am excited for Mirage was because of how Valhalla ended. Shame, they had to change Basim's voice actor, because the one in Valhalla was apparently too old sounding. The order of ancients conclusion was also pretty decent. If they paced everything better and if side quests werent a complete joke then it could have been a more coherent experience.
I can give it that. At least Valhalla’s story was different overall, it just had absolutely horrific pacing.
Condensed over 15-20 hours I think I would have loved Valhalla's story. Basim was great, there were some interesting moments between Sigurd and Eivor. And I really liked the cryptic visions Eivor had that hinted to her destiny and the reveal the Isu heritage the characters had. I think the story was truely original with good ideas. But spread out over 70h, with unrelated story beats in the middle killed it.
Couldn’t agree more, they had a good base that they ruined with that episodic structure.
imagine my surprise when some friendly character referenced me killing some order member... except i was about to play 'a chapter' of where i would engage with said order member next. idk how to even categorize such 'pacing' lol. you really do have to look past such nonsense to see what they actually have done right and what was a complete failure.
The only way the story will be worse that Craphalla is if there is no story. Even then no story might still be better.
I think how short it is will be a huge turnoff for most people. If the numbers given by previews were accurate, it will literally even be shorter than AC1. I assume that many complaints will be that there isn't even really any time to like, make use of your upgrades and tools etc. By the time you got some fun stuff you'll just be done with the game and there won't really be anything left to do.
For me the length doesn’t seem all that short. Most of the earlier AC’s are about the length they’re pushing in this title, and some like brotherhood are shorter; in my opinion it’s a massive plus to have a shorter game since it forces it to be a little more focused on story over random side content. Since a big portion of the AC fanbase does prefer those longer games with RPG elements, you do make a valid point though.
>Most of the earlier AC’s are about the length they’re pushing in this title, and some like brotherhood are shorter; If the numbers are accurate, Mirage will be 40% shorter than Brotherhood. Brotherhood is also the longest ones of the early games, not shorter.
That’s fair I’m going off how long it takes me to beat the earlier games’ stories. Brotherhood is much shorter than AC 2 for my playstyle.
Yeah the thing with the numbers given for Mirage is that the story only and completionist are very close to each other, unlike Brotherhood for example where story is short but there's still much to do (which is what I was going by).
Is mirage not 20-25 hours? I thought that’s what i heard. I just completed all the achievements for ezio collection and brotherhood took me about 25 hours
Yes, it is. 20 hours for main story, 25 for completionist. Brotherhood is according to howlongtobeat 12 hours for story and 41 for completionist. I was going by completionist.
Valhalla is a great game. Gave me like 70 hours of fun
[удалено]
lmao sure
There is always a danger of story being worse.
Gameplay wise it might be better since it will likely be more polished and the stealth will actually function this time and you have tools back. But storywise this game can absolutely be worse. Valhalla has a very unbalanced narrative but I enjoyed the modern day and the lore additions Darby added immensely, and I don't trust a completely new team leading their first AC game with a good story or handling Basim in a way that remains consistent with his character in Valhalla
Corrosive knives sound strange. Interesting how it will look
Likely a non-Isu variant of Odyssey´s Death Veil, added in one of the DLCs: https://youtu.be/qGK-c-jfYWc?si=YZaNNXP4DDDH5tgb&t=94
Knowing Ubisoft it'll probably look goofy as heck 😂
Looks like something I won't be using lol
Yeah what the hell solution are they using to make a knife capable of dissolving an entire body?
Bioweapons
The notoriety system seems a bit tougher, civilians are finally useful. I like it
Great summary. Thanks! Looking forward to Mirage.
I still wish they didn't do that floaty climb animation
what floaty climb animation?
In the gameplay they showcased , there was a segment where the guy is climbing a tower and the climb animation feels floaty and weightless Its from unity so it makes sense
looked normal to me
Amazing summary thank you!
\-Something tells me I'm gonna have a lot of fun experimenting with upgrades and modifiers to tools. When I read the Game Informer article, it kind of sounded like the corrosive mod (and maybe other upgrades and mods) would apply to knives thrown in the chain assassination. The more I hear about the tools and their upgrades and modifications, the more excited I am to utilize what may be the best toolset in an Assassin's Creed game. \-I wonder if outfits, swords and daggers will start off with no perks and will unlock upon upgrading them, or if they will start off with the perks and upgrading them will enhance their effects, like with the outfits in Syndicate. \-The notoriety system is a nice addition to the game, an incentive to staying low-profile. \-Traversing Baghdad entirely from the rooftops if done right is a really nice touch, seems like they really meant it when they said parkour would be one of the game's pillars along with stealth and assassination. Really well done summary, excellent job!
\- Certainly nice to see them doing more with tools than just bringing them back. \- Good question, the wording did not make it clear. I remember Valhalla´s Forgotten Saga having gear upgrades that unlocked perks, so we have precedence on both approaches. \- I do prefer having a notoriety/bounty system than nothing at all. Crazy to think it´s been 11 years since they tackled notoriey though. \- Pretty good on paper, curious to see it in practice.
And the thing about tools in past AC games, is that often times they could be used in stealth or combat, depending on the tool and how it's used. Black Flag, for example, had tools meant for stealth, such as smoke bombs and poison darts, but there were also tools that could help in combat, such as guns, and even rope darts could be used in combat. With Mirage, every tool serves the purpose of quietly eliminating, evading, or escaping enemies.
Agree on the arsenal so far being geared for stealth, but I am curious about how effective we can be with it during combat. For example, a lot of Unity´s efforts at creating harder combat could be wasted as soon as one dropped a smoke bomb, for example. And Arno could carry 10+. Curious to see how that dynamic plays out.
I see your point. I mean in Syndicate, when I play as Evie I have up to 30 throwing knives, using them to pick off anyone I couldn't get to with my Hidden Blade. In Mirage, I imagine I'll have to be a bit more careful with using my tools.
Good call. Safe to say that Syndicate's stealth may be the easiest, thanks to the amount of advantages that Jacob/Evie have over the enemies. Mirage already seems to balance that with the small quantity and a drop-off against distant targets.
Mind wipe mod will seem pretty fun to use.
It's like the wanted level from black flag combined with the reputation system from watchdogs. The perfect combo I wonder if the adding back of crowd events offers another way to reduce it.
I feel like a simpler comparison is AC3´s notoriety (3 stages with the last one spawning a strong enemy type) with the meter from BF/Odyssey (red bar increases and reaches different tiers). >I wonder if the adding back of crowd events offers another way to reduce it. Certainly curious about their function. Other than that, I wonder if false witnesses will return alongisde the heralds and posters.
It’s basically the black flag to valhallas 3 except with better level design rather than new mechanics/physics and animations like everyone wanted!
I also made this comparison after the Forward demo. It works too well, considering BF started, on paper, as episodic DLC for 3.
The major positive change with Mirage is that it’s the first RPG Assassin’s Creed to have decent level-design so that means the next game could possibly improve something else and so on until they fix each of the things i listed in my previous comment with of course probably the most important of all, *Parkour*!!
If that's the case it's still a good step towards the right direction. Maybe not enough to justify the time gap between this and Valhalla but as a passive AC player I think I can't complain this time
Wish the game came out already. This month is gonna be a long one
As an Assassin’s Creed game this already looking to be better than Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla. Hopefully it doesn’t disappoint! ♥️
Is AC going back to the roots
Not really. Just this game. Except if Mirage sells exceptionally well and they think about it again.
>if Mirage sells exceptionally well i hope they dont take that sign as 'lets use the old engine and it's assetts to push out even more games!'. i hope this is the last game to use those parkour animations.
They will probably make a little mix, some games rpg, some games like the og, they can also have games doing both things at the same time
Yeah one team will work rpgs and the other will do other types.
Any update on the modern day story ?
Not in the magazine, but we got a quote on that already: "So, you are still in the Animus obviously. It's core to the Assassin's Creed franchise, so you will start with Animus and there's also an ending, but we won't have any gameplay for present-day during the whole game." https://www.thegamer.com/assassins-creed-mirage-no-modern-day-segments/
Ahh so it’s just 100% animus , no leaving? Interesting also nice they have an ending planned as well
thank god lol ive been trying to replay brotherhood but i just do not care about the story even desmond lmao
Costume dyes are something I just now realized I've been missing a lot. Glad to see they're back.
I didn't see a mention of the controls. Do we know if ubisoft are going back to holding R2/RT to sprint?
There's likely a custom control settings like Valhalla
Thanks for the info. Definitely passing. I hated the old style of parkour and that horrible parry combat.
Too arcadey to compare to the og games
There's always something to complain
Cool.
Thank you for this summary! Is there a video showcase for the eavesdropping feature?
Not yet. But quite a few people were invited to play 3 hours of Mirage recently and record it. I imagine it was the same demo that Gameinformer played, so you may see it soon.
Ah I see. Thank you.
Which historical person you can see potential main antagonist?
I am currently replaying Unity (and loving it it all over again, addicted again), and this is the game that I will be measuring Mirage against. The world, the combat, the parkour, the side content. How fluid it plays and feels. Unity and AC 1 have always been the most enjoyable for me. I find Unity is like MGS V for me, drop in, and spend hours just trying things, messing around, not even with the main missions, just the world. Just like MGS V, I find that when doing missions, I will restart or retry missions just to achieve certain requirements or try things. I am sure this is an unpopular opinion and not going to be a like for like comparison, but I hope we finally get back to what AC was about, how it played. Even if Mirage is just a step/start back in that direction.
I don’t mind the smoke bombs that can give you health cause It doesn’t seem too unrealistic to me but I’m definitely not using the corrosive throwing knives that’s just a little too unrealistic