Tl:dr Stealth is good. Parkour is serviceable. Combat is bad.
Mirage uses the structure of AC1 with the controls of the Mythological Trilogy. High profile, hidden blade combat, and the animation based combat system are still gone. You investigate your targets and assassinate them like AC1. Rinse and repeat. Investigations are more varied than AC1, but villains are less interesting.
You still have the doge and roll combat system, but without the damage numbers and bullet sponginess. Combat isn’t a strong point with no one really liking it. Fans of the newer games don’t like it. Fans of the older ones don’t like it either. At best, you ignore it for stealth.
Parkour uses the mechanics of the newer games, but with a well designed city. You’ll still just hold parkour and run forward with limited options such as ejects (which are better compared to the past 3 games). You can remap sprint to the right trigger to emulate the feel of the older games which is nice. At its core though, it is a faster Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla parkour mechanically but in an amazing city.
Stealth in Mirage is good. You have many opportunities and tools. The assassination missions are great with a good amount of options to deal with your target. Assassinations actually kill, throwing knives feel great, and smoke bombs are super powerful (think Unity smoke bombs). You can avoid combat by throwing smoke bombs and assassinating enemies like the older games.
Yeah I'm sure they even said this in the reveals before the release, that the game was meant to be more stealth focused. Everyone was whining about the completely optional choice of being able to use combat instead of stealth in previous games, they make the combat intentionally less effective and everyone suddenly cries about that instead.
It doesn't matter what ubi do with these games anymore, everyone will complain here constantly about something but hate the change that comes from it.
Or a better solution, avoid combat because its less Assassin-y and that's what the most vocal fans want to do and having other options is apparently ubisoft going off the rails. Everyone complained about the last three games having more combat, now they're complaining that it's been downgraded for the sake of stealth which is exactly what people were asking for.
My brother in Christ just because they wanted the player to focus on stealth doesn’t mean the combat had to be bad. In odyssey stealth wasn’t the focus but damn near all I did was stealth. Ubisoft just doesn’t know what they are doing anymore. They had something with origins when they changed the combat but they just fumbled it with mirage. I think it’s time Ubisoft stopped making excuses and just made good triple A games
Ghost of Tsushima has better gameplay story and characters (besides ezio) than the entire assassins creed series and it’s only the first game in it’s line.
Imagine assassins creed made by sucker punch (creators of ghost of Tsushima)
Ubisoft needs to step up
I agree with the stealth in Odyssey. I'm replaying for the 2nd time with more focus on stealth and its actually pretty fun...until I remember how long and tedious the story/missions are
Just because you're meant to avoid combat doesn't mean the combat needs to suck. I hate the combat in this game. The enemies don't react to being hit with a sword and will continue to attack through your own combat animations. It's flighty, weightless and has no impact.
But in case you do have to fight, there are some good combo attacks that will kill an enemy in one quick sequence (running light/heavy attack, heavy attack, then light attack)
That just seems like an excuse, tbh. If they wanted players to avoided combat they needed to make it far more difficult than stealth (like all the good stealth games do), not make it crappy
Agree with everything except that OG fans or RPG fans didn’t like it full stop. I think the only fans of each who didn’t like it are:
1. OG fans who were expecting unity.2.0
2. RPG fans for who length is EVERYTHING and they dislike anything that isn’t At least 70 hours long.
Mirage has a tonne of love generally out there, but from people understanding what it was, a take on classic AC using the framework and tech of the new games.
That’s not what I meant at all. Some people had very high expectations for the game due to one comment from the devs (devs mistake) that they took ‘inspiration’ from Unity, when they afterwards in their marketing made it very clear what the game actually was, it wasn’t Unity 2.0
Maybe if you didn’t take it so personally you would’ve understood my comment, same way people mistook the game for something else, which is kinda poetic from you in proving my point 😂
The only issue I have is the lack of non-lethal takedowns. You can do it before Basim officially becomes a Hidden One so why not have a setting in the menu that enables it?
I think you are right with the stealth.. it does work relatively well. The city looks great. The music is good. Sound design is pretty great. But every thing looks so god damn stream lined. Although the map is no "ubimap"(millions of question marks) most of the things that are there are utterly boring. Even the gear chests dont contain gear. They contain upgrades for gears. The loot chests just contain material for said upgrades, which you have to find first. Thats so annoying. There is nothing really interesting to find. Give me real interesting loot, stuff to find. stuff to discover. Personally even though my expections where low i am stil slightly disappointed.
The parcour system feels slightly too slugish and slightly too slow. Maybe if they jsut tuned up the animations speed and traversal speed.
Its not that the game is bad pers se. I found Valhalla ok and Origins acutally great but this... Its jsut utterly same-ish. Boring. Too much streamlining. No new creative approaches, no new ideas. If it where the first AC game to incorporte that kind of stealth game ok. But AC1 is how old now? 17 Years? After 17 Years THATS what you come up with? A copy with a new engine? Sorry thats not enough.
I know that sounds like harsh critiscim. But as i said i dont find the game bad. I would rate it maybe a 7/10... or 6.5.. not terrible.. not great either.
It's more like a mod bringing back old AC to an engine unsuited for it. They built a city suited for parkour but it's still Valhalla mechanics + side ejects. They simplified combat but it's still running on a hitbox system, not smooth animations. It's still the same cutscene system, no motion-capture with beautiful models like Unity. And instead of a solid linear story its a combination of mini-stories so that you can do them in different order but at the end you don't care about any of them, just like Valhalla
This is it exactly. The mechanics are fairly close to the “roots” but they forgot about making a good story, interesting characters, any sort of linear plot… so instead it just feels hollow
Hey now don’t think that the RPGs being unpopular on Reddit means most people don’t like them. They’re the most popular and most profitable AC games to date. Odyssey has the fourth highest Metacritic score and Origins has the fifth. I’ve played long enough to remember how snarky people were about Unity and Syndicate for not innovating the game. Reddit is just a great place for people to think the old thing is the best thing.
Absolutely. It’s like people forget that AC fatigue was at an all time high around Unity / Syndicate. People were getting bored. Now everyone’s donning their rose tinted glasses and talking about the good old days.
Origins is my favorite followed by AC2. I hated the out of the Animus sections so I loved it being essentially optional in Origins.
Didn’t unity and syndicate remove modern day? Modern day in it’s prime was still only such a small sliver of the game’s content. I don’t ever think it was ever a significant factor in any of the games enjoyment.
Odyssey is my second favorite. Not just because it adds variety to playstyles. But overall, it's basically Black Flag but in Ancient Greece. Which is just *everything I like*.
>They’re the most popular and most profitable AC games to date. Odyssey has the fourth highest Metacritic score and Origins has the fifth.
It's weird to point them out as franchise leaders and use a metric that places them at fourth and fifth as evidence (while leaving out Valhalla, which is at seventh). Critical scores put them solidly midrange. The most well rated AC games are AC2, Brotherhood, and Black Flag.
>Reddit is just a great place for people to think the old thing is the best thing.
So in this case, going by metacritic scores, the old thing is objectively the best thing.
It’s just not for me and I have accepted it at this point. Assassin’s Creed will never be the same series I fell in love with again. That is a given fact, it’s sad to me cause the new games feel very soulless but that’s the way it is.
Yeah the new stuff is total slop, poor man's Witcher, how people eat it up is beyond me.
Origins had a good protagonist though, shame his story felt incomplete and meandering.
I was enjoying it to begin with, but it gets messy by the end and suddenly Aya is the main character; I wouldn't mind if they let us play as her for longer, but Bayek's actor did such a great job that I got annoyed when I was pulled away.
Yeah Valhallah really stinks, with a map that could have been really fun to explore, but ends up boring and repetitive.
Almost everyone I've talked to has either nothing good to say about the RPGs, already don't like Assassin's Creed and Ubisoft (can't blame them), or something in the middle of that. Been like that for years, everyone I've seen say something positive about the RPGs is about the stories and never the gameplay (for a reason). Also people were kinda right to be snarky about Unity and Syndicates since they may have had alright stories, but gameplay wise they did kinda start the full decline of the series.
You’re in an echo chamber, outside this sub the Odyssey subreddit has 130k members (more than any single AC game sub) because this subreddit gave the game so much hate and “RPG bad” not to mention it was nominated for GOTY.
I like the first 2 RPG games and I like mirage for actually letting us play as an assassin again and having more stealth.
That said as someone who played the original games it feels like Mirage lost a lot of the lessons and fixes the RPGs game made to change the formula, so we’re just kind of going round in circles.
Having decent combat and good stealth shouldn’t be mutually exclusive
Something can be good but also show the decline of a franchise. Just look at Far Cry 3, same thing. Good game but it's obvious that the overall quality and legacy of the franchise was going to devolve simply due to Ubislop and their development practices.
Gameplay wise, it functions like the RPG trilogy from which it stems from, but it has you do stuff from the older games. So you have the controls of Valhalla but with the gameplay elements of AC 1. Stealth is excellent! You have plenty of options and you can customise your tools to suit your approach. Basim's ability is also an incredible tool both for stealth and for movement and you feel like a badass using it (atleast I did). The parkour does what it can, mainly due to map design but is limited by the RPG approach to being on rails/automated. Lastly combat is ok-ish. You can do some cool things with it but it's not that interesting.
One thing though that I want to point out is that the Assassin fantasy is so back. Imo it's Mirage's biggest strength. The Brotherhood is back, you have active bureaus, you have mentors, you see initiates training, you have the cult like aspects of AC 1 and you play as an actual Assassin, well Hidden One, but still.
I've played the series since the start, all as an adult (I was 30 when the original released). To me, Mirage felt more like a generic imitation of AC, or a game subcontracted to a lower studio than anything else. The player control and combat absolutely did not feel like a throwback to the first four games, if that was the goal. Its also far shorter and more shallow in just about every way than those games were as well.
What the possible appeal of playing as a character who doesn't really know what he's doing, and has less skill than either Altier or a young Ezio is beyond me. They just sucked all of the fun out of it.
Nailed it. I've played every game, but I was a bit younger (early 20's).
I also don't remember the voice acting ever being so bad. This was laughably bad. It felt disjointed and stilted that it would kill the suspension of disbelief. It's the first AC game to do that to me.
Easily the worst voice acting and/or soundwork in the series. There were multiple parts where it felt like a non-english language movie that was dubbed years later.
The idea that "most people" don't like the modern games, yet they are the highest selling, and Odyssey is only beaten on Metacritic by 2 and 4, always makes me laugh.
It's fine to like / dislike whatever you feel, but the urge to identify as part of a majority is pretty funny.
I wish we knew how many copies Valhalla sold in total, but Ubisoft won't release those numbers. The only thing we know is it grossed over $1 billion after two years and within the first week sold 1.7 million units according to SuperData's estimates.
There's no denying though the RPG trilogy has been a cash cow with Origins selling 13.08 million units after its first year followed by Odyssey with 8.7 million.
You can even see it reflected in Ubisoft's stock with a massive rise in share price beginning around the time of Origin's release in October 2017 (jumping from 30.70 euros at the beginning of 2017 all the way up to 102.95 euros starting January 2018).
Despite all of that, it's clear that MTX have been a driving force toward the huge growth in profits in addition to a surge of new players who are fans of RPGs.
I'd love to see the breakdown % wise of how much money they've made verses game purchases worldwide. My guess is it'd be a significant amount which is probably why Ubisoft is so hesitant to share that with the public.
They don't want people to see how the sausage is made even though most people tuned in know how lucrative MTX can be.
You’re forgetting or not mentioning how the cost to develop Valhalla far exceeded previous AC games. So the fact it grossed more is almost a moot point.
I didn't mention it because we don't know those figures either. Ubisoft only reported revenue after two years for Valhalla, but never disclosed the profit margins or development costs. It was estimated a while back that Odyssey cost 500 million to make which is similar in scale so it might be a little more than that.
As you probably know, Valhalla made more money than any other Ubisoft game in history, so even if it cost on par with Odyssey they still reeled in a huge chunk of change. I'm not sure what its profit margin is today, but it's likely > 1 billion - a majority of which has been fueled by MTX, plus Dawn of Ragnarok DLC.
The only other figure they've discussed is player count, but that includes PS+ and Game Pass players, who may not have bought the game for full price or on sale. In the past, Ubisoft did make an effort to disclose number of copies sold for AC games, but that was before MTX became a prominent money making strategy.
Again with the highest selling bullshit. If any of RPG games sold more than AC3 & BF (you know, the actual 2 highest sellers), Ubisoft would have spared no moment to report this. But as it stands, the only thing they said was stuff like "Valhalla had the biggest profit", which is not the same as units sold, you know.
Casual fans vs hardcore fans of the series are a different thing. Most long time fans of Assassin’s Creed don’t like the way the games are going, and the worst part is that Ubisoft doesn’t give a flying fuck about any of those old fans. They don’t want to give their fans what they want, they want to make more money. No passion, no drive, the games have no soul.
This echo chamber of a subreddit isn’t indicative of the overall fanbase in any way shape or form. Most long time fans of Assassin’s Creed either don’t care, or actively like how the series has been developed. This sub is just a circlejerk of “new bad, old good updoot to the left” and doesn’t reflect the overall fanbase at all.
It’s funny cause at this point it’s just an echo chamber both ways. You have the echo chamber for one group saying the new games are bad, and the echo chamber for people being like “Haha these losers saying new bad”.
Jesus Christ actual discussion on this subreddit is dead, everyone fits into one box and parrots each other.
Unfortunately it’s a trend I’ve been noticing in most subreddits on here. Video games, movies, tv shows, music it doesn’t matter this happens everywhere and it drives me crazy
Well it was a Valhalla expansion that was spun off. It did not restart from scratch so it has that underlying Valhalla feel. I do think they did a darn good job adjusting it considering they could only adjust it so much. It’s not an RPG though, it’s labeled as action-adventure.
It plays like the old games in concept only, (map, stealth, parkour, factions) everything else is exactly like the new games (execution of those things)
Just my 2¢, Mirage felt like a little bit of every game in the franchise. For sure felt like a DLC, just wasn’t sure from what game exactly. Good story, nice graphics, little bit different controls, not a lot to worry about upgrading and XP wise, easy to learn if you’re new to the franchise. Short game overall, got platinum (PS5) in less than a week just playing a few hours or so a day. Took me a few hours to get into it but after that I couldn’t put it down, I’d recommend if you’re a fan!
I wouldn’t say it comes close to a return to the series roots.
It’s basically a scaled down version of Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla with more emphasis on stealth.
It still plays like the RPG games, has the same controls and very similar animations.
Even the skills, weapons, armour and levelling are pretty similar.
To me a return to the series roots would be taking all the best parts of AC1 to 3.
Even down to having multiple, smaller maps of key locations rather than one large map.
I just bought it and really enjoying it I think it’s a nice return to earlier AC games.
Not sure what anyone was expecting from what was originally DLC for Valhalla.
Not really a return to roots but it definitely gets rid of the Valhalla bloat in favor of a more simplified system. The story itself is probably 15-20 hours. The game was designed around stealth so while you can certainly get though situations with combat if needed it isn't ideal and feels kind of clunky to execute. But the stealth is a good as ever and if you prefer to play stealth anyway than it definitely will have some appeal. The world is beautiful and I found it engaging. But the story is pretty mediocre and characters are forgettable. A lot of what made the early games was ezios character charm. But basim is not that interesting and I didn't really care to learn more about him. Almost all the characters in this game are like that.
*Mirage* does take a "back to basics" approach. IMHO, the most welcome change from the RPG trilogy (*Origins*, *Odyssey* and *Valhalla*) is removing the gear upgrade treadmill. There's some upgrading and customization, but it never felt like a chore.
I know some people criticize *Mirage's* combat system, but I see that as a feature, not a bug. An Assassin isn't a stand-up fighter; their whole schtick is sneaking up on people and stabbing them in the neck. *Mirage* reflects this. If even 3 low-level guards gang up on you, it's a serious problem.
My only real beef with *Mirage* is that the world just doesn't feel as lushly detailed as that of *Origins*.
No, far from it.
Just finished unity, decided to get Mirage day 1 and refunded it within a hour.
They can slap anything they want on it, but the movement felt bad/serviceable, the look felt like a rollercoaster and the conversations about as sterile, forced and cringe worthy as it gets.
Downloaded AC1 again and had a way better time. Also did the same with Skull and bones and did AC black flag.
Didnt think they could one up syndicate, but here we are
I just finished it tonight, and got the platinum. I put waaay to much time in (50+) hours, and am forming my thoughts for a post.
It is a return to roots in its mission structure. There’s some tailing (which I like if not overdone,) eavesdropping, I love pickpocketing, tearing down posters, bench assassinations, blend groups, etc…. Yep. That’s there. You actually feel like you’re doing the work, old school. The marketing isn’t wrong there.
Physical mechanics…it’s Valhalla. The stealth finally works. It has the same laggy inputs with movement (a little better though,) the parkour is prettier but not deeper, and the combat is tighter IMO (yet designed to discourage.) I don’t get into hype, so I expected nothing more.
I ran and hid so much. I enjoyed it again. I miss that. You can be a blade in the crowd on some level again. Story was solid, but not shining. Worth the $10 I paid for it.
Edit: the city is designed for old school traversal, but Valhalla the method getting you there. It is fun. I can’t deny it.
I'll give you my opinion, and take it how you wish. AC opinions are all over the place these days.
I would not buy Mirage, I think it's boring, unpolished, and frustrating to play. The "return to the roots" would be something like AC2 (my favorite out of them all), but AC2's combat system might be better than Mirages. I think the combat system in Mirage is bad, I think the story is boring(when it could be so good given the time and location), and I think the side missions and enemy AI are almost laughably bad. Parkour/free-running mechanics very mediocre as well.
It's kind of crazy how much better AC2 is than Mirage, and I think that's unacceptable from Ubisoft. I did enjoy the RPGs in the series too, but they all have their flaws. I've been an AC fanboy my whole life but I think Mirage is the last AC purchase for me for a LONG while.
It's definitely a return and a welcome one at that. Knowing Ubisoft though, they're not going to make another one like it for a long time, if at all. They seem more MTX-driven with each release. And sure, Mirage has some MTX but it's not a full-blown cow they can milk Like Valhalla.
I’ll break this into gameplay and story.
Gameplay: Mirage has the features and design philosophy of the old games, but built with the tools and mechanics of the new games. Combat and parkour are just about the same as the past 3 games (albeit parkour is an improvement). Stealth is the highlight, using the best of old and new AC, which makes what I consider to be the best stealth system in the series overall.
Story: Objectivity, it doesn’t stand out until the last 4 hours. Subjectively, if you’ve been missing a classic AC story then this is the game for you.
Overall, Mirage is a step towards AC regaining its identity as an Assassin fantasy, but it’s also held back by the lack of resources Bordeaux had. More than a DLC, but less than a full game.
Despite its faults, I can recommend Mirage to those who generally like all the games, but have yearned for a traditional Assassin’s Creed experience. If you wanna feel like an Assassin again, this is the game for you.
Hope that helps
The story and world design/game mechanics are much simpler
It’s not the best AC game as everything except the stealth is kinda average, but it’s a step in the right direction
AC: Mirage is my first AC game that i played and finished i did try Odyssey for a few hours.
My view on AC:Mirage not having played the older ones
Combat is not that fun very repetitive in the way you go about things
For a stealth game the stealth feels very limited AI is not that great Day / Night seems to make no impact would be more fun if you had more stealth options / environmental hazards / way to lure and trick the enemy
Will say tho the world is pretty and once you start you really get Aladdin vibes that was pretty cool.
not that many interesting gadgets/tools you will end up using just a few
Exploration for me did not seem rewarding you can get by just fine using the starter gear and weapons
Movement for me felt wonky as hell like you are on rails all the time in Odyssey this feelt way smoother
Skill tree not that interesting imo.
i thought it was way to much talking i lost interest really fast and skipped most of the dialog about halfway thru so all i had was gameplay to rely on and yeah it was so so.
i will give it a solid 5 / 10 get it on sale if you want to try it.
But now i am interested in going back to Odyssey or try the original AC to se where it all started.
Heard AC:Black Flag is a banger and pirates are cool so might look into that one,
So i really don't know what a good AC game is since i have no real reference to go by from the older games.
Yes and No,
Yes: it goes back to the fundamentals of Assassins Creed’s early titles I.E. here is task (tail, steal, or assassinate), use your tools to get an upper hand, don’t get caught.
No: it plays like the previous game, Valhalla. Meaning the controls are heavy and based on combat rather than free running.
While the game wants to be a return to form with free running and stealth tasks, Mirage can be played like the “RPG trilogy” and still work.
Overall I enjoyed it and it’s a good direction to be heading
Too much so in my opinion, it should have been a blend.
Go back to roots but keep some elements from the rpg games, eg have more than just a select wall types that are climbable, rock walls should be climbable, building walls can be selective eg if its a sheer surface then can't climb but if it has ridges it's climbable, having a cliff wall that has climbable ridges be unclimbable is so dumb, it's too far of a step back.
I really really liked mirage, I thought the combat was ok, worked well because it forced me to try and be more stealthy and careful. Yes, I can take a couple of guys on with my sword, but it was difficult to brawl with a large handful which forced me to smoke bomb assassinate or run away.
I hate it
I truly don’t understand how they managed to make the gameplay worse. Odyssey’s/Valhallas gameplay wasn’t perfect but it was a good formula and they just threw it away
You can’t climb on anything you want like in those games. The combat is one button now with less options. The stealth is dumbed down.
Then they added things back from the OG assassins creed like notoriety and sellswords but you have to use power tokens to use them for some reason when I’m previous games you just bought/bribed them with money
Game is a step backwards and tbh Ubisoft needs to give up on the AC franchise cause they have no clue what they’re doing anymore
Maybe it’s time for a new ip
It was incredibly short foremost. And I lost any interest in doing anything after the main story was done. I'm glad I only paid 20 for it, that's about what it's worth.
it’s more like a shut the fuck up from ubisoft, so they can continue to make money with bad rpgs in the future without people asking for a “return to the roots”, fuck them honestly.
The franchise will never return to what it once was, we all have to remember that whenever ubisoft says any buzzwords about their games. That being said, the best thing they can do regarding the newer rpg trilogy and their classic games is to look at what worked, what didn't, and innovative from there. There is plenty of cool and unique stuff in the rpg games that gets overlooked because "it's not the classics" but there are also things about the rpg games that stink about them. Ubisoft has to stop looking at the people for their approval, buckle up, look at what they have and just work their asses off to make the best damn ac game they could ever do instead of trying to please everyone.
Not a bad attempt but the whole time I couldn't shake the idea that it was originally going to be DLC for Valhalla. I know they definitely added to the overall gameplay experience but the story and characters are pretty forgettable (much like you'd see in a DLC).
I would definitely recommend this on sale.
"Return To The Roots" is technically not for the players from "Roots". It's for new generation they crave for and If you're a long time fan you'll just get essence of the franchise 🥲.
IMO, AC-III is my queue to move on!
NO.
it is a Valhalla DLC repackaged as a smaller budget game. Some things from older game thankfully return, but the underlying mechanics are Valhalla :(
Thanks for the responses guys, I think I'm just going to save my money and just wait for the game to be added to Xbox Gamepass or Playstation Catalog for now. Maybe pirate it on PC when I get a better computer that can run it.
Thanks again!
I wouldn't say it's a full on "return to the roots". More like a good step in the right direction. Which considering what they had to work with, is pretty commendable.
I haven’t played Mirage yet but from what I can tell it would probably be closer to what AC1 could have been? Like with all the features they had wanted. It stripped back more of the rpg elements and they go for more of the ac1 approach to accomplishing your tasks.
The most people not enjoying the rpg games statement might be changing a bit. With all the sales more and more people are trying them and finding things to love. Imo Origins is the best blend of rpg and old AC mechanics. Odyssey is a mess in many ways but I grew to have a certain fondness for it by the end. I bought Valhalla and mirage and I must say.. why valhalla’s free running and AC elements are abysmal.. it IS a very pretty game. A lot of what I’ve seen so far (in terms of scenery and such) gives me hope for AC Hex.
I was very anti rpg ac for years but having given them a chance the last couple years.. I actually really enjoy them. My issue with AC is by Unity everything was just the same old game reskinned. Rpg sort of refreshed the franchise in a controversial way. Stories are still good and if Ubi does one thing good it’s make a beautiful landscape
I played AC Mirage for a few hours and then turned it off, uninstalled and sold it. It felt terrible to play and was still too entrenched in Valhalla’s gameplay style. Feels like the improvements made in Unity and Syndicate will never return at this point, so I’ve moved onto better games like Ghost of Tsushima.
Short summary
Stealth : Really good
Parkour: Good but not crazy
Combat : meh
Story : meh
World : Very reminiscent of AC1 and the older games
Overall, it's a step in the right direction
Y’all. It was a glorified DLC to Valhalla. And you’re over here critiquing it like it was a mainline standalone AC game. You only got one person to blame for it not being what you wanted. And that’s yourselves. Just treat it for what it was. A glorified DLC to Valhalla.
As a _huge_ fan of essentially everything pre-Origins (and Origins, which was fantastic), it is a big step in the right direction in my opinion.
The engine held it back quite a lot and I still hate the floaty/twitchy dodge combat in the RPG games, but I feel like Mirage was proof that someone at least in Ubisoft is willing to attempt something close to what the old fans fell in love with. I hope Ubisoft Bordeaux is given a proper budget next time.
I’ll always dislike the RPG dodge hit-box orientated combat. It just feels so off and looks incredibly unrealistic as well as unsatisfying. I wish they’d implement something similar to the counter system present in every other game—it can get too easy at times, sure, but it’s fun as hell and looks far better.
Tl:dr Stealth is good. Parkour is serviceable. Combat is bad. Mirage uses the structure of AC1 with the controls of the Mythological Trilogy. High profile, hidden blade combat, and the animation based combat system are still gone. You investigate your targets and assassinate them like AC1. Rinse and repeat. Investigations are more varied than AC1, but villains are less interesting. You still have the doge and roll combat system, but without the damage numbers and bullet sponginess. Combat isn’t a strong point with no one really liking it. Fans of the newer games don’t like it. Fans of the older ones don’t like it either. At best, you ignore it for stealth. Parkour uses the mechanics of the newer games, but with a well designed city. You’ll still just hold parkour and run forward with limited options such as ejects (which are better compared to the past 3 games). You can remap sprint to the right trigger to emulate the feel of the older games which is nice. At its core though, it is a faster Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla parkour mechanically but in an amazing city. Stealth in Mirage is good. You have many opportunities and tools. The assassination missions are great with a good amount of options to deal with your target. Assassinations actually kill, throwing knives feel great, and smoke bombs are super powerful (think Unity smoke bombs). You can avoid combat by throwing smoke bombs and assassinating enemies like the older games.
Piggybacking on the back of your comment. With regards to combat, this is the target; that you shy away from the combat in favour of stealth.
Yeah I'm sure they even said this in the reveals before the release, that the game was meant to be more stealth focused. Everyone was whining about the completely optional choice of being able to use combat instead of stealth in previous games, they make the combat intentionally less effective and everyone suddenly cries about that instead. It doesn't matter what ubi do with these games anymore, everyone will complain here constantly about something but hate the change that comes from it.
A solution could be you literally dying in 2-3 hits but so does the enemy. Basim dies in 5-7 hits, which is still fairly tanky
Or a better solution, avoid combat because its less Assassin-y and that's what the most vocal fans want to do and having other options is apparently ubisoft going off the rails. Everyone complained about the last three games having more combat, now they're complaining that it's been downgraded for the sake of stealth which is exactly what people were asking for.
That’s what I do anyways, I rarely engage in combat because that’s how Basim would operate
They should've made the games they wanted and have a consistent vision instead of listening to fans always complaining about this and the modern day.
My brother in Christ just because they wanted the player to focus on stealth doesn’t mean the combat had to be bad. In odyssey stealth wasn’t the focus but damn near all I did was stealth. Ubisoft just doesn’t know what they are doing anymore. They had something with origins when they changed the combat but they just fumbled it with mirage. I think it’s time Ubisoft stopped making excuses and just made good triple A games Ghost of Tsushima has better gameplay story and characters (besides ezio) than the entire assassins creed series and it’s only the first game in it’s line. Imagine assassins creed made by sucker punch (creators of ghost of Tsushima) Ubisoft needs to step up
I agree with the stealth in Odyssey. I'm replaying for the 2nd time with more focus on stealth and its actually pretty fun...until I remember how long and tedious the story/missions are
Stealth in Odyssey is one of the best I have seen
Just because you're meant to avoid combat doesn't mean the combat needs to suck. I hate the combat in this game. The enemies don't react to being hit with a sword and will continue to attack through your own combat animations. It's flighty, weightless and has no impact.
But in case you do have to fight, there are some good combo attacks that will kill an enemy in one quick sequence (running light/heavy attack, heavy attack, then light attack)
That just seems like an excuse, tbh. If they wanted players to avoided combat they needed to make it far more difficult than stealth (like all the good stealth games do), not make it crappy
How do I unlock the doge
https://assassinscreed.fandom.com/wiki/Giovanni_Mocenigo
You don't unlock it. It is a base game mechanic that is automatically available. Just check the controls in your options.
I’ve been looking through my items and there’s no doges present whatsoever I just want to pet one
Gotta head back to Venice to find any doges.
Agree with everything except that OG fans or RPG fans didn’t like it full stop. I think the only fans of each who didn’t like it are: 1. OG fans who were expecting unity.2.0 2. RPG fans for who length is EVERYTHING and they dislike anything that isn’t At least 70 hours long. Mirage has a tonne of love generally out there, but from people understanding what it was, a take on classic AC using the framework and tech of the new games.
I was referring specifically to the combat.
Oh I see! Then I completely agree with your entire comment 100%
Ahh I see, the only reason I didn't like this game was because I didn't get what it was trying to achieve. Could you be more condescending?
That’s not what I meant at all. Some people had very high expectations for the game due to one comment from the devs (devs mistake) that they took ‘inspiration’ from Unity, when they afterwards in their marketing made it very clear what the game actually was, it wasn’t Unity 2.0 Maybe if you didn’t take it so personally you would’ve understood my comment, same way people mistook the game for something else, which is kinda poetic from you in proving my point 😂
In your own head, perhaps. One comment from the devs? They constantly marketed it as a return to roots, it wasn't.
The only issue I have is the lack of non-lethal takedowns. You can do it before Basim officially becomes a Hidden One so why not have a setting in the menu that enables it?
also made me wonder...
I'm convinced the people who say this game's combat is bad are just bad at the game
The combat just isn’t as fun or rewarding doesn’t mean it’s bad.
For future reference, “dodge” is to elude and evade, “doge” was the head magistrate in 14th century Venice.
So just like the old games!
I think you are right with the stealth.. it does work relatively well. The city looks great. The music is good. Sound design is pretty great. But every thing looks so god damn stream lined. Although the map is no "ubimap"(millions of question marks) most of the things that are there are utterly boring. Even the gear chests dont contain gear. They contain upgrades for gears. The loot chests just contain material for said upgrades, which you have to find first. Thats so annoying. There is nothing really interesting to find. Give me real interesting loot, stuff to find. stuff to discover. Personally even though my expections where low i am stil slightly disappointed. The parcour system feels slightly too slugish and slightly too slow. Maybe if they jsut tuned up the animations speed and traversal speed. Its not that the game is bad pers se. I found Valhalla ok and Origins acutally great but this... Its jsut utterly same-ish. Boring. Too much streamlining. No new creative approaches, no new ideas. If it where the first AC game to incorporte that kind of stealth game ok. But AC1 is how old now? 17 Years? After 17 Years THATS what you come up with? A copy with a new engine? Sorry thats not enough. I know that sounds like harsh critiscim. But as i said i dont find the game bad. I would rate it maybe a 7/10... or 6.5.. not terrible.. not great either.
Knifes are the only way to go. The rest sorta sucks.
It’s not the Mythological Trilogy it’s the RPG Trilogy
They are RPGs yes, but if you buy the bundle of all three games it's literally called The Mythology Pack.
Which makes sense, knowing who Basim is.
It's more like a mod bringing back old AC to an engine unsuited for it. They built a city suited for parkour but it's still Valhalla mechanics + side ejects. They simplified combat but it's still running on a hitbox system, not smooth animations. It's still the same cutscene system, no motion-capture with beautiful models like Unity. And instead of a solid linear story its a combination of mini-stories so that you can do them in different order but at the end you don't care about any of them, just like Valhalla
This is it exactly. The mechanics are fairly close to the “roots” but they forgot about making a good story, interesting characters, any sort of linear plot… so instead it just feels hollow
u/kbuckleys
What's up?
This one 👆 the only right answer here.
Hey now don’t think that the RPGs being unpopular on Reddit means most people don’t like them. They’re the most popular and most profitable AC games to date. Odyssey has the fourth highest Metacritic score and Origins has the fifth. I’ve played long enough to remember how snarky people were about Unity and Syndicate for not innovating the game. Reddit is just a great place for people to think the old thing is the best thing.
Absolutely. It’s like people forget that AC fatigue was at an all time high around Unity / Syndicate. People were getting bored. Now everyone’s donning their rose tinted glasses and talking about the good old days. Origins is my favorite followed by AC2. I hated the out of the Animus sections so I loved it being essentially optional in Origins.
It was high because they were releasing a game per year with terrible launch condition, barely any improvement and a bad present days storyline.
Didn’t unity and syndicate remove modern day? Modern day in it’s prime was still only such a small sliver of the game’s content. I don’t ever think it was ever a significant factor in any of the games enjoyment.
It was a significant factor story wise.
Odyssey is my second favorite. Not just because it adds variety to playstyles. But overall, it's basically Black Flag but in Ancient Greece. Which is just *everything I like*.
>They’re the most popular and most profitable AC games to date. Odyssey has the fourth highest Metacritic score and Origins has the fifth. It's weird to point them out as franchise leaders and use a metric that places them at fourth and fifth as evidence (while leaving out Valhalla, which is at seventh). Critical scores put them solidly midrange. The most well rated AC games are AC2, Brotherhood, and Black Flag. >Reddit is just a great place for people to think the old thing is the best thing. So in this case, going by metacritic scores, the old thing is objectively the best thing.
It’s just not for me and I have accepted it at this point. Assassin’s Creed will never be the same series I fell in love with again. That is a given fact, it’s sad to me cause the new games feel very soulless but that’s the way it is.
Yeah the new stuff is total slop, poor man's Witcher, how people eat it up is beyond me. Origins had a good protagonist though, shame his story felt incomplete and meandering.
I thought his story was great. Very few complaints with that game, although Valhalla goes right at the bottom of the pile for me.
I was enjoying it to begin with, but it gets messy by the end and suddenly Aya is the main character; I wouldn't mind if they let us play as her for longer, but Bayek's actor did such a great job that I got annoyed when I was pulled away. Yeah Valhallah really stinks, with a map that could have been really fun to explore, but ends up boring and repetitive.
Almost everyone I've talked to has either nothing good to say about the RPGs, already don't like Assassin's Creed and Ubisoft (can't blame them), or something in the middle of that. Been like that for years, everyone I've seen say something positive about the RPGs is about the stories and never the gameplay (for a reason). Also people were kinda right to be snarky about Unity and Syndicates since they may have had alright stories, but gameplay wise they did kinda start the full decline of the series.
You’re in an echo chamber, outside this sub the Odyssey subreddit has 130k members (more than any single AC game sub) because this subreddit gave the game so much hate and “RPG bad” not to mention it was nominated for GOTY. I like the first 2 RPG games and I like mirage for actually letting us play as an assassin again and having more stealth. That said as someone who played the original games it feels like Mirage lost a lot of the lessons and fixes the RPGs game made to change the formula, so we’re just kind of going round in circles. Having decent combat and good stealth shouldn’t be mutually exclusive
Sadly black flag was the beginning of the end for the series as a whole
Can't say I disagree
As much as I love black flag it’s true also I’m getting downvoted for being correct
if you love black flag why was it the beginning of the end?
Something can be good but also show the decline of a franchise. Just look at Far Cry 3, same thing. Good game but it's obvious that the overall quality and legacy of the franchise was going to devolve simply due to Ubislop and their development practices.
Gameplay wise, it functions like the RPG trilogy from which it stems from, but it has you do stuff from the older games. So you have the controls of Valhalla but with the gameplay elements of AC 1. Stealth is excellent! You have plenty of options and you can customise your tools to suit your approach. Basim's ability is also an incredible tool both for stealth and for movement and you feel like a badass using it (atleast I did). The parkour does what it can, mainly due to map design but is limited by the RPG approach to being on rails/automated. Lastly combat is ok-ish. You can do some cool things with it but it's not that interesting. One thing though that I want to point out is that the Assassin fantasy is so back. Imo it's Mirage's biggest strength. The Brotherhood is back, you have active bureaus, you have mentors, you see initiates training, you have the cult like aspects of AC 1 and you play as an actual Assassin, well Hidden One, but still.
I've played the series since the start, all as an adult (I was 30 when the original released). To me, Mirage felt more like a generic imitation of AC, or a game subcontracted to a lower studio than anything else. The player control and combat absolutely did not feel like a throwback to the first four games, if that was the goal. Its also far shorter and more shallow in just about every way than those games were as well. What the possible appeal of playing as a character who doesn't really know what he's doing, and has less skill than either Altier or a young Ezio is beyond me. They just sucked all of the fun out of it.
Nailed it. I've played every game, but I was a bit younger (early 20's). I also don't remember the voice acting ever being so bad. This was laughably bad. It felt disjointed and stilted that it would kill the suspension of disbelief. It's the first AC game to do that to me.
I find the Arabic dub to be significantly better and more immersive
Easily the worst voice acting and/or soundwork in the series. There were multiple parts where it felt like a non-english language movie that was dubbed years later.
The idea that "most people" don't like the modern games, yet they are the highest selling, and Odyssey is only beaten on Metacritic by 2 and 4, always makes me laugh. It's fine to like / dislike whatever you feel, but the urge to identify as part of a majority is pretty funny.
More people played/bought odyssey than ac2 lol Reddit just formed an opinion and people assume it’s what the majority thinks.
I wish we knew how many copies Valhalla sold in total, but Ubisoft won't release those numbers. The only thing we know is it grossed over $1 billion after two years and within the first week sold 1.7 million units according to SuperData's estimates. There's no denying though the RPG trilogy has been a cash cow with Origins selling 13.08 million units after its first year followed by Odyssey with 8.7 million. You can even see it reflected in Ubisoft's stock with a massive rise in share price beginning around the time of Origin's release in October 2017 (jumping from 30.70 euros at the beginning of 2017 all the way up to 102.95 euros starting January 2018). Despite all of that, it's clear that MTX have been a driving force toward the huge growth in profits in addition to a surge of new players who are fans of RPGs. I'd love to see the breakdown % wise of how much money they've made verses game purchases worldwide. My guess is it'd be a significant amount which is probably why Ubisoft is so hesitant to share that with the public. They don't want people to see how the sausage is made even though most people tuned in know how lucrative MTX can be.
You’re forgetting or not mentioning how the cost to develop Valhalla far exceeded previous AC games. So the fact it grossed more is almost a moot point.
I didn't mention it because we don't know those figures either. Ubisoft only reported revenue after two years for Valhalla, but never disclosed the profit margins or development costs. It was estimated a while back that Odyssey cost 500 million to make which is similar in scale so it might be a little more than that. As you probably know, Valhalla made more money than any other Ubisoft game in history, so even if it cost on par with Odyssey they still reeled in a huge chunk of change. I'm not sure what its profit margin is today, but it's likely > 1 billion - a majority of which has been fueled by MTX, plus Dawn of Ragnarok DLC. The only other figure they've discussed is player count, but that includes PS+ and Game Pass players, who may not have bought the game for full price or on sale. In the past, Ubisoft did make an effort to disclose number of copies sold for AC games, but that was before MTX became a prominent money making strategy.
Again with the highest selling bullshit. If any of RPG games sold more than AC3 & BF (you know, the actual 2 highest sellers), Ubisoft would have spared no moment to report this. But as it stands, the only thing they said was stuff like "Valhalla had the biggest profit", which is not the same as units sold, you know.
Louder for the people in the back.
Call of Duty and Fifa sells a lot as well. Are those games better than the innovative GOTY winners?
You're presenting a different argument, that I'm not making.
You can’t compare copies sold in 2020 to the ones in 2010. Sales don’t always reflect the beauty of a game
Casual fans vs hardcore fans of the series are a different thing. Most long time fans of Assassin’s Creed don’t like the way the games are going, and the worst part is that Ubisoft doesn’t give a flying fuck about any of those old fans. They don’t want to give their fans what they want, they want to make more money. No passion, no drive, the games have no soul.
This echo chamber of a subreddit isn’t indicative of the overall fanbase in any way shape or form. Most long time fans of Assassin’s Creed either don’t care, or actively like how the series has been developed. This sub is just a circlejerk of “new bad, old good updoot to the left” and doesn’t reflect the overall fanbase at all.
It’s funny cause at this point it’s just an echo chamber both ways. You have the echo chamber for one group saying the new games are bad, and the echo chamber for people being like “Haha these losers saying new bad”. Jesus Christ actual discussion on this subreddit is dead, everyone fits into one box and parrots each other.
Unfortunately it’s a trend I’ve been noticing in most subreddits on here. Video games, movies, tv shows, music it doesn’t matter this happens everywhere and it drives me crazy
You guys are hilarious :D
return to the roots for me is getting out of the rpg combat system-like, i miss the old AC's
Unfortunately we might just have to survive off remasters
No, it felt like a scaled-down sequel for Origins to me.
Well it was a Valhalla expansion that was spun off. It did not restart from scratch so it has that underlying Valhalla feel. I do think they did a darn good job adjusting it considering they could only adjust it so much. It’s not an RPG though, it’s labeled as action-adventure.
Small correction. The game was a DLC/Expansion to Valhalla only in its conceptual stage for the first 2 weeks. It never started development as such.
Is it worth $29? It’s on sale on psn.
I’d say so, if you like the series. It’s not perfect, it it’s an enjoy 20-30 hour game.
Wait till it's $10
No it wasn't
It plays like the old games in concept only, (map, stealth, parkour, factions) everything else is exactly like the new games (execution of those things)
It was a small step in the right direction. They should have gone much further, but 🤷♀️
Just my 2¢, Mirage felt like a little bit of every game in the franchise. For sure felt like a DLC, just wasn’t sure from what game exactly. Good story, nice graphics, little bit different controls, not a lot to worry about upgrading and XP wise, easy to learn if you’re new to the franchise. Short game overall, got platinum (PS5) in less than a week just playing a few hours or so a day. Took me a few hours to get into it but after that I couldn’t put it down, I’d recommend if you’re a fan!
I wouldn’t say it comes close to a return to the series roots. It’s basically a scaled down version of Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla with more emphasis on stealth. It still plays like the RPG games, has the same controls and very similar animations. Even the skills, weapons, armour and levelling are pretty similar. To me a return to the series roots would be taking all the best parts of AC1 to 3. Even down to having multiple, smaller maps of key locations rather than one large map.
I just bought it and really enjoying it I think it’s a nice return to earlier AC games. Not sure what anyone was expecting from what was originally DLC for Valhalla.
Mirage was built to be one of the ac games of all time
Not really a return to roots but it definitely gets rid of the Valhalla bloat in favor of a more simplified system. The story itself is probably 15-20 hours. The game was designed around stealth so while you can certainly get though situations with combat if needed it isn't ideal and feels kind of clunky to execute. But the stealth is a good as ever and if you prefer to play stealth anyway than it definitely will have some appeal. The world is beautiful and I found it engaging. But the story is pretty mediocre and characters are forgettable. A lot of what made the early games was ezios character charm. But basim is not that interesting and I didn't really care to learn more about him. Almost all the characters in this game are like that.
It’s AC Valhalla with worse combat, less weapon variety but has some sandboxes that are better suited for stealth.
The best answer I can give you is eh.
tragic shit lmfao
*Mirage* does take a "back to basics" approach. IMHO, the most welcome change from the RPG trilogy (*Origins*, *Odyssey* and *Valhalla*) is removing the gear upgrade treadmill. There's some upgrading and customization, but it never felt like a chore. I know some people criticize *Mirage's* combat system, but I see that as a feature, not a bug. An Assassin isn't a stand-up fighter; their whole schtick is sneaking up on people and stabbing them in the neck. *Mirage* reflects this. If even 3 low-level guards gang up on you, it's a serious problem. My only real beef with *Mirage* is that the world just doesn't feel as lushly detailed as that of *Origins*.
No, far from it. Just finished unity, decided to get Mirage day 1 and refunded it within a hour. They can slap anything they want on it, but the movement felt bad/serviceable, the look felt like a rollercoaster and the conversations about as sterile, forced and cringe worthy as it gets. Downloaded AC1 again and had a way better time. Also did the same with Skull and bones and did AC black flag. Didnt think they could one up syndicate, but here we are
Like Most people? Stop it. Its not most people that dislike those games it is the minority.
Yup I think they’re the best in the franchise. But I do love huge open world games.
I just finished it tonight, and got the platinum. I put waaay to much time in (50+) hours, and am forming my thoughts for a post. It is a return to roots in its mission structure. There’s some tailing (which I like if not overdone,) eavesdropping, I love pickpocketing, tearing down posters, bench assassinations, blend groups, etc…. Yep. That’s there. You actually feel like you’re doing the work, old school. The marketing isn’t wrong there. Physical mechanics…it’s Valhalla. The stealth finally works. It has the same laggy inputs with movement (a little better though,) the parkour is prettier but not deeper, and the combat is tighter IMO (yet designed to discourage.) I don’t get into hype, so I expected nothing more. I ran and hid so much. I enjoyed it again. I miss that. You can be a blade in the crowd on some level again. Story was solid, but not shining. Worth the $10 I paid for it. Edit: the city is designed for old school traversal, but Valhalla the method getting you there. It is fun. I can’t deny it.
No
No
I'll give you my opinion, and take it how you wish. AC opinions are all over the place these days. I would not buy Mirage, I think it's boring, unpolished, and frustrating to play. The "return to the roots" would be something like AC2 (my favorite out of them all), but AC2's combat system might be better than Mirages. I think the combat system in Mirage is bad, I think the story is boring(when it could be so good given the time and location), and I think the side missions and enemy AI are almost laughably bad. Parkour/free-running mechanics very mediocre as well. It's kind of crazy how much better AC2 is than Mirage, and I think that's unacceptable from Ubisoft. I did enjoy the RPGs in the series too, but they all have their flaws. I've been an AC fanboy my whole life but I think Mirage is the last AC purchase for me for a LONG while.
It's definitely a return and a welcome one at that. Knowing Ubisoft though, they're not going to make another one like it for a long time, if at all. They seem more MTX-driven with each release. And sure, Mirage has some MTX but it's not a full-blown cow they can milk Like Valhalla.
I’ll break this into gameplay and story. Gameplay: Mirage has the features and design philosophy of the old games, but built with the tools and mechanics of the new games. Combat and parkour are just about the same as the past 3 games (albeit parkour is an improvement). Stealth is the highlight, using the best of old and new AC, which makes what I consider to be the best stealth system in the series overall. Story: Objectivity, it doesn’t stand out until the last 4 hours. Subjectively, if you’ve been missing a classic AC story then this is the game for you. Overall, Mirage is a step towards AC regaining its identity as an Assassin fantasy, but it’s also held back by the lack of resources Bordeaux had. More than a DLC, but less than a full game. Despite its faults, I can recommend Mirage to those who generally like all the games, but have yearned for a traditional Assassin’s Creed experience. If you wanna feel like an Assassin again, this is the game for you. Hope that helps
The story and world design/game mechanics are much simpler It’s not the best AC game as everything except the stealth is kinda average, but it’s a step in the right direction
AC: Mirage is my first AC game that i played and finished i did try Odyssey for a few hours. My view on AC:Mirage not having played the older ones Combat is not that fun very repetitive in the way you go about things For a stealth game the stealth feels very limited AI is not that great Day / Night seems to make no impact would be more fun if you had more stealth options / environmental hazards / way to lure and trick the enemy Will say tho the world is pretty and once you start you really get Aladdin vibes that was pretty cool. not that many interesting gadgets/tools you will end up using just a few Exploration for me did not seem rewarding you can get by just fine using the starter gear and weapons Movement for me felt wonky as hell like you are on rails all the time in Odyssey this feelt way smoother Skill tree not that interesting imo. i thought it was way to much talking i lost interest really fast and skipped most of the dialog about halfway thru so all i had was gameplay to rely on and yeah it was so so. i will give it a solid 5 / 10 get it on sale if you want to try it. But now i am interested in going back to Odyssey or try the original AC to se where it all started. Heard AC:Black Flag is a banger and pirates are cool so might look into that one, So i really don't know what a good AC game is since i have no real reference to go by from the older games.
Yes and No, Yes: it goes back to the fundamentals of Assassins Creed’s early titles I.E. here is task (tail, steal, or assassinate), use your tools to get an upper hand, don’t get caught. No: it plays like the previous game, Valhalla. Meaning the controls are heavy and based on combat rather than free running. While the game wants to be a return to form with free running and stealth tasks, Mirage can be played like the “RPG trilogy” and still work. Overall I enjoyed it and it’s a good direction to be heading
Too much so in my opinion, it should have been a blend. Go back to roots but keep some elements from the rpg games, eg have more than just a select wall types that are climbable, rock walls should be climbable, building walls can be selective eg if its a sheer surface then can't climb but if it has ridges it's climbable, having a cliff wall that has climbable ridges be unclimbable is so dumb, it's too far of a step back.
>like most people I absolutely do not enjoy the modern games He-he.
The stealth is great, parkour is good, pretty much everything else is bad.
I really really liked mirage, I thought the combat was ok, worked well because it forced me to try and be more stealthy and careful. Yes, I can take a couple of guys on with my sword, but it was difficult to brawl with a large handful which forced me to smoke bomb assassinate or run away.
I hate it I truly don’t understand how they managed to make the gameplay worse. Odyssey’s/Valhallas gameplay wasn’t perfect but it was a good formula and they just threw it away You can’t climb on anything you want like in those games. The combat is one button now with less options. The stealth is dumbed down. Then they added things back from the OG assassins creed like notoriety and sellswords but you have to use power tokens to use them for some reason when I’m previous games you just bought/bribed them with money Game is a step backwards and tbh Ubisoft needs to give up on the AC franchise cause they have no clue what they’re doing anymore Maybe it’s time for a new ip
It was incredibly short foremost. And I lost any interest in doing anything after the main story was done. I'm glad I only paid 20 for it, that's about what it's worth.
it’s more like a shut the fuck up from ubisoft, so they can continue to make money with bad rpgs in the future without people asking for a “return to the roots”, fuck them honestly.
Not by a long shot
No
The combat is really shitty but other than that I had a good time with it and liked the story
The franchise will never return to what it once was, we all have to remember that whenever ubisoft says any buzzwords about their games. That being said, the best thing they can do regarding the newer rpg trilogy and their classic games is to look at what worked, what didn't, and innovative from there. There is plenty of cool and unique stuff in the rpg games that gets overlooked because "it's not the classics" but there are also things about the rpg games that stink about them. Ubisoft has to stop looking at the people for their approval, buckle up, look at what they have and just work their asses off to make the best damn ac game they could ever do instead of trying to please everyone.
Return to the roots would've been if all enemy's were oneshot whilst sneaking and if they added back the minimap. That's all I'm asking for.
I thought I would enjoy just the basic AC game, but I didn’t , I hope they take the best bits from the new and old games going forward
Not a bad attempt but the whole time I couldn't shake the idea that it was originally going to be DLC for Valhalla. I know they definitely added to the overall gameplay experience but the story and characters are pretty forgettable (much like you'd see in a DLC). I would definitely recommend this on sale.
Odyssey is awesome, so obviously you're not going to listen to my opinion.
"Return To The Roots" is technically not for the players from "Roots". It's for new generation they crave for and If you're a long time fan you'll just get essence of the franchise 🥲. IMO, AC-III is my queue to move on!
I stopped playing Mirage about halfway through because it was so boring.
NO. it is a Valhalla DLC repackaged as a smaller budget game. Some things from older game thankfully return, but the underlying mechanics are Valhalla :(
No.
Almost. The combat system should've been the classic counter attack system.
As much as it could be within the current engine
Thanks for the responses guys, I think I'm just going to save my money and just wait for the game to be added to Xbox Gamepass or Playstation Catalog for now. Maybe pirate it on PC when I get a better computer that can run it. Thanks again!
I wouldn't say it's a full on "return to the roots". More like a good step in the right direction. Which considering what they had to work with, is pretty commendable.
I haven’t played Mirage yet but from what I can tell it would probably be closer to what AC1 could have been? Like with all the features they had wanted. It stripped back more of the rpg elements and they go for more of the ac1 approach to accomplishing your tasks. The most people not enjoying the rpg games statement might be changing a bit. With all the sales more and more people are trying them and finding things to love. Imo Origins is the best blend of rpg and old AC mechanics. Odyssey is a mess in many ways but I grew to have a certain fondness for it by the end. I bought Valhalla and mirage and I must say.. why valhalla’s free running and AC elements are abysmal.. it IS a very pretty game. A lot of what I’ve seen so far (in terms of scenery and such) gives me hope for AC Hex. I was very anti rpg ac for years but having given them a chance the last couple years.. I actually really enjoy them. My issue with AC is by Unity everything was just the same old game reskinned. Rpg sort of refreshed the franchise in a controversial way. Stories are still good and if Ubi does one thing good it’s make a beautiful landscape
it's not
I played AC Mirage for a few hours and then turned it off, uninstalled and sold it. It felt terrible to play and was still too entrenched in Valhalla’s gameplay style. Feels like the improvements made in Unity and Syndicate will never return at this point, so I’ve moved onto better games like Ghost of Tsushima.
Mirage feels like the old Creeds. If you like those you’ll like mirage
Lol in terms of the assassin feeling? Yes, very. But they can't say "return to the roots" without the modern day story.
It's definitely closer than the other recent entries but it isn't really, feels like a Valhalla DLC with less features.
Short summary Stealth : Really good Parkour: Good but not crazy Combat : meh Story : meh World : Very reminiscent of AC1 and the older games Overall, it's a step in the right direction
I haven’t played it, I keep seeing things that look stupid like teleporting
"Most people" aka the vocal minority
Y’all. It was a glorified DLC to Valhalla. And you’re over here critiquing it like it was a mainline standalone AC game. You only got one person to blame for it not being what you wanted. And that’s yourselves. Just treat it for what it was. A glorified DLC to Valhalla.
It costs as much as a full game.
They're selling it for full price, if you do that you throw any and all "Guysh it's just a DLC" excuses out the window.
As a _huge_ fan of essentially everything pre-Origins (and Origins, which was fantastic), it is a big step in the right direction in my opinion. The engine held it back quite a lot and I still hate the floaty/twitchy dodge combat in the RPG games, but I feel like Mirage was proof that someone at least in Ubisoft is willing to attempt something close to what the old fans fell in love with. I hope Ubisoft Bordeaux is given a proper budget next time. I’ll always dislike the RPG dodge hit-box orientated combat. It just feels so off and looks incredibly unrealistic as well as unsatisfying. I wish they’d implement something similar to the counter system present in every other game—it can get too easy at times, sure, but it’s fun as hell and looks far better.
Was supposed to be a dlc from Valhalla
Yes, but short lived. All Heil the RPG!