Assassin’s Creed Mirage is billed as a return to the roots of Assassin’s Creed, but that doesn’t mean that the newer games haven’t influenced it as well. Taking place in Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age, Mirage focuses on bringing one city to life and emphasizing the stealth gameplay and parkour that defined the early titles of the franchise. It’s been 16 years since the first game released, however, and many developments since then also have value to offer in crafting a new attempt at a classic experience.
Although every Assassin’s Creed game made its own set of changes to the series, the big shake-up came with Assassin’s Creed Origins, which shifted to a huge action-adventure title that incorporated more RPG influences and focused less on the traditional gameplay tenets. Odyssey and Valhalla have followed in this vein, doubling down on an approach where combat and exploration are paramount and stealth and parkour often go on the backburner. At the same time, these games showcase some natural evolutions of Assassin’s Creed ideas that fit well into Mirage.
10 Rooftop Guards
Parkour played a much more central role in most of the earlier Assassin’s Creed games, and running across rooftops could be a great way to traverse a city quickly. To make it impossible to avoid foes altogether, however, guards tended to litter rooftops ready to take out any wanted criminals. Although rooftop guards became generally localized to restricted areas in the huge open-world games, they’re back with a vengeance in Mirage, and getting a couple of ticks on the notoriety system can make them a real threat.
9 Hidden Ones
One of the original defining features of the Assassin’s Creed games was the long-running struggle between the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order, two diametrically opposed forces that recurred throughout each game. As the Assassin Brotherhood was founded late in the 11th century, however, games taking place before that cutoff would be out of luck. Assassin’s Creed Origins solved this problem by switching to the precursor organizations of the Hidden Ones and Order of the Ancients, and the setting of Golden Age Baghdad pushes Mirage into following this more recent approach.
8 Hidden One Bureaus
Hidden One bureaus in Assassin’s Creed Mirage showcase another way that the Assassins seem to have stuck to Hidden One ideas, as they work much like they did in the original Assassin’s Creed. Tucked away throughout Baghdad, bureaus can be accessed by jumping in from above rather than walking in through a front door. Basim can pick up contracts at the bureaus in much the same way that Altaïr could, filling out a litany of possible side missions to take on differently from the approach of the more recent games.
7 Collectible Loot
Assassin’s Creed has always featured a variety of ways for an Assassin or Hidden One to become more powerful over the course of a game, but the modern games vastly expanded this through significantly more robust RPG elements. Mirage loses a number of these to hone back in on simpler progression, but it does retain a wide variety of unique loot items to find and equip for Basim. Picking up a new dagger or sword often offers boosted damage along with a different generalized perk, making it possible to tailor a loadout according to a playstyle.
6 Social Stealth
Many stealth games focus on hiding in the shadows or staying out of view, but the best way to hide can sometimes be in plain sight. Much like the Hitman series, Assassin’s Creed acknowledged this by implementing a social stealth system that allows Assassins to blend in with crowds or sit on benches to escape detection. Mirage returns to this concept, letting Basim sneak his way past watchful guards by acting like any other citizen of Baghdad.
5 Eagle Vision
Eagle vision is a long-time staple of the Assassin’s Creed series, originally appearing as a kind of sixth sense that Assassin protagonists were able to tap into the get a better perspective on their surroundings. In Assassin’s Creed Origins, however, the name took on a more literal flair, with Bayek’s eagle Senu replacing the traditional mechanic. This choice persisted through Odyssey and Valhalla and reappears once more in Mirage, as Basim uses an eagle named Enkidu to scout out the lay of the land for stealth missions or identify targets and treasures.
4 Pickpocketing
One perk of being as stealthy as an Assassin or Hidden One is the ability to lift objects or coin off of someone else without being noticed, a skill that Assassins used to frequently employ in the series. This feature was missing in Assassin’s Creed Origins and Odyssey, however, returning in Valhalla in only a limited capacity that allowed key items to be stolen. Mirage brings it back in full force, allowing Basim to do plenty of petty theft.
3 Chain Assassinations
Assassin’s Creed has always offered ways to take down multiple enemies quickly, but Chain Assassination is a specific feature introduced by Assassin’s Creed Origins that has persisted since. Hidden Ones can take down one enemy and then receive a trigger to throw a blade at another, taking care of a foe that might have just spotted the assault. This system essentially replaced the classic double assassinations that could take down two enemies standing next to each other.
2 Notoriety System
It’s not always possible to strike in silence, but killing openly would quickly put an Assassin or Hidden One on the radar. The return of the notoriety system acknowledges this by intensifying responses according to publicly bad behavior. As one of the game’s many incentives to focus on stealth while playing, notoriety pushes Basim to strike like Altair or Ezio did rather than brawl in the streets. It can be reduced by actions like ripping posters from walls, a major Assassin’s Creed 2 callback.
1 Stamina Bar
One particularly recent addition to the Assassin’s Creed series is the use of stamina in combat, introduced in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to make Eivor choose his actions and movements carefully. Although combat in Mirage is reminiscent of the earlier games in some ways, the inclusion of a stamina bar is a major difference. Basim can’t just dodge roll around enemies ad nauseam, and he can quickly become overwhelmed by fighting too many foes at once and getting winded at a crucial moment in Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
