In a difficult situation for several years, Ubisoft has decided to cancel many projects in order to focus on developing its most lucrative licenses. Powered by the Assassin’s Creed saga for fifteen years now, the French company still relies on its goose to continue laying golden eggs in the future.
Assassination returns to the heart of the Assassin’s Creed experience – ©Ubisoft
For follow-up mythological trilogy with RPG sauce and open world (Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla) and while waiting for the ambitious Assassin’s Creed Infinity and its implications (it would be a central hub providing access to a variety of licensed experiences, including old games and new releases), Ubisoft is betting on Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Breaking with the direction taken by the newest titles in the franchise, this game presents itself as a homage to the first Assassin’s Creed, with an emphasis on parkour, infiltration and assassination.
📅 When will Assassin’s Creed Mirage be released?
Ubisoft confirmed this during the PlayStation Showcase and then at its Ubisoft Forward eventAssassin’s Creed Mirage was scheduled for release on October 12, 2023, a little less than three years after the release of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. The publisher remains true to its usual schedule and, like its predecessors, will be releasing this new installment in the autumn.
🤔 What platforms is Assassin’s Creed Mirage available on?
Ubisoft always strives to make its games accessible to as many people as possible and builds numerous partnerships to this end. Assassin’s Creed Mirage has been announced for home consoles Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 for the time being. It doesn’t look particularly ambitious graphically.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is also planned for PC, of course, via the Epic Games Store and the Ubisoft Connect launchers. It will not be available on Steam at launch because Ubisoft believes Valve is charging too high a commission on game sales. This has already been the case for many of the publisher’s games lately, which sometimes don’t arrive on Steam until several years later.
Discretion and preparation required – ©Ubisoft
As for cloud gaming, Assassin’s Creed Mirage will be compatible with Amazon Luna, which has not yet been officially launched in France. Support for GeForce Now hasn’t been announced at this time, but Ubisoft is committed to releasing all of its games on NVIDIA’s streaming service, so we can expect that tradition to continue with Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
💶 How much does Assassin’s Creed Mirage cost?
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is not considered a premium game and is therefore not affected by Ubisoft’s decision last year to sell its AAA games at a price of €69.99, as was the case with The Crew Motorfest or Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora case is. Assassin’s Creed Mirage is available on all platforms from €49.99. Players are offered three formulas:
- regular editiond: €49.99. Contains only the game.
- deluxe edition : 59.99 euros. Includes the game, in-game cosmetic items (Prince of Persia inspired outfit, eagle and mount skins, weapons and other goodies), digital art book and soundtrack.
- collector box : 149.99 euros. Includes the Deluxe Edition content plus a Basim figure, steelbook, soundtrack, artbook, map of Baghdad and a collector’s pin worn by Basim.
Phew, the collection box contains the game – ©Ubisoft
If you pre-order any of these three editions, you will also receive an additional bonus quest called “The Forty Thieves”.
Finally, Assassin’s Creed Mirage Deluxe Edition is accessible to Ubisoft+ subscribers from the day of its release. The service allows access to the entire catalog of Ubisoft games for 14.99 euros per month. Ubisoft+ is available on PC and in the Xbox ecosystem.
This is the Deluxe Edition made available to Ubisoft+ subscribers – ©Ubisoft
⚙️ What are the minimum and recommended configurations of Assassin’s Creed Mirage on PC?
Since the developers’ optimization work takes place until the games are released, information on minimum and recommended specifications is often only released at the last moment. While we wait for Ubisoft to announce them, we can get an overview of the system we need by taking a look at the technical specifications of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, which shouldn’t change much with Mirage.
Minimum Requirements – Low Preset (30fps):
- Operating system Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
- 3.8 GHz AMD FX 6300, 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5 2400, AMD Ryzen 3 1200 processor (SSE 4.1 or higher support required)
- AMD Radeon R9 285 (2 GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0) or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 graphics card
- 8GB RAM
- 720p resolution
- Hard disk 46 GB available space
- DirectX 11
- DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card with latest drivers
Recommended Specs – High Preset (30 fps):
- Operating system Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
- 4.0 GHz AMD FX-8350, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 3770, AMD Ryzen 5 1400 processor (SSE 4.1 or higher support required)
- AMD Radeon R9 290X (4GB VRAM or more with Shader Model 5.0) or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4GB) graphics card
- 8GB RAM
- 1080p resolution
- Hard disk 46 GB available space
- DirectX 11
- DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card with latest drivers
Recommended Specifications for 4K Display – High Preset (30 FPS):
- Windows 10 operating system (64-bit versions only)
- 3.8 GHz AMD Ryzen 7 1700X processor, 4.2 GHz Intel Core i7 7700 (SSE 4.1 or higher support required)
- AMD Vega 64 (8 GB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0) or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card
- 16GB RAM
- 4K resolution
- Hard disk 46 GB available space
- DirectX 11
- DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card with latest drivers
💪 What are the performance goals of Assassin’s Creed Mirage?
Ubisoft has not yet officially communicated the performance targeted by Assassin’s Creed Mirage in the various media. However, it is likely that the title will turn 60 frames per second on current generation consolesthe PS5 and the Xbox Series Assassin’s Creed Mirage does not represent a graphical limit and since its environments are more closed than those of its predecessors, it would be surprising if the 60 fps were not guaranteed.
We can expect 30 fps on PS4 and Xbox One. The PS4 Pro and Xbox One on PC obviously depends on your configuration and the graphics settings you choose.
🧐 The same engine as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla?
Assassin’s Creed Mirage was initially intended as a DLC for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla before becoming a separate game. It is therefore logically based on the same proprietary graphics engine, the Ubisoft Anvil, that has been used to create almost all of Ubisoft’s games in recent years, with a few exceptions such as The Division. This game engine was already used for the very first Assassin’s Creed, but has of course been extensively updated since its debut.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage gameplay videos shared by Ubisoft have caused confusion for a certain category of gamers. In certain elements like animations or lighting, there is actually a strong inspiration from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. However, Mirage’s gameplay is quite different, with an emphasis on parkour, discretion, and speed that doesn’t really live up to the qualities of Valhalla, which favors more frontal approaches at the expense of climbing and antics.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage will benefit from the graphical overhaul of the last parts of the license, with textures much more detailed than the original Assassin’s Creed. Ubisoft cannot take back old assets or use certain development tools from the first games Mirage is inspired by that are too old. And as we have already explained to you when discussing the price of the title, it is not considered a top game by Ubisoft and therefore gives it limited resources. Therefore, instead of developing new tools and new animations, we have to take elements from Valhalla, even if this is not the best basis for a parkour game.
Breathtaking landscapes? – ©Ubisoft
⏱ What is the lifespan of Assassin’s Creed Mirage?
Since Assassin’s Creed Mirage is not an open-world RPG and is less ambitious and more interventionist than the mythological trilogy that preceded it, we must expect a drastic reduction in the game’s lifespan, which could be closer to what Assassin’s Creed Unity or Syndicate offered, for example. A range of between 15 and 20 hours of gameplay to complete the main story is mentioned. As usual with Ubisoft, a good dose of additional activities and collectibles will extend the life of the game for the most motivated.
🥷🏽 What does Assassin’s Creed Mirage gameplay look like?
With Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Ubisoft is (temporarily) done with RPG mechanics, endless skill trees, character levels, gear to upgrade, housing, and huge open worlds to return to. at the sources.
As in the first works Our playground is a city, in this case Baghdad. Its size is compared to that of Paris in Assassin’s Creed Unity or Constantinople in Assassin’s Creed Revelations. You must understand the structure of the city, learn to move discreetly but quickly on its rooftops and find the best approach to assassinate your targets in the most efficient way.
9th-century Baghdad as a playground – ©Ubisoft
Multiple approaches are possible for each mission and the player must make good use of the tools at his disposal to scout locations, identify enemies, and choose the path that most directly or cautiously leads to his goal. In order not to be discovered, hiding places are available to the player and he can also blend in with the crowd. Assassin’s Creed Mirage could thus take on the wrong atmosphere of Hitman.
Ubisoft promises improved AI That should increase the difficulty, but it’s better to wait until you’ve got the controller in hand to judge. There are a few new features in the arsenal of available skills, such as a blowgun to get rid of enemies from afar, a mine that releases a haze of smoke to facilitate escapes or create distraction, and a special ability that allows you to do so Tag NPCs to eliminate them one by one.
📖 What is the story of Assassin’s Creed Mirage?
“In Assassin’s Creed Mirage, you take on the role of Basim, a skilled pickpocket with nightmarish visions on a quest for answers and justice. “You will join an ancient society and discover a new creed that will change Basim’s destiny in ways he never imagined,” reads the game’s official synopsis.
Basim is well known to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla players. since he is an important non-player character in this work. He is the one who offers Eivor his assassin’s blade. He is one of the Unseen Ones, the ancestor of the Brotherhood of Assassins. The events of Assassin’s Creed Mirage take place in the 9th century, in the 860s, ten years before Valhalla. Basim is therefore younger and we witness his transformation from a rebellious young man into a master assassin in Mirage.
The context of this period is special as we find ourselves in the midst of a period known as the Samarran anarchy: the Abbasid Caliphate is characterized by extreme internal instability that led to a series of violent outrages by several caliphs within a few years.
Basim is well surrounded – ©Ubisoft
In addition to Basim, Ubisoft introduced three other protagonists to delve deeper into the storyline of Assassin’s Creed Mirage:
- Roshan : After escaping an oppressive existence, she became a master assassin in Alamut, the stronghold of the unseen. Today she is making Basim her first real apprentice.
- nope : Like Basim, she is a street kid. She is lonely, stubborn and determined. She stands up to Basim, constantly reminding him that there is only one person he can trust: himself.
- Ali : He is the leader of the Zanj Rebellion. He is a very intelligent scholar who has chosen to face the Caliphate relentlessly. He cooperates with the invisible, but does not follow their credo, because in his eyes freedom should not endure the slightest compulsion.