The new Assassin’s Creed can't return to its roots - because they were never that strong

An assassin pounces on a spearman in Baghdad.
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a series reset. That’s what its key art suggests, at least – depicting an assassin dropping from a ledge, wrist-blade drawn, into a crowd of unsuspecting pedestrians. The killer’s linens are whiter than white, fit for a detergent commercial, and bring to mind Altaïr – the titular murderer in the very first Assassin’s Creed. Then there’s the backdrop: a mosque and minarets bordered by thick, stone fortifications, an evocation of the Holy Land Altaïr once prowled.

Yet this hazy image on the horizon is no remake: rumors, from the time this new project was codenamed Rift, suggest that this new assassin is in fact Basim, a supporting character in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – while the landscape is Baghdad, rather than Masyaf, Jerusalem, Acre, or Damascus, the cities that Altaïr haunted.

It’s just as well. You can never go home again, and in this case, you likely wouldn’t want to. The first Assassin’s Creed may have originated the fantasy of the blade in the crowd, but didn’t deliver on it. Today, it stands up like a crusader general with a shiv slipped between his ribs: that is, unsteadily. What were pitched as Hitman-esque investigations into the location and weaknesses of your targets instead took the form of flag-collecting, street fights, and other busywork unbecoming of an agent trained to pass unnoticed. As for its stealth systems, you couldn’t even call them underbaked; they clearly never left the mixing bowl.

What Ubisoft’s tease of Mirage suggests, then, isn’t so much a return to the original Assassin’s Creed so much as its unfulfilled ambitions. You’ll notice that the gaggle below Bazim is made up mostly of citizens, not soldiers – the default setup for the social stealth that was once Assassin’s Creed’s primary sell, before Ubi got tired of digs about tailing missions and shifted focus to mimic The Witcher, forefronting exploration, dialogue and stat-stuffed equipment for you to sort through.

Sneaking remains a key component of other top Ubisoft franchises, so there’s plenty of in-house experience to pull on in that department

You’ll also notice that not a one of those townspeople has yet spotted the white-robed death hovering above their heads. That’s in keeping with the Bloomberg report that claimed Rift – now Mirage – will offer stealth over open-world roleplaying. Sneaking remains a key component of other top Ubisoft franchises – the legacy of Splinter Cell: Conviction still clearly evident in the cover stealth of Watch Dogs Legion, for instance – so there’s plenty of in-house experience to pull on in that department.

If Mirage draws even a little on the Sam Fisher school of stealth, however, it’ll quickly lose all resemblance to the original Assassin’s Creed – which relied on a universal indicator closer to GTA 3’s Wanted level to keep track of your heat, and famously employed theatrical dives into haystacks to cancel out Benny Hill chases. That’s for the best. Patrice Désilets and his original development team never found a truly satisfying shape for that formula, and the series retreated to more traditional cat-and-mouse mechanics in subsequent entries.

The player blends among priests in the original Assassin's Creed.

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

If Ubi is serious about reviving social stealth, it’ll want to look to the modern-day Hitman trilogy, and IO Interactive’s liberal use of safe or ‘gray’ areas of the map to allow you ample time to watch your target without risk of discovery. That said, Ubi has routinely chosen the easier path – balancing stealth with regular bouts of compulsory, all-out action instead. 

Altaïr was told that “knowledge precedes action” – but handed a sword, rather than subtler tools that might better enable him to follow his mentor’s advice. Given that history, this latest promise of a truly stealth-focused Assassin’s Creed may, too, turn out to be an illusion.

TOPICS
Jeremy Peel
TRG features editor

Jeremy is TRG's features editor. He has a decade’s experience across publications like GamesRadar, PC Gamer and Edge, and has been nominated for two games media awards. Jeremy was once told off by the director of Dishonored 2 for not having played Dishonored 2, an error he has since corrected.

Read more
Assassin's Creed Nexus VR.
Assassin's Creed Nexus VR finally let me perform a leap of faith in virtual reality and I didn’t even throw up
A screenshot showing Naoe looking at the hidden blade in Assassin's Creed Shadows
The five things I loved in my first six hours of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and the two parts I need to know more about
Assassins Creed Codename Hexe logo, formed from a bundle of twigs ganging from a branch
Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe - everything we know
Assassin's Creed Shadows
The Assassin's Creed Shadows base building Hideout feature is the kind of cozy Creed gaming I didn't know I needed
Key art for Assassins Creed codename jade featuring Xia standing between open golden gates overlooking the Great Wall of China
Assassin's Creed Jade - everything we know so far
Naoe and Yasuke fight side by side
Assassin's Creed Shadows release date and everything we know
Latest in Consoles & PC
Asus ROG Ally using Steam
I think Asus could be the perfect partner for an Xbox handheld – but I have questions
Astro Bot PS5 bundle
Sony officially announces new Astro Bot PS5 bundles and they're available from PlayStation Direct right now for bargain prices we can barely believe
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered
Future PlayStation games could have AI-powered characters, if this leaked prototype of Aloy is anything to go by
The artwork for The Last of Us Limited Edition DualSense controller
Where to pre-order and buy The Last of Us Limited Edition DualSense controller today - UK pre-orders are live but stock has sold out already
Playing games on the Razer Handheld Dock Chroma without an external display.
The Razer Handheld Dock Chroma offers Steam Deck owners a premium design and, of course, plenty of RGB
Image of GTA 6 protagonists and PS5
GTA 6's console-only launch reminds me of how much I despise console exclusivity - is it worth waiting years for PC ports?
Latest in Features
Disappointed by The Electric State? Here's 4 reasons you should watch Tales From the Loop on Prime Video
Close up of PS5 DualSense controller leaning on a PS5
5 reasons your PS5 needs a VPN
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
With discounts of up to 95%, these are the biggest deals I've managed to find in the Steam Spring Sale
The cast of The Parenting
The Parenting is Max's #1 most-watched movie but it has frightening reviews – here are 3 better horror films with over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes
Dr. Peter Zhou, President of Huawei Data Storage Product Line
Why AI commonization is so important for business intelligent transformation and what Huawei’s data storage has to offer
Asif Ali Saagar Shaikh and Poorna Jagannathan stand in line with a convenience store backdrop. Poorna is standing at the front with her arms on her hips in Deli Boys.
Hulu has 36 new shows this month – here are 3 you should watch this weekend with over 89% on Rotten Tomatoes