Ubisoft open worlds have always suffered from uneven writing, but for everything that was mediocre or even bad, there were characters or story strands that were fun and interesting. Assassin's Creed Mirage lacks this completely: I've never played an Assassin's Creed game whose narrative and storytelling were this flat. There's potential in the location and the characters, but Mirage never really comes to life, feeling like the writing duties were left to generative AI. AssGPT, if you will. And with this little narrative impetus, the gameplay needs to stand on its own, which it doesn't. It's as shallow and repetitive as is usual in this series, and there's little to nothing to make this more than a chore.

Which is a shame, because I've missed the more focused city-based Assassin's Creed games. More and more, I find the 'quantity is everything' pseudo-RPG games in the series tiresome, but this isn't a return to the series' strengths of old: it's a return only to its weaknesses and nothing else to show for it. Which is a shame, because once again, the craftsmanship going into a lot of the world that the game is set in is often great - but without something to pull it together into an interesting whole, it's largely squandered.

All I can say is that the world is a masterpiece.

The design of Baghdad is breathtaking — highly detailed, grand, and truly beautiful. You can spend hours just walking around the city, doing nothing but soaking in the atmosphere.

This game is better than its recent predecessors. Even if it didn’t meet all expectations, I personally think it’s better than Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Origins, and Valhalla. Unlike those titles, the world here is smaller and more focused, which means you’re not forced to spend 150 hours completing meaningless side quests. The smaller scale actually works in the game’s favor and enhances its experience.

The graphics and visual design are impressive. One thing I deeply respect is that mosques in the game broadcast the Adhan (call to prayer), and the in-game music stops respectfully when it plays. That’s a thoughtful and culturally aware detail — huge respect to the developers for including it.

However, the game has several noticeable flaws:

Despite the size and beauty of the city, it feels empty. There’s not much to do in it outside of the main missions, which makes exploration less rewarding than it could have been.

The token system used for stealth and reducing suspicion has issues. Some types of tokens are very easy to collect, while others that serve the exact same purpose are unnecessarily hard to obtain. This unbalanced design is frustrating and feels inconsistent.

Historical accuracy is very poor, especially when it comes to weapons and character abilities. This seriously undermines the sense of immersion in what could’ve been a beautiful historical world. At times it felt like they were one step away from adding a flying ability.

The choice of historical figures and events was also disappointing. Many well-known personalities from the region were ignored, and instead the game focused on lesser-known or even fictional characters. Worse, some events are misrepresented — for example, the Zanj Rebellion, which historically took place in Basra, is shown as happening in Baghdad. There are many more historical inaccuracies like this, which unfortunately distort important history.

In conclusion, the game is definitely worth playing and is a step forward compared to the previous titles — but with better attention to detail and more respect for historical accuracy, it could’ve been truly incredible.

Feels like some OG assassins creed and if thats what you want then this is for you