Even if Assassin’s Creed Mirage ends up being a disappointment, it will still be the best thing to happen to the franchise in years.

There are just over two months left for the release of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, a game that has been commonly referred to as “medium” or “minor” due to its origins: it was conceived as a DLC for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but it transcended and became in a standalone game. Of course, related to the Viking adventure due to Basim’s role in it.

To put us in context, Assassin’s Creed Mirage will allow us to know the origins of Basim Ibn Ishaqa murderer who will meet Sigurd Styrbjörnsson during his travels and later Eivor Varinsdottir in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. While the character and the context of it are important, they are nothing compared to the meaning of the installment itself for the franchise.

The return to the authentic

Ubisoft has been in charge of repeating to us conscientiously that Assassin’s Creed Mirage supposes a return to the origins of the franchise. And it is not mere verbiage: they have supported it with videos and images in different presentations and even early access to make first impressions. At the end of this article you can find various video reviews casi frame a frame.

What Assassin’s Creed refocusing on stealth, finally abandoning the RPG (almost completely) and adding new elements never seen before or that we haven’t seen in the franchise for years are signs that maybe Ubisoft has learned… even if it was based on wafers.

Deliveries Origins, Odyssey y Valhalla They marked a new direction for Assassin’s Creed, since their stories and gameplay were totally based on the RPG: it marks from when we could advance in the story to the progression of the character. As impressive as the three adventures have been (and some of us like them), the reality is that Ubisoft was shooting himself in the foot for years

… until the disappointing results and the inevitable crashes came.

Con valhalla finished With two incredible missions (one focused on Mirage), the franchise is facing a very promising horizon: Assassin’s Creed Mirage. The “back to classics” and all the new stuff are plenty of reasons to be excited, but they’re not the elements that make me think Mirage will be the best thing to happen to the franchise in years…even if it ends up being a disappointment. .

In my opinion, the aspects that can really save the franchise from the debacle and turn Mirage into a new beginning have not been announced in trailers… but in question and answer sessions, and interviews. They are revelations that are the result of the concerns of the fans, many of them tired of a saga that needs a change yesterday.

The changes that Assassin’s Creed really needs

We agree that kick the RPG It is one of Ubisoft’s wisest decisions for Assassin’s Creed. Parkour’s improvement over Valhalla and the return to stealth are important… but they’re still not the answer to the franchise’s real problems.

The real problem with Assassin’s Creed is that it takes years beating the time of his fans. The introduction of the RPG brought with it an absurd duration due to the farming and some maps that just seeing them makes you want to uninstall the game. And this is not the most affected saga, because you just have to remember Yara’s savagery in Far Cry 6. The bigger it is, the more things to add and take care of, more padding… In short: the ship has been leaking for years.

Sarah Beaulieunarrative director of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, has recently pointed out in a questions and answers on reddit

that the story will have an average duration of 15-20 hours. And it makes sense if we take into account two very important facts: there will be no RPG elements in Basim’s progression (he will progress with the story) and the map will be similar in size to Unity y Revelations.

And for those of you who throw your hands up for the duration (because it is “short” or less than what you expect), I tell you that it is in the average of all classic games… those considered the best and examples to follow. According to web How Long to Beat

the average duration of the deliveries are the following (take it as a reference):

It is not necessary to do mathematics to see that the Assassin’s Creed Mirage estimated durationBeing a video game that started as a DLC, it fits with any classic video game in the franchise. And since we know that Ubisoft does not plan to introduce DLCs, we can say that a duration of 15-20 hours for Mirage is more than good. Another thing is the price, but not the matter.

I’d like to believe that offering a smaller map, shorter duration, and no RPG elements has allowed Ubisoft developers to focus on what’s really important: the history and offer a gameplay at the height (and polished) from what was seen with Ezio (Revelations) Connor, Shay, Edward, Arno and the Frye brothers; characters who have starred in the best installments of the saga.

Even if Assassin’s Creed Mirage It ends up not meeting the expectations of the fans in terms of history and performance (visual section, performance…), it will be the best thing that has happened to Assassin’s Creed and the rest of Ubisoft’s franchises in years. As a fan, I hope that the company finally realizes that more (length and size) is not always better and that the series has been asking for a long time. quality and evolution… even if it means giving a couple of steps back to gain momentum.

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