Assassin’s Creed Mirage goes back to basics — and ends up basic

theverge.com:

Assassin’s Creed Mirage lives up to every aspect of its name.

The last handful of Assassin’s Creed games had gotten away from the assassination part. Yeah, you killed people — a lot of people — but with the recklessness of Kratos instead of the finesse of Ezio or Altair. AC Mirage represents Ubisoft’s return to the franchise’s origins, with a greater emphasis placed on stealth kills, avoiding detection, and skills that support those activities. It’s also a mirage, offering the illusion of an engaging story and complex stealth action combat before dissipating into a generic experience with technical annoyances, facile combat, and a story easily ignored.

In Mirage, you play as Basim Ibn Ishaq, a street thief who gets caught up in the world of Assassins, known as Hidden Ones in this game, and their eternal enemies the Templars or Order of the Ancients. One of the first enjoyable aspects of Mirage is Basim’s hardcore parkour abilities. In the city of Baghdad, buildings pose no threat to Basim’s ability to get from one point to the other, as he’s able to vault, climb, and slide over virtually anything in his way.

I also enjoyed how the game simply refuses to compromise its authenticity for English speakers. As you walk through ninth-century Baghdad, NPCs carry on full conversations in Arabic, for which there are no subtitled translations. When Basim speaks to people, the dialogue is littered with Arabic words and phrases, which are translated. While I cannot speak to the accuracy of the language used and the culture on display (here are some thoughts from folks who can), I love when games have cultural elements that simply aren’t for me. They are for who they are for, and this game was clearly made with appreciation for