Assassin’s Creed Mirage: release date, trailers, gameplay, and more

It’s time to ready your hidden blades once again, assassins, because a brand new entry in the series is upon us. All the leaks and rumors have turned out to be true, and the next installment in the franchise has been officially revealed as Assassin’s Creed Mirage. This franchise has undergone some major changes in recent entries, and there’s a lot of talk about with the next game shaking things up yet again. All that remains to be seen, but perhaps there are some secrets that could point to some answers.

First officially revealed during a Ubisoft Forward in September 2022, Assassin’s Creed Mirage will be the next mainline game in the series after 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. While each game typically only has smaller, less prominent ties to one another (at least after the series moved on from the Desmond arc), this game bucks the trend in that regard. From everything from plot to gameplay changes and more, here’s everything we know about Assassin’s Creed Mirage.

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Release date

The only thing we know for sure about Assassin’s Creed Mirage is that it will be coming in 2023. While this is already behind the now-standard two-year release cadence the series was aiming for, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect this game in the first half of 2023 based on the scope, which we will cover later. However, until an official announcement is made, this is just an optimistic guess.

Platforms

Assassin’s Creed Mirage will still be available as a cross-generational title. You can get it on your PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Trailers

The premier trailer for Assassin’s Creed Mirage is only CGI, which is very common for the AC franchise in general. Even so, a lot of details can be learned and inferred based on what was shown.

The first major reveal (unless you’ve been following the leaks) is that Basim from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be the protagonist of this title. It opens with him appearing to be initiated into the Brotherhood of Assassins in a ritual before cutting to a bright and lively market in the new setting of Baghdad.

Basim wanders through the market, pickpocketing a merchant, but he is noticed and forced to flee. He parkours his way through the streets, knocking over stands to delay the perusing guards. This is a younger Basim, though, and he is unable to escape. Before he can be captured or killed, an assassin slays the guards and offers him her hand. This is how he joins the Brotherhood and begins his assassin training.

The trailer shows him sparring with other assassins in a castle still under construction, which they use to practice more parkour movements.

Cutting back to the ritual, Basim silently uses a red hot knife to remove his left ring finger, as all old assassins did.

A massive city shot shows off a stunning vista as Basim sends an eagle out to fly from his arm. A man, presumably a target, walks through a street while beggars plead for money as we hear the tenants of the Assassin Order. One beggar is actually Basim, catching the guards by surprise and dispatching them with little effort. When his target realizes what is going on and sends the other guards after him, a red smoke bomb goes off, allowing Basim to dispatch the guards with a sword and dagger.

Another group runs at him, leading to a chase into an alley where another trap, this time a deadly poison gas, is released. Basim and his eagle track his target, not running to escape, with one guard using explosive bombs to attack. Basim catches up to his target, steals his golden mask, and finishes him off with his hidden blade.

The trailer ends with a scene not featured since the first Assassin’s Creed games, where the assassin uses a feather to collect some blood from their target as proof of their kill.

Outside the trailer, we learned from the Ubisoft Forward that the woman narrating the trailer, and assassin who recruited Basim, is his mentor named Roshan. She is a 50-year-old Persian who escaped slavery before joining the Brotherhood. Because the game is set 20 years before Basim would appear again in Valhalla, we do know that, whatever the main plot of this game ends up being, Basim at least will survive.

Another major change for Assassin’s Creed Mirage is that it will be the first mainline title not to have any modern-day story elements at all. This makes sense considering the game was reported to have started off development as a DLC expansion to Valhalla before being turned into a standalone title. The entire game will take place in around 850 AD.

Gameplay

Being based on a DLC, Assassin’s Creed Mirage is noted for being a much more focused, somewhat linear experience compared to the massive open-world RPGs the last three games have been. The entire game is supposedly going to be in the 15- to 20-hour range, as executive producer Marc-Alexis Cote said in an interview with IGN. “Not everything has to be a 150-hour RPG, right … It is a smaller Assassin’s Creed project. This was conceived [and] built to celebrate the 15th anniversary. So that’s why we’re using our modern Valhalla engine to build a smaller game that pays tribute to our original game by focusing more on stealth, on close-quarter combat, on parkour, and a denser city that goes back to our roots in the Middle East with Baghdad as the centerpiece.”

The main city of Baghdad will be divided into four districts, as well as a smaller area outside called The Alamut, which serves as the Assassin’s headquarters.

With the game going for a more classic approach to gameplay, stealth and parkour have been heavily emphasized. Both of these systems are said to have been vastly improved from past iterations thanks to the new engine used from Valhalla. You will also be able to choose what order you want to assassinate your targets in.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage will ditch a few mechanics as well, such as gender options, dialogue choices, and Eagle Vision. However, for that last point, the method of controlling an eagle to scout areas used in Origins and Odyssey will return.

We can expect a smaller but still diverse range of weapons to slay our targets with, as well as many tools. Based on the trailer, we can expect smoke bombs, mines, throwing knives, and more.

Whether combat will remain more action-focused or return to the animation-driven, counter-based style of the older games remains to be seen.

Multiplayer

While there was a brief period where the series had a surprisingly fun multiplayer mode, it’s been many entries since one has been featured. With Assassin’s Creed Mirage being a much more linear, story-focused experience, we have no hopes that this would be the game that mode returns in.

DLC

This is an odd one to speculate on. There’s been no talk about DLC for Assassin’s Creed Mirage, but almost every game in the series has had at least one DLC addition ever since the second game. Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla, in particular, have received numerous, very expansive DLC expansions. However, with Assassin’s Creed Mirage being originally conceived as DLC and being a much more focused experience, we have our doubts it will get any additional content. If it does, we don’t expect it to be much more than perhaps optional challenges or more costumes.

Pre-order

Despite not having a release date yet, you can already reserve your copy of Assassin’s Creed Mirage by pre-ordering one of the three editions of the game. There’s the Standard Edition, Deluxe Edition, and Collector’s Case. The Deluxe Edition includes some digital goods, while the Collector’s Case has everything plus some physical items like a Basim figurine. All last-generation editions also have a free upgrade to current-gen systems as well. The editions cost $50, $60, and $150 respectively.

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