which is the game we are reviewing today: Assassin’s Creed Al Mirage. The game that the Arab public, in particular, is waiting for with great passion. Firstly, it embodies the Arab Abbasid civilization, which did not get its due representation in games despite the many video games that quoted previous civilizations and it being one of the essential civilizations in human history. Secondly, it goes back to the roots of the series that players loved. After a long absence, focusing on parkour, assassinations, and stealth, instead of RPGs. We can say that the game is not only a return to the past, but also a return to the past, and there is a difference between the two.
The story of the game takes place during the time of the Abbasid Empire, where players control the character Bassem Bin Ishaq, a poor thief who cooperates with his friend Nihal to carry out some tasks for the hidden organization in Baghdad through an intermediary named Darwish. The story begins in the year 861 AD, which is, in fact, a carefully considered choice because it is the year in which the killing of the Abbasid Caliph “Al-Mutawakkil” occurred, and it was a period of turmoil suitable for embracing the events of the story narrated by the game. In fact, the story in its essence is very simple, and it is based on pursuing and pursuing members of the ancient organization who sunk their fangs into the flesh of the Abbasid state and controlled every detail and element in it, and getting rid of them one by one. The narrative is mediocre in general, as it is one-sided in the way it portrays the characters and does not have an exceptional composition or structure for the main story, but it succeeds at least in giving the player a goal to aspire to in eliminating members of the organization one by one.
The era is extremely rich in cultural material, and the game contains clips that explain many of the heritage and cultural aspects of the Abbasid state, including religion, races, trade, sciences, historical sites, etc. There is a very good research process to reconstruct the Round Baghdad, or the City of Peace, as it was called at the time. Which did not survive to our present era and remained a hidden leaf in history books. This also included mastery of the depiction of Arab Islamic architecture and mosaic decorations. There are a good number of historical figures who are also present in the game, as usual in the series, including the famous Arab writer “Al-Jahiz.”
If there was something to criticize about the depiction of the Abbasid era, it would be the intellectual material that appears in some of the scraps of papers, and in the characters and their stereotyping, such as the hero Bassem, who should be a thief, which is a famous and boring stereotype that strangely stuck with the Arabs after the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. In general, we clearly noticed that the intellectual material in the game derives its narrative from Orientalist ideas and sources and does not give the correct Arab perception of that era, as we wished that there would be a stronger Arab presence of researchers and experts within the team that designed and formulated the entire game. There are some theses that may be provocative for the Arab player. I did not take these aspects into consideration when evaluating the game, and I merely mentioned them as a kind of artistic criticism issued by us as an Arab media organization that is jealous of this culture and this civilization, and in which some may agree with us and others may disagree with us.
Let us now move on to talking about the most important aspect, which is how to play. The gameplay in Assassin’s Creed Al Mirage is based on several basic pillars, and we will talk about them in detail and explain their pros and cons. The first aspect is parkour, which is the well-known aspect that we loved in the previous parts of the series. Parkour is no longer as innovative or innovative today as it was then, but running and climbing over the walls of buildings is still fun, and the design of the places is still well-designed and allows continuous, uninterrupted movement. The dawn call to prayer is also repeated at dawn every night in Baghdad, and most of the time the music stops and does not interfere with it, except for a few times when interference occurs, which the development team is working to correct through an upcoming update.
The other aspect is stealth or stealth. Assassin’s Creed Mirage relies on stealth to a very large extent as its primary gameplay and it does not encourage action that you try to create consequences for using it. The player has an arsenal of tools with the character Bassem to deal with various situations, and they are also upgradeable: there are knives that he can throw at enemies and get rid of them from a distance without them detecting him, which can later be upgraded to become poisonous, and there is a blow tool that allows small hypnotic pins to be thrown at enemies. With the possibility of assassinating them while they sleep, there are other tools such as a smoke bomb. Gaining experience points allows you to learn these tools. In fact, we believe that the learning process is a bit slow for a medium-length game like this. We prefer to obtain the arsenal of tools early in order to benefit from them by diversifying the gameplay.
The real problem is that the artificial intelligence of the enemies is weak and limited and does not really require all these tools to get rid of it. It is enough for you, dear reader, to hide among the grass, and to whistle to attract one of the guards to you and eliminate him. Yes, luring works well and the enemies cannot communicate with each other properly. Their group movements are well organized, so they are easily eliminated. In fact, we threw one of the knives at an enemy, and we stood looking sarcastically at his colleague, who stood staring at what happened like an idiot, unable to make any reaction. Enemies are easy to distract and get rid of, and sounds do not seem to attract them, as they do not feel what is happening around them except at a close distance. The most powerful way to get rid of enemies is “focus,” a feature that allows you to stop time and choose several enemies you want to eliminate, and then enjoy watching Bassem kill them one by one.
Combat is also very limited. There are two main enemy attacks. The first can be blocked and the enemy shines yellow when executed, and the second must only be avoided and cannot be blocked and the enemy shines red when executed. All we have to do is read the enemy’s movement correctly and make the appropriate reaction to finish him off. This becomes more difficult when facing a larger number of enemies together at the same time, so sneaking remains a better option in the game in general, especially since killing enemies in front of civilians will cause… Bassem becomes wanted by justice, as there is a meter of three basic levels that describes people’s state of alertness, and the higher the level, the more people become aware and aware of Bassem’s presence to call on the police forces and the Caliph’s men, which makes it more difficult to hide. This situation can be solved in two ways. The first is to pay a coin to a caller who distracts people, and the second is to tear up the leaflets in which Bassem appears on the city walls. There are different types of currencies in the game.
There are various types of currencies in the game. In addition to cash, which allows you to purchase tools from stores, there are special types that can be used in different ways, such as merchant currency, which can be used to reduce store prices, and there is the authority currency, which allows you to hire mercenaries to occupy soldiers or use it as a herald until it disappears. Beware of Basim, a resident of the city. There is a scholar coin that has similar uses. One of the uses for these various coins is bribery, which will sometimes help you get your way through missions.
The design of the missions for the main story depends on investigating the organization’s traces and reaching them, by chatting with various characters, overhearing conversations, or looking at hidden papers and clues that contain information that guides you to the next step. We are sorry to say that the investigation made us feel repetitive. With the passage of time, especially since the assassination process itself lacks the creativity and diversity that the Hitman series presented in its last parts, with many scenarios for carrying out the assassination. Assassin’s Creed Mirage tries to do this sometimes but, clearly, it carries the DNA of the series’ old design philosophy.
Even the places that we had to penetrate and break into, usually had a specific or typical path that must be taken to reach the goal, such as the necessity of breaking into a broken window or sneaking through a cracked wall. As we mentioned earlier, this is a somewhat old design philosophy, and we are fans of the modern school. Which relies on providing open elements that give the player greater freedom to carry out a mission completely from A to Z (the method is usually called sandbox) instead of the current form in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which gives the player the feeling that he is walking on a pre-determined path.
The game’s graphic level is good. We experimented with the performance mode. The Islamic architecture in round Baghdad is exquisite, and there are multiple neighborhoods and various historical places such as the House of Wisdom, in addition to the Alamut Castle, and even those sand dunes that surround the city with its various oases and landmarks, which can be explored on the back of a camel or horse. The character graphics are very ordinary and we have seen better ones in many other games, but the animation is of average quality in our perspective. We have a feeling that the game was relatively limited in production compared to other major parts that started from scratch with greater ambition, which perhaps hindered the renewal of some old ideas in some aspects that required it, with the accompanying innovation in graphics and animation method.
The game offers excellent dubbing in classical Arabic with minimal errors. The only objection is that the translation can sometimes be so literal that it is completely incomprehensible. The cast of voice actors is full of great actors and professional names such as Iyad Nassar (Bassem) and Noha Samara (Roshan). The final experience of the game left us more satisfied in this aspect and it is undoubtedly one of the best works of dubbing into the Arabic language up to this moment. As for the music, it has an Arabic character and is filled with the fragrant history of this game, and it succeeds completely in this task, especially with the use of Arab musical instruments such as the oud, the qanun, and beautiful chants.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a really good game, but it instills in us the feeling that it is really something that belongs to the past and has not received enough renewal to keep pace with current developments in game design philosophy. There is repetition, there are limited gameplay, and weak artificial intelligence, and these factors combine to make the overall experience average. The unique Arabian atmosphere in Al Sarab is what will remain in the memory long after the adventure is over.
(We reviewed the game with a PlayStation 5 copy that we obtained from the publisher)