The new Assassin’s Creed will be a crucial juncture for the franchise. With the promise of Mirage to take the game back to its roots, fans hope they get a glimpse of the older games in the franchise. Instead of a large open world, Mirage has scaled down to a city. That means several things will be changing from the RPG jump the franchise took. It also comes with a narrower game time for players to complete the game.

According to statements from Lead Producer Fabian Salamon, the game is restructured to have a linear design with Baghdad, along with 24-30 hours of playtime. This looks like a return to the old days of Assassin’s Creed.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage brings the focus to Baghdad

With Ubisoft’s promise to bring Mirage back to its franchise roots, fans expected a significant change to gameplay. When the series made the jump over to the RPG genre, it came with a massive open world. While littered with activities, gameplay got repetitive. That is set to change with Baghdad.

Lead Producer Fabian Salamon spoke about the way Ubisoft built the city. Instead of a massive open world, Mirage focuses on the activities around Baghdad. If Ubisoft’s promise to go back to the roots holds true, it means players can see the city built similarly to Assassin’s Creed games played out in the past. Cities such as Rome in Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood were filled with activities built around the Assassins.

It meant activities such as bringing recruits to the Brotherhood, flag captures, finding out information about targets, and more. With Baghdad, Ubisoft has the chance to build a city full of a wide range of activities. Additionally, it is also set to explore hidden areas. These became fan favorites in old games such as Assassin’s Creed 2, by allowing players to solve puzzles that unlocked equipment. It also adds to the lore of the franchise.

Moreover, these changes are not limited to just the map. In addition to the map shrinking down, reports suggest the game is considerably shorter in its playtime. Going back to traditional completion hours, Assassin’s Creed Mirage will take roughly 24 hours to complete. For completionists who like to take on every single challenge the game offers, it will take 30 hours. These hours fit much better with the route the initial games took. While they were shorter, there was much more to the story and the experience.

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This move back to its traditional roots looks quite promising. If Ubisoft delivers Mirage in the way fans expect, it might just bring a new twist to the franchise. October 20th cannot come any sooner for fans!

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