Assassin's Creed has been a massive part of gaming for the past 15 years, and Ubisoft is still cranking out new entries today. The newer games might not be exactly what longtime fans want, but they're solid experiences when you look at the sheer amount of content they deliver. The franchise has evolved dramatically since the original Assassin's Creed dropped in 2007, shifting from pure stealth and parkour into massive open-world RPGs with hundreds of hours of content.
A few weeks before this article went up, Ubisoft hosted a livestream showcasing the future of the Assassin's Creed franchise, and what they showed looked promising. Future projects include a long-awaited entry set in feudal Japan, which fans have been asking for since the very beginning of the series. There's also an upcoming game set in Germany that apparently deals with witches, which is an unexpected direction that has the community curious.
The most exciting reveal from that showcase, though, was Assassin's Creed Mirage. Ubisoft pitched it as a return to the roots of the series, taking heavy inspiration from the original Assassin's Creed game. That framing has a lot of longtime fans genuinely hyped, ourselves included. After years of RPG-focused entries, the idea of going back to tight, focused stealth and parkour in a dense historical city sounds like exactly what the franchise needs to recalibrate.
If Mirage is really bringing things back to basics, there's a lot to hope for. Here are 8 things we want to see in Assassin's Creed Mirage when it arrives, ranked from the foundational elements to the absolute must-haves.
8. A Robust Weapon System
Weapon systems in the past few Assassin's Creed games have been hit or miss. Some entries nail the variety and feel, while others reduce combat to a handful of boring options that don't meaningfully change how you play. What we want to see in Mirage is something closer to what Assassin's Creed Unity offered. Unity had a massive selection of different weapons, and each one genuinely changed the feel of combat in meaningful ways.
Beyond the weapons themselves, Unity's equipment system was a huge win. You could customize your character with different outfits, gear, and accessories, each offering stat bonuses and visual variety. Collecting the full set of gear for a specific build was satisfying in a way that most modern Assassin's Creed games don't quite replicate. That kind of deep customization gave players real agency over how their character looked and played.
Mirage doesn't need to reinvent the wheel. What it needs is a weapon and gear system as robust as Unity's, tailored to the Middle Eastern setting and the more focused scope of the game. Given that Mirage is set in Baghdad, there's an opportunity to build out weapons that feel authentic to the era and region, from curved swords to throwing daggers to hidden blade variants. A solid weapon system rooted in the setting would make every combat encounter feel fresh.
The challenge is matching that variety without bloating the game with useless options. Quality over quantity is what Unity nailed, and it's what Mirage needs to replicate. If every weapon has a distinct feel and meaningful use case, the combat will stand out. If they're mostly reskins of each other, the system will feel hollow no matter how deep the stat systems are.
7. A Multiplayer Mode That Lasts
One major part of the Assassin's Creed series we were never heavily involved in was the multiplayer modes, but they were hugely popular during their peak. The multiplayer in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed 3 was considered some of the best multiplayer gaming of that era, with a unique cat-and-mouse format that no other franchise has really replicated since.
It's been years since Ubisoft has put meaningful effort into Assassin's Creed multiplayer, and fans have been asking for a return ever since. Mirage could be the perfect opportunity to reintroduce a mode that keeps the community engaged between main releases, filling the gap that often forms after a new Assassin's Creed launches and players finish the main story.
The multiplayer doesn't need to be complicated. A simple hide-and-seek style mode where players try to identify and eliminate each other in a busy crowd would fit perfectly with Mirage's focus on stealth and classic Assassin's Creed gameplay. That's exactly what made the Brotherhood and AC3 multiplayer so memorable. The tension of trying to blend in while hunting another real player was unlike anything else in gaming at the time, and it still holds up as a concept.
Just improving on what previous games did so well would be enough. Modernize the netcode, clean up the UI, add some meaningful progression, and Mirage could have a multiplayer mode that outlasts the main campaign by years. That's the kind of content that builds community and keeps the franchise healthy between major releases.
6. A Smaller but Fuller World
Our main issue with the past three Assassin's Creed games has been how absurdly large the worlds are. Each entry tried to top the last in sheer size, and eventually they became bigger than most other triple-A open-world games out there. Odyssey, Valhalla, and Origins all featured massive maps that took dozens of hours just to cross, let alone fully explore.
The problem with that approach is that quantity doesn't equal quality. When Ubisoft stretches the world that thin, they don't have enough time or resources to pack real detail into every corner. You end up with huge stretches of empty terrain, copy-pasted camps, and repetitive activities spread across a map that's bigger than it needs to be.
Mirage is confirmed to be smaller, which is great news. This gives Ubisoft the chance to actually develop its environment properly and make Baghdad feel alive. Every neighborhood can have unique personality, every building can be designed with purpose, and the world can feel dense with history and culture instead of padded with filler content.
Density matters more than size. A smaller city with rich detail, unique landmarks, and meaningful secrets to discover is far more engaging than a massive map with repetitive points of interest. There needs to be a real reason to explore beyond just checking boxes on a map. We hope Mirage makes exploration rewarding by hiding genuinely interesting secrets, compelling side content, and memorable locations throughout the city rather than spreading content thin.
5. A Memorable Soundtrack
Soundtracks can make or break a game's tone. If you've played Assassin's Creed Revelations or AC3, you know exactly what we mean. Those soundtracks carried so much emotional weight that they became inseparable from the memories of playing those games. When a soundtrack doesn't land, the whole experience feels flatter than it should.
AC Syndicate was one of those games where the music didn't quite hit, and it's part of why that entry didn't resonate as strongly with us. A Victorian London setting needed more personality in its score, and what we got felt generic. When the soundtrack doesn't reinforce the identity of the setting, the game loses a huge part of what makes it distinct.
Mirage needs a soundtrack that fits the Middle Eastern setting authentically. Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age was one of the most vibrant cultural centers in human history, and the music of that era and region is rich with instruments and melodies that could create something genuinely unforgettable. Incorporating traditional sounds and blending them with modern orchestral compositions could give Mirage an audio identity unlike anything else in the franchise.
The best Assassin's Creed soundtracks have always reinforced both the setting and the emotional beats of the story. Ezio's Family from AC2 is iconic for a reason. It captures the weight and beauty of the Ezio trilogy in a few haunting minutes. If Mirage can land a similar emotional anchor track, it'll elevate everything else the game does.
4. A Satisfying Combat System
Combat goes hand in hand with the weapon system. A great weapon system means nothing if the combat mechanics underneath don't feel good. The two need to work together to create a complete experience, and this is something Ubisoft has historically struggled to balance consistently across entries.
The ideal combat system for Mirage would take inspiration from the best of the older Assassin's Creed games while sprinkling in the refinements of the newer RPG entries. The weight and impact of Valhalla's combat, the responsiveness of Unity's counter system, and the precision of the original trilogy's hidden blade executions all have a place in Mirage's ideal combat design.
One mechanic we specifically want to see return is dismemberment. Valhalla's dismemberment system made every kill feel more impactful, and it added a brutal realism to combat that fit the Viking setting perfectly. That mechanic would fit a Middle Eastern setting just as well, especially with curved blades and sharp weapons dominating the arsenal.
Combat in Mirage also needs to reward skill and positioning rather than just button mashing. The older games forced you to watch enemies, time your parries, and pick your moments carefully. That tension made every fight feel like a puzzle. If Mirage can bring that back while layering in modern responsiveness and visual polish, the combat could be one of the standout features of the game.
3. A Focus on Parkour and Traversal
Parkour and traversal are among the most important features that need to make a comeback in Mirage. The past few entries have dumbed down the parkour system significantly, and it hasn't been the primary focus of movement in any of the RPG-era games. With Mirage returning to the series' roots, there's real hope that parkour will finally get the attention it deserves.
What made the original Assassin's Creed games so special was the environmental design. Tight corridors, stackable buildings, watchtowers, hay bales for easy escapes, and crowded rooftops that let you chain together long sprints across the city. Those environments were specifically designed around parkour, which made every movement feel purposeful and satisfying.
Unity's parkour system is still considered the peak of Assassin's Creed traversal. The parkour up and parkour down mechanics gave players real control over their movement, and the animations were smooth enough that running across an entire city felt cinematic. If Mirage can bring back that level of parkour fidelity, or even build on it, traversal alone will make the game worth playing.
Baghdad as a setting is perfect for parkour. The dense urban environment, the narrow streets, the tall buildings with ornate architectural details, all of it lends itself to the kind of vertical and horizontal traversal that made the older games so memorable. We need to see rooftops used as real gameplay spaces again, not just decorations on top of the main map.
2. A Bigger Emphasis on Stealth
Stealth is the beating heart of Assassin's Creed. Whether you're tailing a target, taking out enemies silently, or blending into a crowd to avoid detection, the stealth gameplay in the older games was phenomenal. The newer RPG entries have stealth mechanics, but they never feel as satisfying or central to the experience as they did in the first few games.
Mirage needs to put stealth back in the spotlight. That means level design that rewards patience and planning, enemy behavior that makes sneaking actually feel tense, and mission structures that let you approach objectives multiple different ways. A perfectly executed silent assassination should be the highlight of every mission, not just one option among many.
We also hope to see a return of optional assassination contracts outside of the main story. The older games had these kinds of side missions where you could hunt down specific targets through detective work and stealth, and they added a ton of replay value. Mirage could really shine if it built out a deep contract system that let players feel like actual assassins between story beats.
Stealth is what makes Assassin's Creed different from every other action franchise. If Mirage gets this right, it'll feel like the series has finally remembered what made it great in the first place.
1. A Shorter but Satisfying Story
The story is the single most important thing Mirage needs to get right. Ubisoft has said Mirage will be a more linear, focused narrative experience compared to the sprawling RPG entries. The newer games technically have stories, but there's so much content outside the main campaign that you can easily forget the plot entirely while you're doing side activities.
Mirage needs a tight, memorable narrative that gets players genuinely invested in the characters. A linear structure actually helps with this. Without the distraction of endless side content, the story gets room to breathe and develop at the right pace. Shorter doesn't mean worse. Some of the best Assassin's Creed stories, like the Ezio trilogy or the original game, worked because they had clear focus and emotional stakes.
If Mirage's story lands anywhere near the quality of the first game or Revelations, it'll make a lot of longtime Assassin's Creed fans happy. Those games understood how to build character arcs, deliver meaningful twists, and leave players thinking about the narrative long after the credits rolled. That's what Mirage needs to recapture.
The setting of Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age is rich with potential storytelling material. A compelling protagonist, a tight cast of supporting characters, and a narrative that explores the tension between the Assassins and the Templars in a new cultural context could deliver one of the most memorable stories in the franchise in years.
Wrapping Up the Mirage Wishlist
These eight things represent what we hope Assassin's Creed Mirage delivers when it arrives. A return to the roots of the series is exciting, but only if Ubisoft actually commits to what made those early games special. Focused stealth, tight parkour, meaningful combat, a dense and detailed city, and a story worth remembering are the foundation of great Assassin's Creed, and we hope all of those elements show up in Mirage.
The franchise is at an interesting crossroads. The RPG era proved that Assassin's Creed can sell massive amounts of copies with a different formula, but a lot of the original fanbase has been drifting away as the games moved further from their stealth-focused roots. Mirage is a chance to bring those players back while still appealing to the newer audience that came in with Origins and Odyssey.
If Ubisoft nails even half of this wishlist, Mirage could be the best Assassin's Creed game in years. If they deliver on all of it, it could be a genuine turning point for the franchise. Either way, this is the Assassin's Creed release we're most excited about in a long time, and the hope is that Mirage lives up to the promise of returning the series to what made it great in the first place.
